Zhengzhou Extreme Rainfall Disaster: Digital Mobilization and Organizational Transformation

The Zhengzhou 7.20 extreme rainfall disaster not only exposed systemic weaknesses in urban infrastructure and emergency response, but also triggered a wave of bottom-up mobilization that reconfigured the landscape of disaster governance in China. This chapter examines the unfolding of this transformation across four analytical dimensions. It begins by framing the event as a compound crisis—driven by meteorological extremity, cascading infrastructure failures, and institutional blind spots. It then turns to the emergence of digitally enabled volunteer networks that filled critical gaps in information, logistics, and coordination. The third section analyzes how civil society organizations adapted their roles and entered governance processes through functionality rather than formal invitation. Finally, the chapter assesses the institutional constraints that limited inclusive governance, including legal ambiguity, digital inequality, spatial disparities, and data fragmentation.