China-Environmental Governance/Technologies

Shotlist

Qilian County, Qinghai Province, northwest China – Recent (CCTV – No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of livestocks on pasture
2. Various of rangers flying drone
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Dou Ke, employee, local environmental management station (ending with shot 4):
“The drones are very helpful to our patrols. For example, they can enlarge our patrol range and take very clear images. Sometimes, they can capture rare wild animals like blue sheep.”
4. Various of Dou checking pictures taken by drone
5. Aerial shots of people on grassland

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China – Recent (CCTV – No access Chinese mainland)
6. Aerial shots of Yellow River
7. Various of technicians collecting water samples
8. Device showing data about water quality
9. Various of technicians collecting water samples
10. Various of Yellow River

Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, east China – Recent (CCTV – No access Chinese mainland)
11. Aerial shots of rivers
12. Various of technicians collecting water samples
13. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Tong Zhengrong, technician, technical services station, Ganxian District Ecological Environment Bureau (partially overlaid with shot 14):
“We have set up monitoring sites at each tributary. Once a problem is detected, we can quickly and accurately position the source of pollution.”
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14. Aerial shot of river
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15. Various of technicians working in lab
16. Aerial shot of river
17. Various of birds on river bank
18. Riverside residential buildings

Changle County, Shandong Province, east China – Recent (CCTV – No access Chinese mainland)
19. Air quality monitoring vehicle patrolling on road
20. Various of employee working in vehicle
21. Screen showing data about air quality
22. Various of technicians filming chimney with thermal camera
23. Various of employees working in office
24. Computer screen showing data about air quality
25. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Fu Cong, head, air ecology office, Changle County Ecological Environment Bureau (partially overlaid with shot 26):
“This is a screening map of our lidars. This red area is the location where the particle concentration is high, and the positioning accuracy can reach up to within 10 meters. With this set of lidar devices, we can quickly locate pollution sources in an area within a radius of 5 kilometers.”
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26. Screen showing location with air pollution
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27. Screens of air quality monitoring system
28. Buildings
29. Aerial shot of cityscape, traffic

Storyline

The application of the innovative sci-tech versatility has played a vital role in advancing China’s environmental governance and building all-round and targeted monitoring networks.

In northwest China’s Qinghai Province, local authorities have recently established a space-air-land integrated ecological environment monitoring network covering all areas of the province.

With the help of monitoring sites set up in no man’s land at an average altitude of over 4,000 meters, the environment protection workers can monitor the changes of the ecological system, natural landscape and wild animals in the Source of Three Rivers Nature Reserve in a 24-hour and real-time manner without leaving the office.

In the Qilian Mountain National Park, a monitoring team has recently received a training on using drones to patrol the mountains.

“The drones are very helpful to our patrols. For example, they can enlarge our patrol range and take very clear images. Sometimes, they can capture rare wild animals like blue sheep,” said Dou Ke, employee of a local environmental management station in Qilian County of Qinghai.

Recently, the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River, an agricultural area and home to many industrial companies, took the lead in piloting a new model of collecting samples for water quality tests simultaneously on both sides of the wide river.

This is part of the scientists’ efforts to further improve the accuracy of water quality monitoring in the section, as the old method only involves sampling on the left side of the river.

Meanwhile, some regions in the country have also increased the density of water quality monitoring sites in local rivers.

“We have set up monitoring sites at each tributary. Once a problem is detected, we can quickly and accurately position the source of pollution,” said Tong Zhengrong, a technician at a technical services station of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Ganxian District, Ganzhou City, east China’s Jiangxi Province.

Up to now, Ganxian has set up 25 water quality monitoring sites at 19 main tributaries of four local rivers, covering all townships in the district. The time needed for identifying pollution sources after detecting water quality changes has been shortened to within half a day.

Meanwhile, Changle, an industrial county in east China’s Shandong Province, has managed to greatly improve its air quality by building a monitoring network with information technologies applied.

The accurate air quality management system consists of seven atmospheric microstations and a patrolling vehicle, which can form a real-time monitoring network on air pollutants from key industrial parks and speed up responses by three times.

“This is a screening map of our lidars. This red area is the location where the particle concentration is high, and the positioning accuracy can reach up to within 10 meters. With this set of lidar devices, we can quickly locate pollution sources in an area within a radius of 5 kilometers,” said Fu Cong, head of the air ecology office at the Ecological Environment Bureau of the Changle County.