Informationization sings the "good voice" of geological environment monitoring
Dong Hui Li Chunyang
On the stage of geological environment monitoring, there is such a "student" named "informatization" who naturally belongs to this stage. As soon as she took the stage, she conquered all the "mentors" in the field of geological environment monitoring. Everyone pressed the button to light up and turned around to invite her to join the geological environment monitoring team; and the combination with geological environment monitoring also enabled informatization to sing her "good voice" to the fullest.
Regarding the outstanding performance of informatization in the field of geological environment monitoring, reporters visited the Information Office of the China Geological Environment Monitoring Institute to listen to Deputy Director Yu Mengliang of the Information Office share the bits and pieces of their daily cooperation with this popular and talented "student"...
Behind the Scenes, Coordinating Geological Environment Informatization Construction
"We rarely go directly to the front line of geological disasters to participate in emergency response. Instead, we mostly provide geological environment information support services to geological disaster emergency experts. For example, after this year's Lushan earthquake, the Lengmugou in Baoxing County became a typical debris flow gully. When the heavy rainfall began in May, a geological disaster monitoring information platform was needed to achieve dynamic monitoring of three debris flow outlets in Lengmugou. The Information Office was responsible for integrating the geological disaster monitoring and early warning information platform. In practical application, the platform also played a certain role. The day after it was just built, it monitored a dangerous situation, enabling the safe evacuation of more than 500 endangered people and avoiding loss of life and property." This is a specific application example that Deputy Director Yu Mengliang shared with reporters at the beginning of the interview, from which we also gained a general impression of the Information Office's work.
According to the "Three Determinations" plan of the China Geological Environment Monitoring Institute (Technical Guidance Center for Geological Disaster Emergency Response of the Ministry of Land and Resources), the work responsibilities of the Information Office are mainly: to carry out information construction and services for hydrogeology, engineering geology, and environmental geology, and to undertake the reception, summary, analysis, processing, and comprehensive research of national geological environment monitoring data.
Deputy Director Yu Mengliang explained the responsibilities in detail: "For example, we provide services to the China Geological Environment Monitoring Institute and the Ministry of Land and Resources, regularly releasing disaster situation bulletins to the public on an annual or monthly basis, as well as the affected situation of geological disasters including casualties and economic losses; in terms of groundwater, we release information from national groundwater monitoring points to the public in real time and dynamically."
"Currently, the Information Office not only needs to complete daily network maintenance, information management, and software and hardware equipment management for the entire business, but also needs to be responsible for database construction in the entire field of geological environment, as well as related software and hardware development and informatization construction work." In fact, overall, these works of the Information Office are all carried out from a global perspective to coordinate geological environment informatization construction.
Pilot First, the Characteristic Path of Geological Environment Informatization
During the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plans, the "single map" for land administration and mineral administration of land and resources were basically completed, but the "single map" for geological environment progressed slowly due to its wide coverage and scattered information. However, through the implementation of the land and resources survey project, massive amounts of geological environment data were accumulated; at the same time, through the construction of geological environment monitoring demonstration areas and the development of early warning and forecasting work, the informatization network environment for geological environment was initially established, laying the foundation for geological environment informatization work.
As a participant in geological environment informatization construction work, Deputy Director Yu Mengliang focuses more on the present and introduces the current geological environment informatization construction in detail to us.
"At the beginning of the 12th Five-Year Plan, geological environment informatization construction received attention from leaders at all levels and was carried out vigorously. In 2011, the 'Overall Plan for National Geological Environment Informatization Construction' and the 'Implementation Plan for Geological Environment Informatization Construction at the National Node' were compiled, comprehensively initiating national-level geological environment informatization construction work. By 2013, the national-level geological environment informatization construction was basically completed. Currently, the 'Results Promotion and Application Plan for National-Level Geological Environment Informatization Construction' has been compiled and promotion and application work has been carried out in 7 provinces: Chongqing, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Henan, and Hubei."
"This is a work that progresses from local pilot projects to nationwide promotion. The first batch promoted in the plan now includes 7 provinces, and the second batch plan includes 14 provinces. However, it should also be noted that the actual situation in each province is different, which determines that each province has different priorities. For example, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan are provinces prone to geological disasters, so their focus is on geological disaster prevention and control work; Beijing and Shanghai are areas with prominent groundwater problems, making groundwater governance their urgent task; while Shandong and Shanxi, which are major mineral resource provinces, face the important issue of mine geological environment restoration and management. Therefore, after each province receives the national construction plan, they will compile their own provincial informatization construction plan according to their actual situation."
"In addition, in May this year, the Ministry of Land and Resources also launched the 'National Geological Environment Informatization Construction Plan', which was jointly compiled by the Geological Environment Department of the Ministry of Land and Resources, the China Geological Survey, the China Geological Environment Monitoring Institute, and the Information Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources and other relevant departments. The main purposes of formulating this plan are: first, to clarify the goal of the entire informatization construction, namely to achieve interconnection and interoperability of the four-level system geological environment and full sharing of digital resources; second, to clarify the construction approach, where key priorities should be addressed first during the construction process. For example, if geological disasters are more urgent, then the entire informatization construction work should focus on geological disasters first, while other fields including groundwater, mine geological environment, hydro-geochemical environment and related fields gradually catch up; the same applies to the application provinces, where provinces prone to geological disasters are promoted first, and then to provinces with serious groundwater problems."
Multiple Approaches, Comprehensive Improvement of Information Service Capabilities
"We have been promoting the construction of an information standardization system, relying on the massive geological environment data accumulated over many years to carry out integration and consolidation work on professional databases such as geological disasters, groundwater, mine geological environment, agricultural geology, urban geology, geothermal energy, and geological heritage. Following the overall approach of collection and monitoring, analysis and early warning, decision-making and disposal, we have integrated various geological environment information resources and constructed an important component of the land and resources data center system - the national geological environment data sub-center, thus also promoting the construction of provincial geological environment data sub-centers and data nodes at the prefecture and county levels; we have established and improved the geological environment informatization management system, comprehensively improving the capabilities and service levels of geological environment information collection and monitoring, analysis and early warning, decision-making and disposal; furthermore, we have built the 'National Geological Environment Information Platform' with system integration, data integration, information synthesis, and results visualization, thus achieving comprehensive improvement of national geological environment information service capabilities."
"It should be noted here that although a lot of informatization construction work was carried out during the 9th, 10th, and 11th Five-Year Plans, it was all done in the form of projects, resulting in each project corresponding to only one database, making it difficult to apply them jointly. Moreover, the standards and specifications were not unified, and the databases became isolated 'information islands', constraining our information service capabilities. Therefore, to solve the problem of 'information islands', we began developing the 'National Geological Environment Information Platform' under a unified framework. Currently, it has been basically completed at the national level, and the 7 pilot provinces have also deployed and implemented the entire geological environment information platform. Our information service capabilities have indeed been improved."
Meeting Challenges Head-On, Not Stopping Due to Difficulties
Of course, doing anything is not smooth sailing, especially for informatization construction work that grasps the pulse of the times, which is even more "full of storms and rains," particularly in terms of funding and personnel, especially professional personnel, where shortages are particularly evident.
"First, there is no special fund. The construction of the national node was achieved by integrating part of the funds from information system construction in various mineral resource evaluation projects. On one hand, we need to carry out geological environment informatization construction according to the 'Implementation Plan for Geological Environment Informatization Construction at the National Node,' and on the other hand, we also need to complete the actual work needs of various mineral resource evaluation projects. The workload is enormous; second, there is a shortage of informatization staff. From the national level perspective, the Information Office currently has only 9 positions, and half of the personnel need to engage in network, information security, and system operation environment operation and management work. Each colleague bears a huge workload, and the actual strength devoted to national-level informatization construction work is relatively weak. As for the provincial nodes, the situation varies in each province, but all are in a state of informatization personnel shortage; third, there is a shortage of informatization personnel with geological environment professional backgrounds. Geological environment informatization construction work cannot rely solely on computer professionals engaged in information technology, but more importantly requires informatization personnel with geological environment professional backgrounds."
"Since I have a hydrogeology background and learned geographic information systems on that basis, I have deep feelings about cultivating personnel with professional backgrounds: informatization work requires not only professional computer personnel to carry it out, but also needs some professional business personnel to participate. With the continuous advancement of informatization work in recent years, leaders at all levels have gradually recognized the importance of informatization work and are continuously expanding the informatization construction team, recruiting a group of recently graduated postgraduates, mainly in the GIS field; in our institute, we have established an informatization leadership group office, with designated personnel in each business department to cooperate with the entire informatization construction work, which is continuously advancing. In addition, the Information Office arranges more than 10 person-times annually on average to participate in informatization technology and management training, because as national-level informatization construction workers, if we cannot deeply understand the basic construction functions, we will definitely be affected in the entire work process, so we send personnel to participate in training work every year."
3S Technology, Better Application Through Practical Combination
Talking about geological environment informatization, 3S and other geographic information technologies naturally cannot be bypassed, especially since 3S technology has unique advantages in this area.
"In terms of remote sensing application technology, based on digital pyramid technology, we have integrated and consolidated national 15-meter resolution remote sensing image data and 30-meter resolution DEM data. At the same time, we have also integrated high-resolution remote sensing image data from key areas such as the Three Gorges Reservoir area, earthquake disaster areas, and geological environment monitoring demonstration areas. In addition, we have carried out applications of remote sensing technology in investigation, monitoring, and comprehensive analysis in various professional fields of geological environment. Currently, we have established a national geological information center, which includes existing remote sensing image data, including 1:200,000 vector geological maps, 1:500,000 environmental geological maps, and 1:200,000 engineering geological maps and other related professional maps. In this way, we can implement dynamic slice processing for the affected areas during emergencies and provide data services to emergency personnel."
Deputy Director Yu Mengliang believes that GIS is one of the indispensable tools in the entire informatization construction process, mainly applied in data collection, processing, comprehensive map production, professional analysis, and other aspects. "In current practical applications, national-level geological environment business departments mainly use ArcGIS software and MapGIS software to achieve analysis, processing, and map production of original data; while provincial-level geological environment business departments mainly use MapGIS software to complete data production and thematic map and result map production work, and also use MapGIS to do some data center and sharing service construction. Frontline staff are more familiar with MapGIS. For example, the comprehensive evaluation maps and prevention analysis maps we previously drew through experimental surveys were all done using MapGIS software. Regardless of which software, the ultimate goal is to serve the smooth development of geological environment and business work."
In the interview, Deputy Director Yu Mengliang showed a very optimistic attitude toward the application prospects of GIS technology. "As mentioned earlier, the country currently attaches great importance to informatization, and the connotation of informatization is essentially efficiency, speed, and energy conservation. I believe GIS technology perfectly fits these points and will have broad applications in informatization. GIS technology has powerful spatial analysis capabilities and spatial display capabilities, and GIS technology has also penetrated many fields. For example, in the transportation field, people are now accustomed to checking navigation before going somewhere; in the land and resources field, land and resources informatization talks about 'three maps' - one map called 'land administration single map' for land, 'mineral administration single map' for mineral resources, and 'geological environment single map'. These 'three maps' are actually the display of GIS technology - on a unified 'map', displaying our land and resources informatization results. GIS technology will definitely have great application prospects in the geological environment field, but this also needs to be combined with our actual needs. The better we can combine them, the better the development will be."
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