China.org.cn | December 2, 2024
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Ecological and environmental monitoring is fundamental to ecological and environmental protection and critical for ecological conservation. What work has been carried out in the field of ecological and environmental monitoring? What steps will be taken to develop a modernized monitoring system to ensure harmonious coexistence between people and nature? Thank you.
Huang Runqiu:
Mr. Dong will answer this question.
Dong Baotong:
Thank you for your question. Ecological and environmental monitoring is indeed foundational and supportive of protection efforts. Our monitoring work has reached new heights in recent years, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. We've built the world's largest, most comprehensive and technologically advanced ecological and environmental monitoring network, providing crucial support for environmental protection and pollution control. Our monitoring data strongly support the achievements Mr. Huang mentioned.
Regarding network scale, the ministry directly monitors 33,000 stations, including 1,734 air monitoring points, 3,646 surface water points, 1,912 groundwater points, 1,359 marine points, 1,834 radiation points, and 22,000 soil monitoring points. This system covers all cities at the prefecture level and above, key river basins, and waters under China's jurisdiction.
In terms of monitoring elements, in addition to traditional key monitoring factors such as water, air and soil, new elements have been added in recent years, including environmental quality, biodiversity, greenhouse gases and new pollutants. The process now covers basically all the monitoring elements.
In terms of technical means, automated monitoring has taken precedence over traditional manual monitoring as the main approach, with drones, mobile monitoring vehicles and lidar having become standard equipment at monitoring stations across the country. As the leading user, the MEE has a total of seven satellites in orbit, providing strong support for scientific monitoring.
Based on this modern monitoring network, we can now ensure that the monitoring data is true, accurate, comprehensive, fast and new in all aspects. This plays a crucial supporting role in the prevention and control of pollution. We are able to understand the baselines, follow the dynamics, identify issues, as well as grasp the rules to guide the advancement of pollution prevention and control.
Next, in accordance with the requirements of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, we will focus on promoting the modernization of the environmental monitoring system. This is our overall goal, and specifically, we will take the digital and intelligent transformation of monitoring as a driver. The key aspects include:
First, enhancing the monitoring network. As mentioned earlier, now that the entire system is in place, we will work to improve the integrated monitoring network covering land, sea, air and space, and address weak links, such as marine monitoring, environmental quality monitoring, biodiversity monitoring, and new pollutant monitoring. Additionally, we will strengthen the transformation toward automation, digitization and intelligence.
Second, strengthening monitoring supervision. Fraudulent third-party monitoring data from polluting units has drawn significant social attention. We will enhance in-depth supervision, and strictly crack down on data fraud in accordance with the law.
Third, enhancing data application. We will bolster the integration and smart analysis of monitoring data to support the fight against pollution more precisely. A reporter just now inquired about the building of a Beautiful China. Going forward, we will establish a set of monitoring indicators for this goal. The monitoring data will reveal whether a Beautiful China has been built or not. Thank you.