Remote-sensing Tops AgendaRemote sensing technology will become more important to people in the next few years as it will be used to help predict natural disasters.Vice-Minister of Science and Technology Xu Guanhua called on researchers to develop remote sensing technology as well as geographical information and global positioning systems to benefit China's economic and social development. Remote sensing refers to the use of satellites or high-flying aircraft with sensors to observe objects on the earth. Researchers were also asked to make more of an effort to apply these technologies to industry and agriculture, said Xu at a conference held Tuesday in Beijing to review the development of remote sensing technology over the past few years. Remote sensing, global positioning and geographical information systems have become important in some developed countries, sources from the National Remote Sensing Technology Centre said. The Ministry of Science and Technology listed research into these technologies as a key scientific project during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000). As such, remote sensing technology has become more important for the general public, according to the centre. Over the past five years, such technology has been used in the survey of land resources, the monitoring on floods, droughts and fires, urban construction planning, the exploitation of ocean resources and national defence, said the centre's researcher Tian Guoliang. When the Yangtze, Nenjiang and the Songhua rivers flooded in 1998, for example, scientists used remote sensing technology to provide relatively accurate information about the flood to regional governmental departments and anti-flood headquarters, said Tian. Remote sensing technology will also be used to help prevent sandstorms over the next few years, Zhang Zengxiang, a researcher with the Remote Sensing Application Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said during Tuesday's conference. Although such technology cannot bring an end to sandstorms, it can roughly predict the area and period of the disaster when combined with meteorological observation, said Zhang. If cold currents hit a dry region in spring without bringing about any precipitation, then sandstorms are likely to occur, said Zhang. This conclusion is based on studies conducted after sandstorms struck North China and even some places as far south as Shanghai and Nanjing last spring. Last spring's sandstorms mainly originated from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Mongolia, where the climate is dry and there is little green coverage, said Zhang. In general, cold currents result in precipitation. However, the cold currents lingering over North China last spring did not trigger any precipitation and thus resulted in dry winds and sandstorms, said Zhang. Thanks to the remote sensing technology used last spring, researchers were able to predict sandstorms earlier and improved their knowledge of the phenomenon, Zhang added. Source: China Daily |
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