China Focus: China restores ecology via sci-tech means

BEIJING -- In the eyes of most people, satellite remote sensing images may be ordinary color pictures, but in the eyes of Sun Lin, a professor at Shandong University of Science and Technology, and his team, they are a "treasure" containing lots of information.

With the help of algorithm research and model construction, researchers are able to analyze the data in satellite remote sensing images and obtain the underlying information, Sun said.

He noted that the satellite remote sensing image plays a key role in ecological restoration and governance, such as monitoring straw burning and forest fires on a large scale, monitoring surface water pollution, air pollution and solid waste accumulation, and analyzing the conditions of forests, grasslands and wetlands.

China has embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects. Promoting a harmonious coexistence between man and nature is a distinctive feature of Chinese modernization.

The idea of "harmonious coexistence between man and nature" points out a new direction for China's ecological restoration and governance, and puts forward higher requirements for innovative environmental governance technologies and methods. Science and technology will effectively prop up China's ecological restoration and governance.

From 2011 to 2020, China's total patent applications for environmental technology inventions accounted for 60 percent of the world's total, making it the most active country in environmental technology innovation around the world, according to a white paper titled "China's Green Development in the New Era."

China has also taken measures to ensure the research findings in the field of ecological environmental science and technology are accurately aligned with specific needs.

In 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment launched a national comprehensive service platform for the transformation of sci-tech achievements in the ecological environment.

At present, the platform has gathered more than 4,800 outstanding sci-tech achievements, with more than 2.2 million views of technical entries in total.

With the sci-tech development, more advanced technologies will be applied to the practices of ecological restoration and environmental protection, which is expected to further improve the governance efficiency and provide assistance for building a modern ecological environment governance system, said Shi Lei, a professor from the Renmin University of China.

China is promoting the construction of digital China in an all-round way. Using the digital technology to empower ecological governance is becoming a crucial method for the government to improve its governance capacity of ecological environment.

China is also actively exploring ways to understand the value of ecological products. New models of ecological industries are developing rapidly, such as urban modern agriculture, leisure agriculture, ecotourism and boutique homestays. The scale of green industries continues to grow.

The power of science and technology displayed in the process of ecological restoration is bringing ecological and economic benefits to the Chinese people. It is not only a reflection of the people-centered development idea in the field of ecological governance, but also reflects the "Chinese wisdom" of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, Shi said.