5-8 Remote Sensing Monitoring on Coastal Urbanization and The Environment Project Scope and Relationship to China's Agenda 21 This project seeks to promote the sustainable development of coastal urbanization and the environment.It is based on programme area 2A of China's Agenda 21 and related to programme areas 17A, 17B and 17C. 1. Background The coastline of China, beginning in the north at the mouth of Yalujiang River, ending in the south at the mouth of Beilunhe River, amounts to 18,000 kilometers. The coastal land covers 2 million hectares, and is continuously expanding towards sea with 670 hectares per year. There are 144 coastal metropolises and 315 ports and harbors of varying sizes. The coastal zone of China, which creats more than half of the total GNP, is in the forefront of reforms and opening up programmes.The Yangtze River Delta,Peaerl River Delta and Bohai Bay are three major economic zones along the coast which have been open to foreign investments. Many well- known coastal cities are located in these three economic zones, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Yantai, Tianjin, Dalian and so forth. The economy of these areas is developing with an astonishing speed. The development of these cities has also provided good examples and experiences to the development of inland economy. However, the geographical environment of coastal zone is complex and natural disasters occur frequently . The major natural disasters are earthquakes,storms, tides, icebergs. red tides, inverted flow of sea water and so on, which cause tremendous losses both socially and economically and limit the sustainable development of these areas. Therefore, monitoring and analysis of the coastal zone urbanization and the dynamic change of the environment will not only provide valuable information for urban planning, environment protection and economic development, but will also be relevant to other cities in these regions, particularly these of the Asia Pacific countries. Spatial information technologies such as remote sensing (RS), geographic information systems (GIS), and global positioning systems (GPS) have been widely used in land resources survey,environmental monitoring, and natural hazard forecasting and prediction. Numerous studies and research projects have been carried out and substantial amount of data of various sort is available. These projects are as follows: Monitoring land resources, environment and urban development of Bohai Bay economic zone. Landuse planning and management and urbanization of Yangtze River Delta and north Jiangsu Province. Land value increment model of Pearl River Delta. Shenzhen land planning and management information system. Ningbo investment information system. Environmental management of Tianjing utilizing remote sensing. Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan regional dynamic monitoring with Landsat imagery. Monitoring municipal hot spots of Nanjing and Shanghai with remote sensing. Module of environment change of Bohai Bay region. Landuse and environment survey of Yellow River Delta with remote sensing. 2. Objectives Long-term Objective Evaluate the impact of urbanization and the change of environment on the sustainable development of coastal zone areas, increase the predictability of natural hazards, particularly of those with more destructive characteristics, suddenness and high frequency. Analyze the effect of natural hazards on sustainable development and come up with appropriate measures; Develop the monitoring mechanism for coastal urbanization and coastal zone development planning and management. Immediate Objectives Monitor urban expansion, arable land reduction and urban structural change. Analyze the impact of urbanization on coastal development. Establish a rapid response information system. Monitor the coastal environmental change and pollution caused by economic development; Establish database, methods and various models, carry out detailed evaluation of merits and demerits, and feasibility of coastal zone development. Forecast natural hazards and analyze the scale of the damages, predict the damages and losses, and propose appropriate measures. 3. Activities 3.1 Urbanization monitoring Urban expansion and its impact on arable land area reduction. Monitoring environmental pollution of coastal cities (include heat pollution, hot spots, urban vegetation index). - Select three sample cities from those in the Pearl River Delta, the Bohai Bay (such as North China Plain and Yellow River Delta region) and the Yangtze River Delta. The duration of this activity will be 2 years. 3.2 Prediction and evaluation of the impact of sea level rises on coastal economic development Coastline and sea wall positioning and measurements(e.g, length, global position and dynamic change) and coastal landscape monitoring. Monitoring the sedimentation of the intertidal zone (e.g, geomorphology and terrain monitoring, coastal land resources survey and coastal land Korean pine monitoring). Analysis of the chlorination of surface and underground water caused by inverted flow of sea water. Prediction of the geographic area that might be affected by sea level rising. - Ground observation can be made in Qingdao, Tianjin, Wusong etc. The duration of this activity will be 28 months. 3.3 Establishment of a regional environmental change pattern River system evolution (lakes,areal dynamic change of delta, evolution of debouchures, and coastal current monitoring). Coastline change caused by land reclamation from sea. Dynamic change monitoring of coastal landuse and land cover (development of delta, coastal swap land and beach). Analysis and forecast of the coastal land increment and land increment pattern. Monitoring of aquaculture and fishing using remote sensing. Harbor construction and environmental pollution. Monitoring of coastal primary productivity. The effect of coastal environmental change. - Study areas can be chosen from the Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Bay economic zone where there are existing projects for establishing land value increment and land use change models and a regional environmental evolution database. The duration of this activity will be 28 months. 3.4 Monitoring of red tides with remote sensing Monitoring of the scale and duration of red tides. Monitoring of red tides, coastal water pollution and coastal aquatic resources. Monitoring of impact of red tides on coastal aquaculture. The duration of this activity will be a year. 3.5 Coastal hazard environment analysis and damage assessment Analysis of historical hazards. Analysis of modern hazard environment. Diagnosis and analysis of contemporary hazard and their environment (storms, tsunami, typhoon, etc.) Post-hazard countermeasures and damage evaluation information system. - The study areas can be chosen from both inland cities and harbor cities from the three regions. The duration of this activity will be 3 years. 3.6 Evaluation and planning of coastal zone sustainable development Environment analysis of coastal zone sustainable development (merits and demerits). Integrated planning and strategy for coastal sustainable development. - Based on the policies of regional cooperation and economic reciprocity and the analysis of differences of each region, make short term, intermediate term and long term development policies and strategies for the coastal zone. The duration of this activity will be a years. The implementing agencies will be State Planning Commission, State Science and Technology Commission, National Remote Sensing Center, National Marine Bureau, and National Meteorological Bureau. 4. Inputs 4.1 Chinese Inputs Project management and Construction of Databases Research on representative areas Image processing and Development of application software for information system Experts and Training 4.2 International cooperation Data supply (JERS-1 images from NASDA, Japan Landsat TM and SPOT images form ESA and Geo-Space Center in Austria) Short term training Consultation of foreign expertise and international exchange International technical collaboration (particularly the collaboration between Asian-Pacific countries) 4.3 Budget Total funding for this project is US $ 29 million. Budget (in million US dollar) Item Chinese Inputs External Grants Total Data collection and conversion 3 -- 3 Image processing 5 2 7 Staff payment 2 2 4 Hardware/software 4 2 6 Project management 3 -- 3 Typical area study 4 2 6 Total 21 8 29 5. Benefits The implementation of spatial information technology (Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS) can gather information timely and economically, and provide a powerful tool for municipal management, coastal planning and decision making. Furthermore, it will also provide useful information to the study of global change. The information from this project will help with prediction, mitigation and management of natural disasters . The proposed regional model of coastal environment changes and coastal zone planning as well as the model of sustainable development of the coastal areas will produce huge social, economic and ecological benefits. In addition, this project can produce a lot of urgently needed spatial information technicians for the 21st century. Application of the system can lead to the emergence of a new information industry in the Chinese coastal areas. Text Browser Utilities: [Back, ACCA21 Home] For more information about ACCA21 contact: web@acca21.edu.cn Address: 109 Wanquanhe Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100089, People's Republic of China Telephone: +86-10-82636193, +86-10-82634400 Ext.2401 Fax: +86-10-82636192