Global Ecosystems andEnvironment Observations:
Annual Reports from China
Liao Xiaohan & Li Jiahong
National Remote Sensing Center of China, MOST
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS

2016-8

Contents

Global Hot Issues
Global Ecosystems and Environment Changes
 Climate Change Water Shortage
 Pollution
 Decreasing Biodiversity
 Desertification

Global ecosystem and environment observations are becoming
increasing urgent！
 2030 agenda for sustainable development

Earth Observation Technology
An essential method for retrieving the ecological environmental
parameters at global scale.
 Spaceborne Systems Airborne SystemsAdvantages
 Large range
 High resolution
 Consecution
 Dynamic
 High efficiency

China’s Earth Observation
Developed series of earth observation satellites
 8 satellites series 30 satellites in orbits

Established China GEOSS GEOSS —— Global Earth Observation Systemof Systems
 Link Earth observation resources world-wide
across multiple Societal Benefit Areas.

Support the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Founding country, Co-chair country Ministerial coordinating groupSpaceborne Observation Capability
Satellite Series•

Meteorological Satellites (7, FY-2/3)•

Ocean Satellites (2, HY-1B/2A)•

Mapping Satellite-1 Constellation•

Tansat - Global CO2 Observing and Monitoring Mission•

Land Resource Satellites (7, ZY-3, HJ-1A/B, CBERS-04)•

Small Satellite (BJ-1)

High-Resolution Earth Observing System•

CHEOS (3, GF-1/2/4)

Commercial Satellites•

Jilin-1 Constellation, TripleSat Constellation
Satellite image collected by Jilin-1

China GEOSSGEOSS —— Global Earth Observation System of Systems


Coordinates resources through virtual networkProduction capacity of time-space seamless global high-accuracyremote sensing common products.



Make those resources available for better informed decision-making.

Support GEOGEO


Established in 2005.



A voluntary partnership of governments andorganizations.



103 Nations and European Commissions.



103 Participating Organizations.

China GEOFounding countryCo-chair country

ExCom memberMinisterial coordinating group



GEO China Secretariat

The origin of the GEOARC

 Since 2012.
 Support global change studies and international cooperation via
GEO.
 The National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC), Ministryof Science and Technology (MOST) of the People’s Republic ofChina supports the work.
 Integrated a series of products from the National Research andDevelopment Program.

Contents

① Globe Land 30 (J. Chen, et al.)Land Cover dataset has cross-cutting importance for many Societal Benefit Areas.
Land Cover is one of GEO’s top-priority Earth observation parameters



The GEO Global Land Cover task is working to improve coordination of land coveractivities around the globe.

It seeks to develop an International Network where GEO Members can express theirneeds:
Land cover productsContribute mapping and monitoring efforts

Support related capacity development initiatives

Globe Land 30


The World’s first 30m-resolution Global Land
Cover Product.

Be funded through National Research andDevelopment Program.



Generated by China Scientists, with thecooperation of U.S. and European Colleagues.

Map of Globe Land 30

Data Tiles of Globe Land 30

① Globe Land 30 (J. Chen, et al.)Generated by more than 20,000 Landsat images data.

Year 2000 Landsat images - 10270（ Internet Download ）Year 2010 Landsat 5+Landsat7 images - 9907
（Internet Download）

Year 2010 HJ Programmed images - 2640

Year 2010 Landsat7 SLC-off images - 1360
（Internet Download）

① Globe Land 30 (J. Chen, et al.) Ten Major Land Cover Class•

Cultivated land•

Water bodies•

Forest•Tundra•Grassland•

Artificial surfaces•

Shrubland•

Bareland•Wetland•

Permanent snow and ice

 Advantages•

It can be used for deriving crucial information.
(Geographical Statistics, Landscape Pattern……)
GLC Datasets at Different Resolutions•

Be of great value for global climatic change
studies and sustainable development planningand implementation.
The Content of Globe Land 30 Dara Tile Zip File

① Globe Land 30 (J. Chen, et al.)Data Sharing
 Developed a web-based information platform.
 On-line browsing and downloading The full dataset has been released for sharing
and utilization.
 Chinese government donated the datasets tothe U.N.

② GLASS (S.L. Liang, et al)
Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) Products

Supported by the National Research and Development Program of ChinaThe key project ——‘Generation and Applications of Global Products ofEssential Land Variables’.

Produced 5 kinds of GLASS Products:
Products

Spatial resolution

Temporal resolution

Temporal range

LAI

1-5 km, 0.05°

8 day

1981-2013

Shortwave albedo

1-5 km, 0.05°

8 day

1981-2013Longwave emissivity

1-5 km, 0.05°

8 day

1981-2013

Shortwave radiation

5 km, 0.05°

3 hour2008-2010

PAR5 km, 0.05°

3 hour2008-2010

② GLASS (S.L. Liang, et al)

Global LAI Distribution from GLASS LAI Product

The Spatial Coverage of the Geostationary Satellite Data Used toGenerate GLASS Shortwave Radiation and PAR Products

GLASS Black-sky Albedo Products

GLASS Shortwave Radiation Product Generated from Multiple Satellites
GLASS Longwave Emissivity

③ FROM-GLC (P. Gong, et al.)Finer Resolution Observation and Monitoring of Global Land Cover

30m-resolution global land cover maps

An important source of information for understanding the complex
interactions between human activities and global change.

Produced by using Landsat TM and ETM+ data (30m), and integrate
multi-resolution datasets, including MODIS EVI time series (250 meter),
global DEM (1km), and so on.

Generated land cover dataset with multi-resolution (i.e. 30 m, 250 m,500 m, 1 km, 5 km, 10 km, 25 km, 50 km, 100 km) to meet requirements
for different resolutions from different applications.

The datasets can be downloaded free from:http://data.ess.tsinghua.edu.cn/

 CropWatch - One of the Three Major Global Crop Monitoring
Systems④ CropWatch (B.F. Wu, et al.)An important component of GEO/GEOSS Global Agricultural Monitoring
Initiative (GEOGLAM) One of the three global crop monitoring systems.
 Monitoring global agro-climatic conditions by remote sensing:• Rainfall, Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), Potential Biomass(a) Global map of October 2014-June 2015 rainfall
anomaly (as indicated by the RAIN indicator) by MRU,
departure from 14YA (percentage)(b) Global map of April 2015-September 2015
temperature anomaly (as indicated by the TEMPindicator) by MRU, departure from 14YA (percentage)

④ CropWatch (B.F. Wu, et al.)Determine key crop related indicators by using remote sensing data
combined with selected field data.
 Crop acreage,
 Yield and production,
 Crop condition,
 Cropping intensity,
 Crop-planting proportion,
 Total food availability, The status and severity of drought

Release monthly and quarterly bulletins.

④ CropWatch (B.F. Wu, et al.)Spatial Resolution•

0.25° (Global)•1km ( 4 Continent, Main Production Zones,Province / State Scale)•30m (China)

Spatial Scale•

65 Crop Production System Zones (CPSZ) in the Globe

Globe, Continent, China, Province / State

Temporal resolution•

10 days: Environmental index•

15 days: NDVI, Crop condition•

Season: Farmland planting proportion,Maximum vegetation health index•

Growing Season: Area, Per unit area yield,total yield•

Annual: Cropping index
Production Outlook of Wheat, Rice, Maize and Soybean in 2015 for 31 Countries

④ CropWatch (B.F. Wu, et al.)Global ValidationGVG Data Acquisition

GVG GIS Platform

CropWatch Global Validation Sites

⑤ China GEOSS Framework Being a Coordinated network•

Integrated earth observation satellite
resources national and international•

Provide the majority of users with efficientand quantitative remote sensing data,
information products and services

 Generates Global Products• 40 common products• 20 quantitative remote sensing
thematic products• 20 remote sensing monitoring andvalidation products

⑥ China GEOSS-DSNet National GEOSS data sharing Platform•

Constructed by the whole Chinese earth
observation communities•

Integrated more than 10 national EO data centers•

Data sharing to national and global users

China GEOSS DSNet Portal
http://www.chinageoss.org

Contents

GEOARC
Main Aims

Focuses Cope with global climate change Global ecological environment factors•

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable•

Terrestrial Vegetation (2012~ )Development (U.N.)•

Terrestrial Surface Water (2012~ ) Develop and share global datasets•

Monitor every country on a worldwide scale•

Monitor every province and city in China on

 Hot issues•

Resident Land (2013)•Wetlands (2014)•Global Food Supply (2013~ )a national scale Analyze data and release report•Global Ecological Environment Factors•

Focus on Hot Points and Hot Areas Provide consultations and help
decision making

 Hot spots•Africa (2014)•China-ASEAN (2014)•‘The Belt and Road’ Initiative (2015)•Asia-Oceania (2016)

4 Years – 12 Reports
Year

SubjectChanges of Vegetation Leaf Area Index (LAI) Dynamics

2012

Global Land Surface Water 2010 and Dynamic Changes ofSample Lakes
Growth Conditions of Global Terrestrial Vegetation2013

Large Terrestrial Surface Water Areas
Supply Situation of Maize, Rice, Wheat and Soybean
Urban and Rural Resident Land Cover Distribution
Supply Situation of Maize, Rice, Wheat and Soybean

2014

Large Area Wetlands of International Importance
Africa Land CoverChina-ASEAN Ecological and Environmental Conditions

2015“The Belt and Road Initiative” - Ecological and EnvironmentalConditions
Supply Situation of Maize, Rice, Wheat and Soybean

① Global Terrestrial Vegetation2012~2013

Annual Report Released•

2012 — Changes of Vegetation Leaf Area Index(LAI) Dynamics
 Based on GLASS products Developed, analyzed and shared ‘Global LAI
Dataset 1982~2011’•2013 — Growth Conditions of Global TerrestrialVegetation
 Developed, analyzed and shared ‘Global LAI
Dataset 1982~2013’



Subsequent Dataset Updated•

2014, 2015 — 1km GLASS-LAI updated dataset

 The datasets can help research on issues such as global food security, forest and grassland
management, and ecological evaluation, planning, construction and management of large andmedium-sized cities all over the world.

② Terrestrial Surface Water
2012~2013

Annual Report Released•

2012 — Global Land Surface Water 2010
and Dynamic Changes of Sample Lakes
 Developed ‘Global Land Surface Water 2010’ and‘Dynamic Changes of Sample Lakes in2001~2011’ datasets Analyzed “Seasonal Change of Sample Lakes in2001-2011”•2013 — Large Terrestrial Surface WaterAreas Developed ‘Spatial-Temporal Distribution(2001~2012) Dataset of Large Terrestrial Surface
Water Areas of the World’ dataset
 Analyzed “Global Large Surface Water Area
Variation in Typical Lakes Regions”

Subsequent Dataset Updated•

2014, 2015 — Global dynamic changes
updated dataset of Large Lakes

Poyang Lake

Victoria Lake

③ Global Food Supply
2013~2015
Annual Report Released•

2013 — 2015 : Supply Situation of Maize,Rice, Wheat and Soybean Based on the monthly and quarterly bulletins
generated by ‘CropWatch’ system, acomponent in the GEO/GEOSS Global
Agricultural Monitoring (GeoGLAM).

•Main Focuses: Global agro-climatic conditions
 Cropping patterns and stress over major
production zones
 Agronomic conditions for China’s major
production regions
 Crop production and food supply

65 monitoring areas and 7 major Production Zones

④ Resident Land
Urban and Rural Resident Land Cover• 2013 — Urban and Rural Resident Land
Cover Distribution
 Based on ‘Globe Land 30’ dataset
 Developed ‘Global Urban and RuralResident Land Cover Distribution
between 2000~2010’ datasets Analyzed ‘Urban and rural resident land
cover changes in China’ Analyzed ‘Urban and rural resident land
cover changes in countries and major
economic communities’

Resident land cover change of Beijing
in the past 40 years.

⑤ Wetland• 2014 — Large Area Wetlands ofInternational Importance There were 2193 sites aredesignated in the ‘Ramsar List’,covering 209 million hectares.
 Developed ‘Remote Sensing
Monitoring Dataset of Global Large
Area Wetlands of International
Importance’ datasets Monitored 100 Ramsar sites + 20
China sites
 Analyzed ‘Changes of wetland area
between 2001 and 2013’

⑥ Africa
Africa Land Cover• 2014 — Africa Land Cover Developed ‘Africa Land Cover Dataset (2014)’
 Analyzed ‘The Spatial Distribution of Different Land CoverType’
Cropland, Forest, Grassland, Shrubland, Water Surface, Barren, Ice andSnow, Artificial Surface.

 Analyzed ‘Land Cover Changes for Selected Areas’

Water area changes around
Lake Victoria 2000-2014

Crop land change inlower Nile 2000-2014

⑦ ASEAN
ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)• 2014 — China-ASEAN Ecological andEnvironmental Conditions
 Developed the datasets of ‘China-ASEAN
Ecological and Environmental Conditions’ Analyzed ‘Distribution Pattern of NaturalElements of Ecological Environment inChina-ASEAN’
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR),
Water Surplus,
Net Primary Productivity (NPP),
Forest Biomass,
Multiple Cropping Indexes Monitored ‘Water Resources of LancangMekong River Basin’ Analyzed ‘The Ecological Resources of EachCountry in China-ASEAN’⑧ ‘The Belt and Road’ Initiative
2015
Monitoring Area
 Terrestrial Areas• Cover 56 ×106 km2 (37.6% of Global Land Area)• 7 land regions• 6 economic corridors• 26 important inland node cities Marine Areas• Cover 22 ×106 km2 (6.2% of Global Ocean Area)• 12 ocean regions• 25 important port cities and their coastlines

⑧ ‘The Belt and Road’ Initiative
Main Land Ecological Systems

Farmland•12 ×106 km2•

53.3% of global farmland area

Forest•13 ×106 km2•

35.1% of global forest area•

Total biomass is 15×1010 t

Grassland•

12 ×106 km2•

34.9% of global grassland area•

Total grassland NPP is 7.77×108 tC/a

⑧ ‘The Belt and Road’ Initiative
Main Constraint Factors on Economic
Corridor ConstructionDesert

Severe Cold

Protection Zone



Mountain

Extreme Weather

The ecological constraint
factors are different
significantly among eacheconomic corridors and indifferent sections of every
economic corridor!

Marine Ecological EnvironmentSea Surface TemperaturePhotosynthetically Active
Radiation (PAR)

Ocean Transparency

Chlorophyll Concentration

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)Examples of Finding Highlights 1
Global LAI Dynamics from 1982 to 2011 There is an increase trend of LAI from1995 to 2001, and remains stable withlittle increase from 2001 to 2011, theanomaly values reach 0.06~0.10.
 The U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (1992) and thefollowing up policies and actions on environment in both international andnational levels could contribute to the trends.

Spatial Distribution of Land Surface Water
 In 2010, the total area of global Land Surface
Water is 3,676,700 km2, which is 2.73% of
global land surface area.
 North America has the highest coverage,reaching 1,530,200 km2.The highest country
is Canada.

Examples of Finding Highlights 2
Changes of Global Urban and Rural Resident Land Cover In 2000, the total area of the global urban
and rural land is 1.1301 Million km2,increased 57,400 km2 over the previous 10years, with the variation rate of 5.08%.
 Among the increased global urban and ruralland, what occupied most are arable land,
accounting for 50.26%.

Change of Large Wetlands of International Importance Between 2001 to 2013, the total wetland area
decreased by less than 1%.
 Among all continents, wetland area in North
American increased slightly, while the valueof the other continents showed different
degrees of decrease.

Examples of Finding Highlights 3Land Use Situation of ‘The Belt and Road’ In monitoring area, the average land use
degree index is 0.34 (varies between 0 and 1).
 The areas with higher indices accorded withthe areas having dense population ingeneral.

Marine Ecological Environment Conditions of ‘The Belt and Road’ From 2003 to 2014, the transparency of 12
oceanic regions has an increasing trend,
indicating an improvement of water quality
overall.
 The Mediterranean Sea has the highest
mean transparency among above oceanicregions, reaching 35m.

Released the Annual ReportReleased the Annual Report and related datasets on The World Environment Day.

 2013-05-28

 2014-06-04

 2015-06-04

 2016-06-06

Hold the press conference before or after the world environment day every year.

Data Sharing
By GEOSS-DSNet
 Continuously updated Datasets of Global Water Areas
and Global Vegetation Distribution since 2012
 http://www.chinageoss.org/geoarc/
 Total downloads of datasets > 10TB
 Total downloaded over 10,000 times

2014 Global Annual FVC

2014 Global Annual LAI

Contribution
Support to GEO
 GEOARC datasets cover many of theGEO Societal Benefit Areas• Agriculture,• Biodiversity,• Land Cover• Water ……

 Constitutes an important part of GEO's
data and information assets

Evaluation
 Experts and Scholars:•GEOARC is a pioneering work in China.

•This work reflected the active attitude of China to coping withglobal climate change.

 Organizations Express Particular Concern:•

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)•United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)•

Economic and Social Commission for Asia an the Pacific(ESCAP) ……

 Secretarial Director of GEO:•The reports will become even more important as acoordinated and continuous national effort is put in place.

•Has made great contribution to the GEO.

•The reports and the original datasets will benefit users
worldwide.

Prospects
 Extend report series Keep focus on global hot issues & hot spots
 Cooperate with international scientists andorganizations• Further research / application• Validation• Recommendations

 Further improve China GEOSS