1. Current Water Resources, Water Related Disasters as well as
the Role of Agro-environment Education in China
YU Xinxiao1, XIE Chunhua and ZHAO Yutao

Abstract
The general situation of Chinese water resource and water related disasters are introducedin the paper. China has a sever water resource situation until 2050, only 2.7×1012m3 surface
water available now every year, with increasing serious water pollution. Eco-environment is indeterioration under a great water deficit. Torrent, drought, soil and water loss and waterpollution are dominant water related disasters in China, they have affected our productivity,
daily life and the whole eco-environment. Water pollution is comparatively better than before,
but it is also sever.
Current situation of agro-environment education is closely followed. China has 44 middle
and high agricultural and forestry schools, with 15 corresponding disciplines. High agroenvironment education mainly exists in soil and water conservation and combating
desertification, agricultural resources and environment, horticulture in 53 schools. By 50 yearsof development, Chinese forestry environment education companied with water resource andenvironment related discipline has formed a omni bearing cultivation system, which benefits
Chinese people to manage water resources rationally and improves their ability to combat
disasters greatly.
Key Words: Water resources, Water related disasters, High agro-environment education,
Forestry education, China
Water is a lifeline for human being, as well as for agriculture and economic construction,
which is also basic for national welfare and people’s livelihood. At the initial of 21 century, it
is a focus for central government and the State Council, and also for the whole society. How todeal with water shortage and water related disaster (such as flood, water pollution)
immediately, and how to use water rationally are key issues for agro-environment research inchina for now and the near future. High school plays a main role in cultivation and agroenvironment education china, and they provide powerful science and technology support forwater resource research and disaster harness.

1 Water resource in china
1.1 Current situation of water resource in china
1.1.1 Distribution
1 Rivers
There are many rivers in china, and 5000 rivers with the area lager than 100 km2, 1500
rivers lager than 1000 km2. For landform, they distribute regionally, most of them are locatedin the east of moist and rainy air, while some in the north-west of dry and rainless air, someplace even of no flows.
The area of out-flow river basin is 65.2 per cent of our nation, in which 58.2% flow into
the Pacific Ocean, 6.4% into the Indian Ocean and 0.6% into the Artic Ocean. The rest isinland river basin, 34.8%, divided as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Hexi, Qiangtang and Inner Mongolia.
Some larger river, such as Talimu river, Yili river and Heihe river, lie in these region. Somemain rivers and basins are listed in table 1.

1

Professor and dean of college of soil and water conservation, Beijing Forestry University

1

Table 1 Main rivers in China
Name
Yangtze river
Yellow river
Heilongjiang river
Songhua river
Zhujiang river
Yaluzhangbu river
Talimu river
Lancang river
Nujiang river
Liao river

Length
km
6300
5464
3420
2308
2214
2057
2046
1826
1659
1390

Name

Basin area
km2
1808500
7524431620170557180453690240480194210167486137818228960Haihe river
Huaihe river
Nuanhe river
Yalu RiverE’erqisi river
Yili river
Yuanjiang river
Min river
Qiantang river
Zhuoshui river

length
km
1090
1000
877
790
633
601
565
541
428
186

Basin area
km2263631269683
44100
61889
57290
61640
39768
60992
42156
3155

Note: Basins with rivers out-flowing into neighbor country are counted from the border, with in-flowing
rivers cover the area in our nation and boundary river in neighbor countries. Yellow river basin
excluded closed-flowing area.

2 LakeChina is a county of abundant lakes, with about 2300 lakes (excluding season lakes) lager
than 1 km2. The total area occupied 71790 km2, storing water 708.8 billion m3, including
31.9% of fresh water. The total area of our-flowing river basin is 30650km2, with 214.5 billion
m3 of water; others occupy 41140km2, with 494.3 billion m3 of water. They can be classified
into 5 lakes region as in table 2.
Table 2 Lake area and water storage in China
Lake locality

Lake Area
km2
Qingzang plateau
36889
Eastern plain
21641
Mongolia-xinjiang plateau
9411
Northeast plain & hills
2366
Yuan-Guizhou plateau
1108
Others
372
Total
71787

Area
Water
Percent(%) (billion m3)
51.4
5182
30.2
711
13.1
697
3.3
190
1.5
288
0.5
20
100
7088

Freshwater(billion m3)
1035
711
23.5
188.5
288
15
2261

Freshwater
percent %
45.8
31.5
1.0
8.3
12.7
0.7
100

(3) Glacier
China has the most glaciers located in mid or lower latitude in the world. The total area isgenerally counted to 58650 km2, storing water 5132 billion m3, most of which located in
Xizang and Xinjiang provinces, and mainly are continental glaciers.
1.1.2 Quantity assessment
The total average rainfall is 6.2×1012 m3 annual, amounting to 648mm high in China,
which is 20% lower than the globe level and 44% of that form into flows. The total river flows
is 27115×1012 m3, amounting to 284mm high. For current conditions, the average undergroundwater is 8288×108 m3. Except for reused surface water and underground water, our total water
resource is2.8×108 m3. Considering inflowing water (1.72×1010 m3) and that produced in our
nation (2.7×1012 m3), we have 2.7×1012 m3 available annually (Table 3 listed in detail).
Table 3 Water amount flowing in and out
Districts
Out-flowing
In-flowing
The total%

Total Flowing out Flowing into Consumed Consumed/available
Local river Flowing in%(×108 m3) (×108 m3) (×108 m3) (×108 m3) sea (×108 m3) (×108 m3)
25951
1164
27115
99.4

81
91
172
0.6

26032
1255
27287
100

7185
135
7320
26.8

17148
95
17243
63.2

1699
1025
2724
10.0

6.5
81.6
10.0

1.2 Water resource utilization in china
1.2.1 Water usage
The total water usage is 1.03×1011 m3 in 1949, but it doubled in the after 10 years. In 1980,
the usage is 4.4×1011 m3, which is 3.3% larger than that of 1965; and the usage in 1993 is 1.2%
2

larger than that of 1980. In 1997, the total water usage reach 5.6×1011 m3, which is 1.7% larger
than that of 1993.
1 Eco-environment
In the west of arid, semi-arid and semi-humid area, for water shortage, urban industry andagro-construction place a great pressure on eco-environment. The total available water is
8.31×1010 m3 in Xinjiang province, Hexi Corridor and Caidamu basin, in which 4.5×1010 m3 is
consumed by eco-environment, that is 54%.
2 Agro-construction
In 1993, the total effective irrigation area is 7.46×108 acre. But water consumed byforestry, husbandry and fishery increased fast in recent years, from 1.19×1010m3 in 1980 to
3.05×1010m3 in 1999. However, the irrigation area and agriculture water usage per person
decreased from0.74 acre and 375m3 in 1980 to 0.64 acre and 307m3 in 1999.
1.2.2 Water supplication
According to the statistic of the Water Resource Ministry, the national water supplication
capability is 5640 m3 of water conservancy. In 1980 and 1993, the practical supplication are 4.4
×1011 m3 and 5.2×1011m3, the average increasing rate is 1.27% in the past 17 years, while thecorrespond increasing rate of GDP is 9.53%, the water supplication elasticity coefficient is
0.13, which is obviously lower than other developing countries (0.20~0.30). After 1993, theincrease of supplication speeds up. The average increment reaches 1.0×1010 m3, and theelasticity coefficient is about 0.20 during 1993~1997. And the supplications rise up to
5.6×1011m3, 5.4×1011m3, 5.6×1011m3 during 1997~1999.
As for the source of supplication, it more and more relies on underground water. There are
6.2×1010 m3 of available underground water in 1980, and it rise to 1.03×1011 m3 in 1997,
1.08×1011 m3 in 1999.
The water resources exploration rate is16.1% in 1980, and it rise to 18.9% in 1993, 19.9%
in 1997 and 1999. But it is 50% in 1997 in the north of china, which has led to some ecodisasters as river cutoff, lake dry and water table sink. Though it is relative lower in south ofchina, water pollution should also be cared.
1.3 Trend of water supply and development
1.3.1 Prediction of water requirement
Water requirement includes GDP and eco-environment water requirement. From the view ofthe whole nation, it will meet its summit of 7.0~8.0×1011 m3 in 2050 (See Table 4), and 457 m3
per person.
Table 4 Total water requirement for GDP Unit ×108 m3
Situation Year
Current
High

Normal

Low

1997
2010
2030
2050
2010
2030
2050
2010
2030
2050

Songliao
river
626
745
807
839
732
759
767
698
711
706

Haihe
river
466
498
561
587
492
539
556
488
527
537

Huaihe Yellow Yangtze Zhujiang Rivers in Rivers in Rivers
river
river
river
river southeast southwest in-land
680
429
1752
835
297
91
538
747
495
2116
935
325
109
621
853
571
2551
1058
362
133
677
897
605
2760
1109
373
159
708
733
480
2045
916
319
107
601
815
535
2341
1006
345
127
652
839
545
2429
1021
353
145
664
729
478
2012
899
315
105
581
799
523
2252
976
336
125
631
816
530
2327
987
340
142
642

Total
5714
6591
7573
8036
6424
7119
7319
6305
6880
7027

Comparing with the current water situation, the general trend of water requirement is that
agriculture need less water, but industry and domestic need more water. The rate for agriculture,industry and domestic is 57 27 16 in 2050.
1.3.2 Water supplication ability
We have developed 5.6×1011 m3 of water resources now, resting 3000×1011 m3 mainly in thesouth of our country. There are not more than 5.0×1010 m3 in the north, three quarter of which isfrom Nenjiang river, Songhuajian river and some international river in Xinjiang province.
3By the middle of 21 century, there are 9.0×1011 m3 of water available. And it is potential to
get more than 5.7×1010 m3 of available water in south china, amount to 65% of the total.
1.3.3 Water balance analysis
We have 1.3×1010 m3 of water shortage by 2030, and that will be balanced by 2050. The
rate of water exploitation will get to 24.5% in 2030, and 25.4% in 2050. The water balances ofeach watershed are listed in table 5.
Table 5 Watershed water supplication and requirement in 2030 and 2050 (unit: ×108 m3)
Local
Input Output Available Usage Rate % Requirement Shortage Rate %supplication
Whole
6640
350
350
6990
6800
24.7
7119
129
1.8
Songliao river
746
746
721
37.4
759
13
1.8
Hainuan river
352
135
487
311
73.8
539
52
9.7
Huaihe river
644
130
774
600
62.4
815
41
5.1
Yellow river
443
85
30
528
443
59.6
535
7
1.3
Yangtzge river
2340
320
2340
2647
27.5
2341
1
0
2030
Zhujiang river
1005
1005
989
21.0
1006
1
0.1
River in southeast
344
344
328
16.7
345
1
0.2
River in southwest
126
126
126
2.2
127
1
0.6
River inland
640
640
635
48.7
652
12
1.8
Northern 5 parts
2825
350
30
3175
2710
50.6
3301
126
3.8
Southern 5 parts
3815
320
3815
4090
18.5
3818
3
0.1
Whole
6850
450
450
7300
7050
25.6
7319
19
0.3
Songliao
766
766
733
38.0
767
1
0.1
Hainuan
364
190
554
311
73.8
556
1
0.3
Huaihe
673
165
838
606
63.1
839
1
0.1
Yellow river
448
95
30
543
439
59.0
545
2
0.3
Yangtzge river
2428
420
2428
2833
29.5
2429
0
0.1
2050
Zhujiang
1020
1020
1003
21.3
1021
0
0.0
River in SE
353
353
335
17.0
353
0
0.0
River in SW
144
144
144
2.5
145
1
0.0
River inland
654
654
646
4935
664
10
1.6
Northern 5 parts
2905
450
30
3355
2735
51.0
3371
16
0.5
Southern 5 parts
3945
420
3945
4315
19.5
3948
3
0.1
Note: The amount of input and output include current exchanges. Usage is only for local one, excluding resourcefulsupplication.
Year

District

2 Water related disasters in China
2.1 Flood
2.1.1 Types and classification
Because of rainstorm or abrupt ice melt as well as water conversancy accident, the water
flood in rivers or lakes rapidly, breaking up dams or cannels, which is flood disaster.
It can be classified by reason: rain flood , melt flood and project accident flood (as in table6). However, the rain flood is most seen with the largest scale.

Types
Rain flood
Melt flood
Project accident flood

Table 6 Flood types
Kinds
Rainstorm, continued rains, typhoon, prolonged
waterloggedHigh mountain ice melt, season melt, ice block incannel, ice burst
Dam burst river bank burst

According to torrent coverage and duration, flood is classified into 5 grades as in table 7.
2.1.2 Main features of flood in China
Alluvial plains in the east and south of china is the most serious areas hit by flood , thetotal area is about 7.38×105 km2, occupying 8% of our land, but almost half of our population

4

Table 7 Flood classification according to coverage and duration
GradesDuration day
Coverage ×104 km2
I
II
III
IV
V

<0.01
0.01-0.1
0.1-1
1-10
>10

<2
2-4
4-7
7-12
>12

condense here, contributing to 2/3 of our gross value of industry and agriculture. Large scaleand long time of heavy rainstorm is the generally reason for flood . Influenced by hesitate
subtropical high pressure in summer, tropical windstorm and provoking typhoon, rainstorm intransmit of hills and plain is the major source of flood . The largest rainstorm reaches 1000 mm
during 24h in east china. In Yellow river watershed and its northern parts, a heavy rainstorm
can last 2~7d, covering 3~7×104 km2, total rainfalls is 1.0~5.5×1010 m3.
The flood disasters in recent 11 years are listed in table 9.
2.2 Drought
2.2.1 Grades of drought
Drought grades are often classified by rainfall horizon rate (HR) presently, which counted
by many years of rainfall records (see table 8).

Continuous 3 months
Continuous 2 months
Continuous 1 months

Drought-25—-50-50—-80-80

Table 8 Grades of drought
Heavy drought
Especially heavy drought
Duration more than 2 years, covering-50—-80
more than 1 province
More than-80

2.2.2 Features
Drought is a major disaster of our nation. Comparing to other natural disasters, it haslarger coverage, longer duration, and bigger loss. According to data, the disaster area and foodloss is increasing due to drought. The disaster area and food loss rise from1.74×108 acre and4.35×106 ton to 4.1×108 acre and 2.45×106 ton. The drought coverage spread from north to south,from west to east, and the duration extend from single year, season and month to continuous
year, season and month. The drought not only affects agriculture, but also forestry, husbandry,
industry and even whole economic development, resulting into worsen eco-environment. One
reason is of little rainfall, the other is that social economic development has an increasing needand dependence of water, but decreasing disaster resistance.
The drought disasters in recent 11 years are listed in table 9.
Table 9General situation of flood and drought disaster in recent 11 years
Flood area Drought Economic loss Dead Food loss Crop production
year
×104
area ×104
×108 RMY people ×104 ton
×104 ton
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001

2459.6942.3
1638.7
1885.91436.72040.01313.52229.2
960.5
904.5
717.8

2491
3298
2110
3028
2346
2015
3351
1424
3015
4054
3400

779.08412.77641.741796.61653.32208.36930.112550.9930.23711.63
667

5

5133
3012
3499
5340
3852
5840
2799
4150
1896
1942
1450

1180
2100
1120
2620
2300
980
4760
1270
3333
5996
5340

43529
44266
45648
44510
46662
50453
49418
51230
50838
46218
45260

2.3 Soil and water loss
The 2nd remote sensing investigation shows that the area affected by soil erosion is 3.56
million km2 at the end of the 1990’s, of which: 1.65 million km2 is water erosion, 1.91 million
km2 is wind erosion, and 0.26 million km2 is affected by the both. Areas affected by water andsoil erosion are listed in the following table.
Table 10 Area affected by water and wind erosion by provinces (Unit: km2)
Province
Beijing
Tianjin
Hebei
Shanxi
Inner Mongolia
Liaoning
Jilin
Heilongjiang
Shanghai
Jiangsu
Zhejiang
Anhui
FujianJiangxi
Shandong
Hennan
Hubei
Hunan
Guangdong
Guangxi
HainanSichuan
Guizhou
YunnanTibet
Chongqing
Shaanxi
Gansu
Qinghai
Ningxia
Xinjiang
TaiwanTotal

Area affected by watererosionArea affected by winderosion

Total

4,383
463
45,662
92,863150,219
48,221
19,296
86,5390
4,105
18,323
18,775
14,83235,10632,43230,07360,84340,393
11,01010,369205
150,400
73,179142,562
62,74452,040118,096
119,370
53,137
20,907
115,425
7,844
1,648,816

0
0
8,295
0
594,607
2,333
14,278
8,907
0
0
0
0
87
0
3,555
0
0
0
0
4
342
6,121
0
0
49,8930
10,708141,969
128,972
15,943920,7260
1,906,740

4,383
463
62,95792,863744,826
50,55433,574
95,4460
4,105
18,323
18,775
14,91935,10635,98730,07360,84340,393
11,01010,373547
156, 521
73,179142,562
112,637
52,040128,804
261,339
182,10936,8501,036,151
7,844
3,555,556

Table 11 Dynamics of water and wind erosion
GradesSlightModerate
Intensive
Extremely
intensive
Severetotal

Water erosion
Beginning of 1990s
83
Worse
55
Worse
18
than
Worse
than
Worse
6
moderatethanmoderatethan88
intensive82
intensive
38
3
27
179
165

End of 1980s

Unit ×104 km2

Wind erosion
Beginning of 1990s
79
25
Worse
Worse
25
than
Worse
than
Worse
27
moderatethanmoderate
than94
intensive112
intensive
66
35
87
188
191
End of 1980s

Soil and water loss is widely distributed in china, both in mountainous, hilly, sandy areasand plains, coast area. The area is up-rise from the east to the west: the water erosion area is 4.9×105km2 in the central china, and 1.07i×106km2 in the west china. The area affected by both water and windmainly lies along the Great Wall and the crisscross of agriculture and husbandry.

By the force of erosion, it includes water, wind, freeze and gravity power. Water is thedominant erosive force in the northeast (where the gently undulating terrain is associated withblack soils), the Loess Plateau in the northwest, the red hilly region of the south and in other6rock earthy regions of the north and the south. Localized mass movements including landslideand slurries also occur to a lesser extent in the afore mentioned regions. Frost-thaw erosion isdominant on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, while wind erosion occur in the northwest semi-arid
area where agriculture and husbandry activities coexist. In this region wind erosion is thedominant force in winter and spring while water erosion occurs mainly in summer and autumn.
Statistical data shows that China loses approximately 5 billion tons of soil annually.
Within the Yangtze River basin, the soil loss is as high as 2.4 billion tons a year, and 1.56
billion tons are from its upper and middle reaches. In Yellow River basin, 1.6 billion tons of
sediment is transported into this river from the Loess Plateau a year, particularly in the basin
area between Hekou in Inner Mongolia and Longmen in Henan, more than 70,000 km2 arecontributed. The rate of soil erosion is more than 10,000 tons per km2, and some even as highas 30,000~50,000 tons per km2. The sediment produced by this area accounts for more thanhalf of that transport into the Yellow River.
2.4 Pollution(1) Current situation of rivers
Chinese rivers are generally polluted. Among them, the Yangtze river receive the most waste
water, almost 34.2% of the total in 1999, and the second is Zhujiang River. Water quality
assessments at different stages are listed in table12.
Table 12 Chinese rivers water quality assessment
Yearlengthkm
89395

Percentage of different polluted degree (%)
I
II
III
IV
V
>V
1980
43.5[1]
35.8
8.1
7.7
4.9
56.1[2]
21.9
7.1
13.7
1.9
1991
98614
6.1
26.1
21.3
27.6
8.3
10.6
1998
109703
5.4
24.4
33.0
13.7
6.6
16.9
1999
113600
5.5
24.5
32.4
12.6
7.8
17.2
Note: 1. [1] is the result of an assessment of organic pollution，[2]is an assessment of five poisons.
2. III、IV、V are adopted for polluted river length in 1980，and for 1991~1999, a new standard isadopted as IV、V and >V.

According to national GB3838-88 surface water environment assessment standard, about
700 rivers, that is 0.1 million long, are assessed in 1991, the monitoring result shows that 47%
of length is polluted to more than IV. The water resources bulletin of 1999 shows the length ofpolluted river descend to 37.6%, but seriously polluted river rises 6.6% in length.
Water quality varies in different district. Lower reaches are worse than upper reaches,trunks is better than branches, and the river through cities is worst polluted. Water quality is
generally better in south and central or west of china than that in the north and east.
In 55,000 km length of rivers, 23.3% of them are poison for irrigation, 45% of them haveno fishes, and 85.9% of them is not better than the III class. Eco-functions are degradedheavily.
Rivers in cities are polluted even worse. For 1999, in 141 national monitoring cities,
63.8% of rivers are seriously polluted, especially in Liaohe basin, Haihe basin and Huaihebasin.
The water quality in our seven main river basin are showed in table 13.
(2) Current situation of lakes
During 1986~1989, the over-nutritious lakes rise to 35.76% of 34 lakes investigated. And
almost all lakes live in over-nutritious condition in 1990s. Large fresh lakes and urban lakes are
all polluted. Dianchi lake is seriously polluted by N and P, it is typically over-nutritious. And
the blue-green algae is overabundant, where water quality is worse than V class. The Caohu
lake is of the same condition. The organism is comparatively lessin Taihu lake in recent years, but N and P rose.
(3) Current situation of underwater
7

The quality of underwater of cities deteriorates in recent 20 years. In 1998, we have
Table 13 Chinese water quality by basins
Water quality class

Percentage of thetotal% (1997)

Pollutants

Percentage of thetotal% (1998)

67.7
66.7
52
52
71

Phenol COD
NH4 Phenol COD
NH4 Hg, COD
COD

75
74
72
Worse than V in thetrunk, 48

Haihe
LiaoheIII or better than III
IV
III or better than III
Worse than V in 1st branch
Worse than V in 2nd an3rd
branchesV, worse than V
Worse than V

50
50

62
61.4

Songhuajiang

IV

70.6

NH4 COD
NH4 Hg Phenol
COD
Phenol COD

Yangtze river
Yellow river
Zhujiang
Huaihe67

investigated 118 cities, in which 115 cities has polluted underwater. The indicators we used
include Hardness, Nitrate, NH4, Organism, Chromium and Phenol. Most of them haveincreased hardness and Nitrate. Some of them affected by petroleum matters, and someunderwater has “three cause” organic compounds.

3 High agro-environment education in China
In 2000, our high agro-forestry schools reduced from 65 to 50, including 44 agricultural
universities and 6 forestry ones, and the disciplines are also adapted from 38 to 15. There are248217 students in normal agro-forestry high school now, which is 4.24% of the whole highschool students. Our developing aim is to keep a rising speed of 14% annually for agro-forestry
high education during “Ten Fives”. The gross students in agro-forestry high school will be
477,000 in 2005, where undergraduate student are 273,000, graduate student are 27,000. Thiskind of cultivation will be more popularized in 2010, and student population in these schools
will be 736,000.
Our cultivation contents for undergraduate students include philosophy, economics,
legislation, pedagogy, literary, history, science, engineering, agronomy, medicine andadministration. This category consists of 71 2nd class and 249 disciplines. The high agroenvironment education mainly devote to science, engineering and agronomy see table 14 .
1 Soil and water conservation. By 1998, this discipline has been set up in 14 schools
following Beijing Forestry College in 1958. By partial statistic, they have trained about 4000
undergraduate students. During 1980~1998, 200 students have got master degree, and 50 for
doctor degree. In 1960, the first discipline of combating desertification has been set up in
Inner Mongolia Forestry College, and they have trained 2800 undergraduate students and 29
graduate students in this area now.
2 Agricultural resource and environment. By 1995, there are 106 professional
environmental disciplines in 86 schools in mainland, and 193 for undergraduate students in
135 schools, including environmental science, ecology, environmental project, environmental
monitoring, plan and management, agriculture environment protection. There are 189 master
positions in 150 high schools and 39 institutes, and 48 doctor positions in 39 high schools and9 institutes. And there are also 8 postdoctoral moving stations. By now, they have trained
about 30,000 students.
3 Horticulture. The Beijing Forestry University has train 2000 students in thisdiscipline since 1950s, and we have 200 master and doctor of horticulture now. For recent
years, we recruit 1000 of this discipline every year. This discipline has abundant student
source and promising needing market.

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Table 14 Disciplines of high agro-environment education
CategoryClass
Geography

Science
Environment
Water conversancy
Engineering

AgronomyEnvironment andsafeguard

discipline
Geography science
Resource, environment andurban plan
GIS
Environmental science
Ecology
Water and electric projectHydrology and water resources
Environmental project
Soil and water conservationand combating desertification
Agricultural resource andenvironment
Horticulture

Eco-environment

These graduates above enriched our agro-environmental construction groups, they
improved our nations capability for water resources management and water related disaster
combating.

4 Features and achievements of forestry education in China
After a century of development, Chinese forestry education grows up, and a reasonableeducational system has been formed, consisted of high education, professional education, adulteducation and primary education. Main achievements can be concluded:
4.1 Cultivation and research
The forestry high schools have cultivated 4309 graduated students and 124,300
undergraduate or professional students since 1950s. And our cultivation capability haveobviously improved, we have 31 doctor positions, 86 master positions and 6 postdoctoralmoving stations. Students on duty are 26.9 times of 1978 now.
Junior forestry professional education is in progress. In 1999, 20 of 60 schools are
granted the nation key school. There are 83,000 students on duty in 1999, which is 9.3 timesof 1978.
Forestry adult education emphasizes position training and further education. By 2000,
there are 13,700 students on duty in senior forestry correspondence school and evening
university, which is 50.8 times of 1980. The government agriculture broadcasting school has
enrolled 90,000 students since 1978, half of them have graduate and they have became thebackbone of the first producing line.
Forestry multi-profession training has a great achievement. During “Nine Fives”, they havetrained 15 million of students. Since 2000, this training has sheared to The West Development
to improve eco-environment by Natural Forests Protection, Resume Forest or Grassland from
Farmland and Combating Desertification. The trainees cover basic leaders, public officials,
technical backbones, forestry managers as well as forestry farmers. At the same time, basic
construction and institutions are strengthened.
4.2 Academic communication
Our forestry high school has build up a long term and stable friendship with more than
100 schools or institutes in 20 countries. We have sent as many as 1500 people to study abroad
to about 40 countries, and 60% of them returned and became the backbone of cultivation or
research. Meanwhile, we have invited more than 3000 foreign experts from 50 countries tochina. By this means of academic communication, cooperate research and joint cultivation, ourforestry education has stepped out and the world has knew us.
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4.3 Consulting service
In the past, our farmers have little knowledge. It is difficult for adapting agricultural
structure and technology innovation, particularly for spreading new and functional techniques.
Speeding professional and adult education improve farmers’ ability to master scientifictechnology. They are more capable for economic development. In addition, agricultural andforestry high schools launch consulting and technological activities every year, providing
consulting service for basic production directly. By means of scientific training, techniquespreading, technological information report and kinds of negotiation, agriculture and rural life
improve quickly.

5 Conclusion(1) We have a sever water resource situation now. Though rainfalls is 6.2×1012m3, available
surface water is only 2.7×1012m3, and it distribute unevenly. Water resources exploitation isrising, and increasing water usage of industry and agriculture put a great pressure on ecoenvironment construction. Our water supplication capability is only 5640 m3 per person
annually, and it is mainly from underground water, which has lead to ecological degradation. It
is predicted that we can meet our water balance in 2050, and the rate of exploitation is 25.4% atthat time, the ratio of water usage of agriculture, industry and domestic is 57:27:16.
(2) Flood, drought, soil and water loss and water pollution are dominant water related
disasters in China, they have affected our productivity, daily life and the whole ecoenvironment. In recent 11 years in china, 1.65×108ha area is flooded, costing us 1.3×1012
Yuan(RMB), and 3.05×108ha area is drought, costing 3.1×108 ton of food, and nearly 3.8×104
people died in them. Now, we have 3.56×106 km2 area of soil and water loss, the situation
appears overall good but local bad. In recent 50 years, 4.0×107 acre of land were destroyed bywater erosion, and it has become our No.1 environmental problem. Water pollution iscomparatively better than before, but it is also sever, the rate of polluted river length to the total
assessed one is 37.6%.
(3) China has 44 middle and high agricultural and forestry schools, with 15 corresponding
disciplines. Now there are 248,000 students in these schools, distributing in 11 disciplines ofscience, engineering and agronomy. High agro-environment education exists in soil and water
conservation and combating desertification, agricultural resources and environment,horticulture in 53 schools.
(4) Chinese forestry environment education companied with water resource andenvironment related discipline has formed a omni bearing cultivation system, consisting ofhigh education, professional education, adult education and primary education.

References[1] High education department of education ministry, national high school teaching research center. Reportof Eco-environmental education reform. High education press 2000
[2] High education department of education ministry. Encyclopaedia of disciplines for Chinese graduate
education. High education press, 2001
[3] Ministry of water resources People’s Republic of China. The proclamation of Soil and Water Loss in
China. January, 2002
[4] Liu Cang-Ming, Chen Zhi-Kai. Assessment of Chinese water resources current situation and analysis of
its future balance. Chinese water and electric publishing house, 2001
[5] Qian Zheng-Ying, Zhang Guang-Dou. Comprehensive and specific reports of Chinese water resources
sustainable development. Chinese water and electric publishing house, 2001

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