Zhu Xiaoyong¹ , Wang Feng¹  and  Song Xuedong²

¹ Department of Soil and Water Conservation of YRCC;

² Department of Water Resources Management and Regulation of YRCC

Abstract: “Digital soil and water conservation” is a strategic and creative project based on the need to enhance the practices of soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau and develop the advanced technology of the subject. The core of the project is to establish the soil and water conservation monitoring system of the Yellow River Basin. This system is based on the monitoring stations distributed in the Yellow River Basin, coupling with RS, GIS, GPS technologies, to monitor and collect data of soil erosion and conservation in the Loess Plateau; to transfer, store and share data through information and communication technology; to develop professional models and application system to facilitate planning, design, property management, monitoring and supervision, and decision making of soil and water conservation projects. The system consists of six parts namely monitoring stations, data collection and transmission, data storage, information service platform and application system. Upon monitoring system, the total amount of soil erosion and its source, and the trend from various scales can be monitored, analyzed and forecasted precisely in sequence; the status of soil and water conservation projects and man-induced soil erosion can be supervised and managed; harnessing benefits can be evaluated properly; soil and water conservation information can be announced timely. Up to now, the first stage of the project has been completed with Soil and Water Conservation Monitoring Management Center of YRCC (in Zhengzhou) and Yellow River Soil and Water Conservation Monitoring Central Station(in Xi’an), and a series of application system that provide an important approach to intrinsic law research and control measures of soil erosion. Focusing on sand-laden and coarse sand zone in the middle reaches of Yellow River and check dam construction, next step is to perfect the functions of application system, input data continuously, accelerate model development to facilitate information utilization and promote the technological level of soil and water conservation projects.

Keywords: Monitor, System, Function, Soil and Water Conservation, Yellow River Basin

In July 2001, the Communist Party Commission of YRCC made out the strategic decision of constructing “Three Yellow Rivers” project. This important decision is a historical choice that based on summing-up the experience and having the future in mind and confronted the chances and challenges of the harnessing, development and management of the Yellow River in the new century. It conforms with the development tide of information era, carries out the new water harnessing thought of the Communist Party Commission of the MWR, embodies the concept of scientific development of harmonious coexistence between human and nature, and drives the harnessing of the Yellow River into a new phase of development.

In the recent three years, as an important part of “Digital Yellow River” project, “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” project has gotten much attention from the party group of YRCC. Under the direct lead of the commissioners, by the hard work and the tight cooperation with the related units and departments, the construction of “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” project has got effect, and will drive the water and soil conservation of YRCC to a new step.

1  The meaning and aim of “Digital Soil and Water Conservation”

In recent years, the soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau has got remarkable achievement and got attention from the world. But, because of the restriction of economy, technology and the level of understanding, plus the characteristics of soil and water conservation, there are a misunderstanding in the world, i.e. the soil and water conservation is no more than building dams, terraces and forestation, the science and technology content is low, and even think that anyone can do the soil and water conservation work.

The fact is not so, however. The Loess Plateau is the most serious soil erosion zone and the most difficult one to harness in the world, and, at the same time, has the most complex law of soil erosion in the world. By the hard exploration in half a century, many valuable experiences have been gotten, but there are still some important sciences and technology issues not solved completely up to now. For example, what is the macro view rule and microcosmic mechanism of the soil erosion in the Loess Plateau, whether the environment can be recovered or not, how can it be recovered, what’s the development trend and foreground of soil erosion, etc. All these issues have no real answers up to now. In the era of vigorous development of science and technology, studying and solving these difficult problems need us to build up new dialectical thought, adopt advanced means of science and technology and explore more effective technical approaches.

By thorough research and discussion, according to the idea of “Three Yellow Rivers”, adopting “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” technical method is regarded as a right choose of researching and exploring soil and water conservation theory and practice, and improving the level of harnessing and management. It’s also the only way to promote the development of soil and water conservation.

In terms of the general plan of “Digital Yellow River” project, the main content of “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” is to establish a modernized ecological environment monitoring system for soil and water conservation in the Yellow River basin. This system is based on the soil and water conservation motoring network of the whole basin, taking RS, GIS, GPS as the technical means, monitoring and collecting the information of soil erosion and its prevention; by the modern computer and communication technology, realizing information transmission, storing and sharing, establishing soil and water conservation models and application system, providing scientific support for the planning, design, construction, supervision, management and service of soil and water conservation.

By the building of the system, the ultimate objective is to monitor, analyze and forecast continually, completely and truly the total amount, the sources and the changing trend of soil erosion of vary spatial scale, i.e. the whole basin, the sand-laden and coarse sand zone and the key branches etc; trace and monitor the engineering work construction of soil erosion of the basin, and the situation of prevention and supervision; appraise scientifically the effect of soil and water conservation and the quality of ecological environment; standardized manage the information of soil and water conservation and release them timely to the world by internet.

2  The works have been done

In order to enable the “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” becomes a system with advanced technique, maturity function, strict structure, convenience to use, a system of embodying the up to date fruit of the IT development of the world, at the same time combined tightly with the practices of soil and water conservation, the following works have been done.

First, analyze requirements. Requirements are the base and power of system construction. According to the principle of “Requirement is power, application is paramount” put forwarded by the party group of YRCC, the requirements analyses have been done steadfastly. Nearly one hundred technicians worked half a year to research and explore, a detail and practical requirements analysis report was brought forward thus set a solid foundation for the design.

Second, pay more attention to planning and design. The ecological environment monitoring system for soil and water conservation in the Yellow River Basin involves a large zone, the spatial scale is big, there are many types of information, the amount of data is huge, the system construction technique is complex, and there is no such an example that can be used for reference. In order to insure the system has advanced technique, more than 20 top-ranking designing company took part in the design competition. By filtrating and optimizing, the most advanced scheme was chosen, and the principle “rely only on one self, but take merits from anyone” was applied.

Third, construction is well done. The construction time of the first phase of the monitor system is limited and the task is heavy. In order to finish the construction of Zhengzhou and Xi’an station in 2003, a rigorous construction plan was made. According to the requirement of infrastructure, the management of the project is strict. The project is done at high quality, at the same time the investment is relatively low.

In addition, close cooperation is done between the relative departments such as the Digital Office and the Information Center of YRCC etc. thus accelerated the construction of data center and network center of “digital Yellow River” project.

3  The initial achievements

Up to now, the first phase of the Soil and Water Conservation monitoring system is completed. The soil and water conservation work of YRCC is digitalized. The main achievements include:

—The soil and water conservation monitoring and management center that located in Zhengzhou and the monitoring center station that located in Xi’an are completed, the decision-making meeting in real time can be hold between the two via remote video system.

—The soil and water conservation remote sensing monitoring system is completed. It enables the timely and exactly data collecting of soil and water conservation. The database of Yellow River soil and water conservation was built, which enables standardized management of the soil erosion and conservation data at the different spatial scale such as province, prefecture, county and branches, and gives powerful data support for the completion of “Check Dam Plan in the Loess Plateau” at high quality.

—Developed check dam assistant design system by using GIS and 3-dimension simulation techniques, which enables easily and timely check dam site section and comparison, and gives technique means for the improvement of check dam design efficiency. In order to satisfy the requirement of the cosmically check dam construction, the check dam management system was developed. The dynamic information management of the construction and operation of check dam was realized.

—Integrated the key work of soil and water conservation of YRCC, soil and water conservation management system was developed. It enables high efficient management of soil and water conservation management in the sand-laden and coarse sand zone at different spatial scales, such as the whole basin, the key branches, the district, different types of soil and water conservation and ecology project zone etc. the system has played an important role in the management of sand-laden and coarse sand zone soil and water conservation, and became a indispensable management measure.

—Developed 3-dimension visualized system, which realized 3-dimension computer imitation of the landform and physiognomy of the key zone and small basin’s soil and water conservation, and provided an important approach for the research of rules of soil and water conservation.

The completion of the first phase of the project indicates the firm step of digitalization of soil and water conservation of YRCC, and validated the correctness of the decision of “Three Yellow Rivers” brought forward by the party group of YRCC. After the completion of the system, attention has been gotten from all circles of the world. At the beginning of 2005, this system demonstrated at the conference of water conservancy of China. From then on, the monitoring and management center of YRCC has received 40 times visiting groups, and the visiting person-time is more than 600, which include the leaders and experts that come from the National People's Congress, the State Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Water Resources, the World Bank, and many universities and research institutes. Thereby, the MWR consigned the Upper and Middle Yellow River Bureau, YRCC, undertake the first national conference of ecological environment monitoring network and information system construction. After realizing the fruit of construction, all the leaders and experts give full affirmation to the system construction. This has firmed the confidence and resolution to carry on the “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” system.

4  The guideline and emphases of next step

According to the idea of taking the “Three Yellow Rivers” construction as measures to keep the healthy life of the Yellow River, the guideline of “Digital Soil and Water Conservation” is: holding on the requirement of “Digital Yellow River” Plan, combining tightly with the characteristics of sand-laden and coarse sand zone , building check dam, advancing along with time, innovating continuously, perfecting the function of the system, enriching the monitoring data, perfecting the model development, accelerating the utilize of information, and improving the technical level of soil and water conservation.

Via the construction and operation of the monitoring system, the aim is to dynamically collect and analyze data of soil erosion, study and reveal the mechanism of soil erosion in the Loess Plateau, establish multi-scale, multi-period of time scientific soil erosion analysis model, offer scientific basis for accelerating the pace of soil and water conservation and reducing sand that goes into the Yellow River.

Therefore, when perfecting the function of the monitoring system, more attention should be paid to two key aspects: first, initiate dynamic monitoring of sand-laden and coarse sand zone. Bring the soil erosion and its dynamic prevention and cure into the real time and effective supervision network of the state. Thereby, basic data can be provided for establishing the soil erosion forecast model of this zone, and providing support for decision-making. Second, drive the construction of “Modeling Loess Plateau” to build the scientific and technical platform for the research and explore of the process and mechanism of the soil erosion in the loess plateau, obtain effectively the parameters and indexes of soil erosion affecting elements, finally set up mathematical modeling system which satisfies the requirements of analyses, appraising, forecast, planning and design, therefore provide strong support for developing and perfecting the application system, improve the ability and level of decision-making, management and harnessing of the soil erosion in the Yellow River basin.

 Source:  www.yellowriver.gov.cn   Editor:HuangFeng