China Environ Prot (EP) Industry, Technology, Solid Waste Mgt, Liquid Treat: News & Discussions

[TaiShang]

Target set to boost forest coverage rate

Source: Xinhua | December 24, 2016, Saturday |

CHINA aims to increase its forest coverage to 23.04 percent by 2020 from the current 21.66 percent, Han Changfu, agricultural minister, said yesterday.

Han made the remarks when briefing lawmakers on scientific and technological innovation in the agricultural and forestry sector during a weeklong session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee that ends tomorrow.

An increase of 1.38 percentage points in the forest coverage rate would mean a rise of more than 1.3 billion cubic meters in the volume of growing stock.

China’s forest coverage stood at 20.36 percent, or 195 million hectares, at the end of 2008. Forest cover rose 30 million hectares during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

Yet China’s forest cover rate is still about 10 percentage points lower than the world’s average.

In his report, Han said China would work to promote afforestation and improve the quality of its forests.

Advances in science and technology contributed to 56 and 48 percent of agricultural and forestry production last year.

 

[TaiShang]

Shenwu unveils world-leading nonferrous metal slag recycle project
By Guan Weiwei
China.org.cn, December 31, 2016

Shenwu, a listed technological company, released three original clean smelting technologies at a press conference held in Beijing on December 29. The start of the nonferrous metal slag recycle project operation in Jinchuan, Gansu was announced at the conference.

Dr. Wu Daohong, founder and chairman of Shenwu Corp., gives a speech at the press conference held at China World Hotel in Beijing, December 29, 2016. [Photo provided to China.org.cn by Gao Ning]


Founded in 1996, Beijing Shenwu Environment & Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Shenwu Corp.) has been committed to providing solutions to energy conservation and environment protection, especially focusing on research and development of efficient utilization of fossil, mineral and renewable resources.

The three smelting technologies are Regenerative Rotary Furnace Direct Reduction Clean Smelting Technology (SRF), Hydrogen Shaft Furnace Direct Reduction Cleaner Smelting Technology (SHSF) and Regenerative Gas Fractionation Furnace Technology (SRGS).

“This symbolizes a new era in smelting. Shenwu has solved the worldwide issue of disposal of solid waste and made it profitable,” said Dr. Wu Daohong, founder and chairman of Shenwu Corp.

Incomplete statistics show that 36 million tons of copper slags are produced worldwide every year, with 16 million tons in China, which leads to waste of valuable metals and severe water, soil and air pollution.

At present, the three smelting technologies have been extensively applied in high energy consumption and high pollution industries. The potential volume of China’s ferrous and nonferrous metals stands around 3.2 trillion yuan, meaning annually saving 200 million tons of standard coal, reducing 250 million tons of carbon emissions and an additional economic profit of 300 billion yuan.

“The key to fighting air pollution is to work on the disposal of pollutants,” Dr. Wu said. “Our technology can definitely solve this problem, help combat climate change and realize clean and sustainable development.”

 

[ahojunk]

China to release environmental forecasts on three Nansha reefs
(CRI Online) 09:14, January 01, 2017

China will release marine environmental forecasts for three reefs on the Nansha Islands starting on New Year's Day in order to meet the rising challenges of environmental protection in the South China Sea, marine disaster prevention, scientific research, and maritime navigation safety, according to the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

The SOA has reportedly carried out the construction of five projects including a Marine Observation Center and facilities used for scientific research, on Yongshu Reef, Zhubi Reef and Meiji Reef.

On January 1st, marine meteorological and hydrological observation, as well as conventional marine environmental monitoring, will begin operation, reports chinanews.com.

There are frequent marine accidents and disasters in the South China Sea.

Forecasts around the reefs will mainly include information on waves, tides, sea surface temperature, winds, tropical cyclones, and marine disaster warnings, which will be released daily on the website nh.hyyb.org.

Meanwhile, information will be sent to relative governmental departments and maritime companies or institutions via fax or short message service.

 

[ahojunk]

China's coal-producing province to slash PM2.5 pollution
2017-01-01 08:55 | Xinhua | Editor: Huang Mingrui

Northern China's Shanxi Province, a major coal-producing area, has vowed to reduce annual average PM2.5 density by 20 percent by 2020, the provincial government said Saturday.

Aiming to increase the proportion of days with good air quality to 75.4 percent per year, the province will create a pollutant discharge license system covering all polluting enterprises.

The expansion of industrial capacity will also be strictly restricted to control air pollution. No new projects in major polluting industries, such as coal, steel, cement and plate glass, will be approved.

Some major industries will undergo improvements to become more environmentally friendly. By the end of 2017, all 300,000-KW and above coal-fired units will be upgraded to lower emission.


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This is a good and laudable development.
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[ahojunk]

China's man-made forest project able to absorb PM 2.5: experts
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 14:06, January 03, 2017


Sanbei Shelter Forest Project, a man-made windbreaking forest strip designed by China to hold back the expansion of the Gobi Desert, is able to absorb and eliminate sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide and Fine Particle (PM2.5), according to a recent study by Lanzhou University. The study is the first of its kind in China.

Ma Jianmin, a professor at the College of Earth Environmental Studies (CEES) under Lanzhou University, said that the forest strips absorbed and eliminated 1.1 million tons of sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide between 1982 and 2010, 50 percent of which was accomplished by the forest in northern China.

"The sheltering forest is of great significance to the improvement of air quality in northern China," the professor remarked. Meanwhile, Ma said that the project eliminated 30 million tons of PM 2.5 between 1999 and 2010, accounting for 0.9 percent of the total amount.

"With the protection of the forest strips, resistance to benzopyrene, a major toxic substance in PM 2.5, in northwestern, northeastern and northern China have been reduced by half," noted Huang Taobo, a doctor from CEES.

The study also suggested a lower contamination level in the forest than outside it. Experts have predicted that the project's ability to absorb and eliminate organic pollutants will continue increasing. By the year 2050, 1.9 times more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon will be eliminated compared with in 1990, scholars predicted.


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More good news regarding the reduction of PM2.5.
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[onebyone]

Videos, including a time-lapse clip of smog descending on the capital, prompt despair, anger and sarcasm


PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 03 January, 2017, 4:46pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 04 January, 2017, 12:20pm

Drone footage of cars queueing for kilometres to enter smog-stricken Beijing has sparked heated discussion online as residents brace themselves for more heavy air pollution in the coming days.

The gridlock occurred at a toll station near the capital on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway at about 3pm on Monday as motorists waited to pay toll fees.



Internet users have poked fun at the traffic congestion.

One viewer commented: “Wow, so spectacular! It fully reveals the achievements of reforming and opening up.”

Another wrote: “Could I go there and sell beverages, boxed lunches and fruit?”

“I thought it was footage of a concert at first sight,” another wrote.

Other social media users were glad they did not have to travel and could stay indoors.

“Why bother like this? I didn’t drive my car during the three-day holiday – I was free of traffic jams and smog.”

Others complained about the lack of action by the authorities: “It’s so serious, but the government did not even apologise. ”

“The counter-urbanisation phenomenon could be accelerated because of the problems facing megacities including traffic jams and smog,” one said.

China’s airports brace for disruption as red alert raised for severe fog

The traffic flow improved on Monday afternoon after highways in Beijing were reopened when a cool breeze helped clear the air for a while. However, traffic was backed up as far as a kilometre at 4pm, the Legal Daily reported. The smog returned to the capital late on Monday night.

Another video making the rounds on Chinese social media showed a 20-minute time lapse video of smog moving into Beijing on Monday.

Choking smog in northern China closed many highways due to low visibility, stranding many vehicles on the road.

The Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway runs more than 2,200km south from Beijing to Guangzhou from where separate branches terminate at the borders of Hong Kong and Macau.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...ing-smog-traffic-jams-leaves-internet-viewers

 

[ahojunk]

China's Shelter Forest Program proves effective to eliminate PM2.5
2017-01-03 14:52:40 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Meng Xue

A part of the Three-North Shelter Forest Program. [Photo: yicai.com]​

A new study says that the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, originally built to improve the ecological environment, is also able to combat PM2.5.

The Three-North Shelterbelt Program, also known as the Green Great Wall, is a series of human-planted, wind-breaking forest strips in all three northern regions in China: the north, the northeast and the northwest, which covers 42.4 percent of the country's land area.

It is designed to improve the ecological environment and is anticipated be finished around 2050.

Conducted by a group of researchers from Lanzhou University, the study says that the "shelterbelts" are able to absorb and eliminate atmospheric pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide, and PM2.5 (a type of air pollutant with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less).

Compared with 1982, the forest strips' ability to absorb and remove sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide has increased 60 percent in 2010, and their ability to absorb and eliminate PM2.5 has improved 30 percent in the same time frame, the study finds.

Ma Jianmin, a professor from Lanzhou University's College of Earth Environmental Sciences and a member of the research group, said the shelterbelts have played a significant role in improving air quality in North China. "They have absorbed a total of 1,100,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide from 1982 to 2010," Ma said.

He said the forest strips eliminated 30 million tons of PM2.5 in "the North" between 1999 and 2010, which was 0.9 percent of the region's total PM2.5 volume.

Huang Tao, a member of the research group, said that without the shelter forests, the "Three-North" regions' ability to absorb organic pollutants would have reduced 30 percent, and their ability to absorb benzopyrene (a type of carcinogen and a main component of PM 2.5) would have decreased 50 percent.

However, the shelter forests have also discharged some amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) - isoprene, which is a precursor compound of PM2.5.

The researchers suggest that in the next stage of construction, related departments should also bear in mind that different types of trees have different functions when it comes to absorbing and removing atmospheric pollutants, and should plant more drought-tolerant, cold-resistant trees that are good at absorbing and eliminating air pollutants, but don't discharge much volatile organic compounds.

 

[JSCh]

China issues five-year plan on saving energy, cutting emissions
Source: Xinhua | 2017-01-05 23:36:05 | Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The State Council, China's cabinet, issued on Thursday a comprehensive plan on energy conservation and emission reductions for the 2016-2020 period.

The plan listed 11 detailed measures to push forward China's energy-saving and emission-reduction work, including reducing the coal consumption rate, promoting energy consumption in key areas, intensifying pollutant emission control, developing the circular economy, improving technological support, increasing financial policy support and enhancing management.

According to the plan, China's total energy consumption will be capped at 5 billion tonnes of coal equivalent by 2020. This will translate into a 15-percent reduction of energy use per unit of GDP by 2020.

China's GDP grew 6.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2016, on track to achieve the government's goal, but the country is also confronted by challenges, including environmental degradation.

Nearly 62 percent of 338 Chinese cities monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection suffered from air pollution on Wednesday. Coal is the main energy source in China, accounting for 64 percent of total energy consumption in 2015.

Many Chinese cities have suffered from frequent winter smog in recent years, triggering widespread public concern. Emissions from coal are cited as a cause of the high concentration of breathable toxic particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, which causes smog.

 

[TaiShang]

Lakes in Hol Xil reserve swell over past decade
Xinhua, January 9, 2017

Lakes in the nature reserve of Hol Xil on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, west China, have been swelling over the past decade, due to warmer and wetter climate, scientists have said.

Sitting 4,600 meters above sea level, the 45,000 square km Hol Xil nature reserve is China's largest unpopulated area and is home to wild yak and the endangered Tibetan antelopes.

The Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences began sampling several salt lakes in the reserve in November 2016.

Initial investigation showed that the areas of these salt lakes have expanded markedly and the water is less saline.

Ma Haizhou, a researcher at the institute, said it might be attributed to the glacial ablation and melting permafrost aquifer around the lakes.

A survey conducted in September 2016 by the water conservancy department of northwest China's Qinghai Province and Changjiang Water Resources Commission (CWRC) showed that from 1989 to 2015, three major lakes in the reserve expanded.

The size of Hoh Sai Lake rose to 326 square kilometers in 2015 from 259 square kilometers in 1989; Haiding Nor Lake expanded to 77 square kilometers in 2015 from 38 square kilometers in 1989; and the size of Yanhu Lake expanded from 30 to 147 square kilometers during the same period, said Tan Debao, a research fellow of application of spatial information technology at the CWRC's Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute.

Liu Baokang, senior engineer with Qinghai Provincial Academy of Meteorological Sciences, said the warmer and wetter climate of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the major cause of the swelling lakes in the reserve.

Qinghai Province meteorological data shows that precipitation in Hol Xil increased by 20.7 mm per decade from 1961 to 2014.

The average annual temperature of Hol Xil had risen at a rate of 0.32 degrees Celsius per decade.

Liu said the areas of lakes in Hol Xil have been growing since 2006.

 

[Jlaw]

Lakes in Hol Xil reserve swell over past decade
Xinhua, January 9, 2017

Lakes in the nature reserve of Hol Xil on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, west China, have been swelling over the past decade, due to warmer and wetter climate, scientists have said.

Sitting 4,600 meters above sea level, the 45,000 square km Hol Xil nature reserve is China's largest unpopulated area and is home to wild yak and the endangered Tibetan antelopes.

The Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences began sampling several salt lakes in the reserve in November 2016.

Initial investigation showed that the areas of these salt lakes have expanded markedly and the water is less saline.

Ma Haizhou, a researcher at the institute, said it might be attributed to the glacial ablation and melting permafrost aquifer around the lakes.

A survey conducted in September 2016 by the water conservancy department of northwest China's Qinghai Province and Changjiang Water Resources Commission (CWRC) showed that from 1989 to 2015, three major lakes in the reserve expanded.

The size of Hoh Sai Lake rose to 326 square kilometers in 2015 from 259 square kilometers in 1989; Haiding Nor Lake expanded to 77 square kilometers in 2015 from 38 square kilometers in 1989; and the size of Yanhu Lake expanded from 30 to 147 square kilometers during the same period, said Tan Debao, a research fellow of application of spatial information technology at the CWRC's Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute.

Liu Baokang, senior engineer with Qinghai Provincial Academy of Meteorological Sciences, said the warmer and wetter climate of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the major cause of the swelling lakes in the reserve.

Qinghai Province meteorological data shows that precipitation in Hol Xil increased by 20.7 mm per decade from 1961 to 2014.

The average annual temperature of Hol Xil had risen at a rate of 0.32 degrees Celsius per decade.

Liu said the areas of lakes in Hol Xil have been growing since 2006.

time to transport some water to NW China.

 

[JSCh]

Tree-planting brings money, fights against desert
Source: Xinhua | January 7, 2017, Saturday

YANG Shuqi, 58, on his motorcycle, is patrolling the bush he manages in the Tengger Desert in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Yang spends half of every month caring for the 300,000 mu (20,000 hectares) of bushwood in the 40,000-square-kilometer desert.

“When I was young, sand dunes surrounded our houses, and the sheep pen would be buried with sand after a night’s storm,” says Yang. “With more trees and fewer storms now, our life is better.”

Yang lives in Alxa Left Banner in Alxa League Prefecture, which has three deserts. The deserts, including Tengger Desert, which extends into neighboring Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu Province, stretch for 90,000 square kilometers in total, an area almost the size of Hungary.

Before the 1990s, the dry climate and over-grazing led to serious desertification, affecting water sources and grasslands.

“There was not much grass for sheep, which drove down our wool production and the price of lamb. We couldn’t make ends meet,” says Wang Cuiying, Yang’s wife.

In 1992, the local forestry department began an aerial seeding project to reforest the county.

“Aerial seeding was carried out on 60,000 mu of land, and over 60 percent survived,” says Liu Hongyi, head of the county’s forestry bureau.

Yang and his wife were among the 20 families who benefited from the afforestation drive that year.

“The government has not only helped us plant trees to improve the environment, but they are concerned about our income as well,” says Yang.

According to Yang, each farmer who gives up herding so that their land can be planted with trees receives 13,000 yuan (US$1,800) each year from the government.

The compensation system, which is covered by the central government, officially began in 2004 following three years of trials. More than 100 billion yuan has been poured into the management and protection of the forests over the past ten years, with 16.5 billion yuan this year alone.

The farmers also make money from harvesting seeds from the trees, which are sold to the government for other aerial seeding projects.

“Every family can earn over 10,000 yuan annually, more than they earned from herding sheep,” says Yang.

Ambitious goal

The county’s herdsmen have provided around 30 tons of seeds for the forestry department each year since 2004. Thanks, in part, to their efforts, 790,000 mu of trees have been planted in the county over the past two decades.

Farmers also choose to plant drought-resistant economic trees, such as sacsaoul, generating more income.

Sacsaoul, a bush that anchors into sand with its roots, is often grafted with herbs such as cistanche and cynomorium, which are both used in traditional Chinese medicine.

According to Liu, in 2011 Alxa Left Banner set the ambitious goal of growing 400,000 mu of sacsaoul trees. To date, 350,000 mu has been planted. Farmers are also granted 60 yuan per mu if they grow a particular type of tree.

Among the trees, 26,000 mu have been grafted with the herb cistanche, which farmers will be able to harvest and sell next year.

According to forestry department statistics, a 350-kilometer-long sand belt has been built to stop sand from invading the nearby counties.

“Several projects have been carried out in Alxa League since 2000, including the building of forest shelters, the return of grazing land to grassland, and the planting of non-commercial forests to protect the environment, not to mention the compensation system,” says Qiao Yongxiang, deputy director of forestry bureau of Alxa.

“The income of farmers has increased thanks to our sand control and afforestation efforts,” Liu says.

 

[ahojunk]

Chinese scientist awarded 2017 Vega Medal
(People's Daily Online) 16:26, January 03, 2017

(Yao Tandong/ThePapaer.cn)

On Dec. 26, the Sweden Society of Anthropology and Geography (SSAG) announced the winner of the 2017 Vega Medal, Chinese scientist Yao Tandong for his contributions to research on glaciers and the environment of the Tibetan Plateau, Thepaper.cn reported.

Yao, director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and director of the CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, is the first Asian scientist to receive the award. According to SSAG, Yao is "internationally acknowledged to be one of the most accomplished scientists in the field of cryospheris study."

(Yao Tandong/Tibet.cn)

Over the past two decades, Yao's team has studied environmental changes and their influence on the Tibetan Plateau. Yao has collaborated with scientists from dozens of countries including the U.S., France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Russia, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Japan.

The Third Pole Environment (TPE), initiated by Yao, has engaged talents from all over the world and made important scientific findings. Yao's team concluded that we are presently living in the warmest time period in the past 2,000 years. Global warming and interaction between Indian monsoons and western-blowing wind are major reasons for the retreat of glaciers and regional differences within the Tibetan Plateau.

 

[ahojunk]

Chinese farmer grows 7,000-hectare forest, spending 18 million RMB
By Sun Jieqiong (People's Daily Online) 14:03, January 10, 2017

Lan Haijun (left)​

A 45-year-old farmer in Tongyu County, Jilin province has grown a 7,000-hectare forest using an investment of 18 million RMB ($2.6 million), in a bid to improve the local environment.

The philanthropic act of the man, Lan Haijun, started from a bet made with a local leader in 2008. The leader argued that trees could not survive in Tongyu County's sandy Dongtai Village. However, Lan asserted that he could grow a forest in the desert.

That same year, Lan contracted 30 hectares of wasteland for the price of 600,000 RMB. On the land, Lan later planted 78,000 poplars. Though many of the trees blew over, 95 percent had survived by the end of the year.

Since then, Lan has invested 18 million RMB in forestation. The land he has cultivated covers an area of 7,000 hectares.

As a result, sand breaks have improved the soil quality, increasing the land's yield. Lan has also been recognized by the local government for his generous act.

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[JSCh]

China Focus: China shows progress in environmental protection
(Xinhua) 16:53, January 13, 2017

Despite daunting tasks ahead, China has made significant progress in environmental protection, a senior official said at a national environmental protection work conference.

Achievements have been made in air, water and soil protection, Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, said at the two-day work conference that ended Wednesday, citing the most recent available data.

In 2016, average density of fine particles measuring no more than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, known as PM 2.5, in 338 Chinese cities fell 6 percent, according to the minister.

Substances that form these particles come from power plants, industrial facilities, agricultural practices, and motor vehicles, among other sources.

"If we look at the year as a whole, we have made substantial progress, but if we look at winter alone, the improvement is trivial," said Chen when commenting on the country's efforts in air pollution prevention.

To address the problems in winter, China will phase out unclean and inefficient coal-fired boilers, encourage off-peak industrial production and enhance scrutiny and punishment for violations of the rules.

Chen vowed to take concrete steps and employ more stringent and effective measures to deal with outstanding environmental problems and improve environmental quality.

Severe smog triggered red alerts in more than 20 cities at the beginning of the new year. When authorities issue red alerts, some manufacturing companies are required to cut production, and heavily polluting vehicles are banned from the roads.

China is aiming for a 10-percent reduction in air emissions from2012 levels by 2017 in cities at the prefecture level and above. Meanwhile, the PM 2.5 density in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province should drop 25 percent.

As to water quality, the environment minister said that there are 3,186 water quality monitoring stations in China, forming a monitoring network.

According to the network, China's surface water quality improved in 2016, with an additional 5.7 percent reaching "drinkable" quality or better compared to the previous year.

Moreover, the country began a plan to appoint "river chiefs" to protect its waters in the latest attempt to control water pollution.

Government officials will be hired as river chiefs at the provincial, city, county and township levels, and heads of provincial regions will serve as general chiefs responsible for all rivers and lakes in the region.

For large rivers and lakes that span across regions, river chiefs will be responsible for different parts of a body of water and will cooperate in management. The central government expects to expand the practice nationwide by the end of 2018.

Earlier in April 2015, China released its Action Plan for Water Pollution Prevention and Control, aiming to reduce pollutants, improve drinking water and promote water conservation by the end of2020.

The plan said more than 70 percent of the water in the seven major river valleys, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, should be in good condition by 2020. The same target has been set for offshore areas.

For soil protection, China set up about 15,000 risk monitoring stations throughout the country in 2016, according to Chen.

In May 2016, an action plan on tackling soil pollution in China was released by the State Council, which is the third pollution action plan issued by the cabinet, following plans targeting air and water pollution.

The Action Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control aims to improve soil quality and ensure safe agricultural products and a healthy living environment for people.

The document said China will curb worsening soil pollution by2020 and control soil pollution risks by 2030.

The country is already carrying out soil pollution surveys, promoting legislation on soil pollution prevention and control, enhancing land management, protecting uncontaminated soil and monitoring pollution sources, treating and restoring polluted soil, and increasing support for research in environmental protection.

Besides its efforts in air, water and soil protection, China is also working to build a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system.

The country's total energy consumption will be capped at 5 billion tonnes of coal equivalent by 2020, representing an annual uptick of about 2.5 percent between 2016 and 2020, the National Energy Administration said.

China's top economic planner imposed in December 2016 a combined fine of 328 million yuan (47.6 million U.S. dollars) on 605 coal-fired power plants for their pollution control irregularities in 2015.

Green development is one of the five development concepts outlined in China's 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), which also include innovation, coordination, opening up and sharing.

 

[ahojunk]

Sanjiangyuan National Park to invest 1 billion RMB in infrastructure in 2017
(People's Daily Online) 16:12, January 17, 2017

Sanjiangyuan National Park (Photo/sanjiangyuan.gov.cn)

China's first national park will invest 1 billion RMB in infrastructure before the end of 2017. Sanjiangyuan National Park will also carry out an investigation of natural resources, define the ownership of natural resource assets and use big data to conduct scientific and managerial research, said Li Xiaonan, chief of the administrative bureau of the park, China News Service reported on Jan. 16.

The investment will primarily support infrastructure construction, including conservation stations, ecological monitoring facilities, landmark buildings, forestry police stations and comprehensive service centers.

According to Li, the park will bring big data into its management techniques and scientific research. The data comes from an ecological monitoring network data center in Qinghai province.

"The park will conduct investigations of natural resources including water, trees, grassland, wetland and wildlife," said Li. In addition, the park will improve its fundraising structure to better manage donations.

To protect the waters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers, Sanjiangyuan National Park will cover 123,100 square kilometers by 2020.