The Unlimited Possibilities of Satellite Based Remote Sensing + Water Conservancy

Recently, China's first remote sensing satellite named after water conservancy, "Shuili-1," was successfully launched at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi and successfully transmitted its first remote sensing image back. The satellite system's advancement, stability, and reliability have been verified.

Why Does the Water Conservancy Industry Need Satellite Based Remote Sensing?

One of the responsibilities of the water conservancy department is to observe water bodies, timely acquire water-related information, and make predictions if necessary. When ground observation stations cannot meet the observation requirements, satellites can act as a supplementary means. For instance, after a flood, the water body's area becomes particularly large, and conventional stations can no longer reflect the current situation. We can use remote sensing satellites to supplement the observation.

What Special Capabilities Does Satellite Based Remote Sensing Have?

Currently, Chinese remote sensing satellites possess various observation methods such as panchromatic, multispectral, infrared, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), stereoscopic mapping, and lidar. Among these, radar remote sensing satellites have the capability for all-weather, all-time Earth observation, high-resolution imaging, high-precision deformation monitoring, and onboard intelligent processing. They can effectively supplement ground monitoring in terms of spatial coverage and monitoring content, achieving dynamic monitoring of underlying surface information, water conservancy project facilities, and water conservancy management activities in river basins.

What Role Can Satellite Based Remote Sensing Play?

In recent years, the Information Center of the Ministry of Water Resources has actively promoted satellite remote sensing technology and has carried out large-scale applications in the "2+N" water conservancy intelligent business domains, achieving significant results.

Acting as a "Clairvoyant" In Flood Disaster Defense

Flood Disaster Monitoring

It has transitioned from "real-time and post-disaster monitoring" to supporting "pre-disaster prediction" applications. Since 2013, timely flood and engineering risk monitoring and analysis have been carried out based on domestic remote sensing satellites represented by high-resolution satellites, and real-time docking with the national flood control consultation and dispatch system has been achieved. This provides robust technical support for flood forecasting, early warning, and risk handling decisions.

Water-Related Risk Monitoring

Satellite remote sensing has become an essential monitoring tool for risks such as dammed lakes, landslides, mudslides, and mountain floods. In areas without ground observations, it even becomes the only means of monitoring.

Ice Block, Ice Lake Monitoring

Ice flooding develops with characteristics of wide range, extensive area, fast speed, and varying conditions in different sections. Satellite remote sensing can fully utilize its features of non-contact, wide-area sensing, to dynamically monitor the development of ice flooding daily. Most ice lakes are distributed in high-altitude, uninhabited areas, where satellite remote sensing technology can timely monitor ice lakes, assess their development trends and burst risks, providing strong support for handling ice lake risks.

Acting as a "Synchronizer" In Water Resource Management and Allocation

Agricultural Irrigation Water Remote Sensing Monitoring

In 2022 and 2023, the Ministry of Water Resources used satellite remote sensing technology to monitor agricultural irrigation areas, completing dynamic remote sensing monitoring of about 1.4 billion mu (a Chinese unit of area) of farmland and orchard land, actual irrigation areas, and verifying local reported irrigation areas and water volumes. This provides precise spatiotemporal data for agricultural water use management at various levels of water administrative authorities.

River and Lake Ecological Replenishment Monitoring

By timely acquiring key indicators such as river length and waterbody area through multi-source satellite based remote sensing images, the replenishment situation can be dynamically understood, supporting water resource allocation and effect evaluation.

Acting as an "Alarm" In Water Conservancy Construction and Operation Management

Construction Progress Monitoring

By regularly acquiring high-frequency, high-resolution satellite images of construction areas, changes in surface environment during the construction of water conservancy projects can be monitored, and delays in construction progress can be promptly detected.

Enhancing the Efficiency and Level of Soil and Water Conservation Management

Previously relying on 30-meter resolution satellite based remote sensing images for national soil erosion monitoring every ten years has significantly improved the timeliness of soil erosion monitoring.

In the future, water conservancy satellite based remote sensing will continue to enhance monitoring capabilities, expand multi-source satellite based remote sensing image resources, assist in building the "2+N" water conservancy intelligent business application system, and provide richer computational support for the construction of digital twin water conservancy.