The Chinese economy has made great progress over the past thirty years, especially in the domain of agriculture. Nevertheless, a variety of problems have still to be solved, including balancing the tremendous differences in farming methods and level of crop production between the north and the south. Furthermore, monitoring environmental issues and improving the sustainability of the environment is still conducted at too low a level. For a long time, advancements in geo-information technology, including surveying and mapping, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS) and GPS has been beneficially exploited only for mapmaking purposes. It is only recently that China has begun applying these technologies for other purposes, and it has not yet satisfactorily applied them in monitoring and managing agricultural resources and determining the impact of human activities on the environment. The range of problems is widespread and includes:
-change of soil state in certain regions
-fluctuations in crop production
-degradation and recovery of vegetation
-proper development of industry in agricultural zones
-optimal development and application of water and mineral resources
-improving the quality of the environment.

All topics that have been hardly touched upon using survey and mapping technologies, although these are able to help solve many practical problems, especially when approached from the system-theory point of view.

Current research into agricultural resource exploitation combined with proper management of the impact of human activities on the environment has become a hot topic and a new area of study in China, cross-fertilising the disciplines of engineering, mathematics, modern biology and management. Land and soil resources, water resources, weather and climate, forests and other types of vegetation are studied within one framework, based on system theory. The tools used to carry out such research include GIS, RS and GPS, combined with complex computer models of agricultural and other resources, and of the dynamics of the environment. The study not only focuses on agriculture within an environmental context, but also on the optimal configuration of spatial elements, structures and patterns, such as cities, railways and roads, population, water resources, vegetation, crops and forestry.

As already said, GIS, RS and GPS, which we call the ‘generalised 3S’, serve as tools. Remote sensing provides spatial data, GIS works as a processing and analysis platform, and the two are connected through the geo-referencing capabilities of GPS. This area of study makes great sense in view of the global agenda on sustainable development, including use of renewable resources, improvement in the ecological environment, development of regional economy and society, and maintaining local balance between agriculture, industry, transport, ecology and the environment. In recent years we have studied the modelling and analysis of dynamic land use and cover change, determined forest bio-mass using remote-sensing techniques, conducted space-varying modelling of precision agriculture, and used Lidar to measure forest stands, to mention but a few subjects. The results of this research has strengthened us in the belief that generalised 3S is an important tool and a means of supporting the study of agricultural resource exploitation combined with proper environmental management.

Prof. Dr Feng Zhongke, Beijing Forestry University, China