China Builds Largest National Geographic Information Database

China has completed a 1:50000 database for the national fundamental GIS, Lu Xinshe, director-general, State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announced. This database is a national basic geographic information database that covers all of China with the largest scale and highest precision up to date.

• 1.It covers all the land areas of China containing elevation, imagery, terrain, and geographic name datasets.
  
• 2.The terrain dataset in the database contains the physical and human features of hydrology, residential areas, transportation and boundaries.
  
• 3.State and provincial roads of altogether over 300,000 kilometres long can be found in the database. County and township roads of more than 1.3 million kilometres are also included.
  
• 4.The database specifies farmland, forestland, and grassland as well as residential areas, industrial land and wild land, Lu said.
  
• 5.The images in the database, which cover all large and medium-sized cities and developed areas, can be distinguished by one metre.

According to Lu, the database will play a role in the decision-making of the governments in land and regional planning, resources survey and evaluation, disaster prevention and alleviation. The 1:50000 topographic map is one of the most highly used maps for economic development. It will also serve as a platform for the construction of e-government and e-commerce and provide basic data for car navigation, mobile positioning and intelligent transportation. The data from the database has been applied to more than 1,000 organisations in the sectors of land, environmental protection, national defence and transportation, said sources with the bureau.