Surveying China's agricultural resources: Patterns and progress from space

摘要

The creation of an agricultural remote sensing center at Beijing Agricultural University (BAU) and an initial network of participating subcenters located in Harbin, Nanjing, and Chengdu marks the beginning of Chinas efforts to assess, monitor, and tabulate its agricultural production. The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Fisheries (MAAF) has designated BAU as its lead research and applications center to develop remote sensing technologies throughout the six agro#x2010;economic zones of the country. Working with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funding and implemented through the assistance of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN/FAO), the center and subcenters have been staffed, equipped, and trained to inaugurate their own research and development programs in agriculture. Three of their initial activities are described here to alert the scientific community to the existing infrastructure and breadth of current interests. These studies include (1) an aerial, small format camera assessment of panda bear habitats in Baoxing County, Sichuan Province; (2) an initial assessment of land#x2010;use categories in Yixing County, Jiangsu Province, using Landsat MSS data; and (3) a preliminary look at biomass assessment using geometrically uncorrected AVHRR data of Inner Mongolia. China hopes to expand the subcenter network to include one in each agro#x2010;economic zone and, along with this, to expand the scope of remote sensing technologies and applications.