n strong 
and data 
onomics, 
designed 
Natural Resources and Environment Database of China 
Wang Changyao 
Institute of Remote Sensing Application, CAS 
China 
Since 1987,China has began establish the national natural resources and environment data base. So 
far there are three levels of this data base in China. 
The first level of data base was established based on a series map at scale of 1:4,000,000. The layers 
included in data base are soil, vegetation, desert, desertitication, drainage system, lake, railway, road, 
political boundary, etc. The development of second layer data base is on the way which is made 
based on a series map at scale of 1:1,000,000. The layer of the data base include landuse, land 
evaluation, drainage system, communication etc. The DEM data base is generated by the topographic 
map at scale of 1:1,000,000. 
In order to study the land use change in the period of 2-3 years, a project concerning the land use has 
been conducted since 1992. Main remote sensing data source is Landsat TM acquired around 1990. 
The interpretation mapping scale in east China and in west China are 1:250,000 and 1:500,000 
separately. After digitizing the land use maps, a land use data base for the whole territory will be 
established in 1995. For the typical area with great land use change, such as urbanization, 
deforestation, desertification etc. the remote sensing monitoring with large map scale in the period 1-3 
years monitoring has been taken using NOAA AVHRR data at resolution of 16km, 4km and 1km in 
the whole country.