Say goodbye to "walking measurement", Gansu grassland management and protection team goes to the "cloud"

China News Service, Lanzhou, November 11 (Dai Wenchang) Generations of grassland workers have carried specimen folders on their backs, stepped on the grass, and measured every plant and tree in Gansu grasslands with their feet. Today, the "air-space-ground" monitoring system composed of satellite remote sensing, drones, and ground terminals has taken over the baton of walking inspections and equipped the grassland with "nerve endings" for dynamic sensing.

On July 31, 2024, the Dangzhou grassland in Hehe City, Gansu Province was photographed from above. (Information picture) Photo by Jiumei Denzin

Gansu is located at the intersection of the Loess, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai-Tibet Plateaus. It has diverse natural factors such as climate, soil, topography, and landforms. As a typical transition area between agriculture and animal husbandry, there are many types of grasslands. Among the 18 major grassland categories in the country, Gansu has 13 categories, and is known as the "Chinese Grassland Type Museum."

Liu Xingming, director of the Gansu Provincial Grassland Technology Promotion Station, revealed on the 11th that the province's grassland monitoring has gone through three iterations, from manual hiking records in the early years to the completion of the first grassland remote sensing census in Gansu Province in the 1980s. In 2014, a three-level grassland resource database was built using 3S technology. Now an integrated intelligent monitoring system has taken shape.

"The iteration of monitoring methods is essentially an upgrade of governance methods." Liu Xingming said that with quantitative data, grazing bans and grass-livestock balance no longer rely on empirical judgments, livestock carrying capacity can be scientifically determined, degraded patches are accurately located, and long-term observation data can also accumulate support for grassland carbon sink accounting.

The picture shows the picturesque scenery of Subei grassland in Gansu. (Information map) Photo by Zheng Leibin

In 2018, after the Gansu Provincial Grassland Technology Promotion Station was transferred to the Gansu Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, it broke away from "discussing grass based on grass" and integrated grassland protection into the larger ecological pattern. While promoting differentiated restoration of grasslands, while laying out the foundation of the grass seed industry, the "1 bank, 8 nurseries and 16 stations" germplasm innovation network continues to collect and domesticate native grass species. Since 2019, the station has relied on the Gansu Provincial Grass Variety Approval Committee to approve 43 excellent grass varieties, released 5 batches of promotion catalogs with a total of 110 varieties, and 29 were selected into the national "Three North" project recommended catalog of improved varieties.

In recent years, Gansu has laid out grass seed industry belts in accordance with local conditions, established an original seed breeding demonstration site in Zhangye City, and Longdong has relied on abandoned land to breed red bean grass. In 2025, Gansu Province will have 79,300 acres of improved grass seed seed bases, with an annual output of 8,000 tons of grass seeds. At the same time, the local government has established a three-level grass seed certification and four-level supervision supporting traceability system. The source of a grass seed can be traced by scanning the code. Gansu has also continued to undertake the national grass seed traceability pilot tasks.

The “four major platforms” are the key links for the implementation of results. Liu Xingming said that the local government has relied on the platform to build a think tank expert database, implemented a chief expert pairing mechanism, integrated monitoring, testing, and early warning points to build a field observation base, and promoted integrated testing, pilot testing, and promotion. Problems are raised on the front line, scientific research is directed to tackle key problems, and mature technologies are packaged and sinked to continue to enhance the competitiveness of the "Longcao" brand.

The picture shows Meiren Prairie in Hehe City, Gansu Province. (Information map) Photo by Li Yalong

In addition, Gansu's grassland pest prevention and control system has also been intensively developed. The census has covered 88 areas in 14 cities (prefectures) in the province, and more than 9,000 specimens have been produced. 4 national-level and 17 provincial-level forecasting and reporting stations have been built to achieve 24-hour early warning. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the station has prevented and controlled rodent and insect pests on a total of 50.94 million acres, using green prevention and control methods to firmly maintain the bottom line of grassland ecological security.

"Grass seeds are the chips of grassland. Protecting germplasm resources is to safeguard the ecological foundation of Longyuan." Liu Xingming said that relying on Kongtiandi's intelligent monitoring, improved seed breeding and collaborative research, Gansu is continuing to consolidate technical support for grassland ecological protection.