Third national land survey continues with 'problem case' evaluation

Authorities released 20 typical "problem cases" during the third national land survey, warning local governments and natural resources departments to take responsibility to ensure the survey's outcome.

The cases were jointly released on Friday morning by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the central government supervision team. They covered 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions including Qinghai, Yunnan, Fujian, Anhui, Shanghai and Xinjiang.

"The cases reflected problems, such as poor quality of survey conduction and data accuracy. I hope they will be a warning for future work. If similar problems occur again, we will list departments and organizations responsible for the into the blacklist in our credit system," said Wang Guanghua, deputy head of the ministry.

Also, he said the ministry will not tolerate anyone or any department that forges data. For those who provide fake data, top-level punishment will be levied according to the law or related regulation.

Currently, all 2,873 counties in China have finished field investigations and quality review for the first round of the survey, which is supposed to be finished by the end of 2020.

The survey aims to collect authentic and accurate data on the country's land resources, including acreage, distribution and condition of different types of land.

According to Wang, data from 326 counties have been reviewed by natural resources departments at provincial level and are now under review at state level.

To guarantee the accuracy of the results, the survey is supported by advanced remote sensing technology, according to Zhu Liuhua, deputy director of the State Council's supervision team on the survey.

Zhu said satellite remote imaging with resolution higher than one meter has been introduced as the base map for the survey. And cloud computing will help review the map, with pictures being taken at all sites by local professionals.

China's second national land survey was conducted between 2007 and 2009. The country's first national land survey ended in 1996. According to the second national land survey, China has about 135 million hectares of arable land.