China improves groundwater monitoring system

BEIJING -- China has successfully completed its national groundwater monitoring project, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The project was initiated in June 2015 with a total investment of 2.2 billion yuan (about $316 million). Jointly built by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Water Resources, the project includes 20,469 groundwater monitoring stations, creating an automatic monitoring network of groundwater.

The network generates more than 89 million pieces of data on water levels and water temperatures every year.

Monitoring data has been applied to serve groundwater protection, land space planning and water resources management, providing data basis for scientific research on groundwater resources and environment.

The network can automatically collect, do real-time transmission and conduct analysis of the monitoring data. It will facilitate groundwater monitoring in some key areas including densely populated areas, major national engineering areas and subsidence areas.