There's no need to patrol the mountains on foot to inspect the conditions of the forest nowadays thanks to advanced technologies, said Wang Shanqing, head of the Xixian Station of the Qingliang Mountain National Nature Reserve in East China's Anhui Province.
The reserve is home to lots of wild animals and plants and has been called "a natural zoo and botanic garden" and "a species gene bank".
In 2021, China Mobile Limited (China Mobile)'s branch in Anhui developed a smart forest chief information platform to strengthen digital forestry construction and protect the mountainous area, which has turned forestry protection from "inspection on foot" to "management via cloud.
A bird's-eye view of the Qingliang Mountain National Nature Reserve in East China's Anhui Province [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Forestry protection goes online
For Wang, protecting every single plant in the Qingliang Mountain is his duty. "If I could make my choices again, I would still want to be a son of the mountain," Wang said.
Wang's father was one of the first developers of the forest in the mountain. His name "Shanqing" given by his father means lush mountains in Chinese, which reveals his father's hope that Wang could continue to protect the mountains.
Impacted by his father, Wang started working at the management station of the Qingliang Mountain Nature Reserve at 18 in 1988 and 34 years have flashed by since then.
According to Wang, the reserve is located at high altitude and in a vast management area, which means he and his staff must patrol a long mountainous path.
"Staff members at the station need to start the journey that covers about 10 to 20 kilometers in the wee hours every morning and return late at night," Wang said, adding that even with cautious and diligent inspection, conditions of some forestry resources and data are hard to accurately measure because of limited personnel.
Wang Qingshan, head of the Xixian Station in the Qingliang Mountain National Nature Reserve in East China’s Anhui Province, on patrol. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The situation started to change in early 2021 when Wang got access to the Xixian smart forest chief information platform.
Nowadays, cameras have been installed in the forestry area, through which workers at the station can obtain 24/7 real-time monitoring of the growth and activities of the plants and animals in key areas, as well as outbreaks of pests, diseases and wild fires.
Key information such as classification of forest fires, pest and disease situations can also be intelligently predicted through big data analysis in accordance with the temperature, humidity, illumination and wind speed collected in various regions.
Wang said that the platform has made their work much easier. "We can sit in the office and assess the forestry health condition with the data."
What's more, the data, photos and videos collected by the cameras can be uploaded to the platform and saved in the mobile cloud database. "Data statistics and analysis have become easier while the data security is guaranteed," Wang said with excitement.
Digital technology contributes to lush mountains protection
Turning the way of forestry protection from "inspection on foot" to "management via cloud" relies much on mobile cloud computing technology.
In recent years, the Forestry Bureau of Xixian County has cooperated with China Mobile's cloud technology sector in speeding up construction of new-type information infrastructure based on 5G, a computer first networking and smart mid-end platform, and innovatively built a new-type of information service system surrounding connectivity, computing force and capability, intending to improve the region's forestry information and digital management level.
The Xixian smart forest chief information platform is a key part of the digital forestry management project.
Pan Weiwei, head of the development project of the smart platform, explained that the platform is based on such advanced technologies as mobile 5G internet, the internet of things, cloud technology and big data.
It realizes real-time monitoring of resources through functional modules like pest prevention and control, forest chief scheme information platform, emergency disposal of disasters, a command center, background configuration management as well as the mobile patrol and inspection application.
Pan Weiwei, head of the development project of the Xixian smart forest chief information platform, operates the platform. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Since the platform was put into use, dozens of fire risks caused by weed burning have been monitored and handled, avoiding a high forest fire occurrence rate.
Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. Functions like cloud applications and big data analysis are helping with forest chief scheme information demonstration, forestry resource management and emergency disposal.
Wang said with pride that "There has been no mountain fire for 39 years at the Qingliang Mountain National Nature Reserve thanks to the daily work of forestry personnel. I believe that the advanced digital technology will make forestry management even better."
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
