Application of 3S Technology in Protecting the Environment

梁芷盈 孫壯壯 陳仕君

Abstract：This paper focuses on remote sensing technology， geographic information system and global positioning system （hereinafter collectively referred to as “3S” technology） as the main special case. Based on the analysis of its essential concepts， it analyzes the basic characteristics of IT technology flexibility， openness， and immaturity. From the start of multinational cooperation， innovative IT technology construction， promotion and extensive application of IT technology to the three paths to promote environmental monitoring and environmental sustainability.

Keywords： 3S technology， ecology， environment， environmental sustainability.

Introduction

"3S" is an abbreviation of “Remote Sensing（RS）”，“Global Position System（GPS）”， and “Geographic Information System（GIS）”，RS is mainly used to quickly obtain information about its environment， detect changes in the surface， and update GIS in time； GPS is mainly used for spatial real-time positioning of target objects and confirming different surface coverage boundaries； GPS is mainly used for spatial real-time positioning of target objects and confirming different surface coverage boundaries. The United States took the lead in researching 3S technology in the 1970s. In China， 3S technology was listed as a national key development plan. Due to its flexibility， openness and immaturity， 3S technology is used to observe environment and help protect environment to a great degree.

This paper， based on analyzing the 3S techniques basic features and former experiences， makes a further exploration of 3S technologys function and potential on protecting environment to study the ITs contribution to environment. And discuss 3S techniques defects and the assumption about its use. Also researches the harmful human activities and discusses the probable solutions. Aim to find out an efficient， scientific， time-saving， labor-saving and economical solution of environment deterioration.

Problems

As the development of human society goes on， many human activities result in bad effects on ecosystem. In industry， manufacture squeezes the natural resources and produces plenty of solid waste and gas waste， pollutes the soil and the air， also leads to respiratory disease； the emission of liquid waste causes the river pollution and indirectly pollutes the ocean； the illegal oil production kills some marine animals， destroys the marine diversity. In agriculture， the excess reclamation not only occupies animals habitat but also makes the soil barren； the unreasonable method of cultivating and the pesticide abuse cause a fatal damage to forest land and wetland.

Because that the rivers had brought a huge amount of the contaminations from the land， 2/3 of the countrys off-shore sea area has suffered from the pollution degree of nutrients and the area is still expanding. Due to the special geographic location， the edges of the rivers are bound to bear the direct pollution. There is industrial waste water， sanitary sewage， residue， human and animal excreta and all kinds of organic matter. The main contaminative factors are mineral nitrogen， phosphate and oil.

Many human activities can destroy the ocean ecosystem. Illegal fishing， oil production， oil spill， illegal creature introduction， slaughter of marine rare species and so on， pollutes the sea water， kills some marine species and damages their habitat， which does harm to ocean biodiversity. Over the past 40 years， there have been 14 extremely serious oil spill events. Here picks some events. In Feb 1996， tank SeaQueen from Liberia hit the rocks near the St An Cape at the Welsh on the west UK and the over 14.7 thousand tons of oil spilt， which resulted in the death of over 2.5 thousand waterfowls.

Wetlands cover only 6% of the earth's surface， but it provides an irreplaceable living environment for 20 % of the known species on earth. Wetlands have huge potential resources and the environment functions， it is to provide large amounts of food， raw materials and water resources for human， and has a vital role in maintaining regional ecological balance， keeping biodiversity and rare species resources， especially in regulating climate， homogenizing flood， purifying water quality， and preserving the genetic diversity of species.

However， with the rapid increase of population， the accelerating process of urbanization， the rapid development of industry and agriculture， the unreasonable exploitation and utilization of wetland resources， excessive use of water， evaporation of water and reduced water supply all have resulted in the degradation of wetlands ecosystem and put the functions of wetlands seriously threatening.

Tumenjiang watershed， locates on the east of Jilin province， play an important role on maintain the ecosystem and human living environment. But recent years， due to the expansion of agriculture and industry， the construction of transportation and the water pollution， the area of the wetland of Tumenjiang watershed have been reducing.

Forest resource is a significant part of Earth's available resources. It not only forms our material base of mankind's production and living， but also maintain natural ecological balance， improve ecological environment， prevent and remedy pollution. Human activities do a great harm to this rare resource. The expansions of agriculture and industry take up the forest land； excess reclamation and excessive cutting destroy the forest， decrease the amount of forest. In Ghana， Nigeria， besides the quick-developing legal timber-trade there are lots of illegal logging behaviors because of the large demand of wood. And more than 120 millions people still use wood as the fuel， coupled with the expansion of agriculture， lead to the disappearance of over 2 million hectares of forest every year. Evidently it aggravates the land desertification and drought， breaks the forest ecosystem. Apart from this， the waste and harmful materials like heavy metal and others chemical substances pollute the soil， kill the trees； and sometimes artificial conflagration burns out the forests and even the animals live there. In Europe and North America， the forests are suffering from the corrosion from the acid rain.

Mangrove forest， a kind of special plant cenosis on the earth， can not only maintain the ecological equilibrium， but also be a kind of valuable medicinal material. However， in recent years， mangroves subsistence has been being threatened.

The urbanization and devdelopment of fishery occupy the mangrove forest. In order to expand the city area， the mangrove forest will be buried to build the city. In Shenzhen， 8 projects of city construction took up over 147 hectares land of Futian Mangrove Bird Nature Reserve. The occupied area is the 48.8% of the whole reserve. The amount of broken mangrove forest reached to 35 hectares， which is the 31.6% of the whole area. Attracted by the huge profit from mangroves commercial value， many people cut down the mangrove forests illegally. Mangrove forest is vanishing.

Human cannot live without air. Yet nowadays Air Pollution is becoming one of the most serious environmental pollution at present. There are a great many causes of polluting the air quality. Including exhaust emissions， industrial emissions， etc. As we know that too much particulate matter in the air can produce haze. And carbon dioxide can result in the Greenhouse effect， as well as sulfur dioxide and sulfur monoxide will turn rainwater into acid rain that will have unrecoverable effects on forest， land and organisms. More seriously， we seem to have not been able to reduce the rate of deforestation. One of the most famous air pollution is that smoke event took place in London in 1952. In the case， the smoke killed thousands of people and did a huge harmful to peoples bodies. It also promoted the first legislation of air pollution control law in history. Another example is the ozone hole in Antarctica. This ozone hole allows the sunshine directly to the ground， it means a lot of ultraviolet light is irradiated to the ground. Too much ultraviolet light leads to the penguins eye being blind.

Due to many different reasons， our monitoring and management system is yet to be improved. Among all the solutions to upgrade it， we consider that it would be better if we apply the GPS， GIS and RS technology to the monitoring and management system.

With the rapid development of economy， our environment and natural resources are badly destroyed， among which， forest resources were one of the victims. What's more. There are also many criminals damage the forest without permission just for their own benefits.

Findings

3Stechnology has many superiorities， such as flexibility， openness， efficiency. Compared with traditional method that the government arranges for lots of physical patrol to observe the environment， 3S technique is apparently more convenient， efficient， time-saving and labor-saving. Compared with other technology， 3S technique is more economical and comprehensive. So it will be a brilliant way to monitor environment. Take the ocean protection as an example. One of the reason why marine pollution is hard to control is that the supervision intensity is not enough. And that is because the under-developed way of monitoring. In a 3 million square kilometers of sea area， the marine sector send ship to observe the sea situation only once every two days and the plane once every four days and the flying time even doesnt reach to 5 hours. It is hard to know the oceans condition at any time. There is a very small chance to find out a vessel that discharges waste illegally. Making full use of 3S technology can help solve this problem. At present，it is the Remote Sensing technique works. On 11th 4， 2007， the Ocean Color Satellite that was launched. It has been working for 7 years. Based on the visible lights and infrared ray， the satellite can probe the color and temperature of the ocean so as to monitor the situations of fishery and temperature， predict the red tide. On 10th 8，2016， the Ocean Surveillance Satellite was launched successfully. Thanks to its capability of all-time all-weather surveillance and extremely high resolving power， it can search the objects on the ocean clearly， realize almost real-time monitoring of parts of the ocean.

Another successful experiment is the monitoring and analyze towards the Tumenjiang watershed. Here are the Landsat MSS/TM images of the wetland of Tumengjiang. Based on the accurate location fixed by GPS，from the pictures caught by RS， the basic information of the wetland can be seen intuitively.

But it also has limitations， such as inaccurate or incorrectly displayed measurements. At present， the main factors affecting the classification precision of wetland remote sensing include： spatial resolution， spectral resolution， and time resolution of the image source. Wetland types， location， regional ecological environment， even atmospheric conditions， lighting and other factors will also have an impact on the real-time topography of 3S surveys， leading to display errors. Therefore， improving wetland classification accuracy will be an important direction for future 3S technology breakthroughs

The following problems exist in technical capacity building and software development： First， domestic GIS software product series is incomplete. Domestic GIS software is still concentrated in small and medium sized products， lacking large-scale software. As a result， the countrys large-scale spatial information application engineering still completely relies on foreign software. Besides， in terms of real-time geographic information system software， China is relatively backward and not mature enough. It is very unfavorable for social applications and military applications of a large number of geographic information systems， and lacks development platform software that can support industrial applications. Insufficient technical reserves. Then at home， this area is basically in a state of follow-up. After the efforts to catch up， the gap has been greatly reduced， but the technical reserves are still insufficient.

Discussion

The 3S technology still has some defects that need prvoing. For examlpe the accuracy， the time limit and the data storage. And about its propable useage， this paper cannot find out the preceded experiment but provide some feasible assumption base on the reality.

For air protection aspect， according to 3S techniques connective characteristic， the reachers can try to connect the 3S technologys services with the equipment that installed in the factory or everywhere in the city to monitor the air condtion at any tim. Once the ground services observe the pollutants， it can convey the massage to the clean machine such as the water spray machine that help subside the air particulate matters.

What else， if every nation can be the envirnoment monitor， it would help the government a lot. Create such an application that people can use it to monitor the environment situation around them including the quality of the air， soil and water. Of course there may be a accessory equipment to help analyze the elements of the water and th soil but also is a man-carried one.

As for those existent defects， we give the following SUGGESTIONS：

1. Build up data-processing centres to analyse all the information.

The government can expend more finance on developing relative elites and projects to help the research institute update the services. Besides， the public power can give great help. Appealing the public foundation and charity to devote into this promising program.

2.Combine 3S technologies and artificial intelligence to build up a modern monitoring system.

The artificial intelligence has been developing very quickly and it can analyze the data accurately， give a result very soon. So combine the 3S technique with artificial intelligence may help resolve the accuracy and time limit even the data storage problems that 3S has. Here is an assumption： if combine it with the artificial robots whatever they are used in the factory or home. For factories， they can analyze the raw materials at first to see whether the materials are environmental then decide to produce a complete production. For home， they will remind the host that there are pollutants as long as they observe that kind of elements.

3.Learn from foreign outstanding examples， actively participate in international cooperation， and improve the level of independent technology.

Cooperate with other countries all over the world can arose peoples awareness of developing the 3S technology from the world dimension and unite the world wisdom and power to solve the problems such as technique problems， financeand equipment.

Conclusion：

When the economy is going on and the environment degration is going on too. This time is a information time and Information Technology can help solve the environment problems to a great extent. Through the study of preceded examples can know deeply about the correct usage of the 3S technology and explore its potential， and find out its disadvantages to make progress. Base on the functionand the characteristics of the 3S technology， making more assumptions can help create more ideas to realize the aim of protecting environment.

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