China builds national database for water networks

The Chinese Government has announced the formal completion of a national database for water networks in China which contains the physical data of over 3.33 million natural and artificial rivers, lakes, reservoirs and canals.

The database will meet the requirements of 1:10,000 topographic map accuracy – confluence, river classification and watershed delineator were also completed.

Every river more than 500 meters in length and each lake, reservoir and pond larger than 5,000 square meters has been assigned its own unique ID number – the first time that the water networks in China have been coded.

The unified entity code, will greatly facilitate future work on water resource management, land and space planning, disaster emergency response and government decision-making.

Each river in the database is a geographic entity object with network topology – meaning, for example, it, it will be clearer via the database where each river flows from and to, and where it passes through. The database will enable the extent of the impact of any water pollution incident to be quickly analyzed.

The project was jointly completed by the National Geomatics Center of China under Ministry of Natural Resources, together with other Government departments.