Intelligent management and control for land resources

Abstract

In the past, land was always considered as an important economic factor of production regardless of how distribution theory developed and production factors changed. Researches on land were mainly focusing on economic factors, and land management system was mostly economy oriented. That is, in traditional land cognition and management, the economic value was generally prioritized as the core of land while other values were neglected to a certain extent. This traditional land cognition does not adapt to the evolution of production and life pattern, and the national strategy of "five-sphere integrated plan" in China. Therefore, it is necessary to promote our land cognition and establish a new land paradigm. Currently, at least five land attributes, i.e., economy, politics, culture, society and ecology, have been differentiated, with certain importance attached to each of them. Then, the connotation of land containing both intension and extension is expanded. Firstly, land value has expanded from merely economic aspect to coupling social, cultural and ecological aspects. Secondly, the cognition of land resources in vertical space, including underground space and aboveground space, should be carried out. Thirdly, more attention needs to be paid to the systematical understanding for land resources, including comprehensiveness and spatio-temporal continuity. All in all, land cognition was expected to take into consideration of multi-attributes, vertical dimension and comprehensiveness. With the evolution of land cognition, the goal and content of land management has transformed, which demands strong support from more advanced theory and modernized technology. Indeed, such methodologies and tools for land management have been advanced with the development of information and communication technology (ICT). On this background, intelligent management and control for land resources have been made possible, corresponding theory should be deepened and methodologies advanced for achieving smart management and effective regulation. According to the basic sketch-up of ICT application, we tried to establish a technological framework for intelligent land management and control based on the new land paradigm, which provides support to achieve smart management and effective regulation. It consists of five segments in the chain, including land sensing, data transmission, data fusing, data analysis and decision making. Land sensing, data transmission and fusion technologies are primary segments. The key point is how to obtain land information in real-time with high speed, quantity and accuracy. To achieve these goals, stereoscopic observation platform and transmission network at super large-scale should be established. Besides, sensor, edge computing, smart data integration and fusing technologies are expected to be explored. Afterwards, how to analyze land big-data and support decision making for intelligent land management become the key points. More attention should be paid to land evaluation in new cognition paradigm, land space simulation, smart land planning, intelligent land-use monitoring and early warning. The authors believe that intelligent management and control of land resources is the transformation of land governance model and the enhancement of land governance capability, which is significant for land governance modernization. On the way, we are facing the double challenges of cognition transformation and technology innovation, to which great attention should be paid and on which great efforts should be spent.