“In 2016, the China Geological Survey further clarified its geological science and technology innovation ideas and layout, made important strides in institutional innovation, achieved remarkable results in talent team building, and greatly improved its service capacity and overall strength, strongly supporting and serving energy and resource security and the central work of land and resources, with remarkable achievements in all aspects.” The 2017 National Geological Survey Work Conference was held in Beijing recently. At the meeting, Wang Yan, member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the China Geological Survey, systematically summarized the geological survey work in 2016 in his work report——a brilliant answer sheet in forging ahead.

Supporting and serving major national strategies

The China Geological Survey supported and served the battle against poverty with scientific and technological innovation and development. It conducted in-depth demand matching county by county in the Gannan Soviet Area and the Wumeng Mountain area, implemented poverty alleviation funds, and deployed and implemented “four full coverages” of geological survey work. Tailoring measures to local conditions, it focused on supporting characteristic agriculture, green mining, drinking water safety, characteristic tourism, geological disaster prevention and control, and clean energy development, forming a “geological survey+” characteristic poverty alleviation model. It served the development of ecological agriculture with land quality geochemical surveys. It drove green development with rocky desertification control. It demonstrated water exploration to ensure the safety of water resources for the public. It conducted geological heritage surveys to create characteristic geological tourism resources, promoting the development of local characteristic tourism industries. It supported and served the strategy of military-civilian integration. It supported and served the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. It held a symposium on geological work for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and released a geological survey report supporting the coordinated development of the region. It compiled the “Implementation Plan for Geological Survey Supporting the Coordinated Development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region (2016-2020)”, strengthened geological surveys in key areas and for major engineering construction, and achieved notable results in serving with survey results on active faults and land subsidence. It supported and served the protection and development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It held a symposium on geological work in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Focusing on the needs of building a green ecological corridor, new urbanization, a three-dimensional transportation corridor, and industrial transformation and upgrading in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, 12 mechanism units jointly compiled an implementation plan for geological survey work in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and coordinated comprehensive geological environment surveys. It actively promoted the work experience of Shanghai urban geological survey results serving the main process of government management. It supported and served the construction of the “Belt and Road”. It increased cooperation with 27 countries along the “Belt and Road” and completed more than 3.6 million square kilometers of overseas geological and geochemical mapping. It signed the “Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Geoscience Coordinated Development of the Silk Road Economic Belt” with the land and resources departments of six provinces including Shaanxi and six universities including China University of Geosciences (Beijing). It released the “Report on International Cooperation Achievements in Geological Survey”, providing services for more than 400 enterprises in overseas mining investment and international production capacity cooperation. It newly signed or renewed memorandums of understanding and cooperation agreements with 15 countries, increasing the number of cooperating countries to 55. It launched two international big science programs: “Chemical Earth” and “Resource and Environmental Effects of Global Karst Dynamic Systems”. It supported and served the strategy of building a maritime power. It discovered a new type of oil and gas reservoir in a joint exploration block for the first time; it named 245 large and medium-sized geographical entities on the South China Sea seabed, which was approved by the State Council; it drilled physical samples of natural gas hydrate with shallow burial, large thickness, and high purity in a new sea area for the first time; it delineated 60,000 square kilometers of prospective areas for new types of nodule resources in the Western Pacific; and scientific drilling in the South Yellow Sea once again discovered multiple layers of oil and gas shows. Together with the land and resources authorities and geological exploration units of 11 coastal provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions), it compiled the “China Coastal Zone Geological Survey Report” and the “China Coastal Zone Resources and Environment Atlas”.

Serving the central work of land and resources

In 2016, the China Geological Survey fully served the compilation of the “13th Five-Year Plan” in the field of land and resources. It completed the compilation of the national land planning outline issued by the State Council and the mineral resources plan approved by the State Council, as well as the compilation of the land and resources “13th Five-Year Plan” outline, scientific and technological innovation development plan, informatization plan, geological disaster prevention and control plan, and the overall plan for the third stage of the prospecting breakthrough strategic action. It actively supported the reform of the oil and gas exploration and exploitation system. It strengthened basic geological surveys, made a number of breakthroughs in bulk scarce minerals, targeted strategic emerging minerals, and fully supported the prospecting breakthrough strategic action. It vigorously supported the reform of the natural resources system. It compiled the “Atlas of Natural Resources of China (2016)”, providing basic information for the reform of national natural resource systems and mechanisms and management and protection, and providing technical support for spatial planning pilots in some regions and the first batch of natural resource confirmation and certification pilots. It compiled a report on the investigation of soil and groundwater contaminated sites in China and a national groundwater quality assessment report, completed a macro evaluation of the national land and resources environmental carrying capacity, and provided a scientific basis for the construction of an ecological civilization performance evaluation and responsibility assessment system. The national groundwater monitoring project progressed smoothly. Using remote sensing technology, together with more than 30 units, it completed a national survey of the current status of mineral resources development, monitored 121,000 mining rights nationwide, delineated more than 10,000 suspected illegal patches, and effectively supported mineral administration law enforcement. It advanced land quality geochemical surveys, strongly supporting the integrated management of “quantity, quality, and ecology” of land and resources. It improved the national geological disaster information system and service platform, realizing four-level data linkage and updating from “national-provincial-municipal-county”. It carried out pilot demonstrations of geological disaster surveys and risk assessments in important towns in mountainous and hilly areas; provided emergency technical guidance for major sudden geological disasters such as the Taining debris flow in Fujian, the Lishui landslide in Zhejiang, and the Yecheng debris flow in Xinjiang; carried out InSAR survey and monitoring of land subsidence in key areas such as the North China Plain and the Fenwei Basin, supporting the joint conferences on land subsidence prevention and control in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta regions.

Strengthening institutional development and management

A institutional system for scientific and technological innovation was initially established. The geological science and technology management system was innovated. With the target responsibility system as the core, the geological survey organization and management system was reformed, establishing a three-level project management system with the bureau headquarters-regional project offices-implementation units as the main line and a three-level business advancement system with plans-projects-items as the main line, implementing the legal person responsibility system and the project leader responsibility system. The geological survey budget management system was established and improved. Safety production and confidentiality work were strengthened.

Major progress in scientific and technological innovation

In 2016, the China Geological Survey actively promoted the “three deep and one soil” scientific and technological innovation strategy. It scientifically compiled overall innovation plans for deep earth exploration, deep sea exploration, and deep space earth observation, and set up geological survey projects to support them respectively. It introduced talent and actively promoted the application for national major science and technology projects for deep earth exploration. It launched the optical satellite constellation construction project and initially built a domestic satellite land and resources data guarantee system and a satellite-airborne-ground integrated remote sensing technology system. It implemented five major scientific and technological battles in energy surveys: natural gas hydrate trial production project, southern oil and gas shale gas survey, Tibet Qiangtang oil and gas survey, northern new area new strata oil and gas resources survey, and northern sandstone-type uranium deposit survey. It continued to advance the “talent-driven bureau” strategy and built a talent sequence for geological science and technology innovation. Major progress was made in the construction of scientific and technological innovation platforms. The UNESCO International Center on Global-Scale Geochemistry was established, and the international cooperation agreement on karst geology was successfully renewed. Cooperation platforms such as the “China-Southeast Asia and South Asia Geoscience Cooperation Research Center”, “China-Latin America and Oceania Geoscience Cooperation Research Center”, “China-Northeast Asia Geoscience Cooperation Research Center”, and “China-West Africa and North Africa Geoscience Cooperation Research Center” were established. It advanced the construction of the Beijing geological research experimental base of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the North China geological science and technology innovation center base, and the eastern base of the Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology. Three marine geological survey vessels successively entered continuous construction, two of which were closed up. In 2016, it won 1 second prize of the National Natural Science Award, 2 second prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and 1 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

Serving public welfare with geological big data

In 2016, the prototype system of the Geological Cloud of the China Geological Survey was initially built. It carried out an application demonstration of geological survey in the Altun metallogenic belt based on the Geological Cloud, explored a new model of “Internet+” geological survey work, and initially formed the framework of the Geological Cloud (geological big data) system. It developed an oil and gas business management system and an internet site group based on the Geological Cloud, and the business management system achieved full coverage deployment and application; the “Geological Survey Supercomputing Platform” was promoted and released at the International Mining Conference, providing computing resources, storage resources, and professional software sharing services to users in the geological exploration industry. It initially formed a service product catalog of 6 major categories, 56 subcategories, and more than 540,000 items, and initially built a geological data product system. The structure of geological data products was further improved. The compilation of regional geological records has been completed in 20 provincial-level regions nationwide, and the first provincial mineral geological record - Jiangxi Volume - held its first release and book donation ceremony. The Marine Geological Information Network of the China Geological Survey was officially launched, releasing results and raw data online for the first time, realizing the “ice-breaking journey” of marine geological survey data services. The National Geological Archives provided a cumulative service volume of 12,000 types and more than 850,000 items/times throughout the year. It provided physical geological data services to more than 10,000 person-times for the industry and the public. The six regional geological archives provided geological data services and targeted processing data exceeding 2,200 GB.

Systematically summarizing a century of geological survey experience and achievements

It launched the Centennial History Outline, Centennial Panorama, Hundred Talents, Hundred Achievements, Hundred Theories, and Hundred Technologies of the China Geological Survey. It carefully planned the overall layout of geological science and technology innovation. It formulated the “13th Five-Year Plan” scientific and technological innovation development plan for the China Geological Survey, determining the “three-step” goals for geological science and technology innovation and development: by 2020, China's overall geological science and technology level will leap to the top five in the world, reaching the international advanced level; by 2030, China's overall geological science and technology level will leap to the top two in the world, reaching the international leading level; and by 2050, it will become a world geological science and technology power. It issued specific measures to strengthen geological science and technology innovation and talent team building. It successfully held a series of academic seminars commemorating the centennial of the geological survey. It enhanced confidence in building a world-class new-type geological survey bureau and the sense of identity and cohesion of the geological industry.

Effectively serving economic and social development

The China Geological Survey and relevant departments initially established a work linkage mechanism, established a normalized data resource sharing mechanism, strengthened collaboration and joint research on major projects, and improved the support capacity for land and resources management. In cooperation with military units, it initially formed an integration mechanism featuring planning connection, standard alignment, and achievement sharing, and promoted joint talent training and discipline construction. It jointly built work platforms for demand matching, work seminars, and coordinated advancement and comprehensive geological information sharing platforms with the three provinces (municipalities) of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, 11 provinces (municipalities) of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, 6 provinces (autonomous regions) along the “Belt and Road”, and 6 universities. It jointly promoted the “three matchings” of demand, projects, and results between regional project offices and provincial departments with the governments of Zhejiang, Xinjiang, Anhui, and other provinces (autonomous regions). At the same time, it drove local geological survey work to strengthen matching with local needs, projects, and results, and achieved notable results in serving local economic and social development and supporting provincial land and resources management.

Strengthening Party building and the core values of geological workers in the new era

It vigorously promoted the “two studies and one action” learning and education, taking whether work achieved results as the standard for testing learning and education, implementing learning and education in practice, and promoting the resolution of a number of hot and difficult issues of concern to grassroots units. A number of outstanding grassroots Party organizations and outstanding Communist Party members emerged across the bureau. It vigorously promoted the construction of Party organizations, carried out pilot projects for the construction of temporary Party organizations in field project teams, and made grassroots Party organization construction basically cover the front line of the field. It strengthened the implementation of the “two responsibilities”. It comprehensively leveraged the role of supervision and inspection. In response to the new situation, new tasks, and new requirements faced by geological work in the new era, it practiced the core values of geological workers in the new era of “responsibility, innovation, cooperation, dedication, and integrity”, promoted the exemplary and leading role through the publicity of advanced models, and guided the majority of geological workers to keep responsibility in mind, strengthen innovation, unite and cooperate, make selfless contributions, and remain honest and clean.