Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, always makes ecological development a priority, as the city is one of the first national demonstration areas for ecological civilization.

At the end of 2017, Guiyang was surrounded by a forest belt of over 2.43 million mu (162,000 hectares), and forest coverage in the city reached 48.66 percent, outperforming most cities in China.

Larger forest coverage also means more investment in forest management. The city has been making full use of digital technology such as big data and cloud computing to support environmental protection efforts.

Officials of Guiyang forestry departments can now use a specialized app known as the Guiyang Forest Intelligent Platform to look up the city's forest data, including things like afforestation, biodiversity, etc.

"Each surveillance point covers about 20 square kilometers, and the surveillance is very accurate," says Wu Zhengxing, an official of the Guiyang forest fire prevention office. "Surveillance information will be immediately transmitted to the app within 10 seconds, which improves the efficiency of forest fire prevention."

A report on forest fires in Guiyang shows that there were only seven forest fires in 2018, down from 88 the year before, but the number of alarms increased to over 8,000. The lower incidence rate and higher alarm rate are proof of the effectiveness of forest management technology.

Quanhu Park, located in Baiyuan district, is a miniature version of the sound ecosystem in Guiyang. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]