China ’ s Natural Resources Database ( CNRD )

China’s Natural Resources Database (CNRD) is a comprehensive database, developed to support the research on natural resources, social sustainable development and environmental security in China. This paper intends to introduce the background, contents, characteristics and application of the CNRD.


INTRODUCTION
The CNRD program was launched in 1987 and preliminarily completed in 1990.It was funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), as one of the key projects under the 'Seventh Five Year Plan'.The goal of the project is to develop a database, which can meet the information requirements of the research on natural resources, social economics and environment at the national and regional level in China.From 1991 onwards, continuously funded by the CAS, CNRD has been being maintained and providing data service to the Chinese research community.CNRD is managed and maintained by the CNRD project team at the CAS's Commission for Integrated Survey of Natural Resources (CISNAR).

CONTENT
CNRD is an application-oriented system on the information of natural resources and their exploitation and utilization.It consists of attribute databases, spatial databases, thematic map bases and the management tools with which the data could be shared through Internet.

Population and Labor resources
Quantity, educational level, the structure of age, sex, job and geographic distribution etc.

Socio-economic indexes
Integrated economic indices (e.g.GNP, GDP, social output value etc.), agricultural economic indexes (basic condition, sown area and yield, animal husbandry situation, output value etc), Industrial economic indexes (production, output value etc.); Urban economic indexes (land, population, transportation etc.)

Macro-Environment
Natural disasters (major floods and droughts), Environment-related data: Three wastes (waste water, waste gas and solid waste) discharge and control, etc.

Tables and indexes in the attribute database
There are 330 tables with more than 5800 indexes in CNRD.

Spatial and Temporal of the Data
The Data is identified to be the state level, provincial level, county level and station level.Some may be at water basin, reservoir, lake level etc.The data of the state and provincial levels are yearly based from 1949-2000, the county level is mostly yearly based from 1980-2000 and the station level is yearly and monthly based from 1949-1999.

Thematic maps
Based on the CNRD, a series of maps of China natural resource and environment are produced.

DATA CLASSIFICATION AND CODING IN CNRD (Li, Liu & Peng, 1999)
All the data in CNRD is divided into 21 types at level 1 of the classification system.Level 2 is table while level 3 is index.Each type at level 1 includes some tables.Each table is composed of some indexes

Data type name and code at level 1
Each type at level 1 in the data classification system is given two bytes length codes.The codes consist of two English characters.Table 1 shows data type name and corresponding code in CNRD.

Table names and codes
Each table in CNRD is given 4-byte length code.First 2 bytes code shows which data type the table belongs to while last 2 bytes shows the table's order in its corresponding data type.The last 2 bytes consist of 2 digits (0 to 9).Fig. 2 is some example of the tables and codes in CNRD.

Index names and codes
Each index in CNRD is given 6 bytes length code.There are 2 types indexes.One is the key index of the table and the other is the common one.Table 3 shows some example of index name and code in CNRD.

Names and codes of the key index of the table
The key index is a special column in a

Name and code of common index
The first 4 bytes of the codes shows which table the index belong to while last 2 codes show the index's order in its corresponding table.The last 2 bytes consist of 2 digits (0 to 9).In Table 3, the indexes with code BB0102, BB0104, … BB0122 and BD4106, … BD4112 are the common indexes.

Data integration
Large attribute database and spatial database are well integrated in CNRD, which provide strong support scientific research and decision-making regarding natural resources development and utilization at the national and regional levels.

Data diversity
Multiple scales and disciplinary of the data meet the needs of the studies at various groups (e.g.provincial, national, regional, and global).

. Time series
Natural resource and environment conditions have been changing drastically in the past few decades in China.The time series of the data in CNRD record the major features of these changes.Which helps scientists to identify the dynamic patterns of natural resource and environment, as well as people to understand the driving forces of the changes in China.

Application of CNRD (Li, 1998; Xu, 1998)
CNRD also provides the data service to the scientific research worldwide.Hundreds of projects including the National key project, The key project of CAS, The project of scientific fundamental theory research, International cooperate research and so on and other users (undergraduate student, master and doctor candidate etc.) have been benefited by CNRD since 1991.Meanwhile, CNRD has taken part in the establishment of the renewable resources and environment center of WDC-D actively, as well as international cooperate projects.For its excellent data service, the CNRD project team was awarded a prize from the Science Database Engineer of CAS.

Activities for next phase
CAS will support CNRD project sequentially next phase.CNRD team will try the best to develop and improve a better database system to meet the needs of the Geographic science research in China and worldwide.Besides the attribute database update, we will develop grid database (in 1km² or so) based on 1:1million map and attribute data at station (county or town) level and the database based on remote sensing data.Of course, to provide data for the user in China is still what we will do.Meanwhile, we will enhance the communication with friends out of China and try to do more in scientific data exchange and data application in Geographic science and related fields.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, CNRD is a comprehensive database.It can meet the needs of natural resource and environment research and management in some extent and has been used by many users.

Appendix
mean sunshine time for years in succession (by climate station) BC01 Monthly mean temperature for years in succession (by climate station) BC03 Monthly maximum extreme air temperature and the date of occurrence (by climate station) BC04 Monthly minimum extreme air temperature and the date of occurrence (by climate station) BC05 The beginning date, end date and accumulated temperature of the temperature not less than 0,5,10,15 centigrade (by climate station) BC08 Monthly mean ground temperature for years in succession (by climate station) BC10 Monthly mean ground temperature of 10 cm depth for years in succession (by climate station) BC19 Average frost-free season and the beginning and end date of frost season for years in succession (by climate station) BC09 Monthly mean precipitation for years in succession (by climate station) BC12 Monthly evaporation for years in succession (by climate station) BC14 Monthly mean relative humidity for years in succession (by climate station) BC15 … The populations and its natural changing situation (by province) DB01 The basic status of population (by county) DB02 Age composition (by county) DB07 Population by sex, education level (by county) DB26 Illiterate and semi-illiterate population aged 15 and over (by county) DB27 … Area and stand volume of various forest lands (by province) BD07 Woods stand volume (by county) BD13 Basic situation of the grassland resources (by county) BD41 Natural grassland grade of quality and quantity (by province) BD26 … Areas covered and affected by natural disaster (by province) CA01 Main damage condition by natural disaster (by province) CA80 Soil erosion and control (by province) CA81 … Discharge and treatment of industrial waster water (by province) CA03 Emission and treatment of waste gas (by province) CA04 Discharge, treatment and utilization of industrial solid waster (by province) CA05 Discharge and treatment of industrial waster water (by province) CA51 Emission and treatment of waste gas (by city) CA52 Discharge, treatment and utilization of industrial solid waster (by province) CA53 … The basic status of agriculture (by county) DH20 Gross output value of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery (by county) DH34 Number of major livestock (by county) DH35 The crops seeded area and yield (by county) DH41 Yield of major farm crops per hectare (by county) DH43 … Database and Metadata Management Tools with Oracle DBMS and ARC/INFO on both Sun workstation and Windows NT were developed in CISNAR (J.Z.Zhang , Z.H. Li, 1998; D.C. Luo , L.L. Chen, 1996; B. Zhao,Q.H. Cai; 1998; http://www.im.ac.cn/sdb/index.shtml,2000; CIESIN,1995).

Table 1 .
Data type name and corresponding code in CNRD

Table 2 .
Example of the tables and codes in CNRD

Table name Table code
table in database.A value of key is used to identify a data record in a table.Same key index has same code in different table in CNRD.In Table 3, the County/city code is one of the key indexes of table BB01.Index County/city code has same code AA0132 in table BB01 and BD41.

Type name Type code Main data source
Comprehensive statistical data and material on 50 years of New China , Compiled by Department of Comprehensive statistics of National Bureau of Statistics, China statistics press, 1999 … Trade DN 1.China statistical yearbook , China statistical publishing house, year by year 2. Comprehensive statistical data and material on 50 years of New China , Compiled by Department of Comprehensive statistics of National The achievement of water conservancy construct during the past 40 years-statistical data of water conservancy ministry, 1989 3.China environment annual report, 1998,1999,2000 4.China environment yearbook, China environment yearbook press, 1991 to 1998,yearly 5. Environment statistical material, from 1981 to 1990,year by year 6.Report on the state of the environment in China, State environmental protection administration, 1996-2000, yearly 7. Risk assessment and strategies of agricultural disasters in China, Li Shikui etc., Atmosphere publication house 8. Report of the damage caused by disaster in China during 1949-1995, China national bureau of statistics and China civil administration ministry, China statistics press, 1999 9. Other publications …