THE country announced Sunday it has launched a plan to better monitor and control smog at key regions through satellite remote sensing. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment said a grid network to monitor the density of PM2.5, a major pollutant of the atmosphere, will gradually cover Beijing, Tianjin and 26 cities in nearby provinces, and 11 cities on the Fenhe and Weihe river plains, as well as 41 cities on the Yangtze River Delta. With technologies including remote sensing, authorities in the Beijing headquarters can discover environmental problems in faraway regions quickly and direct immediate actions, according to Zhao Qunying, an official in charge of environmental supervision at the ministry. “This can improve the efficiency of regulation and address the problem of inadequate enforcement personnel for the broad regions under scrutiny,” Zhao said. Regions covered by the network will be divided into grid units each measuring 3 km by 3 km. The units with relatively high densities of PM2.5 are listed as key areas to watch. (Xinhua) |