Founded in 1980, the Remote Sensing Technology Application Research Center (RSTARC) mainly focuses on the application of remote sensing technologies, geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) in water resources and hydropower research. It also undertakes the tasks to monitor nationwide water-related hazards under the Ministry of Science and Technology supervision.

The RSTARC has 21 staff members in four research sections:

Section of remote sensing for flood and drought monitoring

·   Evaluation standards and models of remote sensing for floods and droughts monitoring

·   Early warning technologies of remote sensing for floods and droughts monitoring

·   Decision-making technologies for flood and drought disaster risk reduction

Section of remote sensing for water resources and environment monitoring

·   Investigation, remote sensing monitoring and evaluation of regional water resources, soil erosion, and evolution of ecosystems in arid zones

·   Remote sensing monitoring and evaluation of water environment of lakes and rivers, river channel migration, and changes in lake reservoirs and estuaries

Section of water-related information system development

·   Management systems and professional application models of water resources databases

·   Key water-related information technologies, e.g., data warehouse of digital river basins, hydrology data mining, etc.

·   R&D and technology integration of professional application systems of digital river basins

The transceiving system of meterological satellite data

The automatic measuring system of vorticity-related fluxes

The aerial photographing system based on fixed-wing UAVs

The lidar measurement system based on unmanned helicopters

Section of water-related data acquisition and processing

·   Acquisition and processing technologies of water-related data

·   Products and analyzing systems of remote sensing for water resources

·   Research and training on water resources data sharing and network technologies

The experiment of remote sensing dam patroling by UAV on the Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, China

The monitoring of gully erosion by UAV