China establishes world's largest eco-environment monitoring network during 14th Five-Year Plan: minister

China has established the world's largest ecological environment monitoring network during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), achieving full coverage of monitoring elements such as water, air, soil, and noise, said Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu on Friday.

The network includes over 33,000 monitoring stations directly overseen by the ministry, covering all prefecture-level and above cities, key river basins across China, as well as maritime areas under China's jurisdiction, Huang said at a news conference in Beijing.

The minister highlighted the significant advancements in automation across the entire monitoring process.

By leveraging modern technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, the ministry has continuously advanced the intelligent transformation of the monitoring network. Currently, the entire process, including sampling, delivery, analysis and test, has been automated, the minister said.

"Taking surface water monitoring as an example, using drones for automatic sample collection can save over 70 percent of sampling time and offers unique advantages in remote areas. In the analysis and testing phase, 'black box laboratories' can automatically and continuously complete analysis and testing work, even when the lights are off and no one is present, achieving an efficiency increase of more than eight times," said Huang.

In terms of upgrading monitoring equipment, China has implemented intelligent diagnostics and maintenance for water and air automatic monitoring stations and instruments. By applying new technologies such as "AI+", the ministry can utilize intelligent recognition, analysis, and qualitative screening to accurately identify the sources of problems. For instance, sound fingerprint recognition technology can quickly determine whether noise originates from construction, transportation, or social activities, providing effective strategies for targeted management and addressing issues like noise disturbances, the minister added.

China establishes world's largest eco-environment monitoring network during 14th Five-Year Plan: minister

Russia reported on Monday that its forces had taken control of two settlements in the Kharkov and Zaporizhzhia regions over the past 24 hours, while Ukraine claimed to have thwarted Russian attempts to advance deeper into its territory.

In its daily report, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that over the past day, Russian forces had struck military airfields, energy infrastructure facilities, and long-range drone launch sites of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian forces also attacked temporary deployment points of Ukrainian armed forces and foreign mercenaries, reported the Defense Ministry, adding that Russian air defense units shot down 312 fixed-wing drones.

On the same day, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that 147 clashes took place along the front lines in the past day.

Ukrainian forces had inflicted significant losses on Russian forces in both personnel and equipment in multiple sectors, it said.

In addition, Ukrainian troops targeted three concentration areas of Russian personnel and equipment as well as one drone control point, and shot down more than 2,400 drones, it said.

On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared to establish an Orthodox Easter ceasefire with Russia.

He emphasized that Ukraine supports any format for ending the conflict, which preserves the country's dignity and independence, including a full ceasefire and a ban on strikes against energy infrastructure.

This year, Orthodox Easter will be celebrated in Ukraine and Russia on April 12.

Zelensky also revealed that Ukraine has received signals from some partners requesting it to scale back strikes on Russia's oil industry.

In response, he emphasized a position of reciprocal ceasefire, saying that if Russia stops attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Ukraine will not strike those of Russia.

Russia claims control of 2 settlements, Ukraine reports halting Russian advances