With the construction and development of the national space infrastructure

many breakthroughs have been made in the research and construction of remote sensing monitoring systems in China. The national capability for environmental remote sensing monitoring has been developed independently. The operation of production and service for the main environmental remote sensing monitoring elements is achieved; such operation has provided strong support for national environmental management in the new period. Firstly

on the basis of the analysis of the domestic and international development of environmental remote sensing and the application demands of environmental remote sensing monitoring in China

this paper elaborates on the necessity and urgency of developing environmental remote sensing monitoring systems in the country. At present

the demand of environmental remote sensing applications continues to increase. Application demands for remote sensing of atmospheric environment include the atmospheric particulates near surface and haze monitoring

the distribution of burning point and ecological impact of straw burning monitoring

dust

polluted gases and greenhouse gases monitoring. Application demands for remote sensing of water environment include bloom

water quality

flooding monitoring

risk sources of source of drinking water monitoring

water ecology

human activities of river shore monitoring

and ecological condition of the catchment area monitoring. Application demands for remote sensing of ecological environment include investigation and assessment of national ecological environment

human activity monitoring in natural protection area

habitat monitoring in biodiversity priority area

destruction of the ecological resources monitoring in the development zone

and the ecological monitoring in the ecological protection red line area

urban and rural areas

ecological function region

cross-border area. Secondly

the establishment and operation of the national environmental remote sensing monitoring system are investigated

which is composed of satellite system

technique system and operation system. An environmental special satellite monitoring system which is composed of HJ-1

GF-5 and atmospheric environmental monitoring satellites etc.

a suit of water

atmospheric

ecological environmental remote sensing technology which are proposed by Satellite Environment Center Ministry of Environmental Protection

and the environmental remote sensing operation system composed of atmospheric monitoring

water monitoring

ecological monitoring and environment supervision are introduced in turn. The long time practice has proved that the setup and operation of the national environmental remote sensing monitoring system has providing the key support and efficient service for China’s environmental protection work. Finally

the development of China’s environmental remote sensing monitoring system and focus on the next step are proposed.