[Introduction] From the perspective of policy drive, the environmental protection industry will grow in quality and environmental supervision will become more stringent. The environmental monitoring industry will usher in the best era of development.

From the perspective of urban governance, environmental monitoring is the basis for managing environmental pollution, measuring environmental quality, and testing governance effects. In recent years, with the country's high attention, favorable policies, and strict laws and regulations, the environmental protection industry has ushered in a golden period of development. As a sub-sector of the environmental protection industry, environmental monitoring will also fully enjoy the policy dividends and usher in a period of rapid development.

In 2018, the supply-side reform promoted by environmental protection will bring about a further increase in the concentration of production capacity. With the further strengthening of the reform of the ecological environment supervision system, environmental protection inspections becoming the norm, the formal levy of environmental protection taxes, and the strong efforts to reduce pollution and raise standards, the construction of the carbon market has gradually matured, and new opportunities for environmental protection investment have become more prominent. The industry predicts that the output value of my country's environmental protection industry will reach 7.3 trillion yuan in 2018, and the average annual compound growth rate in the next five years (2018-2022) will be about 21.25%, and it will reach 15.8 trillion yuan in 2022.

From the perspective of policy drive, the environmental protection industry is growing in quality and environmental supervision is becoming more stringent, and the environmental monitoring industry will usher in the best era of development. According to the "Implementation Opinions on Supporting the Reform of the Environmental Monitoring System" jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, by 2018, my country will fully complete the collection of national monitoring stations and national control section monitoring authority, which will lead to the gradual liberalization of the environmental monitoring equipment and third-party service market.

At the same time, the 10 billion scale environmental monitoring market will be released at an accelerated pace. Due to the large number of sub-sectors, environmental monitoring involves various sub-fields of the environmental protection industry. Depending on the different testing industries, environmental monitoring includes water quality monitoring, air monitoring, soil monitoring, noise monitoring, radiation monitoring, etc., and the markets in various fields are expected to explode one after another.

1. Atmospheric monitoring

Focusing on the "battle for blue skies", air pollution prevention and control is one of the three major environmental protection battles that must be tackled, and it is highly valued by the state and governments at all levels. Measures such as the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Joint Prevention and Control of Air Pollution to Improve Regional Air Quality" and the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law" are continuously being implemented.

Taking 2017 as an example, the Ministry of Environmental Protection successively issued four technical guidelines, including the "Implementation Plan for the Transmission of Ozone Standards for Automatic Monitoring of Ambient Air (Trial)" and the "Technical Guidelines for the Layout of Grid Monitoring Points for Atmospheric PM2.5 (Trial)". The first "Guidelines for Online Monitoring of Atmospheric VOCs" was also released in Beijing.

With the advancement of environmental governance, my country's air governance work has become more and more detailed. In order to make environmental supervision work comprehensive and leave no blind spots, and to clarify urban air quality data and pollution sources, various places have begun to try grid-based supervision, and air monitoring instruments and systems have become basic equipment.

At the same time, as one of the key points of air pollution prevention and control, haze, VOCs and ozone control are gradually put on the agenda, and the capacity of each market is constantly expanding. Among them, as the protagonist in the field of air pollution control in the "13th Five-Year Plan" and even for a longer period of time, the VOCs control market will usher in explosive growth. The market size is expected to exceed 150 billion yuan during the "13th Five-Year Plan", which will also directly stimulate the development of the air monitoring industry.

2. Water quality monitoring

On January 1, 2018, the revised "Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China" was officially implemented. The provisions related to water quality monitoring will undoubtedly promote the development of the industry. With the subsequent relevant laws, policies and standards, and the continuous increase in investment in water pollution prevention and control in various regions, the water quality monitoring market has created an excellent development space.

So, how "hot" will the water quality monitoring market be? Data shows that in 2014, the scale of my country's water quality monitoring market reached 3.187 billion yuan. Benefiting from the rapid growth of the overall industrial chain of water environment management, the potential space and marketization trend of the water quality monitoring industry will accelerate the influx of various capitals, and the future potential is huge. The industry predicts that by 2020, the total scale of the water quality monitoring industry will have a market space of more than 16.8 billion yuan and achieve a compound growth rate of nearly 15%.

At the same time, benefiting from favorable policies such as the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Establishment of the National Surface Water Environmental Quality Monitoring Network", the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of National Urban Wastewater Treatment and Recycling Facilities (Draft for Comments)", and the "13th Five-Year Plan for Environmental Monitoring Quality Management Work Plan", as well as the country's increased efforts in water environment governance, the water quality monitoring network has been re-optimized and the future prospects of the water quality monitoring industry are promising.

3. Soil monitoring

my country's soil pollution prevention and control work is still in its infancy. In order to accelerate the overall development of the industry, the policy level has taken the lead. In 2016, the "Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" (abbreviated as "Soil Ten") was issued; in 2017, in order to implement the "Soil Ten", the Ministry of Environmental Protection also issued four environmental protection standards for soil pollution assessment and monitoring; and the "Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law (Draft)" has passed the first and second readings and is expected to be issued this year to fill the system defects. As the basis for soil prevention and treatment, soil monitoring will inevitably speed up.

It can be said that soil monitoring is a part of soil pollution prevention and control. In the initial basic work, soil pollution status and the distribution of polluted plots need to be monitored first, so as to find out the "family background"; in the later risk assessment screening and remediation effect evaluation, environmental testing business is also involved. Therefore, the soil monitoring industry will become a major outlet for the soil prevention and control industry.

According to the "National Soil Pollution Survey Bulletin" jointly issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources, the overall soil environmental situation in my country is not optimistic. In view of this, in 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Health and Family Planning Commission jointly deployed a detailed investigation of soil pollution that lasted nearly ten years. It is stipulated that the focus should be on agricultural land and land used by key industry enterprises, and the area, distribution and impact of soil pollution in agricultural land on the quality of agricultural products should be found out by the end of 2018; and the distribution of polluted plots in land used by key industry enterprises should be mastered by the end of 2020.

To ensure the smooth implementation of soil investigation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the "Overall Plan for National Soil Pollution Investigation" and has initially established a national soil environmental monitoring network. We believe that with the promotion of a series of policy measures, the soil monitoring blue ocean is expected to expand, which will also bring a new round of development opportunities for companies in the industry.

From the perspective of the international market, according to MEMS Consulting, by 2021, the global environmental monitoring market is expected to reach US$19.56 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.70% during 2016-2021. The main driving force for the growth of this global market comes from the government's growing initiatives to control pollution levels, government funding for pollution control and monitoring, construction of environmental monitoring stations, and continuous promotion of the development of the environmental protection industry. However, the high cost of products related to environmental monitoring solutions, the slow implementation of pollution control reforms, and high export barriers for environmental technologies in emerging countries are some of the main factors limiting the growth of this market.

Based on product segmentation, the global environmental monitoring market can be divided into three major categories, namely: environmental monitors, environmental sensors, and environmental monitoring software. Environmental monitors are further segmented into two monitoring product markets, namely: fixed monitors and portable monitors. The environmental sensor market is further segmented into: analog sensors and digital sensors based on product architecture; temperature sensing, humidity detection, chemical detection, biological detection, particle detection, and noise detection based on application. Due to the increasing adoption of smart homes and modern building designs and the continuous development of innovative environmental monitoring technologies, the portable monitor segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2021. It is expected that the industry will maintain a growth rate of 25% during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.

For environmental monitoring system integrators, it is important to understand that the main tasks of municipal environmental monitoring include:

1. Improve the ecological environment monitoring network

1. Establish a unified city-wide environmental quality monitoring network. Build a city-wide environmental quality monitoring network that covers the atmosphere, water, soil, noise, radiation, ecology and other environmental factors, covers all counties and districts, has a reasonable layout and complete functions, conducts monitoring and evaluation in accordance with unified standards and specifications, comprehensively and accurately reflects the environmental quality status, and provides scientific basis and technical support for major decisions of the municipal party committee and municipal government.

(1) Ambient air quality monitoring network. According to the requirements of ambient air quality evaluation and assessment, reasonably set up ambient air quality monitoring points in the jurisdiction to meet the requirements of ambient air quality assessment and evaluation at the municipal and county levels. Carry out monitoring and analysis of urban ambient air quality, pollution area transmission and related meteorological elements. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Meteorological Bureau, and the People's Governments of all counties, cities and districts. The following units are required to be implemented by the People's Governments of all counties, cities and districts and are not listed here)

(2) Water environment quality monitoring network. In conjunction with the requirements for the full implementation of the "River Chief System", optimize and improve river monitoring sections (points) at all levels, timely and accurately grasp the current status and changing trends of the environmental quality of major water bodies in the jurisdiction, and meet the assessment of surface water environment quality in the region. Actively carry out automatic water quality monitoring and groundwater monitoring according to actual needs. Before the end of 2018, complete the unified planning of the city's water environment monitoring network, the adjustment and optimization of monitoring points, and the construction of automatic monitoring stations for national control sections. In 2020, a water environment monitoring network covering all key river basins, key control units, important lakes and reservoirs, important drinking water sources, key river discharge outlets, and administrative district boundary sections will be formed. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Land and Resources Bureau, Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, Municipal Water Resources Bureau, Municipal Forestry Bureau, Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, Municipal Urban Management and Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, etc.)

(3) Soil environment quality monitoring. Formulate a soil environment monitoring plan and conduct monitoring in accordance with unified standards and specifications. Cooperate with the province to establish a soil environment monitoring database and build an information management platform for soil environment monitoring. Rationally determine monitoring indicators and increase characteristic pollutant monitoring in a targeted manner based on regional pollution characteristics. These include persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutants that pose a great threat to human health in the soil environment. Combined with heavy metal pollution prevention and control plans and "vegetable basket" guarantee projects, special soil environment quality surveys and monitoring will be carried out. By 2018, a soil environment quality monitoring network covering all counties, cities, and districts will be established. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Land and Resources Bureau, Municipal Agricultural Committee, Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, etc.)

(4) Acoustic environment quality monitoring network. According to the development status of the city, further optimize and adjust the acoustic environment functional areas and traffic noise monitoring points in the urban area and county (city) towns, and strengthen the monitoring of key noise sources such as construction sites. By 2018, a relatively complete acoustic environment quality monitoring network will be established. (Responsible unit: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau)

(5) Ecological environment monitoring network. According to the division of responsibilities, relevant municipal departments will carry out monitoring and evaluation of typical ecological environments in key ecological function areas, nature reserves, key forest areas, major agricultural production areas, lakes and wetlands, urban agglomerations and other key areas in the city, and find out the status, trend, influencing factors and potential risks of the city's ecological environment. By 2020, a relatively complete ecological environment monitoring network will be established. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Agricultural Committee, Municipal Forestry Bureau and other departments)

(6) Radiation environment quality monitoring. According to the overall requirements of national radiation environment monitoring, cooperate with the provincial radiation supervision station to carry out radiation environment quality monitoring in urban built-up areas, key centralized drinking water sources, soil and other areas. (Responsible unit: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau)

2. Improve the monitoring network for key pollution sources. Fully implement the pollution source management system with the pollutant emission permit system as the core, establish and improve the pollution source monitoring system including fixed sources, non-point sources and mobile sources, carry out the monitoring, statistics, evaluation and monitoring and early warning of pollution source emissions in the whole city, and the key pollutant-discharging units must achieve full coverage of the online monitoring system for pollutant emissions. Pollutant-discharging units bear the main responsibility for environmental protection. They must implement the statutory responsibilities of self-monitoring of pollutant emissions and information disclosure in accordance with relevant national regulations, and strictly implement the monitoring requirements of emission standards and relevant laws and regulations. Carry out VOC monitoring work in an all-round way. Establish a linkage mechanism between environmental monitoring and environmental law enforcement. Environmental protection departments at the municipal and county levels shall strengthen supervisory monitoring and on-site supervision of key pollutant-discharging units in accordance with the "double random" principle. Environmental protection departments at all levels shall gradually organize and carry out monitoring and statistics of non-point sources, mobile sources, etc., further strengthen the detection of motor vehicle exhaust in urban areas, and carry out remote sensing detection of motor vehicle exhaust. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Public Security Bureau Traffic Police Detachment, Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Agricultural Committee, Municipal Urban Management and Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, etc.)

3. Improve the construction of the ecological environment monitoring system. Strengthen the monitoring of key ecological protection red line control areas. Through ground observation, drone remote sensing monitoring and ground ecological monitoring, we will strengthen ground ecological monitoring and watershed aquatic biological monitoring, make full use of remote sensing technology to carry out ecological monitoring, straw and garbage burning monitoring, strengthen environmental ecological monitoring of the Dongjiang Lake Basin, and carry out monitoring and evaluation of the typical ecological environment in key areas such as the city's national key ecological functional areas, nature reserves, scenic spots, major agricultural product production areas, important lake wetlands, and urban agglomerations. Strengthen the ecological environment monitoring and evaluation of terrestrial ecological protection red line control areas such as biodiversity, important wetlands, water source coverage areas, key soil and water loss control areas, key soil and water loss prevention areas, natural and cultural landscapes, ecological public welfare forests, and centralized drinking water sources. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Land and Resources Bureau, Municipal Water Resources Bureau, Municipal Agricultural Committee, Municipal Forestry Bureau, Municipal Meteorological Bureau and other departments)

2. Realizing the integration and sharing of ecological environment monitoring information

1. Establish an integrated sharing mechanism for ecological environment monitoring data. The environmental quality, pollution sources, and ecological environment status monitoring data obtained by the departments and units such as economics and information technology, public security, environmental protection, land and resources, housing and construction, transportation, water resources, agriculture, forestry, health and family planning, and meteorology should be interconnected and shared. Environmental protection departments at all levels should establish a mechanism for sharing and publishing monitoring data for key pollution sources, and key polluting units should upload their own monitoring results in a timely manner in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Technology Commission, Municipal Public Security Bureau, Municipal Land and Resources Bureau, Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau, Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Water Resources Bureau, Municipal Agricultural Commission, Municipal Forestry Bureau, Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, Municipal Meteorological Bureau, etc.)

2. Apply the ecological environment monitoring big data platform. By 2020, our province will have built an environmental monitoring information transmission network and big data platform, and connected it to the national ecological environment monitoring big data platform. Our city should strengthen the development and application of ecological environment monitoring data resources, carry out big data correlation analysis, and provide data support for ecological environment protection decision-making, management and law enforcement. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Commission, Municipal Public Security Bureau, Municipal Land and Resources Bureau, Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Water Resources Bureau, Municipal Agriculture Commission, Municipal Forestry Bureau, Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, Municipal Meteorological Bureau, Municipal Urban Management and Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, etc.)

3. Unified release of ecological environment monitoring information. Establish a unified ecological environment monitoring information release mechanism in accordance with the law, formulate ecological environment monitoring information release management regulations, standardize the release content, process, authority, channels, etc., and have environmental protection departments at all levels release environmental quality, key pollution sources and ecological environment status monitoring information in a unified, timely, accurate and appropriate manner, improve the authority and credibility of government environmental information release, and protect the public's right to know. (Responsible units: Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, Municipal Public Security Bureau, Municipal Land and Resources Bureau, Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Water Resources Bureau, Municipal Agriculture Committee, Municipal Forestry Bureau, Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, Municipal Meteorological Bureau, etc.)

[Source: Smart City China] Editor: Wei Dongyu