This morning, the Information Office of the People's Government of Shandong Province held a press event themed on "Taking Initiative and Fulfilling Responsibilities," inviting officials from the Provincial Department of Natural Resources to discuss Shandong's efforts in advancing map culture innovation to support the development of a strong economic and cultural province, and to answer questions from the media.

A journalist from China News Service inquired about the progress of the "Lu-Feng Canal" realistic 3D cultural innovation project, noting its status as a landmark case of digital transformation in Shandong's surveying and mapping sector, and requested detailed information.

Mao Jijun responded that the "Lu-Feng Canal" realistic 3D cultural innovation project is designed to meet three types of application needs: public promotion and display, intelligent management of cultural heritage sites, and specialized government applications. It has established a multi-span typical application scenario, created a comprehensive demonstration, and explored a new pathway for realistic 3D technology to empower the integration of culture and tourism.

Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shandong's surveying, mapping, and geographic information work has leveraged multiple national pilot projects to comprehensively advance digital and intelligent transformation, solidifying the spatiotemporal foundation for a digital province and achieving phased results.

Reconstructing the New Fundamental Surveying and Mapping System

Building on the national pilot for new fundamental surveying and mapping, the transition has been made from 2D to 3D, static to dynamic, features to entities, scale-based to precision-based, and separate management by province, city, and county to a unified provincial strategy. This has reshaped and integrated five major systems: products, technology, production organization, policy standards, and application services, establishing a milestone benchmark for new fundamental surveying and mapping practices nationwide.

Creating a New Model for Spatiotemporal Data Integration and Service

Utilizing the national pilot for a unified "one map" geographic base map, the province has aggregated over 2,000 layers of geographic information data across nine major categories to form a unified provincial geographic base map dataset, with its construction experience being promoted nationally. Shandong has taken the lead in establishing a national drone geographic information acquisition and sharing system, integrating over 2,300 drones from Shandong, Zhejiang, and Guangxi, creating a new collaborative and resource-sharing model between ministries and provinces.

Establishing a Comprehensive, Integrated 3D Spatiotemporal Digital Base

The construction of a realistic 3D Shandong has been advanced, creating an integrated data system covering "2D and 3D, land and islands, above and below ground, above and below water, and static and dynamic" elements, spanning from the sky to 1,000 meters underground, across the entire provincial land area, nearshore waters, and underwater topography of large and medium-sized reservoirs. Detailed 3D modeling of over 76 million buildings and structures has been completed, enabling both static, accurate reconstruction of geographic entities and dynamic perception of changes via satellite remote sensing and drone platforms.

Promoting Intelligent and Domestic Upgrades to the Technology System

Technological innovation is being driven through two national pilots: the construction of a new-generation public service platform for geographic information and the integration of the Tianditu platform with the Open Geospatial Engine (OGE). The self-developed "Ruhui Spatiotemporal Geographic Entity Work Platform" has increased production efficiency severalfold and has been promoted to over 150 units across the province. A sample library for intelligent remote sensing interpretation at a scale of tens of millions and a provincial high-quality geospatial dataset have been established, integrating over 400 spatiotemporal analysis models to advance intelligent comprehensive services.

Improving Province-wide Coordination and Sharing Mechanisms

Key tasks for fundamental surveying and mapping in the 15th Five-Year Plan period have been planned and deployed in a coordinated manner, with the realistic 3D Shandong project incorporated into the provincial major planning system. Provincial regulations for geospatial data management and the nation's first provincial-level funding quota standards for fundamental surveying and mapping have been issued. A three-level data collaborative update mechanism involving province, city, and county has been established, with coordinated sharing of remote sensing imagery saving over 50% in costs, forming a digital governance framework characterized by vertical integration, horizontal connectivity, and collaborative sharing.

A journalist from ifeng.com asked about the deep integration of surveying and mapping data with canal culture in the map culture innovation project, and inquired about its value and reference significance for the protection and inheritance of the Grand Canal cultural heritage from a cultural tourism development perspective.

Meng Lingqian responded that, from a cultural and tourism development perspective, the map culture innovation project encompasses two core components: the "Lu-Feng Canal" realistic 3D cultural innovation project and the "Historical and Cultural Atlas of the Shandong Section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal." This is a high-quality cultural empowerment initiative based on the broader context of the "Construction and Protection Plan for the Grand Canal National Cultural Park (Shandong Section)," integrating new surveying and mapping achievements with the cultural lineage of the Qilu Canal. It is also a significant practice in promoting the digital preservation and scenario-based application of canal cultural resources, characterized by its high-level conception and strong practicality.

Significance for Cultural Heritage Protection and Inheritance

The two outcomes hold prominent value. On one hand, the historical and cultural atlas provides a foundation for accurately delineating the distribution of Grand Canal heritage, offering authoritative graphic and textual evidence for tracing cultural origins and archiving. On the other hand, the realistic 3D project permanently preserves the original form of heritage through digital twins, establishing a digital archive for Grand Canal heritage, ensuring the precious historical lineage is passed down across generations.

Activation and Utilization of Cultural Heritage

Leveraging the digital outcomes of realistic 3D technology, new forms of cultural tourism such as multi-terminal virtual tours, cultural interpretation materials, and VR experience scenarios have been developed, transforming static cultural resources into dynamic experiential products, bringing dormant historical heritage out of archives and into public view. These can be widely applied in areas like tourism promotion, scenic area enhancement, cultural and creative product development, and public cultural education, breaking the limitations of traditional, singular forms of cultural resource utilization and truly revitalizing canal culture.

For example, using Taierzhuang Ancient Town as a pilot, the project integrated existing operational systems and data—such as ticketing, visitor flow, monitoring, and management—based on the realistic 3D base, developing an intelligent management system for the ancient town. This completed the fusion and governance of scenic area data within the realistic 3D environment, comprehensively enhancing the intelligence level of operations management, facility control, and command dispatch. The project's outcomes have already been applied to seven scenic areas and museums, including Guangyue Tower and Daicun Dam.

Looking ahead for tourism development, the map culture innovation project has broken down barriers between geospatial data and cultural tourism development, forming a new dual-dimensional model of "atlas/historical records + realistic 3D" for canal cultural dissemination and application. This not only comprehensively aids in shaping the "Lu-Feng Canal" cultural tourism brand and promotes coordinated development of tourism resources along the route but also provides a mature, replicable, and scalable practical model for cultural exploration in river basins and the creation of digital tourism projects across the province. It holds significant contemporary value and practical meaning for continuously promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional culture, deepening the integration of culture and tourism, and supporting the high-quality construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park (Shandong Section).

Furthermore, to protect, inherit, and utilize the Grand Canal heritage, the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism officially commenced the revision of the protection plan for the Shandong section of the Grand Canal heritage in April 2026. This involves vector mapping of the heritage protection zones, shifting the protection boundaries from "paper delineation" to precise spatial control. Utilizing Shandong's realistic 3D data as the unified spatial base and employing a technical approach combining automatic interpretation with manual refinement, clear control red lines will be defined, providing an authoritative legal basis for heritage protection, inheritance, administrative law enforcement, land acquisition approval, and territorial space coordination.

A journalist from Zhonghong Net referenced earlier statements about how Shandong's surveying, mapping, and geographic information "data base" is gradually transforming into a "new quality productive force" driving high-quality economic and social development, and asked in which fields this empowerment has yielded notable results.

Mao Jijun stated that as an important new type of infrastructure and strategic data resource, surveying, mapping, and geographic information are deeply integrated into all aspects of high-quality economic and social development. Leveraging its comprehensive spatiotemporal data base, Shandong is fully unleashing economic, social, and ecological benefits, transforming them into new quality productive forces supporting the province's high-quality development.

Economic Benefits Demonstrating Leverage Effects

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, through intensive sharing and coordinated construction models, cumulative savings in fiscal and social funds amounted to 7.875 billion yuan, with an input-output ratio of 1:15. By providing fundamental surveying and mapping results in bulk and implementing the "one map per village" project, 1.036 billion yuan was saved. Relying on the Tianditu·Shandong platform to support over 5,300 application scenarios saved 6.165 billion yuan in platform, data, and operational maintenance costs. Measures such as data co-construction and sharing across provincial, city, and county levels, public Beidou positioning services, and regular map reviews have continuously reduced fiscal investments at all levels, achieving multiplier effects with small inputs and large outputs.

Social Benefits Covering Comprehensive Public Governance

Empowering digital government, collaboration with the Provincial Big Data Bureau has completed the aggregation and governance of 105 types of data from 10 provincial departments, breaking down data silos and avoiding redundant construction. Empowering the digital economy, services are provided to over a thousand geographic information enterprises and more than fifty thousand developers, incubating over five thousand application scenarios for smart cities and digital twins. A drone service platform has been built to cultivate low-altitude economic activities, while the geographic information data base aids digital agriculture development, facilitating the digital and precise insurance and claims settlement for grain crops. Based on the province-wide Beidou reference station network, a self-developed virtual reference station high-precision monitoring technology has replaced traditional physical reference station monitoring, achieving comprehensive cost savings of over 50%. This technology holds broad application prospects for deformation monitoring of major infrastructure such as railways, highways, mines, dams, bridges, and buildings.

Ecological Benefits Supporting Green and Low-Carbon Development

Leveraging integrated air-space-land-sea dynamic sensing capabilities, ecological remote sensing monitoring has been conducted for the Yellow River Estuary National Park, the Shandong section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the health of provincial pine forests. A 3D monitoring system for mine ecological restoration and a multi-scale forestry carbon sink measurement system have been constructed, serving ecological restoration warnings and the implementation of the provincial "dual carbon" strategy. Using realistic 3D Shandong, a three-dimensional "one map" for natural resources has been established, enabling refined management of all elements—mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts. The forest fire prevention 3D early warning service system has been improved, comprehensively strengthening the ecological security protection barrier.