Prof. Dr. Jixian Zhang
President
Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping
China

Biography
Professor Jixian Zhang, born in 1965, is the President of Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping (CASM). He has published over 250 research papers (including over 150 peer reviewed journal papers) and 7 books. He is the Chair of ISPRS WGVII/6: Remote Sensing Data Fusion and the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Image and Data Fusion. He also serves as the Editorial board member of the International Journal of Geoinformatics, and the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. His current research interests include image processing, geographic information systems, digital photogrammetry, pattern recognition and intelligent control.

Abstract
The Western China Mapping Project

The Western China Mapping Project was the first and largest mapping project funded by the Chinese government. The project has three main objectives: a) to complete 5,032 topographic maps and land cover maps at the scale of 1:50,000 during 2006 to 2010 for an area over two million square kilometers in western China; b) to build up a 1:50,000 fundamental geographic information database and thematic information database for central and local governments and industry units; and c) to provide relevant public services for geographic change detection, monitoring, and effective updating. Due to restrictions of the complicated terrain, the harsh environment, the poor transportation accessibility and the technical equipment available, there has been a void in the 1: 50,000 topographic maps amounting to about 2 million square km in China's western region. Multi-source, multi-coverage remote sensing image data has been employed for this project, such as satellite and aerial remote sensing data, domestic and international data, optical and SAR remote sensing data. To complete topography mapping over such a complicated and large area in 5 years, a series of innovative technologies have been developed, including block adjustment with sparse GCPs for large area, topographic mapping for large-area high resolution aerial and satellite remote sensing images, SAR topographic mapping techniques, integrated image interpretation technology for indoor and field survey, real-time monitoring, warning and commanding technologies for fieldwork mobile targets. The Western Mapping Project successfully fulfilled the 1:50,000 topographic mapping tasks in Western China by the end of 2010.