2018 is an important turning point for the environmental protection industry, the first year for the implementation of the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and a key year for the implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan. On the one hand, the state has issued a series of policies to promote the construction of environmental monitoring networks, the realization of remote and intelligent monitoring, and the scientific decision-making and precise supervision of the ecological environment. On the other hand, in 2018, a number of new environmental protection policies such as the Environmental Protection Tax Law, the Regulations for the Implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China, the newly revised Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Reform Plan for the Compensation System for Ecological and Environmental Damage were officially implemented.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening the Protection of the Ecological Environment and Resolutely Fighting the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control", which is a strategic detailed plan for China to win the battle to defend the blue sky and fight the battle of clear water and pure land before 2020. In addition, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Key Points of Ecological Environment Monitoring in 2018", which clarified the key tasks and work requirements of ecological environment monitoring in 2018, and proposed to innovate the environmental monitoring system and mechanism, strengthen environmental quality monitoring and early warning, continuously improve the ecological environment monitoring network of "heaven and earth", comprehensively improve the quality of environmental monitoring data, vigorously promote the development of new monitoring technologies, accelerate the establishment of an independent, authoritative and efficient ecological environment monitoring system in the new era, and give full play to the role of environmental monitoring as the "pillar" of environmental monitoring.

(1) Air quality monitoring policy

Previously, the implementation of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan ("Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan") promoted significant improvements in China's air quality from 2013 to 2017, but no city in China has yet met the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended safety standard of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5 per cubic meter.

In January 2018, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) issued the 2018 Monitoring Plan for Volatile Organic Compounds in Ambient Air in Key Areas, which provides detailed regulations on VOCs monitoring cities, monitoring projects, time frequency and operating procedures. In the same month, the Ministry of Environmental Protection officially issued four guiding documents, including the Technical Guidelines for the Layout of Atmospheric PM2.5 Grid Monitoring Points (Trial), the Technical Guidelines for Technical Requirements and Detection Methods for Atmospheric PM2.5 Grid Monitoring (Trial), the Technical Guidelines for Quality Assurance and Operation of Atmospheric PM2.5 Grid Monitoring System (Trial), and the Technical Guidelines for the Installation and Acceptance of Atmospheric PM2.5 Grid Monitoring System (Trial). It provides guidance for standardizing the use of new technologies in cities to carry out grid monitoring of atmospheric PM2.5. In July, the State Council issued the Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense War, which clarified the overall thinking, basic objectives, main tasks and safeguard measures for air pollution prevention and control, and put forward a timetable and roadmap for winning the blue sky defense war. In August, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the State Administration for Market Regulation, issued a revision list of the Ambient Air Quality Standard (GB 3095-2012), which revised the provisions on the monitoring status in the standard, and revised and improved the corresponding supporting monitoring method standards, so as to achieve international standards. On December 29, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued the National Catalogue of Advanced Pollution Prevention and Control Technologies (Air Pollution Prevention and Control) to provide technical support for air pollution prevention and control.

(2) Water environment monitoring policy

In February 2018, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) issued the Technical Specifications for Automatic Monitoring of Surface Water (Trial). In March, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Water Resources jointly deployed a national centralized special action for environmental protection of drinking water sources. In May, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment formulated the "National Surface Water Quality Automatic Monitoring Station Cultural Construction Plan (Trial)" to further promote the cultural construction of water stations, enrich and expand the humanistic connotation of water stations, cultivate the cultural concept of ecological environment monitoring, and establish a national ecological environment monitoring brand.

In October 2018, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Treatment of Urban Black and Odorous Water Bodies", which is an implementation plan for the water-related battle issued by China, so that the urban rivers have a clear timetable and implementation roadmap to achieve the goal of clear water and green banks and shallow bottoms. In the same month, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Aquatic Life in the Yangtze River", proposing to adhere to the priority of protection and natural restoration, strengthen and improve protection and restoration measures, and comprehensively strengthen the protection of aquatic life in the Yangtze River, with special emphasis on improving monitoring capabilities.

and (3) soil monitoring policies

In June 2018, 13 ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, jointly issued the Regulations on the Assessment and Assessment of the Implementation of the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (for Trial Implementation), which includes the completion of soil pollution prevention and control targets and the completion of key soil pollution prevention and control tasks. On June 24, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening the Protection of the Ecological Environment and Resolutely Fighting the Battle of Pollution Prevention and Control", proposing to fully implement the action plan for the prevention and control of soil pollution, highlighting key areas, industries and pollutants, and effectively controlling the soil environmental risks of agricultural land and urban construction land, so that the people can eat and live at ease.

(4) Other important policies

In January 2018, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the Technical Specification for the Processing and Processing of Environmental Thematic Spatial Data (HJ927-2017), the Overall Framework of the Environmental Protection Internet of Things (HJ928-2017), the Terminology of the Environmental Protection Internet of Things (HJ929-2017), the Guidelines for the Standardization of the Environmental Protection Internet of Things (HJ930-2017) and the Coding Rules for Pollutant Discharging Units (HJ608-2017) to promote the development of environmental informatization and environmental protection Internet of Things.

In April 2018, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued standards such as the Guidelines for Technical Guidelines for the Accounting of Pollution Sources, the Iron and Steel Industry, the Cement Industry, the Pollution Sources Accounting Technical Guidelines for Pulp and Paper, and the Thermal Power Thermal Power.

2
. Industry development

Environmental monitoring is an important basis for environmental management and scientific decision-making, and an important basis for evaluating and assessing the effectiveness of governments at all levels in improving environmental quality and controlling environmental pollution. In 2018, the development of monitoring equipment, on the basis of lower price, easy maintenance, stable operation, and adaptation to harsh environments, has developed in the direction of automation, intelligence and networking. environmental monitoring network, from the provincial level to the prefecture level, and gradually to the county level; The field of monitoring is inclined from air and water to soil; At the same time, the direction of monitoring from narrow fields to all-round field monitoring has developed, and the monitoring indicators have been increasing. The monitoring space continues to expand, extending from the ground to the air and underground, from the simple ground environmental monitoring to the direction of combining with remote sensing environmental monitoring.

In 2018, the fixed pollution source monitoring market tends to be stable, the original monitoring equipment has entered the replacement period, benefiting from the impact of product upgrading, technology upgrading and other factors, the demand for traditional fixed pollution source monitoring products has risen, especially in August 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Automatic Monitoring of Key Pollutant Discharge Units in Key Industries and Key Areas", requiring all sewage treatment plants and key pollutant discharge units in key industries of nitrogen and phosphorus emissions to install automatic monitoring equipment for total nitrogen and total phosphorus. driving the market demand for total phosphorus and total nitrogen monitoring to rise; With the completion of the new construction and renovation of flue gas treatment facilities in thermal power plants, the market demand for ultra-low smoke and dust and flue gas monitoring equipment has become saturated. In addition, with the strengthening of environmental protection inspections, the demand for the reliability of operation and maintenance of pollution sources has increased, and the requirements for data quality have been continuously improved.

On the one hand, the state attaches great importance to air environment monitoring and governance, and continues to tighten relevant policies, improve emission control standards, refine monitoring and deployment plans, and improve the environmental monitoring system. On the other hand, with the country's emphasis on environmental protection, water quality monitoring has developed rapidly in recent years, especially in April 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the Yangtze River and proposed to "jointly grasp the great protection, not large-scale development", requiring the promotion of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and injecting strong impetus into the development of water quality monitoring. The traditional "end treatment" model represented by sewage treatment or river treatment is advancing to "basin-wide governance", and the operation of the integrated ecological unit of the whole basin has formed a huge market in the online monitoring of water ecology and emergency warning of water pollution. The water quality monitoring system is developing to a wider coverage and a more systematic layout, and the water quality monitoring system is gradually clarifying and improving. The National Environmental Monitoring Station spent 1.68 billion yuan on the construction and operation and maintenance of water quality monitoring stations, which marks that the water quality monitoring station market has entered a period of rapid release.

In 2018, the market demand for atmospheric composition analysis equipment increased. The monitoring indicators are inclined to component monitoring and precursor monitoring, and strive to clarify the source, cause and formation mechanism of pollutants. Benefiting from the construction of the component network led by the China Monitoring Station, the needs of various cities have gradually emerged.

In the field of smart environment, government demand continues to increase, and the market demand for grid monitoring and micro stations is strong. The environmental monitoring elements have expanded from the atmosphere to the water quality, and the monitoring field has been expanding, and the monitoring network has developed from the traditional "three wastes" monitoring to a comprehensive monitoring network covering all provinces and regions across the country, covering multiple fields and elements.

3. Hotspot technology

In 2018, environmental monitoring technologies were mainly focused on chemiluminescence, chromatography, mass spectrometry, FTIR, LIDAR, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and other fields, and new technologies such as data processing, intelligent monitoring, biosensors, 3D lidar, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) emerged.

Optical telemetry technology has been widely used, and a comprehensive three-dimensional monitoring network of atmospheric environment in typical areas has been constructed. Aerosol radar and single-particle aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer have been applied, and a comprehensive three-dimensional monitoring system of China's atmospheric environment has been independently constructed. Environmental monitoring methods based on biology, mass spectrometry and chromatography have also developed rapidly, which have jointly laid the foundation of China's modern environmental monitoring technology system. In recent years, China has reached the international advanced level in the field of environmental monitoring technology such as satellite remote sensing and lidar.

3S technology (GIS, GPS and remote sensing) has been applied in soil environmental monitoring, which can quickly realize soil sampling and control soil environmental conditions.

With the technological progress in the fields of optics, electronics, information, biology and other related fields, the technology in the field of environmental monitoring is developing in the direction of optical/spectroscopic analysis and mass spectrometry/chromatography analysis with high sensitivity and strong selectivity. The development of real-time, online, automatic monitoring of multiple monitoring parameters and regional dynamic telemetry; It will develop in the direction of environmental multi-element and big data comprehensive information evaluation technology.

Industry outlook
for 2019

1
. Industry outlook

In 2019, guided by the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China will fight seven major battles: blue sky protection, diesel truck pollution control, urban black and odorous water treatment, Bohai Sea comprehensive treatment, Yangtze River protection and restoration, water source protection, and agricultural and rural pollution control. The monitoring of environmental elements, environmental quality, ecosystem and ecological environment will be integrated and developed. Environmental monitoring will coordinate the monitoring and distribution of different scales such as urban/rural, regional/watershed, transmission channels, and ecological function zones, and the layout of monitoring points will increase; The frequency of monitoring will be more intensive, and it will be upgraded from manual monitoring to continuous automatic monitoring; Data evaluation requirements are inclined to accurate prediction and early warning, so as to provide a basis for pollution reduction and scientifically reflect environmental quality and governance effectiveness.

The construction of modern ecological network system will become a new hot spot, and the construction of groundwater monitoring, marine monitoring, rural monitoring, and greenhouse gas monitoring networks will be comprehensively carried out. Realize the national unified automatic detection data networking of atmospheric and water environment, the networking of characteristic monitoring data such as atmospheric super stations and satellite remote sensing, and build a unified national ecological environment monitoring big data management platform. In the future, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will establish ecological ground monitoring stations that basically cover important ecological function areas across the country, strengthen the construction of environmental satellite monitoring and aerial remote sensing monitoring capacity, and gradually build a national ecological environment monitoring network integrating space and earth.

Benefiting from the favor of environmental protection policies and social capital, the environmental monitoring industry will usher in rapid development, and is expected to achieve a market size of 900~100 billion yuan by 2020, with a five-year compound growth rate of about 20%.

2. Hot trends

Black and odorous water monitoring: The country's efforts to improve urban environmental governance continue to increase, and the development prospects of black and odorous water treatment industry are huge, which will inevitably promote the rapid development of the field of black and odorous water quality monitoring.

Miniaturized multi-parameter automatic monitoring of water quality: With the development of ecological environment monitoring network and the promotion of grid monitoring of water quality, automatic water environment monitoring stations need to be more densely distributed to meet the needs of big data applications such as pollution traceability, water quality early warning, and river chief assessment. Compared with fixed station room water stations, the miniaturized multi-parameter automatic water quality monitoring system has the advantages of small footprint, no land acquisition, flexible installation, short construction period, low investment and low cost, and will become a hot spot for water quality monitoring products.

Marine monitoring: The development of marine monitoring equipment technology is bound to closely follow the strategic needs of the national maritime power, and deeply integrate modern information technology with marine equipment and marine activities. Long-term, fixed-point, continuous multi-element synchronous measurement technology is the focus of studying the law of marine environment change and achieving target monitoring and vigilance.

VOCs monitoring: With the implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law in 2018, although VOCs are not listed in the types of taxable pollutants, VOCs such as benzene and toluene have been included in the scope of taxation, and it is expected that more volatile organic compounds will be included in the scope of taxation in the future. In addition, the second national survey of pollution sources is also accelerating, and the demand for VOCs monitoring at air stations and pollution sources is expected to accelerate under the policy stimulus.

Odor gas monitoring: With the improvement of people's requirements for a better living environment and the continuous development of monitoring technology for odor and other toxic and harmful gases, the monitoring of odor gas environmental pollution is the entry point of innovation and entrepreneurship, and the way out is from "trial and error", and the electronic method is used instead of manual methods to accurately determine the composition of odor, so as to realize the online monitoring of odor gas will become a hot spot in the industry.

Soil environmental monitoring: increase the application of trace and ultra-trace analysis techniques such as ICP-MS to improve the accuracy of soil environmental monitoring; On-site rapid analysis techniques will also be widely used.

Heavy metal monitoring of fixed pollution sources: With the advancement of the construction of the national heavy metal environmental monitoring system, the demand for heavy metal monitoring facilities installed by relevant enterprises will increase; Considering that among the 14,410 national key monitoring enterprises, 2,771 enterprises involved in heavy metals account for 2,771, and the short-term market size is 3.6 billion yuan according to the current price of 1.2 million yuan/unit. In the long run, it is estimated that the demand for 4,000 monitoring equipment for sewage discharge pollution sources, 4,000 monitoring equipment for coal-fired units, and 2,000 monitoring equipment for water quality monitoring in the basin will open up a new market of more than 10 billion yuan in the future.

In terms of urban monitoring of atmospheric transmission channels: increase the application of technologies such as navigation monitoring, lidar monitoring, and dust and sediment remote sensing monitoring.