Editor's Note: As the "nerve endings of the information age," sensors have permeated every critical field of the socio-economic landscape. Since October 2025, the China Electronics News has invited Guo Yuansheng, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee of the Jiusan Society Central Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Sensor and IoT Industry Alliance, to launch the column "Guo Yuansheng's In-Depth Analysis of Sensors." The column focuses on eight major fields and scenarios: electric power, major equipment, intelligent manufacturing, smart agriculture, smart healthcare and well-being, smart home appliances and consumer electronics, urban security, and low-altitude economy. It has successively published articles such as "Stationed on the Power Generation Side, Sensors Become the Cornerstone of Stable Operation of New Power Systems" and "Energy Storage Sensors Clarify Three Core Development Directions," which have attracted widespread attention and received high praise from readers. The article published this time focuses on intelligent sensors in the field of environmental protection and meteorology, elaborating on their application prospects, industrial status, and future recommendations to build industrial consensus and promote industrial development.
As China's ecological civilization construction enters the initial stage of the "15th Five-Year Plan," refined management of outdoor air pollution, tracing the sources of soil and groundwater pollution, and precise control of urban noise have become the focus of environmental protection work. Traditional monitoring methods mostly rely on manual sampling and fixed-station monitoring, which suffer from pain points such as narrow coverage, slow data updates, and difficulty in detecting deep pollution, making it hard to meet the core requirement of "building a comprehensive, real-time, and intelligent monitoring network" in the "15th Five-Year Plan" ecological environment plan. As the core component for environmental data collection, intelligent sensors can achieve high-frequency and high-precision perception of multi-dimensional indicators such as atmosphere, soil, groundwater, and noise, providing critical data support for pollution warning, governance decision-making, and policy evaluation.
I. Overview of the Comprehensive Monitoring System for Environmental Protection and Meteorology
Environmental Significance of Building a Multi-Level Three-Dimensional Monitoring Framework
The "space-ground-underground" three-layer monitoring framework is the core architecture to break through the limitations of traditional environmental monitoring: the space layer relies on satellite remote sensing technology to achieve macroscopic monitoring of regional air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, solving the problem of insufficient coverage of large-scale environmental data; the ground layer captures meso- and micro-indicators such as urban air quality, noise, indoor environment, and solid waste treatment through fixed monitoring stations, mobile monitoring vehicles, and distributed sensor networks, filling the fine-grained gaps in satellite monitoring; the underground layer uses embedded sensors to track soil heavy metal content, groundwater level, and water quality changes in real time, overcoming the monitoring difficulties of deep pollution being "invisible and intangible." The three-layer framework complements each other, forming a comprehensive monitoring closed loop from macro to micro and from surface to underground. It can not only provide cross-regional and full-element environmental data for environmental protection departments but also support enterprise pollution control and the guarantee of the public's right to know about the environment.
Core Requirements for Future Environmental Monitoring
According to the "15th Five-Year Plan for Ecological and Environmental Monitoring (Draft for Comments)," environmental monitoring in China will focus on three core requirements over the next five years:
First, comprehensive coverage. By 2030, monitoring points will fully cover national ecological function zones, key pollution sources, and urban and rural residential areas. Among them, soil monitoring points will be densified to one per 10,000 mu of arable land, and groundwater monitoring wells will cover all county-level administrative regions. Second, real-time transmission. The frequency of environmental data collection is required to be upgraded from the "hourly level" to the "minute level." Emission data from key pollution sources must be uploaded to the regulatory platform in real time to ensure timely warning of pollution incidents. Third, data synergy. Breaking down data barriers between departments, promoting the cross-level integration of satellite remote sensing data, ground station data, and underground sensor data to support regional joint prevention and control (such as the coordinated governance of air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region) and cross-media pollution tracing (such as the joint analysis of soil-groundwater pollution). These requirements directly drive the upgrade of intelligent sensors towards high frequency, low power consumption, and high compatibility, and also force the transformation of sensor networks from "dispersed construction" to "systematic networking."
Core Pain Points and Sensor Requirements for Monitoring at Each Level
1. Core Pain Points and Requirements of the Space Layer: Satellite remote sensing sensors suffer from insufficient spectral resolution (the spectral resolution of some early satellites is only 10nm, making it difficult to accurately distinguish between PM2.5 and PM10) and long revisit cycles (some satellites cover once every 3-5 days, unable to capture short-term pollution events). During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the focus will be on deploying high-resolution infrared hyperspectral satellites (spectral resolution ≤5nm) and small satellite constellations (revisit cycle ≤1 day) to enhance the refined monitoring capabilities of air pollution and greenhouse gases. At the same time, sensors are required to have anti-cloud interference capabilities to ensure a data validity rate of ≥85%.
2. Core Pain Points and Requirements of the Ground Layer: Ground air monitoring stations face issues such as high deployment costs (the cost of a single standard station exceeds 500,000 RMB, making it difficult to deploy on a large scale), insufficient coverage of indoor environmental monitoring (newly built schools, kindergartens, and other key places still rely on manual spot checks), and low spatiotemporal resolution of noise monitoring (some cities only deploy points on main roads, leaving many blind spots for noise monitoring in residential areas). It is necessary to promote low-cost micro-sensors (e.g., the cost of PM2.5 laser scattering sensors is reduced to within 200 RMB) and distributed noise sensor networks (cost per point ≤1,000 RMB). At the same time, formaldehyde/TVOC sensors suitable for complex indoor environments should be developed (anti-temperature and humidity interference capability needs to be improved by more than 30%) to meet the needs of high-density deployment and multi-scenario coverage.
3. Core Pain Points and Requirements of the Underground Layer: Soil and groundwater monitoring face issues such as short sensor service life (the service life of embedded sensors in humid and high-salt environments is often less than 1 year), difficult data transmission (signal attenuation is severe at depths of more than 5 meters underground, and the wireless transmission success rate is ≤70%), and low heavy metal detection accuracy (the detection limit of some domestic sensors for mercury is only 1μg/L, which cannot meet the standard of 0.1μg/L for arable land soil). During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the focus will be on developing corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant underground sensors (service life ≥3 years), underground wired-wireless hybrid transmission modules (transmission success rate ≥95%), and high-precision heavy metal sensors (detection limit ≤0.1μg/L) to support detailed soil pollution surveys and groundwater environmental quality assessments.
II. Space Layer: Satellite Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring
Remote Sensing Monitoring of Air Pollution: Application of Visible Short-Wave Infrared Sensors on High-Resolution Satellites
Given the increasing requirements for refined governance of air pollution, traditional ground monitoring stations are difficult to provide data support for regional pollution tracing and cross-provincial joint prevention and control. Visible short-wave infrared sensors on high-resolution satellites have become a key solution. Their core monitoring objects include primary air pollutants such as PM2.5/PM10, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Pollutant concentration distribution can be retrieved through spectral absorption characteristics. In terms of technical parameters, the visible short-wave infrared sensor carried by the Gaofen-7 02 satellite has a resolution of ≤5nm, which can accurately distinguish the particle size scattering differences between PM2.5 and PM10; the detection sensitivity is ≤0.01mg/m³, capable of capturing low-concentration pollution processes (such as the mild pollution with PM2.5 concentrations of 35-75μg/m³ in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in winter); the revisit cycle is shortened to 1-2 days, and combined with small satellite constellation networking, daily coverage of key polluted areas can be achieved.
Application cases show that during the sandstorm weather in the Yangtze River Delta region in the spring of 2026, this type of sensor successfully tracked the sandstorm transmission path, providing data support for cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou to start dust control in advance, resulting in a 22% decrease in the peak PM10 concentration compared to when no warning was issued.
Remote Sensing Monitoring of Greenhouse Gases: Application of Infrared Hyperspectral Sensors
Driven by the "dual carbon" goals and the "15th Five-Year Plan" for greenhouse gas monitoring, infrared hyperspectral sensors have become the core devices for satellite remote sensing monitoring of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Its working principle is based on the absorption characteristics of greenhouse gases in specific infrared bands (such as the strong absorption of carbon dioxide in the 2.0μm and 2.7μm bands). By capturing the intensity changes of absorption peaks with high spectral resolution, the gas column concentration is retrieved. In terms of technical parameters, the concentration retrieval accuracy reaches ±1ppm, and the spatial resolution is ≤30m, which can identify small-scale greenhouse gas emission sources such as urban building clusters and industrial parks; for methane leak monitoring, the detection sensitivity of the sensor in the 1.65μm band is ≤0.5ppb, capable of detecting trace methane leaks in areas such as coalbed methane mining areas and landfills (leakage rates ≥5m³/h can be captured).
In terms of policy relevance, future requirements call for the establishment of a national grid-based greenhouse gas monitoring system. Satellite infrared hyperspectral sensor data will be integrated with ground station and UAV monitoring data to form a "space-ground" coordinated emission inventory, providing a basis for carbon emission quota allocation and key enterprise emission reduction assessments in various provinces. For example, in 2027, Shanxi Province will rely on the construction requirements of the national grid-based greenhouse gas monitoring system to use carbon satellite data to optimize the methane emission reduction plan in coalbed methane mining areas, reducing methane emissions in the region by 18% compared to 2025.
III. Ground Layer: Environmental Monitoring of Public and Indoor Environments
Application of Sensors in Ground Air Quality Monitoring Stations
Ground air quality monitoring stations are the meso- and micro-nodes of the comprehensive monitoring network, and their sensor configuration directly affects the accuracy of daily air quality reports and warning releases. For PM2.5 monitoring, laser scattering sensors are the current mainstream solution, and technical parameters need to meet: measurement range 0-1000μg/m³ (covering the upper limit of 500μg/m³ for severe pollution in China's "Ambient Air Quality Standard"), accuracy ±10% (ensuring accurate judgment of different pollution levels), and response time ≤10s (timely reflecting short-term pollution fluctuations such as traffic peaks and straw burning). For ozone monitoring, electrochemical sensors need to solve the cross-interference problem, with a detection limit ≤5ppb (far below the secondary standard of 160μg/m³ for the 8-hour average concentration), and cross-interference to coexisting gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide ≤5%, avoiding data misjudgment during the synergistic pollution of ozone and PM2.5 in summer.
Market status shows that in 2024, the domestic ground air sensor market size was about 2.5 billion RMB, of which PM2.5 sensors accounted for 35% and ozone sensors accounted for 22%. In the future, with the acceleration of county-level city monitoring station construction, by 2030, all county-level cities will have built standard stations. The ground air sensor market is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 18%, and the annual market size will exceed 6 billion RMB. In application cases, in 2026, Chengdu deployed 20 laser scattering PM2.5 sensors along the Ring Expressway. Combined with traffic flow data, it achieved accurate prediction of PM2.5 concentrations during truck restriction periods, reducing the number of days with PM2.5 exceeding the standard in the region in autumn by 10 days compared to 2025.
Urban Noise Environmental Monitoring: Noise Sensor Networks
By 2030, China will achieve full coverage of the noise monitoring network in prefecture-level cities. For the precise control of traffic noise, industrial noise, and social life noise, distributed noise sensor networks have become the core technical path. Sensor technical parameters need to meet: measurement range 30-130dB (covering the full-scale standards in the "Acoustic Environment Quality Standard" (GB3096-2008), from 30-50dB during the day and 30-40dB at night in Category 0 areas (such as recuperation areas) to 60-70dB during the day and 50-55dB at night in Category 4 areas (both sides of traffic trunk lines)), frequency response 20Hz-20kHz (matching the human ear hearing range to ensure accurate noise type identification), data transmission interval 1-5min (balancing real-time performance and power consumption), and equipped with temperature compensation function (accuracy fluctuation ≤1dB in the environment of -20℃-60℃).
In terms of application scenarios, noise sensors deployed on traffic trunk lines can be linked with traffic lights. When the monitored noise exceeds 75dB (the daytime standard for Category 4 areas), the green light time is extended to reduce vehicle idling and honking. For example, in 2027, Chaoyang District in Beijing deployed 50 noise sensors on the Jingtong Expressway. After linkage, the number of honking on this road section decreased by 35%, and the daytime noise average dropped from 78dB to 72dB; sensors around residential areas can trigger community bulletin board warnings, reminding square dancing and renovation activities to control the volume. In 2026, a community in Binjiang District, Hangzhou, reduced the number of noise exceeding standard complaints at night (22:00-6:00) by 40% through this method. In terms of the market, the urban noise sensor market size was about 1.2 billion RMB in 2024, and the compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 20% from 2026 to 2030, among which low-cost MEMS noise sensors will become the main force for popularization.
Indoor Environmental Compliance Monitoring
Indoor environmental monitoring in key places such as newly built schools, kindergartens, and nursing homes has been included in the scope of mandatory supervision, and formaldehyde/TVOC sensors have become key detection devices. For formaldehyde monitoring, it needs to meet: measurement range 0-5mg/m³ (covering the limit requirement of 0.10mg/m³ (1-hour average) for formaldehyde in the "Indoor Air Quality Standard" (GB/T18883-2002)), resolution 0.01mg/m³ (capable of capturing low-concentration formaldehyde slowly released after decoration), repeatability ±2% (avoiding excessive fluctuation of measurement data at different times), and anti-temperature and humidity interference capability (accuracy fluctuation ≤5% in the environment of 20-30℃ and 30%-70% humidity). TVOC sensors need to cover common volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, and xylene, with a measurement range of 0-5mg/m³, resolution of 0.05mg/m³, and response time ≤30s.
Application cases show that in 2026, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission required newly built kindergartens to conduct 15 days of continuous monitoring before delivery. The formaldehyde sensors used sampled once every 2 hours in children's activity areas. When the formaldehyde concentration was monitored to be ≥0.08mg/m³, the fresh air system was automatically triggered to increase the air volume, ensuring that the indoor formaldehyde concentration was all below 0.1mg/m³ when the kindergarten opened. In terms of market demand, as the "Indoor Air Quality Standard" advances in 2026 (adding segmented standards for special places such as kindergartens and nursing homes), the procurement volume of indoor environmental sensors will increase from 1.2 million units in 2025 to 3 million units in 2027, of which the school scenario accounts for 45%, becoming the largest incremental market.
Solid Waste Treatment Environmental Monitoring: Landfill Leachate Sensors
Landfill leachate contains high concentrations of organic matter, ammonia nitrogen, and other pollutants. If it leaks, it will seriously pollute soil and groundwater. According to the requirements of the "15th Five-Year Plan for Ecological and Environmental Monitoring (Draft for Comments)," by 2030, the real-time monitoring coverage rate of landfill leachate nationwide needs to reach 100%. The core indicators that leachate sensors need to monitor include: pH value (reflecting the acidity and alkalinity of leachate, normal range 6-9), chemical oxygen demand (COD, reflecting organic matter concentration, landfill leachate COD is usually 1000-5000mg/L), and ammonia nitrogen (reflecting nitrogen-containing pollutant concentration, usually 500-1000mg/L). In terms of technical parameters, the accuracy of electrochemical pH sensors needs to reach ±0.1, with a range of 0-14; COD sensors use optical digestion-colorimetric method, with a measurement range of 0-5000mg/L and accuracy of ±2% FS; ammonia nitrogen sensors use the ion-selective electrode method, with a measurement range of 0-1000mg/L and resolution ≤1mg/L. In addition, sensors need to be corrosion-resistant (leachate has high salt content, requiring 316L stainless steel shell) and anti-clogging design (built-in self-cleaning device to avoid suspended matter attachment affecting accuracy).
In application cases, 80 leachate sensors were deployed at the Xingfeng Landfill in Guangzhou. When the system monitored that the COD in a certain area suddenly increased from 2000mg/L to 3500mg/L and the pH dropped to 5.5, it judged that the anti-seepage membrane was damaged and promptly started emergency pumping and drainage to avoid polluting the surrounding groundwater (monitoring showed that after emergency treatment, the COD of the surrounding groundwater remained below 30mg/L, meeting the Class III standard for groundwater quality). In terms of the market, the leachate sensor market size was about 800 million RMB in 2024. With the promotion of full coverage policies, the scale will exceed 2 billion RMB in 2030, and the proportion of domestic sensors will increase from 40% in 2024 to 70% in 2030, gradually replacing imported products.
IV. Underground Layer: Environmental Monitoring of Soil and Groundwater
Soil Pollution Monitoring Sensors
The prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in arable land soil mainly targets priority control pollutants such as mercury, cadmium, and lead. Sensor technical parameters need to meet: mercury detection limit ≤0.1mg/kg (meeting the requirement of the mercury risk screening value of 0.3mg/kg in the "Soil Environmental Quality Risk Control Standard for Soil Pollution of Agricultural Land" (GB 15618-2018)), cadmium detection limit ≤0.1mg/kg (meeting the requirement of the cadmium risk screening value of 0.3mg/kg in the standard), and response time ≤30s (supporting rapid sampling analysis). At the same time, sensors need to have the ability to resist soil medium interference (anti-interference ability to organic matter and clay minerals in soil ≥90%) and a service life of ≥3 years (reducing the replacement frequency of embedded sensors). Soil pH and moisture content are key indicators for auxiliary judgment of soil pollution migration. The pH sensor measurement range is 3-10 (covering the normal pH range of 5.5-8.5 for arable land soil), with an accuracy of ±0.1; the moisture content sensor measurement range is 0-100%, with an accuracy of ±2%, using the frequency domain reflection (FDR) method to avoid the influence of soil salinity on measurement results.
Application cases show thatin 2026, Henan Province deployed100 heavy metal sensors in 1 million mu of the main wheat-producing area to monitor cadmium concentrations in real time. When the cadmium concentration in a certain area rises from 0.2mg/kg to 0.28mg/kg, the system reminds farmers to adjust planting varieties (switching to low-cadmium-accumulating wheat varieties) to ensure that the cadmium content in wheat meets food safety standards (≤0.1mg/kg). In terms of the market, the soil monitoring sensor market size was about 1 billion RMB in 2024, of which heavy metal sensors accounted for 35%. With the densification of arable land monitoring, this market is expected to grow by 19% annually, reaching 2.8 billion RMB in 2030.
Groundwater Environmental Monitoring Sensors
Groundwater is an important drinking water source in China, and its monitoring covers all county-level administrative regions. In response to the real-time monitoring needs of groundwater level and water quality, dedicated sensors need to solve the problems of difficult underground signal transmission and poor environmental adaptability. Technical parameters of groundwater level pressure sensors: measurement range 0-100mH2O (covering the groundwater burial depth in most plain areas), accuracy ±0.5% FS, using diffused silicon pressure cores, with the ability to resist formation pressure impact; data transmission adopts a wired (RS485) + wireless (LoRa) hybrid mode, and under conventional soil medium conditions, the transmission success rate at a depth of 5-10m underground is ≥95%. Groundwater quality sensors need to monitor dissolved oxygen (reflecting water self-purification capacity), conductivity (reflecting salt content), and total dissolved solids (TDS, reflecting water purity). Technical parameters: dissolved oxygen measurement range 0-20mg/L, accuracy ±0.1mg/L; conductivity measurement range 0-20000μS/cm, accuracy ±1% FS; TDS measurement range 0-10000mg/L, accuracy ±2%.
In addition, water quality sensors need to have an anti-biofouling design (built-in ultraviolet sterilization module to avoid algae and bacteria affecting electrodes) and a service life of ≥2 years. In application cases, in 2027, Shandong Province will deploy 300 groundwater sensors in 17 county-level administrative regions. When it was monitored that the TDS of groundwater in a certain county rose from 500mg/L to 1200mg/L (exceeding the limit of 1000mg/L for TDS in the "Sanitary Standard for Drinking Water" (GB 5749-2022)) and the conductivity rose to 2000μS/cm, a timely investigation found pollution from seepage pits in surrounding chemical plants, and a groundwater remediation project was started. Three months later, the TDS in the area dropped to 800mg/L. Market trends show that the groundwater sensor market size was about 900 million RMB in 2024, and the compound annual growth rate from 2026 to 2030 is expected to reach 22% (the highest growth rate among all categories of environmental sensors). Among them, the proportion of water quality sensors will increase from 30% in 2024 to 45% in 2030, becoming the core category driving market growth.
V. Collaborative Application and Data Value of Environmental Protection and Meteorology Sensors
Application of Multi-Sensor Data Fusion in Environmental Warning
Single sensor data can no longer meet the warning needs for complex environmental problems. Multi-sensor data fusion has become the core means to improve the accuracy and timeliness of warnings.
Case 1: Cross-Regional Collaborative Warning Platform for Air Pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region
The platform integrates "space-ground" two-layer sensor data: the space layer uses high-resolution satellite visible short-wave infrared sensors to obtain regional PM2.5/PM10 concentration distribution and transmission paths (revisit cycle 1 day, spatial resolution 30m), and the ground layer combines laser scattering PM2.5 sensors and ozone electrochemical sensors from over 3,000 ground monitoring stations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surroundings. Through AI algorithms, the spatiotemporal differences of different data sources are fused to achieve advance prediction of pollution processes. For example, relying on the "space-ground" collaborative monitoring framework, satellite data was used to discover that sandstorms were generated in central Inner Mongolia and transmitted to the southeast. Combined with ground wind speed (3-5m/s) and relative humidity (<40%) data monitored by ground stations and distributed meteorological sensors in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, a sandstorm warning was issued 48 hours in advance. Hebei, Beijing, and other places promptly started measures such as suspending construction sites and banning dump trucks, reducing the peak PM10 concentration in Beijing by 35% compared to the predicted value, avoiding reaching the severe pollution level (PM10≥500μg/m³).
Case 2: Joint Monitoring Data Tracing System for Arable Land Soil-Groundwater Pollution in the Yangtze River Delta
In response to the problem that heavy metal pollution in arable land soil in some parts of the Yangtze River Delta may migrate to groundwater, the system integrates underground soil heavy metal sensors (mercury detection limit 0.1 mg/kg, cadmium detection limit 1 mg/kg, 1-hour level data) and groundwater quality sensors (dissolved oxygen, conductivity, TDS, 15-minute level data) to establish a "soil concentration-groundwater quality" correlation model. Soil cadmium sensors in an agricultural area in Jiangsu monitored that the concentration rose from 0.25mg/kg to 0.32mg/kg (exceeding the agricultural land screening value of 0.3mg/kg), while the groundwater conductivity sensor data rose from 800μS/cm to 1200μS/cm. The system judged through data fusion that cadmium pollution had begun to migrate to groundwater, immediately triggering the closure of 3 surrounding drinking water wells and a soil remediation plan, avoiding drinking water safety risks.
Supporting Role of Sensor Data in Environmental Protection Policies
The long-term, high-frequency, and comprehensive data generated by sensors provide critical support for the transformation of environmental protection policies from "experience-based formulation" to "data-driven":
1. Assisting in the Formulation of "One Province, One Policy" Air Governance Plans
Taking Shandong Province as an example, in 2026, the ground air sensor networks in 16 prefecture-level cities across the province (minute-level data for PM2.5, ozone, and nitrogen oxides) and satellite remote sensing air pollution transmission data were analyzed to conclude that the provincial air pollution presents regional characteristics of "nitrogen oxide emissions from the central Shandong industrial zone dominating ozone generation, and PM2.5 in the eastern coastal area of Shandong being significantly affected by external sandstorms." Accordingly, the provincial air governance plan specifically proposed: the central Shandong region should focus on controlling nitrogen oxide emissions from steel enterprises (requiring enterprises to install high-precision nitrogen oxide sensors and control emission concentrations in real time below 100mg/m³), and the eastern Shandong region should strengthen the linkage of port dust monitoring and sandstorm warnings (deploying port dust sensors with a monitoring range of 0-1000μg/m³ and an accuracy of ±10%). After the implementation of the policy, in 2027, the average PM2.5 concentration in the province decreased by 12% compared to the previous year, and the number of days with ozone exceeding the standard decreased by 15 days.
2. Soil Monitoring Data Provides a Basis for the Arable Land Protection Red Line Policy
China strictly guards the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land protection, and soil sensor data has become the core basis for classified management of arable land quality. For example, based on the provincial arable land soil heavy metal sensors (1 monitoring point per 10,000 mu, annual updated data), Henan Province divided arable land into three categories: "safe areas" (heavy metal concentrations below screening values), "risk areas" (between screening values and control values), and "control areas" (above control values): safe areas maintain normal agricultural production, risk areas promote low-accumulation crop varieties (such as low-cadmium-accumulating wheat), and control areas implement fallow or soil remediation. In 2028, Henan Province adjusted the planting structure of 1.5 million mu of risk areas based on sensor data, reducing the heavy metal exceeding standard rate of agricultural products in the area from 3.2% in 2026 to 0.5%, while ensuring that the arable land area did not decrease and the quality did not decline.
VI. Current Status and Trends of the Environmental Protection and Meteorology Sensor Industry
Industrial Scale and Market Landscape
1. Overall Market Size
In 2024, the domestic environmental protection and meteorology sensor market size was about 8.7 billion RMB. It is expected that the market will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 17% from 2026 to 2030, and the market size will exceed 20 billion RMB in 2030. Among them, air monitoring sensors, due to the densification of ground stations and satellite networking needs, remain the largest segmented market (accounting for 42% in 2024, and an estimated 38% in 2030); groundwater monitoring sensors benefit from the policy of full coverage of monitoring wells in county-level administrative regions, with the fastest growth rate (accounting for 6% in 2024, and the proportion will increase to 18% in 2030); the market shares of noise monitoring, soil monitoring, and leachate monitoring sensors are 15%, 12%, and 8% respectively, and other categories (such as indoor environmental sensors) account for 9%.
2. Market Competition Landscape
The market share of domestic sensor enterprises continues to increase, reaching 65% in 2024, an increase of 20 percentage points compared to 2020. In the mid-to-low-end fields such as ground air PM2.5 sensors, noise sensors, and soil pH sensors, domestic enterprises (such as Hanwei Technology and Sifang Optoelectronics) have achieved large-scale substitution, with a market share of over 80%. However, in the field of high-end sensors (such as satellite infrared hyperspectral sensors and high-precision heavy metal sensors), they still rely on imports (such as Thermo Fisher Scientific in the US and Shimadzu in Japan), with a domestic market share of less than 30%. For example, the core chips of the infrared hyperspectral sensors carried by the upcoming Carbon Satellite 03 still need to be imported, with a localization rate of only 25%; for soil mercury sensors with a detection limit ≤0.1μg/L, domestic enterprises can only meet 30% of the market demand. In addition, third-party monitoring institutions (such as PONY Testing and CTI) have become a new force in sensor procurement. In 2024, their procurement volume accounted for 28% of the total market, and it is expected to reach 40% in 2030, promoting the transformation of the sensor market from "government-led" to a dual-drive of "government + market."
Existing Problems and Challenges
1. Technical Shortcomings of Domestic Sensors
(1) Insufficient long-term stability: The service life of some domestic products is short. For example, the service life of embedded soil heavy metal sensors in humid and high-salt environments is generally only 1-2 years, far below the international standard of 3-5 years for similar products; ground ozone electrochemical sensors in high-temperature (≥35℃) and high-humidity (≥80% RH) environments can have an accuracy fluctuation of up to ±15%, affecting the accuracy of summer ozone pollution monitoring.
(2) Poor adaptability to extreme environments: Domestic satellite visible short-wave infrared sensors have a data validity rate of only 60%-70% under strong cloud cover (cloud cover ≥70%), which is lower than the validity rate of over 85% for similar international products; landfill leachate sensors, due to imperfect anti-clogging design, have about 30% of sensors experiencing suspended matter clogging the probes after 6 months of use, requiring frequent maintenance.
(3) Core chips rely on imports: The localization rate of core chips for high-end sensors (such as InGaAs chips for infrared hyperspectral sensors and electrochemical detection chips for heavy metal sensors) is less than 30%. Imported chips are expensive (about 3-5 times the price of domestic chips), resulting in high costs for high-end sensors (e.g., the price of a domestic high-precision mercury sensor is about 20,000 RMB, while imported products are about 50,000 RMB), limiting large-scale deployment.
2. Cost Bottleneck of Multi-Sensor Collaborative Networking
In achieving cross-level and cross-regional sensor data collaboration, multi-sensor networking faces the problem of excessively high costs: first, the data interfaces of sensors from different brands are not unified (e.g., some domestic PM2.5 sensors use the Modbus protocol, while imported sensors use the RS232 protocol), requiring the additional purchase of data conversion modules (costing about 500 RMB per unit). Taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei air warning platform as an example, the data conversion cost for over 3,000 sensors reaches 1.5 million RMB; second, the cost of wireless transmission modules for underground sensors is high (the cost of a single LoRa module is about 800 RMB). If full coverage of groundwater monitoring wells in county-level administrative regions nationwide (about 30,000 monitoring wells) is to be achieved, the cost of transmission modules alone will reach 240 million RMB, increasing the financial burden on local governments.
3. Technological Gap Between Domestic and International Levels
In terms of core sensor technology, there is still a certain gap between domestic and international advanced levels: international enterprises (such as Aeroqual in the US and Sensirion in Germany) have launched intelligent sensors integrated with AI algorithms (capable of autonomously identifying interference signals and correcting measurement errors), while most domestic sensors still need to rely on external algorithm platforms for data processing, with only a few leading enterprises achieving built-in integration of AI algorithms; in the field of satellite remote sensing sensors, the spectral resolution of the infrared hyperspectral sensor on the US EO-1 satellite has reached 2.5nm, and the concentration retrieval accuracy is ±0.5ppm, which is superior to China's Carbon Satellite 03 (spectral resolution 5nm, accuracy ±1ppm); in the field of groundwater quality sensors, the response time of the dissolved oxygen sensor from the German WTW company is ≤5s, and the accuracy is ±0.05mg/L, which is superior to domestic sensors (response time ≤10s, accuracy ±0.1mg/L).
Future Development Trends
1. Technological Development Trends
(1) Miniaturization and low power consumption: In response to the needs of high-density ground deployment, the volume of PM2.5 laser scattering sensors is reduced from the current 50cm³ to below 20cm³, and the cost is reduced to within 150 RMB/unit; underground soil sensors adopt low-power design (operating current ≤10mA), and combined with solar panels, the battery life is extended from 1-2 years to over 5 years, reducing maintenance costs.
(2) AI intelligent integration: The integration of AI algorithms in sensors has become a trend. For example, ozone electrochemical sensors integrate cross-interference correction algorithms, which can automatically eliminate interference signals from gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, reducing the accuracy fluctuation from ±15% to ±5%; satellite infrared hyperspectral sensors integrate cloud removal algorithms, increasing the data validity rate to over 85% and reducing dependence on weather conditions.
(3) Multi-parameter integration: A single sensor integrates multi-indicator monitoring functions. For example, ground air sensors simultaneously monitor PM2.5, PM10, ozone, temperature, and humidity (five-in-one sensor), and underground water quality sensors simultaneously monitor dissolved oxygen, conductivity, TDS, and pH (four-in-one sensor), reducing networking costs. For example, the price of a five-in-one air sensor is about 60% of the sum of single-parameter sensors (about 800 RMB/unit).
2. Market Development Trends
(1) Policy-driven acceleration of localization development: Policies clearly require that "the usage rate of domestic environmental sensors in government procurement shall not be less than 70%." It is expected that R&D investment in domestic high-end sensors will increase by 30% from 2026 to 2030, achieving breakthroughs in fields such as infrared hyperspectral sensor chips and heavy metal detection chips. The localization rate of high-end sensors will increase to over 50% in 2030. At the same time, the state will set up an environmental sensor industry fund to support technological research in small and medium-sized enterprises, and it is expected to cultivate 3-5 domestic leading enterprises before 2028.
(2) Explosion of the third-party monitoring market: As the "Market-Oriented Reform Plan for Environmental Monitoring Services" advances, third-party monitoring institutions will undertake more tasks for enterprise pollution source monitoring and park environmental monitoring. Their procurement demand for sensors will shift from "single models" to "customized solutions." For example, providing "air + water quality + soil" integrated sensor packages for chemical parks, promoting the transformation of sensor enterprises from "hardware suppliers" to "solution service providers."
(3) Expansion of cross-border integrated applications: Environmental sensors will be deeply integrated with strategies such as smart cities and rural revitalization. For example, urban noise data will be integrated into smart transportation systems, linking and adjusting the duration of traffic lights at intersections to reduce honking; soil data will be integrated into agricultural IoT platforms to guide farmers in precise fertilization (adjusting the amount of fertilization based on soil nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium sensor data to reduce chemical fertilizer pollution). In 2027, Jiangsu Province will pilot the "soil sensor + smart agriculture" model, reducing chemical fertilizer usage in the pilot area by 20% and increasing soil organic matter content by 5%.
Conclusion
China's environmental protection and meteorology monitoring system is transforming from "making up for shortcomings" to "improving quality." As the "core sensing unit" of comprehensive monitoring, the technological iteration and industrial development of intelligent sensors directly relate to the precision and efficiency of ecological environment governance.
From satellite remote sensing in space capturing regional pollution migration, to distributed networks on the ground controlling urban noise and indoor environmental protection, to embedded devices underground safeguarding soil and groundwater safety, the collaborative application of the three-layer sensor network is building an environmental monitoring closed loop covering all elements, all spaces, and all cycles. Although domestic sensors still have shortcomings in high-end fields, and the cost of multi-sensor networking has not yet fully decreased, driven by policies, technological research, and market demand, the environmental protection and meteorology sensor industry will usher in a virtuous cycle of "technological upgrade - cost reduction - scaled application."
In the future, with breakthroughs in the stability and accuracy of domestic sensors, and the deep integration of AI algorithms and sensors, comprehensive environmental protection and meteorology monitoring will not only be able to warn of pollution incidents in a timely manner but also provide forward-looking data support for national strategies such as the dual carbon goals, arable land protection, and drinking water safety. Ultimately, it will realize the transformation of the governance model from "passive treatment" to "active prevention," precisely meeting the core requirement of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for ecological environment to "build a comprehensive, real-time, and intelligent monitoring network," and laying a solid foundation for building a modernization where humanity and nature coexist in harmony.
Author | Guo Yuansheng, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee of the Jiusan Society Central Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Sensor and IoT Industry Alliance; Editor | Yang Pengyue; Art Editor | Maria; Supervisor | Lian Xiaodong