Ren Nanqi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Harbin Institute of Technology: digitalization empowers the construction of ecological civilization

A good ecological environment is the fairest public good and the most inclusive people's livelihood and well-being. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "China's economic and social development has entered a stage of high-quality development to accelerate green and low-carbon, and the construction of ecological civilization is still in a critical period of superimposed pressure and heavy burden. "With the in-depth development of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, the construction of ecological civilization empowered by digitalization has become the key to improving the modernization level of ecological and environmental governance, comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China, and accelerating the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Digitalization empowers the construction of ecological civilization, adopts technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain, deeply excavates and integrates the application of ecological environment data, builds a smart and efficient ecological environment management information system, comprehensively improves the integrity, systematization and coordination of environmental governance, and promotes the formation of a green and intelligent production and lifestyle, so that the sky is bluer, the ground is greener, the water is clearer, and the rivers and mountains are more colorful, and the people's sense of ecological environment gain, happiness and security is continuously improved.

Digital technology innovates ecological governance paths and models to provide systematic environmental services for the people. The indivisibility of the ecological environment and the plurality of its related elements determine that the governance of the ecological environment must adhere to the system concept, so as to achieve overall planning, overall policy, and multiple measures at the same time. Through efficient data aggregation and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital twins, it can effectively improve the overall ability, top-level design ability, monitoring and perception ability, early warning and forecasting ability, intelligent decision-making ability and emergency response ability necessary for environmental governance, provide intelligent support for the whole system and whole process of ecological governance, and provide systematic environmental services for the people. Taking the urban water system as an example, with the acceleration of urbanization, the urban water system is facing challenges such as urban water security risks, water ecological damage, water shortage, and water environment pollution, especially the systematic management of urban waterlogging, which has attracted widespread attention. By establishing an intelligent management and control system for urban water environment based on AI + big data, linking the urban plant-station-network-river system, and comprehensively considering the urban water resources, water environment, water ecology, water security, and water culture, the overall management, comprehensive protection and systematic utilization of surface water, sewage, ecological water, natural precipitation, and groundwater can be realized, and the people's growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment can be continuously met.

Digital technology promotes the green upgrading of development methods and helps enterprises promote green transformation. The rapid development of digital technology has provided new ideas and methods to promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and promoted pollution prevention and control from end-of-line treatment to source control. On the one hand, digital technology can help save energy and reduce emissions. By collecting, processing, and processing production data, digital technology can monitor the entire production chain in real time, and accurately adjust production management methods according to changes in demand, improve resource allocation efficiency, and reduce resource and energy consumption and waste. On the other hand, digital technology can provide enterprises with an information sharing platform, reduce the uncertainty of enterprise R&D and innovation, support enterprises to engage in innovation activities, improve enterprise production efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions and pollutant emissions per unit of output value. The digitalization of production and operation has become an important focus of enterprises to reduce carbon emissions, and the proportion of carbon reduction contribution of AI-related technologies will increase year by year, playing an increasingly important role.

Digital technology is driving a paradigm shift in science in the environmental field and providing people with a smarter living space. Environmental science is a science that promotes the harmonious coexistence of man and nature based on the knowledge system of biology, chemistry, physics, materials and other disciplines, and feeds back the theoretical system through practical experience. Digital technology has become a link connecting multidisciplinary knowledge, which can make up for the gap in the original knowledge system and promote the "chemical reaction" of fusion and fusion of multidisciplinary knowledge in the field of ecological civilization. The use of AI + big data can effectively mine the complex nonlinear mapping relationship in the process of practice, and realize the sublimation from practical experience to scientific theory through knowledge embedding and knowledge learning. Floods in some cities in China are prone to occur frequently, posing a threat to the safety of residents' lives and property and to their normal production and life. According to the multidisciplinary system thinking, based on China's many years of experience in urban drainage construction, we can build an overall management and control system of social water cycle and natural water cycle, give full play to the functions of natural system infiltration, detention, storage, purification and artificial enhancement, so that sponge cities can have better elasticity and resilience in adapting to environmental changes and responding to natural disasters, and help people build higher quality and smarter living spaces while improving urban safety.

Digital empowerment of the construction of ecological civilization is an unprecedented and profound change, and digitalization and intelligence provide a new path for the construction of ecological civilization. We need to embrace digital technology, continue to carry out scientific and technological research, expand digital applications, and continue to inject new momentum into the improvement of the ecological environment, high-quality development and high-level protection, so that the people can live a better and healthier life.

The author is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology