Natural Resources

Land resources

According to the statistics released by the Yueyang Municipal Land and Resources Department in the 1990s, Yueyang Tower District covers a total land area of 260,551.379 mu (approximately 17,370.09 ha). With a total area of 111,636.261 mu (approximately 7,442.42 ha), the agricultural land comprises of 39,078.11 mu (approximately 2,605.21 ha) of cultivated land, 9,560.093 mu (approximately 637.34 ha) of garden land, 42,635.324 mu (approximately 2,842.35 ha) of forests and 20,362.734 (approximately 1,357.51 ha) of land used for other purposes. The built-up land covers 1,157.817 mu (approximately 77.19 ha), including 106,124.934 mu (approximately 7,074.99 ha) for residential and industrial purposes, 4,865.136 mu (approximately 324.34 ha) for transportation and 4,721.747 mu (approximately 314.78 ha) for water conservancy facilities. The unutilized land (that is not arable, including riffle area, river bank and desert) covers an area of 33,203.301 mu (approximately 2,213.55 ha).

Mineral resources

Yueyang Tower District is rich in such mineral resources as vanadium, stone coal, uranium, gold, siliceous rocks, sandstone, sand gravel, violet sand earthenware clay, brick clay and groundwater. Forty-nine kinds of minerals were discovered in the city, and reserves of 31 kinds of minerals were detected, including 3 kinds of energy minerals, 20 metallic minerals, 7 non-metallic minerals and 1 water and gas mineral. 70 geological prospecting projects (including sequel projects) were implemented in the year of 2017. There was one National Geopark.

Water resources

Yueyang ranks top among Hunan province in terms of the total amount of water resources. The amount of water resources per capita in the year of 2017 was 2,610 cubic meters. The amount of average annual precipitation was 1763.9 millimeters. By the end of 2017, the total storage capacity of the large reservoirs in the city was 431.11 million cubic meters, up by 6.5% over the previous year. The total amount of water resources consumption hit 3.65817 billion cubic meters, an increase of 0.36% over the previous year. Water consumption per capita was 638 cubic meters, down by 0.62%.

Forest resources

Yueyang Tower District is situated in the northern part of mid-subtropical evergreen broad-leaf forest zone. With a wide range of plant species, 80 families and nearly 200 species are identified. Main species of arbor are pinus massoniana, pinus elliottii and taxus chinensis of pine family, China fir of taxodium family, camphor tree of laurel family, white oak, german oak, castanopsis sclerophylla schott and chestnut of fagaceae family as well as peach trees, plum trees, tangerine trees and mulberry trees. Shrubs are mainly of Loropetalum chinense of witch-hazel family, azalea of cuculidae family, raspberry and hawthorn of rose family and gaultheria of holly family.

Altogether, there were 11 nature reserves in the city, 1 at national level and 4 at provincial level. Nature reserves covered a total area of 293,500 hectares. The forest coverage of the city was 45.31%. 

Biological resources

Yueyang Tower District is located in the east of Dongting Lake, covering part of the east Dongting Lake National Wetland Nature Reserve and therefore boasting abundant wild animal resources. The wild animals in the district can be divided into 30 orders, 69 families and 110 species. There are 11 categories of animals under the first-class state protection like the white crane and hooded crane, 28 sorts of animals included in the second-class and 53 types of animals belonging to the third-class. Yueyang covers 60% of Dongting Lake's water surface area and East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve is among China's first batch of Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. In the district, there are 7 species of birds under first-class state protection and 37 species under second-class state protection. There are 2 species of fish under first-class state protection and 2 species under second-class state protection. The number of species of aquatic mammals under national key protection, first-class state protection and second-class state protection is 2, 3 and 31 respectively.

Chinese source: yueyang.gov.cn
Updated on August 21, 2018