China's geospatial information sector, a key component of digital mapping and positioning, is approaching a scale of 1 trillion yuan ($143 billion), the Ministry of Natural Resources said recently.

The industry is expected to have exceeded 900 billion yuan in output for 2025, representing growth of more than 30 percent compared with 2020, according to the ministry. The sector employs over 4 million people.

At the core of the industry is tianditu.gov.cn, the national platform for geospatial information services operated by the ministry. As of Thursday, about 1.48 million users had registered on the platform, which has authorized roughly 1.13 million applications and handles an average of 1 billion service interface access requests daily. It supports more than 7,000 government users and about 33,000 enterprises, playing an important role in advancing the development of a digital China.

"Initially a basic map service, the platform has evolved into a comprehensive natural resources service base," said Chen Ping, an official with the ministry. He said the platform integrates information on land use planning, geological surveys, forestry, grasslands and marine resources onto a single digital framework.

"The geospatial information also helps foster emerging industries such as developing a geospatial information security application space for autonomous driving," Chen said.

Under a pilot program led by the State Council, China's Cabinet, six cities — including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing — are exploring the secure application of high-definition maps for intelligent connected vehicles.

Geospatial information initiatives are also supporting the development of the low-altitude economy. Zhu Guoming, deputy director of Guangdong province's natural resources department, said the Beidou high-precision positioning service has enabled drones to carry out smart grid inspections at low altitudes for China Southern Power Grid.

To ensure data security related to the low-altitude economy, Guangdong has implemented review requirements for electronic navigation maps used by flying cars and has completed several reviews of low-altitude navigation maps, Zhu said.