According to a story published on 23 August by China Transport News, the Yangtze Waterway Survey Centre has recently completed all training courses for the Yangtze Digital Mapping System, an indication that the centre has acquired the engineering capability and technical expertise to launch the Yangtze digital mapping scheme. The system is based on ArcGIS software imported from ESRI, the US-based supplier of geographic information systems technology.

The completion of the training is significant as real-time digital mapping is an important part of the ongoing modernisation of the Yangtze.