BEIJING - China will launch its first-ever high-resolution geological mapping satellite for civil purposes next January, according to official sources.

The Ziyuan III satellite will be launched aboard a Long March 4B carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China's Shanxi province, according to a conference held on Monday for the directors of surveying, mapping and geoinformation administrations across the nation.

The Ziyuan III's surveying covers the entire area between 84 degrees north latitude and 84 degrees south latitude.

The satellite will be used to conduct geological mapping, carry out surveys on land resources, help with natural disaster-reduction and prevention, and lend assistance to farming, water conservation, urban planning and other sectors.

The Ziyuan III satellite project was inaugurated on March 2008, and also includes gravity satellites, radar satellites and follow-up satellites for the Ziyuan III, so as to obtain geoinformation under all kinds of meteorological conditions.