On September 10, 2025, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) announced Notice No. 12 of 2025, officially approving the establishment of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Nature Reserves," the area, scope, and functional zoning of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve are hereby published. The reserve is located in Sansha City, Hainan Province, covering a total area of 3,523.67 hectares. This includes a core zone of 1,242.55 hectares and an experimental zone of 2,281.12 hectares. The primary conservation objective is the coral reef ecosystem. The main areas are shown in the figure below:
The author initially expected relevant vector layers to be released accordingly but could not find them after searching. Deeming it not overly complicated, the author proceeded to digitize the data manually. The digitized data is available for download for those in need.
Experimental Zone Vectorization
Conventional vectorization involves importing an image into GIS software, georeferencing it, and then manually digitizing. Although this map is relatively simple, the author sought a quicker method. Notably, the longitude and latitude coordinates for the experimental zone are already marked in detail on the map. This makes the task much easier, especially in the AI era! A screenshot of the coordinates was taken and the following prompt was entered into ChatGPT:
Identify the longitude and latitude of boundary points 1-20 in the image, convert the coordinates to decimal degrees, and finally output as a CSV.
The result:
PS: Gemini or DeepSeek can also perform this task, which is a very basic AI application. Import the downloaded data into QGIS.
After configuring the columns corresponding to longitude and latitude, the result is as follows:
Points to Lines, Lines to Polygons
Search for the "Points to Path" tool in the QGIS toolbar to convert points into lines.
Then run: Vector -> Geometry Tools -> Lines to Polygons.
The result:
And just like that, the SHP file for the experimental zone is easily generated.
Core Zone Vectorization
Coordinate data was not published for the core zone like it was for the experimental zone, so traditional vectorization methods had to be used. The author previously introduced AI-assisted georeferencing methods in the article "Georeferencing Marathon Route Maps in QGIS: Manual vs. AI-Assisted Approaches". However, whether due to network issues or the tool itself, the author's attempts were unsuccessful. Fortunately, the map is simple and was georeferenced manually without much trouble. A new point layer was created, and the core zone's boundary points were digitized one by one.
Then, repeat the steps above: convert points to lines, and then lines to polygons to complete the final data processing.
Data Download
If you prefer not to digitize the data yourself, you can directly download the data vectorized by the author at the link below:
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Note: The data published in this article is not official data and is for learning and reference only!!!
Afterword
It would be beneficial if vector data were released alongside the announcement of such reserves, eliminating the need for manual digitization. Of course, perhaps the author did not search correctly. If you have access to more official data sources, please feel free to share!