Wu Lixin, head of the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, is heading the project. [ouc.edu.cn]

China has launched a project in Qingdao, a coastal city of east China's Shandong province, to design a float to help guard against natural disasters and guide development of oceanic resources by monitoring conditions more than 2,000 meters under the sea.

More than 82.38 million yuan (US$12.7 million) has been allocated for R&D of the device and it is expected to be completed by 2020.

Wu Lixin, head of the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, is heading the project, and scientists from Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tianjin University and Ocean University of China, will also participate.

The United States, Japan and France have launched their own programs to monitor sea water below 2,000 meters.