Xianning City is in the transition zone from Mufu Mountains to Jianghan Plain. It is high in Southeast and low in Northwest with a combination of highland, hills, hilly areas and plain, known as the "six hill cropland of one water dichotomy, a land for homes”. The city's total land area is 9861 square kilometers, the total area of arable land is 29.17 billion mus, average per capita cultivated land is only 1.05 mu (The statistical data is 0.79 mus), lower than the national average per capita 1.55 mus, the province's 1.25 mu per capita level. Person much ground is little, contradiction between people and land is the land market, the reasonable use of land especially the protection of arable land in the city seems particularly important.

　　Our mineral resources are non-metallic mineral mainly, metal mineral the less, energy and hydrosphere mineral products the least. We have found 37 kinds of minerals, which identify the resources reserves of 18 kinds of minerals, including two kinds of energy mineral products, 8 kinds of metal mineral products, 7 kinds of non-metallic mineral, and one kind of mineral water .The city has 11 kinds of mineral resources reserves ranking the top five in the whole province. Among them, magnesium, antimony, monazite, tantalum, geothermal and others rank first; gold, niobium, metallurgical dolomite rank the second; coal, vanadium and manganese rank the forth.

　　Xianning Water Resources

　　The average precipitation in Xianning City is 1,325.2 mm per year, reduced to water volumn is 13 billion m3, which is 7.2% less than the previous year and less than the average of many years, down by 13.5%. The city's total volume of water resources is 6.582 billion m3, 7.2% less than the previous year and less than the average of many years, down by 20.3%. Among that the amount of surface water resources and  groundwater resources is respectively 6.376 billion m3 and 1.577 billion m3, and the repeated calculation of surface water and groundwater resources measures 1.369 billion m3.The city's per capita water resources quantity is 2,379 m3, and the available water resources quantity per mu is 3,174 m3. The whole society total water consumption is 1,337.98 million m3, of which the water used for production is 1,235.76 m3, accounting for 92.36%; water used for living is 101.9 million m3, accounting for 7.62%; and water used for ecological environment is 320,000 m3, accounting for 0.02%. The city's per capita water consumption is 484 m3, the water consumption/ 10 thousand yuan GDP is 656 m3, million yuan of industrial added value of water consumption is 330m3,and irrigation consumption per mu is 635 m3.

　　In the early days of the foundation of the PRC, the city has 115 lakes, and the lake area of normal water level is 488 square kilometers. Due to human encroachment and other reasons, at present the city has only 19 lakes whose acre is more than 500. The lake area is 206.4 square kilometers, including 5 one million mu lakes.

　　The city has numerous rivers with large drop, and it has rich hydropower resources. The city's theoretical hydropower resources potential is 311084 KW, and the exploitation is 241057 KW.

　　Forest Resources in Xianning The total land area in Xianning is 981,494 hectares, including the land area of 905,655 hectares which occupies 92.27% of the all. In all the land areas of the city, the forestland area is 561,286 hectares, occupying 61.98 %; the wilderness area is 16,375 hectares, occupying 1.81 %, and the land area which is difficult to use is 7,302 hectares, occupying 0.81 %t.

　　In the forestland area of the city, the forest area is 41,1095 hectares, accounting for 73.24%; sparse forest area is 8,563 hectares, accounting for 1.53%; the bush forest land is 91,110 hectare, occupying 16.23%; non-stumpage forest 47,452 hectare, occupying 8.45%; and nursery lands 3,067 hectare, occupying 0.05%.

　　In the forestland area of the city: the area of coniferous forest, broad-leaved forest, coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest totals 308,238 hectares, accounting for 74.98%; the bamboo forest is 102,475 hectares, occupying 24.93%; and the intercrop forest 382 hectares, occupying 0.10%.

　　The stumpage volume in the city is 8,768,293 m3. Among them: the forest stock volume is 8,302,520 m3, accounting for 94.69%; sparse forest stock volume is 45,516 m3, accounting for 0.53%; scattered wood volume  is 135,271 m3, accounting for 1.54%; and odd trees volume is 283,795 m3, accounting for 3.24%.

　　The forest coverage rate is 52.3%.

　　The southern Xianning City subordinates Mufu mountains reminder, whose altitude is mostly below 1500 meters, with the altitude of the highest mountain Laoyajian 1,656 meters, while the average are between 200 and 800 meters. The northern part subordinates Jianghan Plain, whose altitude is mostly between 20 and 50 meters. The zonal vegetation is subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, and the tree species resources are rich. The main plant communities in bloom are classified as:

　　Evergreen broad-leaved forest: mainly distributed in the low hill area whose altitude is below 500 meters. Its representative communities are Castanopsis forest, Camphor tree forest and Castanopsis eyrei forest. Scattered trees in the forest are the Long-leaved oak, Holly, Qingkao, Camellia, Heather, Silikao, Privet, Castanopsis  and so on.

　　Deciduous broad-leaved forest: mainly at an altitude of 1200--1500 meters strip, and its representative species are trees with short handle, Chinquapin, Bao of incense, Goldenseal, Pteroceltis tatarinowii, Dalbergia wood, Chokecherry and so on.　　

　　Evergreen, deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest: mainly distributed in the area whose altitude is between 500 and 1100 meters, its representative species are Castanopsis eyrei, Quercus, Cyclobalanopsis glauca, Thick peel, Acer davidii, various kinds of oaks, Upon cede Liquidambar formosana, Dalbergia, Wild jujube, Aphananthe, Hovenia dulcis, Short handle Bao, Locust tree, Incense, Chestnut, Evodia tree and so on.

　　Coniferous forest: the representative species whose altitude is over 800 meters are Mount Huangshan pine, Pinus species, and the altitude below 800 meters are the pine, fir, species are cedar. The fir is the main afforestation tree specie in South Hubei, and mostly are pure artificial forest. Natural forests are merely in Tongshan Jiugong Mountain and Yipan Hill. Huanglong Mountain in Tongshan County has sporadic small distribution.

　　Bamboo: Bamboo resources are rich in our city. there are 17 genera and123 kinds. Mainly are phyllostachys pubescens, and prevernalis are second only to it. The phyllostachys pubescens forest is distributed at an altitude between 100 and 1100 meters, consisting mainly of pine, but also has mixed type with pine, fir and broad-leaved trees. The prevernails is mainly distributed in Chongyang. In recent years, Chongyang is committed to creating large county of prevernails, and the prevernails industry developed rapidly, which has now developed into 3,333 hectares. In addition, bamboo varieties such as Sinocalamus affinis, Shyllostachys bambusoides, Sottled bamboo, Sambusa textilt, Shyllostachys heteroclada oliver, Phyllostachys nigra var henonis, and Fargesia all have a small amount of the distribution throughout the whole region.

　　According to the census of Xianning land and resources in 1989, there are 112 families, 354 genera, 1,114 species and 54 mutations in Xianning.

　　The main timber tree species: Chinese fir, Chinese red pine, Phyllostachys bamboo, Castanopsis, Cedar, Oak, Poplar, Liquidambar formosana, Sassafras, Jujube, Chinese toon, Robinia pseudoacacia, Paulownia, Camphor tree, etc;

　　The main economic forest tree species: Tea, Osmanthus, Thunder bamboo, Chinese toon, Tung oil, Titrus, Tallow, Palm, Chestnut, Peach, plum, Eucommia, Magnolia, Pear, Persimmon, Jujube, Sumac, etc;

　　The main greening tree species: Camphor tree, Cypress, Magnolia, Cedar, Metasequoia, Chinese littleleaf box, etc.

　　Rare species: level one protection species are Taxus and Bole tree; level two protection species are three sharp cedar, Zhong E wood, a grate three sharp cedar, Incense trees, Eucommia, Ginkgo biloba, Walnut, Liriodendron, Pseudolarix Kaempferi, Sinojackia Xylocarpa; level three protection species are Money Acer, Mount Huangshan magnolia, Magnolia, Magnolia officinalis, red bean tree, Phoebe bournei, Phoebe Zhennan, Pteroceltis tatarinowii, white SIM, Mount Huangshan Rowan, Eupatorium, Tapiscia sinensis, toon, etc.

　　Introduced species includes 50 families, 101 genera, 294 species, and 9 varieties. Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Taiwan fir, Fir, Cypress, Pine, the pool of slash pine, Loblolly pine, Pine needles, Short, Long pine, Douglas fir, Pinus rigida in Japan, Pencil cedar, Japanese cedar, Cypress, Fujian cypress, Wind, Cypress, Zhongshan cypress tail wind Japanese cedar, Cedar, Cypress, the United States of Tibet cypress green stem Nageia, Podocarpus, Cycads, Badong, safflower Manglietia insignis, laurel, Mount Huangshan, southern magnolia, Magnolia, Magnolia amoena Bauer Long Rui magnolia, Michelia, Michelia platypetala hand, Lechang smile, Michelia, sightseeing wood, Malian, chinaberry, large-leaved Lauraceae, but Silver Wattle, Acacia tree, Yinhua, Eucalyptus robusta, Eucalyptus, Acacia, Banyan, Araucaria, should not be planted.

　　Ancient, large, odd species: there are a total of 226 strains of well-preserved ancient, large, strange trees, including 27 families, 43 genera, 57 kinds.

　　The city has more than 450 species of shrubs, and has nearly 500 species of wild medicinal plant, among which dozens of kinds such as Shi’er, Seven leaves and a  flower, Panax japonicus, Aloes, Angelica, Changium, Yellow finish, Asparagus are common. Main flowers breeds are Peony, Cockscomb, Begonia, Lotus, Chrysanthemum, Orchid, Baishuijin, Bauhinia, Jasmine, Tuberose, Oleander, Magnolia, Plum, Rose, Azalea, and dozens of Nandina domestica.