This week, the School of Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE) at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) hosted the International Workshop on Water and Climate Change in a Coupled Human-Natural System. It was jointly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Sino-German Science Center and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Director of the Sino-German Science Center & Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Professor Fan Yingjie and Director of the Global Engagement Office at SUSTech Professor Zheng Chunmiao both attended the meeting and spoke at the opening ceremony. SUSTech Chair Professor Liu Junguo and Senior Professor Martina Flörke from Ruhr University of Bochum ran the workshop as co-chairs.

Director Fan Yingjie spoke at the opening ceremony, pointing out that this was the first international academic workshop that the Sino-German Center had hosted at SUSTech. She hoped that the scholars would work together to contribute further to major issues relating to water resources and climate change under the coupled human-environment system.

Professor Zheng Chunmiao welcomed the arrival of the experts and scholars. He briefed the attendees about SUSTech and wished the conference a complete success.

The workshop examined water resources and climate change under the coupled human-environment system. More than 40 experts from hydrology, meteorology and environmental science discussed the dual effects of climate change and human activities, the use of water resources and their ecological environment effects. The scholars came from universities and research institutions in Germany, China, Austria and the United Kingdom, and several of them gave in-depth presentations on a wide range of topics. SUSTech Chair Professor Liu Junguo spoke about the water scarcity problem in China, analyzing the mitigation measures in detail.

The Sino-German Center is a research funding agency jointly established by the NSFC and the DFG to support research cooperation between Chinese and German scientists in the natural sciences, life sciences, management sciences and engineering sciences.