On November 10, the 2023 Annual Science and Technology Conference of the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Environmental Sciences (GDAES) was held in Guangzhou.

During the conference’s opening ceremony, the 2023 Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award of Guangdong Province was presented.

The project titled “Key technologies and applications of smart water environment management and control in the land-sea process of ‘source-river-bay’ in coastal cities”, led by Professor Yi ZHENG and his team from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), won the first prize.

The winning SUSTech team members included Jiping JIANG, Haiyan LU, Rui XIONG, and Sijie TANG.

Based on the cutting-edge intersection of environmental science and information science, the award-winning project is committed to solving the prominent problem of water pollution of rivers and bays in coastal cities, a challenge faced by developed bay areas globally.

The team carried out research in three aspects: comprehensive smart management and control of urban water pollution sources, management of urban river and lake water environments through the “monitoring-early warning-traceability-control” approach, and coupled forecasting of basin-bay water environment supported by big data and artificial intelligence.

The project used Shenzhen Bay and its basin as a specific application scenario to develop a land-sea integrated water environment management and control platform, achieving the integration of innovative technologies.

The award was established with the approval of the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province, and the award selection was organized by GDAES. It aims to promote the development of ecological and environmental science and technology in Guangdong Province and encourage scientific and technological innovation.

After multiple rounds of selection, a total of eight first prizes were awarded this year.

This marks the first time that SUSTech has won the first prize of this award, signifying a new breakthrough in the field of smart environmental protection technology.