In the final days of 2018, the National Natural Science Foundation of China launched a major research project for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, led by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Science and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in conjunction with the Southern University of Science and Technology and several other institutions. The major research project is intended to study the key processes behind interactions of land and ocean, as well as the mechanisms and regulations for ecological security.

SUSTech was the proud host of the meeting, and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering was a key organizer of the meeting. Experts traveled from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing Normal University and other institutions to witness the launch and advise on the directions and organization of the major project.

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Dr. Zhang Si, is the chief scientist of the project. He first gave an overall briefing of the project, including the background, overall implementation plan, and expected results.

Dr. Cai Shuqun, a researcher at the South China Sea Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Zheng Chunmiao from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at SUSTech, Dr. Zhang Si, Dr. Su Fenzhen, a researcher at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented the four specific themes of the project, respectively.

The experts put forward opinions and suggestions on the project task setting and research plan. Dr. Leng Shuying introduced the management mode of major projects and put forward specific requirements for project implementation. Dr. Zhang Si said that the suggestions would be sorted and summarized, and the established research objectives will be successfully completed.

The NSFC funded major project “Key Process of Land-Sea Interaction in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Mechanism of Ecological Security Control” was led by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with SUSTech, the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen University and Sun Yat-Sen University.

The project is aimed at the current and future development of the Greater Bay Area. It is intended to quantify the hydrodynamic mechanism and the key process of material transport at the land-sea interface of the Greater Bay Area under high-intensity disturbance, to explore the underlying mechanism of ecological response and the regulation of ecological security, to establish the hydro-atmospheric-oceanic-ecological dynamics and material cycle model of the Greater Bay Area, and to reveal the key factors that control the key processes of the land-sea interaction in the Greater Bay Area.

The project will provide basic scientific and technological support for marine environmental protection, ecological security and land-see joint use optimization in the Greater Bay Area. Professor Zheng Chunmiao from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at SUSTech is responsible for the second theme of the project, “The Process and Mechanism of Nutrient Migration and Transformation under the Interaction of Land and Ocean.”