At the 19th G20 Summit in Brazil in November 2024,China promoted the development of sustainable solutions to climate change,biodiversity loss,and environmental pollution.This continued the theme of the 2016 G20 Hangzh...At the 19th G20 Summit in Brazil in November 2024,China promoted the development of sustainable solutions to climate change,biodiversity loss,and environmental pollution.This continued the theme of the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit,at which China placed development at the center of the G20’s macroeconomic policy coordination for the first time,adopting the G20 Action Plan on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and Least Developed Countries.In Brazil,China announced actions on advancing modernization in Africa over the next three years with a Chinese commitment of RMB360 billion yuan in financial support.In this article,we examine the potential role of geoscience research and practice in development,particularly in the sustainable use of natural resources,the prevention of climate change impacts,as well as mitigation of geo-hazards and their health implications,indicating the areas where China’s geoscience for Africa is strong and where it requires more effort.We find that although China is the world’s leading publisher of scientific papers,its contribution to geoscience in Africa(the globe’s fastest-growing economic area),as shown by bibliometric research,appears to be rather small and inconsistent with the research priorities of Africa.Amongst the priorities for geoscience research in Africa,which are not addressed substantially by the research conducted so far,are sustainable mineral and hydrocarbon development,hydrology and hydrogeology,climate change and resilience,natural hazards,medical geology,agrominerals,and geoscience education and training.A particular opportunity for African nations is the presence of critical minerals-minerals needed for the energy transition and for batteries for electric cars in particular.Africa is well-endowed with many of these critical materials,such as rare earth elements and platinum group metals.Several research groups stress the need for the agency on the part of African institutions to map out these valuable resources,understand their value and the economics and sustainability of their extraction,encourage local business,attract investment,and scrutinize proposals from potential international investors to get the best deals.A strong point of existing China-led geoscience development includes the Deep-time Digital Earth(DDE)program online computing platform and its artificial intelligence tool GeoGPT,which is being developed in partnership with Zhejiang Laboratory.These are being developed with strong China funding support for free and wide global access,with a particular focus on Africa.These advanced tools will help to place the agency of development squarely in the hands of African scientists and institutions.In summary,the following are recommended:(1)a more coordinated and strategic approach to China-led geoscience research in Africa;(2)an Africa-centered,geoscience funding initiative that concentrates on relevant topics to the continent such as critical minerals exploration and other geological resources,materials and processes and their health implications on the populations and ecosystems in general,as well as climate change and climate change resilience;and(3)continued support for China-led international initiatives that seek to increase the agency and capacity of Africa geoscience researchers,for example the Deep-time Digital Earth platform.展开更多
The process of urbanization affects the urban warming.The change of urban warming was investigated by several urbanization factors in Changsha,China.The data of surface temperature(minimum,maximum and mean) of Changsh...The process of urbanization affects the urban warming.The change of urban warming was investigated by several urbanization factors in Changsha,China.The data of surface temperature(minimum,maximum and mean) of Changsha were analyzed to understand the possible effects of urbanization on the climate of this region owing to the population growth,built-up area expansion and energy consumption increases.The weights of these three factors were calculated by the analytical hierarchy process(AHP).Then,three weights were simulated with nonlinear method to obtain the urbanization development rate which was utilized to reveal the influence of the urbanization factors on the surface temperature.The result shows that there is a significant upward trend in the urban temperatures of Changsha.The temperature increase seems to be closely related to the rate of urbanization between 1993 and 2008,and there is an evidential increase trend of the influence on urban temperature by urbanization during 16 years.It is a quantifiable approach measuring the relationship between urbanization and urban eco-environment,and can be applied for the urban sustainability.展开更多
The long-term reclamation-induced ground subsidence in Macao, a coastal city of southern China was investigated. Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique was applied to retrieve the deformation rate in Maca...The long-term reclamation-induced ground subsidence in Macao, a coastal city of southern China was investigated. Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique was applied to retrieve the deformation rate in Macao during the period from April 2003 to August 2010 with a total of 41 scenes of descending ASAR data sets. The PSI-retrieved results show a relatively stable pattern in Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island, with an average subsidence velocity of -3 mm/a. In contrast, relatively large subsidence rates are highlighted in Cotai area, a new reclamation land in 1990s, in which an average subsidence velocity is about -10 mm/a. A consistent relationship between the PSI results and the leveling measurements indicate that this PSI technique is an effective tool to monitor the reclamation-induced ground subsidence with a high accuracy and adequate spatial details. Accordingly, the valuable ground subsidence results generated by PSI can be used not only for early detection and remedial activities of potential settlement of building, but also for helping the local government to formulate regional sustainable development planning and decision-making in disaster prevention and mitigation.展开更多
Thar coalfield is a new coalfield in Pakistan with estimated lignite resource of more than 175 billion tons. Resource planning is an essential part of the strategic plan for optimal and economical exploitation of Thar...Thar coalfield is a new coalfield in Pakistan with estimated lignite resource of more than 175 billion tons. Resource planning is an essential part of the strategic plan for optimal and economical exploitation of Thar lignite. Main objective of the present research is to assess Thar coalfield as a single deposit and identify the areas suitable for surface mining, underground mining and waste dump at Thar coalfield. The cumulative stripping ratio distribution map has been developed for Thar coalfield, covering an area of 1691.04 km2 around 12 exploratory blocks. Lithological data of 693 drill holes have been used to calculate the cumulative stripping ratio in every borehole, which varies from 3.7 m：m to 88.1 m：m with an average value of 12.85 m：m. Cumulative stripping ratio is divided into six ranges, viz： 4-6, 6-8, 8-10, 10-15, 15-20 and 〉20 m：m. Contours are digitized around all boreholes showing various ranges of stripping ratios. From the cumulative stripping ratio distribution map, it is concluded that 665.72 km2 area, which constitutes 39.37% of the total assessed area, is suitable for surface mining and 989.82 km2 area, constituting 58.53%, is appropriate for underground mining and outside waste dumps. Whereas, 2.1% area is no coal zone, only suitable for outside waste dumping. The developed map of cumulative stripping ratio distribution may be used as a guide map for the preparation of mining master plan for Thar coalfield.展开更多
Water eutrophication has become a worldwide environmental problem in recent years.Once a water body is eutrophicated,it will lose its primary functions and subsequently influence sustainable development of society and...Water eutrophication has become a worldwide environmental problem in recent years.Once a water body is eutrophicated,it will lose its primary functions and subsequently influence sustainable development of society and economy.Therefore,analysis of eutrophication becomes one of the most essential issues at present.With the ability to deal with vague and uncertain information,and express knowledge in a rule form,the rough set theory(RST) has been widely applied in diverse domains.The advantage of RST is that it can compress the rule and remove needless features by reduction inference rule.By this way,the rule gets effectively simplified and inference efficiency gets improved.However,if data amount is relatively big,it could be a process with large calculated amount to search rules by looking up tables.Petri nets(PNs) possesses so powerful parallel reasoning ability that inference result could be obtained rapidly merely by simple matrix manipulation with no need for searching rules by looking up tables.In this work,an integrated RPN model combining RST with PN was used to analyze relations between degrees of water eutrophication level and influence factors in the Pengxi River of Three Gorges Reservoir.It was shown that the RPN model could analyze water eutrophicaion accurately and quickly,and yield decision rules for the decision-makers at water purification plants of the water quality and assist them in making more cost-effective decisions.展开更多
文摘At the 19th G20 Summit in Brazil in November 2024,China promoted the development of sustainable solutions to climate change,biodiversity loss,and environmental pollution.This continued the theme of the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit,at which China placed development at the center of the G20’s macroeconomic policy coordination for the first time,adopting the G20 Action Plan on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and Least Developed Countries.In Brazil,China announced actions on advancing modernization in Africa over the next three years with a Chinese commitment of RMB360 billion yuan in financial support.In this article,we examine the potential role of geoscience research and practice in development,particularly in the sustainable use of natural resources,the prevention of climate change impacts,as well as mitigation of geo-hazards and their health implications,indicating the areas where China’s geoscience for Africa is strong and where it requires more effort.We find that although China is the world’s leading publisher of scientific papers,its contribution to geoscience in Africa(the globe’s fastest-growing economic area),as shown by bibliometric research,appears to be rather small and inconsistent with the research priorities of Africa.Amongst the priorities for geoscience research in Africa,which are not addressed substantially by the research conducted so far,are sustainable mineral and hydrocarbon development,hydrology and hydrogeology,climate change and resilience,natural hazards,medical geology,agrominerals,and geoscience education and training.A particular opportunity for African nations is the presence of critical minerals-minerals needed for the energy transition and for batteries for electric cars in particular.Africa is well-endowed with many of these critical materials,such as rare earth elements and platinum group metals.Several research groups stress the need for the agency on the part of African institutions to map out these valuable resources,understand their value and the economics and sustainability of their extraction,encourage local business,attract investment,and scrutinize proposals from potential international investors to get the best deals.A strong point of existing China-led geoscience development includes the Deep-time Digital Earth(DDE)program online computing platform and its artificial intelligence tool GeoGPT,which is being developed in partnership with Zhejiang Laboratory.These are being developed with strong China funding support for free and wide global access,with a particular focus on Africa.These advanced tools will help to place the agency of development squarely in the hands of African scientists and institutions.In summary,the following are recommended:(1)a more coordinated and strategic approach to China-led geoscience research in Africa;(2)an Africa-centered,geoscience funding initiative that concentrates on relevant topics to the continent such as critical minerals exploration and other geological resources,materials and processes and their health implications on the populations and ecosystems in general,as well as climate change and climate change resilience;and(3)continued support for China-led international initiatives that seek to increase the agency and capacity of Africa geoscience researchers,for example the Deep-time Digital Earth platform.
基金Projects(2008JT1013,2007JT3018,05SK3002) supported by the Key Program for Science and Technology in Hunan Province,ChinaProject(2007ZK2025) supported by the Key Program for Soft Science in Hunan Province,China
文摘The process of urbanization affects the urban warming.The change of urban warming was investigated by several urbanization factors in Changsha,China.The data of surface temperature(minimum,maximum and mean) of Changsha were analyzed to understand the possible effects of urbanization on the climate of this region owing to the population growth,built-up area expansion and energy consumption increases.The weights of these three factors were calculated by the analytical hierarchy process(AHP).Then,three weights were simulated with nonlinear method to obtain the urbanization development rate which was utilized to reveal the influence of the urbanization factors on the surface temperature.The result shows that there is a significant upward trend in the urban temperatures of Changsha.The temperature increase seems to be closely related to the rate of urbanization between 1993 and 2008,and there is an evidential increase trend of the influence on urban temperature by urbanization during 16 years.It is a quantifiable approach measuring the relationship between urbanization and urban eco-environment,and can be applied for the urban sustainability.
基金Projects(41204012, 41274026, 41274024, 40825012, 41021003, 41174016) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘The long-term reclamation-induced ground subsidence in Macao, a coastal city of southern China was investigated. Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique was applied to retrieve the deformation rate in Macao during the period from April 2003 to August 2010 with a total of 41 scenes of descending ASAR data sets. The PSI-retrieved results show a relatively stable pattern in Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island and Coloane Island, with an average subsidence velocity of -3 mm/a. In contrast, relatively large subsidence rates are highlighted in Cotai area, a new reclamation land in 1990s, in which an average subsidence velocity is about -10 mm/a. A consistent relationship between the PSI results and the leveling measurements indicate that this PSI technique is an effective tool to monitor the reclamation-induced ground subsidence with a high accuracy and adequate spatial details. Accordingly, the valuable ground subsidence results generated by PSI can be used not only for early detection and remedial activities of potential settlement of building, but also for helping the local government to formulate regional sustainable development planning and decision-making in disaster prevention and mitigation.
文摘Thar coalfield is a new coalfield in Pakistan with estimated lignite resource of more than 175 billion tons. Resource planning is an essential part of the strategic plan for optimal and economical exploitation of Thar lignite. Main objective of the present research is to assess Thar coalfield as a single deposit and identify the areas suitable for surface mining, underground mining and waste dump at Thar coalfield. The cumulative stripping ratio distribution map has been developed for Thar coalfield, covering an area of 1691.04 km2 around 12 exploratory blocks. Lithological data of 693 drill holes have been used to calculate the cumulative stripping ratio in every borehole, which varies from 3.7 m：m to 88.1 m：m with an average value of 12.85 m：m. Cumulative stripping ratio is divided into six ranges, viz： 4-6, 6-8, 8-10, 10-15, 15-20 and 〉20 m：m. Contours are digitized around all boreholes showing various ranges of stripping ratios. From the cumulative stripping ratio distribution map, it is concluded that 665.72 km2 area, which constitutes 39.37% of the total assessed area, is suitable for surface mining and 989.82 km2 area, constituting 58.53%, is appropriate for underground mining and outside waste dumps. Whereas, 2.1% area is no coal zone, only suitable for outside waste dumping. The developed map of cumulative stripping ratio distribution may be used as a guide map for the preparation of mining master plan for Thar coalfield.
基金Project(2014ZX07104-006)supported by the National Scientific and Technological Major Project of China
文摘Water eutrophication has become a worldwide environmental problem in recent years.Once a water body is eutrophicated,it will lose its primary functions and subsequently influence sustainable development of society and economy.Therefore,analysis of eutrophication becomes one of the most essential issues at present.With the ability to deal with vague and uncertain information,and express knowledge in a rule form,the rough set theory(RST) has been widely applied in diverse domains.The advantage of RST is that it can compress the rule and remove needless features by reduction inference rule.By this way,the rule gets effectively simplified and inference efficiency gets improved.However,if data amount is relatively big,it could be a process with large calculated amount to search rules by looking up tables.Petri nets(PNs) possesses so powerful parallel reasoning ability that inference result could be obtained rapidly merely by simple matrix manipulation with no need for searching rules by looking up tables.In this work,an integrated RPN model combining RST with PN was used to analyze relations between degrees of water eutrophication level and influence factors in the Pengxi River of Three Gorges Reservoir.It was shown that the RPN model could analyze water eutrophicaion accurately and quickly,and yield decision rules for the decision-makers at water purification plants of the water quality and assist them in making more cost-effective decisions.
