The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China lists the harmonious coexistence of human and nature as the basic strategy of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. We are required to establish and practice the concept that clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver, to implement our fundamental national policy of conserving resources and protecting the environment, to firmly follow the developmental path characterized by higher productivity, general affluence and a sound ecosystem, and to build a beautiful China, creating good working and living environments for our people and contributing to the global ecological security.
The development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Belt and Road Initiative and the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei are the three major regional coordinated development strategies established by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Comrade Xi Jinping requests us to give highest priority to the restoration of ecological environment of the Yangtze River, promote well-coordinated environmental conservation and avoid excessive development. In recent years, the ecological environment alarm bell of the Yangtze River has sounded from time to time and many serious problems such as shrinking wetland area, degradation of ecosystem, reduction of biodiversity, bloom outbreak, reduction of water storage and flood regulation capacity, water shortage due to pollution, serious water pollution, occurred. Strengthening the multi-disciplinary coordinated research on resources and environmental carrying capacity which are closely related to geological processes and has far-reaching influence and decisive effect on the construction and development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. CUG has distinct characteristics and research advantages in the fields of basic geology, prevention and control of geological disasters, groundwater environment and regional response to global changes in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and has won many awards for scientific research achievements including the National Special Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, the first and second prizes in China's State Natural Science Award. In order to give full play to the CUG's research advantages in basic geology, resources and environment, integrate domestic and foreign scientific and technological resources, serve the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, ensure the ecological security of the Yangtze River basin, and promote regional economic development, CUG decided to implement the Research Project on Geological Process, Resources and Environment in the Yangtze River Basin (hereinafter referred to as "Yangtze River Research Project of CUG").
The "Yangtze River Research Project of CUG" aims to serve the great protection of the Yangtze River Basin by focusing on the geological resources and ecological environment problems faced during the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Beltespecially in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River region, by systematically studying the interaction mechanism, process and evolution between the deep and surface layers of the Yangtze River Basin with the multi-disciplinary research strength of the whole university. By implementing the "Yangtze River Research Project of CUG", we plan to resolve three development bottlenecks during the development of CUG, namely the lack of geographical advantages in geoscience research, the lack of new advanced disciplines, and the lack of high-end talents represented by strategic scientists. By implementing the "Yangtze River Research Project of CUG", we want to achieve the strategic objectives of forming a stable research base, constructing a perfect large subject group system and planning a large think-tank of geosciences.
The "Yangtze River Research Project of CUG" focuses on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and extends appropriately to the upper and lower reaches and surrounding area of the Yangtze River Basin. It conducts systematic research on the deep processes, surface systems and their interactions. It includes two major research directions.
Research Direction I: Changes, Forecast, Countermeasures and Management of Yangtze River Basin Driven by Global Changes and Major Projects.This refers to having a series of studies on the overall changes in the underground space structure, geological disasters, geomorphology, water resources, ecosystem, resources and environmental carrying capacity under the trend of great changes in the river-lake relationship caused by global climate changes and major projects in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River by taking the Western Hubei-Jianghan Plain as the key research area, putting forward the countermeasures and basis for great protection of the basin and predicting the future changes. It specifically includes seven researchaspects: basin-mountain geological structure, underground engineering and management of large urban agglomerations; neotectonic movement in the basin, geomorphological evolution, geological disasters and the countermeasures; water resource evolution in the basin and the countermeasures; ecosystem evolution in the basin and the countermeasures; formation, evolution and development countermeasures of critical zones in the basin; resources and environmental carrying capacity in the basin, database and information platform; and policies, regulations and management of basin protection.
Research Direction II: The Deep Geological Process, Resource, Energy and Environmental Effects During the Formation and Evolution of Habitable Earth .This refers to focusing on major scientific and engineering issues such as deep geological structure, process, resources and environmental engineering, selecting the deep geological structure characteristics of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (middle to upper reaches of Yangtze River), the dynamic process of crust-mantle interaction and structural evolution, the migration, enrichment and redistribution of elements and their resources and environmental effects and conducting researches on transparency of different underground scales. Specifically, it includes seven research aspects: lithosphere structure and its exploration; deep crust evolution and crust-mantle interaction; high temperature and high pressure experimental constraints and micro-area detection of crust-mantle evolution; resources effect of deep process; evolution dynamics and differential enrichment mechanism of shale gas in sedimentary basin; material circulation and life environment effect on earth; and interaction between deep process and shallow system of the basin.
"Yangtze River Research Project of CUG" will be carried forward in three stages. The first stage (2017- 2020): focus on the interdisciplinary integration and achieve primary results in some disciplines. The second stage (2021-2025): establish a series of networked monitoring platforms andkeytechnology system, and get to the strategic decision-making position for large watershed protection in China. The third stage (2025-2030): establish a series of demonstration bases, form the geographical advantages of the basin and have a significant international academic impact.
"Yangtze River Research Project of CUG" (2017 to 2030) has a total research fund of one billion yuan and will be divided into three parts. The first part is a project matching fund which has 100 million yuan. This amount of money will be subsidized to the teachers for guiding them to focus on the scientific research in Yangtze River in the expectation of triggering scientific research projects worthy of 500 to 800 million yuan. The second part is the key project group fund which is 300 million yuan. This amount of money will be continuously given to the major research directions for helping to tackle the core issues and form irreplaceable advantages and characteristics. The third part is construction fund which is 600 million yuan. This amount of money will be used to support the main research directions of the "Yangtze River Research Project of CUG" in strengthening the talents team, establishing of academic innovation platform, building study and observation field bases, and organizing "Yangtze River Forum of CUG".
