The 1st Symposium of the STEP and Pan-TPE held in Lhasa
Author ：wangwc
2018-09-21 14:53
On September 5th, 2018, the 1st Symposium of the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) Program and Pan-Third Pole Environment Study for a Green Silk Road (Pan-TPE) Program was held in Lhasa. More than 150 participants from the local governments in the Tibet Autonomous Region, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Chinese Academy of Sciences, universities and medias, attended this symposium.
Group Photo
On behalf of the local host of the Tibet Autonomous Government, Mr. Luobudunzhu delivered his warm welcome to the academicians, experts and other participants. He addressed that, through the STEP program, we would like to deepen the knowledge of the climate change and resilience, the geological environment and disaster risks over some key regions of the Tibetan Plateau, support the green development and the major infrastructure projects of the region, such as the construction of the National Ecological Hurdle, the Sichuan-Tibet Railway and the Sichuan-Tibet Highway etc.
Mr. Luobudunzhu delivered his warm welcome.
Mr. Jian Yu from the Ministry of Science and Technology pointed out that, different from the First Tibetan Plateau Expedition 40 years ago, the Second Expedition will be focused on the scientific contribution to the local socio-economic development by understanding the environmental changes and their mechanisms supported by the new technologies, models and instruments. After further discussion and argumentation, MOST will move forward to implementing the STEP program by establishing the data sharing platform, the International Center for the Transformation of Scientific Expedition Achievement and the technology-innovation alliance based on production-education-research collaboration.
Mr. Jian Yu from the MOST delivered a speech.
On behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Qianjun Zhao emphasized that, STEP program was listed as one of the top priorities for CAS, the STEP pre-research project was funded by CAS in 2017. In the same time, a special research theme of the Second Scientific Expedition was included in the CAS new Strategic Priority A Program: “Pan-Third Pole Environment Study for a Green Silk Road” in 2018.
Mr. Qianjun Zhao from CAS emphasized the top priorities of STEP.
Prof. Tandong Yao introduced the main achievements in the 1st phase of STEP program: 1, revealed the history of differential uplift processes of Himalayan orogenic belt and proposed a biological evolution model showing the coexistence of “Out of Tibet” and “Plateau Pivot”; 2, The accelerated melting resulted in unbalanced “Water Tower of Asia” was driven by the warming and wetting climate over the Tibetan Plateau, the new types of catastrophes are becoming more frequent; 3, the greening of Tibetan Plateau under warm-wet climate strengthened the carbon sink capacity over region, but accompanied with potential risks in traditional agriculture 4, proposal of the establishment of Selin Co National Park and the Third Pole National Parks Clusters. Prof. Yao pointed out that, the future work of the STEP Team will focus on following tasks: develop the comprehensive observing system, capacity building, disaster risk assessment, the protection and restoration of alpine ecosystem, the Third Pole National Parks Clusters and the Ecological Hurdles, to contribute to the local socio-economic development of Tibetan Plateau. After that, Profs. Lin Ding, Baiqing Xu, Guangjian Wu, Shilong Piao, Jie Fan, Ping Zhao and Daren Lv gave brief reports on their latest research related to the expedition.
Prof. Tandong Yao introduced the main achievements.
