International Workshop on Cryospheric Changes and Their Regional& Global Impacts Successfully Held in Gansu Province

From July 31st to August 1st, 2018, the International Workshop on Cryospheric Changes and Their Regional and Global Impacts, co-sponsored by the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science of Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER), Chinese Academy of Sciences, People's Government of Dunhuang City, the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS), the World Climate Research Program Climate and Cryosphere (WCRP)/the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC), the University of Alaska Fairbanks and others, was successfully held in Dunhuang, Gansu Province.

More than 260 experts from China, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland,Norway, France, Ecuador, Mongolia and Nepal, including Academicians DaHe Qin, TanDong Yao,FaHu Chen, DeLiang Chen, attended this conference. Academician DaHe Qin hosted the opening ceremony of this meeting, as the representatives of supporting agency, Mr. TaiBin Jia, vice secretary municipal committee, mayor of Dunhuang; Mr. Regine Hock, the president of International Association of Cryospheric Sciences and Mr. ShiChang Kang-director of State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science made a speech, respectively.

Group Photo of Participants

In this international workshop, there is one main venue, three special sessions and three side meetings, with a total of 75 oral presentations. The participants had special discussion on three major themes including the changing process and mechanism of the cryosphere, the interaction between the cryosphere and other spheres, and the service function of the cryosphere and the sustainable development. Meanwhile, side meetings were organized for the sustainable development of Dunhuang, the monitoring of and cooperative researches on the Arctic cryosphere and the field monitoring of the Antarctica. In addition, to encourage the participation by young scholars, IACS have granted the Best Youth Report Award to five participants, including Yi Zhao from Nanjing Normal University, Pandey Avash from International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Nepal, Bo Su from Beijing Normal University, and PuYu Wang and Jiao Yang from Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources. This Workshop has further promoted the development and international cooperation and exchange of the cryospheric science.

Main Venue

Branch Venue

The cryosphere is a negative-temperature sphere of certain thickness and with a continuous distribution on the epigeosphere. As one of the five major spheres in climate system, it has played an eminent role in global changes. The cryospheric science has become an important branch of the climate system science and even the earth system science. With its high sensitivity and important feedbacks for climate changes, against the background of global warming, the researches on the cryosphere have been attached with unprecedented importance, becoming one of the most active fields in the study of the climate system and one of the most focused hotspots of global changes and the sustainable development. At present, global warming and shrinkage of the cryosphere have affected glacier and snow water resources, ecological environment safety in cold regions,engineering construction and facilities safety, economic and social system of the cryosphere and so on. As the climate warming continues, the risks of cryospheric changes will increase and have wider impacts. The hydrological, ecological, environmental and economic effects of the cryosphere impact the social and economic activities and the sustainable development, which have been highly concerned by science, technology and management government departments at home and abroad.