The “Integrated Research Project of Heihe Watershed Ecology-Hydrological Processes”, a major research program of the National Natural Science Foundation, was launched on March 4 in Lakeview Hotel, Peking University. Experts and scholars from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University and other research institutes gathered in a listen to the two integrated projects responsible by Professor Chunmiao Zheng of Peking University and Professor Dawen Yang of Tsinghua University.

The “Integrated Research Project of Heihe Watershed Ecology-Hydrological Processes” typically studies the Heihe River Basin in China. It aims to establish a scientific platform for observations, tests, data collection and simulation of the domestic inland river basin, thus to understand interaction and mechanism between inland river basin ecological process and hydrological system, and to establish a model and  decision making system for water resources management. In the long run, it is expected to improve the comprehensive analysis and forecasting capacity for water-ecology-economic system evolution of inland river basins, and to provide the basic theory and technology support for water security, ecological security and economic sustainable development.

Professor Chunmiao Zheng of Peking University is chief scientist of the Project "System behavior and regulation research of eco-hydrological processes in the middle and lower reaches of Heihe River Basin”. He will make use of all the exiting data and results of the previous Heihe Projects, to make analysis of the coupling mechanism of ecological and hydrological processes of the Heihe River region, build numerical model that can accurately portray the eco-hydrological processes in the middle and lower reaches of the Heihe River Basin, and finally contribute to the region’s sustainable ecology-water resources-social/economic development.

The participating experts and scholars discussed many related issues of the two projects and offered many suggestions. Officers from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Scientific Research at PKU and Tsinghua, the College of Engineering at PKU and the School of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua also participated in the meeting.