Recently, organized by the Center for Water Research (CWR), the “International Meeting on Water Sustainability in Megacities under Global Change” was held at Zhongguanyuan Global Village, Peking University. More than 50 experts and scholars from research institutes at home and abroad gathered at Peking University to discuss the challenges for water sustainability in megacities under global change and the possible solutions. The meeting was co-chaired by Professor Chunmiao Zheng, director of CWR, Professor Zhiyun Ouyang, deputy director of Ecological Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Jack Liu, director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability and chair professor at Michigan State University.

In his speech, Professor Jack Liu pointed out that global change has caused a huge threat on the world's water resources sustainability, particularly to the mega-cities. Many mega-cities are experiencing water shortages, climate change, land use change, urbanization, and population growth. Economic development has aggregated the water shortage problem. Therefore, the topic of how to use the system model and other means to simulate the impact of a variety of factors on water resources sustainability, as well as the efficient management of the water resources of the mega-cities should be the focus of attention of researchers, said Liu.

Liu and his team at Michigan then gave a report about their research on 1) sustainable water management strategy to improve the efficiency of agricultural water use, 2) reduction of agricultural water consumption, 3) the impact of climate change and land-use changes on the sustainability of water resources, 4) the employment of economic demand model for the sustainable management of water resources, 5) forecasts of U.S. seasonal drought, 6) application of remote sensing technology in eco-hydrological parameter measurement, etc.

Subsequently, Professor Yi Zheng and Researcher Guoliang Cao of CWR, Dr. Christina P. Wong and Dr. Xuyong Li of Ecological Environment Research Center, CAS introduced their work on the simulation of water quality and quantity of the urban areas of the North China Plain, and sustainable water resources assessment, respectively.

In addition, Mr. Qingyi Meng, vice president of the Beijing Academy of Water Science and Technology, talked about the four major challenges that face Beijing water resources management, including the continued decline of the river system upstream inflow, groundwater levels decline, tremendous pressure of the urban water supply systems, and water demand of landscape ecology. Meng further introduced the response measures taken by the Beijing administration.

Professor Chunmiao Zheng introduced the integrated research project "System Behavior and Regulation of Eco-hydrological Processes in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Heihe River Basin" currently undertaken by CWR, which was under the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation, China, before delivering a conclusion speech.

“To work out the problem of sustainability of water resources under global change, multi-level and interdisciplinary international exchanges and cooperation is crucial. I think the forum has played a positive role,” commented Zheng.