Meeting notes of China Blue Bay Remediation Action Plan Workshop
Meeting notes of China Blue Bay Remediation Action Plan Workshop
The China Blue Bay Remediation Action Plan Workshop was held on 4th June 2016 in the Sophia Hotel, Qingdao. There are 40 people from 16 institutions (including the UNSW, East China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration, North China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration, the First Institute of Oceanography of State Oceanic Administration, the Third Institute of Oceanography of State Oceanic Administration, Ningbo Marine Environment Monitoring Center of State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, Shanghai Ocean University, Ludong University, Institute of Marine Resources and Environment of Shandong Province, Environmental Protection Science Research Institute of Qingdao, Ocean University of China, Municipal Political Consultative Conference of Qingdao and Jiafeng Investment Fund of Qingdao) attended this workshop.
Yi Luo, the head of the Science and Technology Division of the Ocean University of China gave the greetings: this meeting is very timely and necessary with the investment from the country for scientific research and protection of bays and the university will support this. Luo also conveyed the suggestion of Prof. Lixin Wu (an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences). Prof. Wu suggested that using the Jiaozhou Bay as demonstration project, the group should link major Chinese and international bays and harbours along the Maritime Silk Road, and scales up the research to an international research program. The Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLMS) will provide support for this project.
1. Background Information of China Blue Bay Remediation Action
Dr. Peng Zhao from the North Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration introduced the background of the establishment of Blue Bay Remediation Action. The current situation of the marine environment of China is grim and ecological environment of the coastal areas were strongly influenced by the development activities of human. In 2015, measures were implemented by the Chinese government to recover and protect the national ecosystem and restoration and 24 national marine ecological demonstration areas were established. The government issued "Notice about National Financial Support for the Implementation of the Blue Bay Remediation Action" in May 2016 and the application guideline has not been carried out yet.
2. Remediation Experience of International Bays
Prof. Wang Xiao Hua introduced the research objectives of the "Joint Research Consortium of Urban Bay Environmental Evolution and the Ecological Transformation". He proposed to carry out the remediation activities based on the classification of urban harbors and bays, and the technical route includes the selection of important bays, data collection, the establishment of assessment standards, presenting the existing and future problems of these bays, considering issues the stakeholders concerned and the establishment of a standard of classification of ecological bays according to the above information.
Prof. Peter Steinberg from Sydney Institute Marine Science gave a video presentation on the World Harbour Project and related information.
Then Prof. Mike Elliot, the chief editor of SCI Journal "Estuarine Coastal Shelf Science" gave a video presentation in which he noted that ecohydrology is fundamental to proceedings of this ecological restoration work. He also introduced the successes and failures of ecological restoration of international bays. He proposed 10 essential elements (10-tenets) for ecological restoration, including ensuring ecological sustainability and technical feasibility, the establishment of evaluation system, improvement of the legal system and obtaining the acceptance from the society.
3. The Action Plan for the Ecological Environment Remediation of Important Bays in China
Prof. Xianwen Bao made a comprehensive report about the ecological Jiaozhou Bay environmental remediation, describing the evolution of the Jiaozhou Bay shoreline, the corresponding change of hydrodynamic environment and mass transport change, key control elements of water quality, indicator of environmental quality and the evaluation of the effects of pollutants reduction. He made the recommendation for the comprehensive remediation including sustainable dredging and dredged soil treatment, and the port city ecological transformation for the city and harbour.
Dr. Yeping Yuan from Zhejiang University reported the Hangzhou Bay reclamation project and the study of its effects, including Hangzhou Bay shoreline changes and changes in hydrodynamics between 1962 and 2015. The next step is to carry out the study of sediment transport and biogeochemistry.
Dr. Hongzhe Chen from Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration introduced the study of Xiamen coastal erosion and eutrophication, as well as blue bay plan for Xiamen from 2016 to 2017. Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration is primarily responsible for the marine debris collection
Dr. Cong Hu on behalf of Prof. Zaiijn You from Ludong University gave a report about the study of the cumulative effects of the evolution of Laizhou Bay marine environment. The report pointed out that the Laizhou Bay reclamation is about 3% of the whole area of Laizhou Bay. The indicator for the environmental change includes the change of hydrodynamic environment, the reduction of tidal prism, the destruction of habitat environments and the change of sea areas under the different coastal lines (2000, 2005, 2010 and 2013).
4. Discussion
4.1The Environmental Assessment Standards of Bays
Considering that the changes of ecological environment do not have the full recoverability, Prof. Zengxiang Gao recommended to proceed the environmental assessment of bays under the condition of evolution, and the assessment standards for results of bay remediation have to be established.
Director Ye Feng thought the research objective should be decomposed to focus on the key scientific problems.
Prof. Xianwen Bao proposed that the scientific problems should be solved first and the related engineering technology should be developed to guide the future work due to the demand from the Chinese government.
4.2 Pollution Treatment
Prof. Shang Chen proposed that it is necessary to treat the pollutants in bottom sediments. Dr. Ying Su introduced the differential emission reduction program which has not considered the source of pollutants in sediments yet; Prof. Xiulin Wang proposed to add the bottom boundary conditions.
4.3 Promote the Regional Research to Full-scale National Research
Prof. Xiulin Wang thought that a system of solutions for remediation of coastal environments, the assessment method for environmental quality and the optimization method for engineering should be proposed for the government in the perspective of science. In addition, and the bay remediation should have social and economic benefits.
Prof. Xiao Hua Wang suggested bringing several bays together to promote the regional research to a full-scale national level based on the “Joint Research Consortium of Urban Bay Environmental Evolution and the Ecological Transformation". The bay remediation can then be promoted to an international level via the cooperation with the World Harbour Project and other international projects.
5. Decisions Made Through This Meeting
- To develop an overall strategy for bay remediation in China, conduct a comprehensive comparative research to guide the remediation and restoration of the coasts and bays in China and to raise the group’s capacity in coastal research.
- To divide the key coastal areas, such as Laizhou Bay, Jiaozhou Bay, Northern Jiangsu Shoal, Hangzhou Bay and Xiamen Bay. Five research teams can be grouped correspondingly then collaborate with the international institutions (e.g. UNSW/SARCCM, Sydney Institute Marine Science, PIANC Australia). The collective resources can be leveraged and project proposals may be submitted to the relevant departments and the national laboratories in China and international funding agencies.
- Proposed to achieve two outcomes: publish a monograph which includes the objective analysis of each bay as case studies and a summary of the experience of successes and failures; publish an international high-level paper which takes international bays as objectives of research review.
- Proposed a 2-page project proposal for funding, which will be submitted to Prof. Lixin Wu (an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences) for consideration of QNLMS funding. The research objectives, research programs and other content (about half a page) of Jiaozhou Bay, Hangzhou Bay, Xiamen Bay and Northern Jiangsu Shoal from related research team should be submitted to Prof. Xiao Hua Wang on or before 11th June.
Jiaozhou Bay Institute of Marine Science and Management
6th June 2016
