Between September 16^th and 18^th, 2019, the International Symposium on Land Cover and Land Use Change (LCLUC) in Central Asia and the Caucasus, hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), organized by Agricultural Technology Center of Kazakhstan and co-organized by Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (RCEECA), was held in the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, with more than 60 attendees from China, the United States, Turkey, Greece, Georgia, Mongolia, Armenia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Marat, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Data Development, Innovation and Space Industry in Kazakhstan, attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

The symposium is themed with the safety and sustainability of water-energy-food related systems. Centering on land cover and land use change, participating representatives conducted academic exchanges on problems and challenges faced globally, regionally and nationally, and also discussed the application of remote sensing and other new technologies in land management, agricultural monitoring, urban planning, pollution prevention and control combining with specific cases and practices. During the exchange of regional information network in Central Asia, Chen Xi, Vice President of Xinjiang Branch, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of RCEECA, was invited to make a systematic introduction of the positioning objective, organizational structure, scientific and technological cooperation and talent training of RCEECA to the attendees, and mainly introduced the scientific and technological platform consisting of field station, analysis and test laboratory, test demonstration area and information center, as well as the main work and results achieved since the construction of the center. He expressed his intention to join hands with all parties to promote scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges in the field of ecological environment in Central Asia.

Land cover and land use change (LCLUC) is an interdisciplinary and global research project under NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) program. It aims to provide scientific support for expounding man-land relationship and the sustainability, vulnerability and adaptability of terrestrial ecosystem through the development and use of remote sensing technology. As an academic conference under the LCLUC project, the symposium is held at the place where the project is implemented in different regions around the world at irregular intervals. The first symposium in Central Asia region was held in Urumqi in 2007, followed by Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2009 and Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 2013.

During the meeting, Director Chen Xi and Executive Deputy Director Liu Wenjiang also conducted exchanges and discussions on the development planning and further work of the China-Kazakhstan Big Data Analysis Center under construction with President Kurishbayev and Vice President Ismail of S.Seifullin Kazakh Agro Technical University. Moreover, they also exchanged views with the Agricultural Consul in the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Kazakhstan on agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

Conference scene

Chen Xi introduces the cooperation in Central Asia

Panel discussion with S.Seifullin Kazakh Agro Technical University