The Third International Symposium on High Mountain and Polar Cold Region Observation and Understanding (HiMAC 2023) was held in Urumqi
From November 29th to December 1st, The Third International Symposium on HiMAC 2023, co-organized by Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (RCEECA), was held in Urumqi, Xinjiang. More than 150 experts and scholars from China, Finland, Canada, Mongolia, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other countries attended the conference in both online and offline formats.
At the opening ceremony, speeches were given by Academician Guo Huadong, Director of the International Research Center for Sustainable Development Big Data and Chairman of the Digital Silk Road International Science Program, Academician Markku Kulmala of the Finnish Academy of Science and Humanities, and Academician Philippe De Maeyer of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences of Belgium. Meanwhile, in attendance were Professor Shi Jiancheng, Chairman of the Digital Polar Committee of the China National Committee of the International Society for Digital Earth as well as the Researcher of the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Vice Director Zhang Daoyuan of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The symposium focused on five themes as follows: remote sensing observation, ground experiments and model development, Earth observation data and value-added products, changes and analysis in the Asian high mountain and Arctic regions, and the correlation and coordination of the Asian high mountain and Arctic regions,as well as social benefits and sustainable development. The conference aimed at enhancing environmental change monitoring and scientific understanding in high mountain and polar cold regions, answering scientific questions related to the changes and coordination of the Arctic interior, oceans, and Asian high mountain regions, exploring the scientific correlation between environmental changes in the Asian high mountain and Arctic regions based on Earth big data, and promoting sustainable development research and services in the field of social benefits based on scientific evidence and data.
Researchers Khusen Gafforov from the Institute of Irrigation and Water Problems of the Ministry of Water Resources of Uzbekistan, a partner of RCEECA, and Gulayozov Majid, a researcher at the Dushanbe Center of RCEECA, were invited to attend the meeting and gave academic presentations titled "The Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources in the Runoff Formation Area" and "Natural Disaster Processes in the Mountainous Regions of Tajikistan under Global Warming Conditions."
The conference was co-hosted by the Digital Belt and Road-High Mountain and Cold Region Working Group (DBAR-HiMAC), the Global Cryosphere Watch Program of the Group on Earth Observations (GEOCRI), the Xinjiang Association for Science and Technology, the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Key Laboratory of Arid Land Water Cycle and Water Resources Utilization of Xinjiang, with support from the Tianshan Snow Avalanche Xinjiang Field Scientific Observation Research Station, the Central Asian Ecology and Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Third Xinjiang Comprehensive Scientific Expedition Project, the Xinjiang Society of Natural Resources, and the Xinjiang Science Exploration Association.
The Digital Belt and Road International Science Program (DBAR) was officially launched in 2016 with the aim of using Earth big data to achieve sustainable development goals and coordinating with the GEO CRI. The DBAR-HiMAC working group was launched in 2017 and the first seminar was held in Beijing. In 2018, the second HiMAC International Symposium was held in Finland.
Academician Guo Huadong's opening ceremony speech
The group photo of the participants at HiMAC 2023