FIRST CIRCULAR

  Workshop of Social-Ecological Resilience of Freshwater Systems in the Anthropocene

 Nanjing, China 

 

Rationale

Dealing with grand challenges of the Anthropocene needs rigorous understanding of complex interactions between human and natural systems. Of particular concern is nonlinear dynamics of ecosystem change, which are hard to predict and are often costly for management, most probably impossible to reverse, if crosses the threshold. The mounting concerns about potential regime shifts from local to global scale, and better understanding of potential risks and consequences of such shifts has been identified as an urgent priority among scientists, stakeholders and policymakers.

Freshwater ecosystems covering about 2.5% of the total water resources of the planet, have become one of the most vulnerable ecosystems. Cumulative effects of multiple drivers acting together at a time on freshwater ecosystems have caused substantial change on food webs, habitat change and ecosystem functions that have direct impacts on people’s livelihoods and well-being. How the functioning of freshwater ecosystems and services is maintained while they are kept within safe operating space without being crossed the tipping point needs to be debated extensively. This requires not only evidence and perspective about nonlinear dynamics, but also new and evolving scientific approaches to increase freshwater system resilience.

Objectives

The main objectives of the three-day international symposium are therefore to help improve knowledge and understanding of nonlinear transition of freshwater system and their relevance to adaptive management. To archive this aims, it will bring expertise from both natural and social science to discuss new ideas, theoretical advancement, and approaches being used for freshwater SES resilience research, and to identify the key challenges in this area. We will focus on following key questions:

(1) How to quantify resilience of freshwater ecosystems?

(2) How to identify regime shift in coupled social-ecological systems from past records?

(3) What are the propitiate management options to deal with freshwater ecosystem where tipping point already been crossed, or where data suggest that the tipping point is being approached? 

Expected outcomes

(1) Establishment of a research hub of SES resilience for Asia by bringing the wider scientific communities working in the region. 

(2) Devolving approaches/framework to better understanding freshwater SES resilience. 

(3) Initiation of database development on regime shifts of freshwater ecosystem. 

(4) Preparation of a synthesis paper about long term trends of freshwater social-ecological resilience.

Theme

This workshop will have two overarching themes:

  1. Resilience and regime shift of freshwater social and ecological systems

      * Advancement of resilience/regime shift theory and approaches

      * New metrics and approaches to define and measure freshwater system resilience

      * Regime shift and tipping point at different temporal and spatial scales

      * Modelling regime shfit of freshwater soical-ecological systems

  2. Resilience-based management in freshwater ecosystems

      * What are the potential implication of regimes shift for future ecosystem management and restoration?

      * How to apply resilience framework for freshwater management?

      * How to define safe operating spaces for freshwater soical-ecological cosystem? *How to define the Anthropocene in the freshwater system?

Program (Tentative):

 Hosted by

Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Science

Sponsored by

l Chinese Academy of Science

l State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, China

l Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Science

l National Natural Science Foundation of China

Venue

Nanjing NO.9 Banshanyuan Hotel

Address: NO. 21 Qianbanshanyuan Road,  Xuanwu District, Nanjing, China

 

Traffic Routes

(1) From Lukou international airport (南京禄口国际机场)

   •by Taxi(about 45 km, and cost around CNY 120)
   •by Airport Bus Line 1(CNY 25) to Nanjing Station and then take taxi (about 9.5 km, and cost around CNY 30)
   •by Airport Bus Line 1 to Nanjing Station (CNY 25)，transfer Subway Line 1 to Xinjiekou station, transfer Subway Line 2 to Muxuyuan station, and then take a taxi(about 2.2 km, and cost around CNY 13)

(2) From Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (上海虹桥国际机场)

     •by plane to Lukou international airport and then see(1).
   •by train to Nanjing Station or Nanjing South Station and then see(3) or (4)
(3) From Nanjing Station (南京站)
   • by Taxi(about 9.5 km, and cost around CNY 30)
   • by bus No.Travel 1, get down at Zhongshanling parking station (the terminal station, about 20 stations), and then walk to the hotel (about 1.2km)

(4) From Nanjing South Station (南京南站)

   •by Taxi (about 14 km, and cost around CNY 40)

   •by Subway Line 1 to Xinjiekou station or Line 3 to Daxinggong station, transfer Subway Line 2 to Muxuyuan station, and then take a taxi(about 2.2 km, and cost around CNY 13)

 

 Registration

Please send your CV and a short statement explaining your expertise in this topic (1 paragraph max) to Ke Zhang: kzhang@niglas.ac.cn.

Postdocs and advanced graduate students with documented relevant expertise are encouraged to apply. On-site participants will be selected by the steering committee, balancing expertise to meet the goals of the RTCC.

Registration deadline: 15th June 2017 

 

 Financial support

Local cost including meals, accommodation and transportation at the venue will be provided for all participants. A limited amount of travel support to international participants is subject to a pending proposal. Please indicate on your application if you require travel support. 

Visa Requirement

Attendees from most countries will be required to obtain a visa to enter the People's Republic of China; you can apply for a Chinese visa through two ways: a travel agency or directly at the nearest Chinese embassy. If you apply for a tourist visa (visa type), which will allow you attend the conference and sightseeing, an official visa invitation letter will not be needed from the workshop. No visa is required for ordinary passport holders from Singapore, Brunei and Japan to visit China for up to 15 days for business, sightseeing, visiting relatives and friends or transit.

Once you have registered for the resilience workshop, we will issue you an official invitation letter to assist you to obtain a visa to China. In this case you need to supply the following information at your earliest convenience.

1.Full Name (exactly as in your passport) 

 2.Passport Number

3.Your Nationality 

4.The dates you expect to arrive and depart China 

5.Name of the CITY you will apply to for a Chinese visa.

The invitation letter will state the workshop name, the duration of the workshop, your detailed correspondence that will be extracted from your enquiry. You can use the letter to get a visa in the nearest Chinese Embassy/Consulate

See http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng, for official visa information.

Time and Weather

China Standard Time (CST) is 8 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Clocks are set at GMT + 8 hours. The weather in Nanjing in early July is usually hot and humid. Temperatures are usually in the range between 25 and 30 °C during the day. Please check the weather forecast for Nanjing at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/china, http://en.weather.com.cn/, or http://www. weather.com/

Electricity and Internet

 The electricity is 220~230 V, 50 Hz, AC.  A standard socket in China has two pins on the upper part and earthed three pins on the lower part. You may buy a portable plug adaptor at your home country or here in China. Most of hotels in China offer free use of plug adaptors.

To ensure your free access to international websites, we suggest that you should get a VPN account from your university or personal purchase. In China, google, facebook, twitter and youtube are not normally accessible on domestic Internet.   

Foreign exchange, banking facilities

The official Chinese currency is the Renminbi yuan (RMB). Major credit cards are ususlly accepted in most hotels, restaurants and shopping malls in Nanjing. Currency exchange are available mainly at the banks in the city. Traveller's cheques and convertible currency may also be exchanged at banks. There are 2 banks (Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank near our institute (NIGLAS).  ATM cash machines can be found at almost each bank office, hotel or on the street.

For further information, please contact:

Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Science

73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, China
Tel: +86-25-868-82279

Email:Dr. Ke Zhang  kzhang@niglas.ac.cn / Dr. Rong Wang rwang@niglas.ac.cn

Visit us online at  www.retcc.com/newsandevents/focus to find out more about the workshop. We look forward to hearing from you.

*Related links:

Chinese Version Annoucement:  www.retcc.com/newsandevents/focus/2017-05-18/60.html  

Nanjing Travel   http://en.nju.gov.cn/#

 APPENDIX

Nanjing Metro Map