General

The State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research (SKLEC), located in the East China Normal University (ECNU), Shanghai, was established on the basis of 30 years studies on estuarine and coastal sedimentary dynamics and dynamic geo-morphology at this university. Professor Chen Jiyu(Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Euro-Asian Academy of Sciences)and Professor Dou Guoren(an academician of chinese Academician of CAS) are advisors of SKLEC academic committee. Professor Wang Pinxian(an academician of CAS) is the chairman of the academic committee, and professor Shen Huanting and professor Su Jilan (an academician of CAS)are the deputy Chairmen.There are now 15 professors, 11 associate professors, 3 lecturers , 5 technicians and 1 administrator in the Laboratory,and Professor Ding Pingxing is the director.

Main research fields

The laboratory is mainly involved in the applied basic research in the discipline of estuarine and coastal sedimentary dynamics & dynamic geomorphology. The main research areas are: (i)estuarine evolution and sediment dynamics;(ii) coastal dynamic geomorphologic and sedimentary processes.By multi-disciplinary integration,the main tasks of the Laboratory are to study the dynamic and sedimentary processes with various spatial and temporal scales as well as the human impacts on natural enviroment and natural processes,to understand the interactions among different physical factors and interfaces, to develop the discipline of estuarine and coastal research, and to serve engineering works such as harbor and navigation channel construction,coastal zone planning and management, resource exploitation , environmental protection.

Main research achievements

Since established in 1991,the Laboratory has received a great number of research grants including 12 national key projects,24 NSFC(National Natural Science Foundation of China)projects,18 international collaborative projects,93 ministry or provincial government funded and 95 contract projects.Main achievements from these researches have been summarized and published in 7 monographs or collections and 383 research papers have been published in the national or international journals. The Laboratory has received 23 national or provincial awards ,among which,"Conprehensive study on coastal zone resources in China" won first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award."The main sedimentary dynamic processes of esturaies in China"and "Storm deposits and enviromental evolution in the Yangtze Delta"won second prize of Science and Technology Progress Award by the ministry of Education ,"Regulation of deep-water navigation channel in the Yangtze Estaury"won second prize of Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award.This Laboratory has applied theoretical achievements to the national economic development at high level .For example,the advisory proposal on shifting PuDong International Airport eastward to the tidal flats,which was put forward by Professor Chen Jiyu,reduced and investment of 3.6 billion RMB.

Facilities

A total of 1.2 million US dollars of World Bank loan has been used to purchase 21 sets of up-to-date facilities. These facilities can be categorized into field surveying instruments, analytical instruments and computer system. The field surveying instruments include Tethere Current Meter(Endeco 174SSM), Wave & Tide Recorder(SBE26), SBE25CDT, Thermal Depth Sounder Recorder(Innerspace 449), Turbidity Monitor(Endeco OBS-3), Sonic Suspended Matter Monitor, Side Scan Sonar System (Wide Scan 3050-II), Shallow Layer Profiling System(GEOChirp), GPS(1008/586). The analytical instruments are comprised of GC/MS, ICP, Flow Cytometer, HPGe Well-type Gamma Detector System and Magnetic Measurement System. The computer system is composed of workstation network (HP 9000/817s, 715) and GIS & Image Processing System (Intergraph).

Cultivation of talents

The estuarine and coastal study is an interdiscipline combined with physical geography, oceanography and ecology and has been well developed in ECNU.It is an important task for the Laboratory to train the postgraduate students in relative fields.The Laboratory provides postgraduates students with excellent environment and facilities for their research and training.In recent years,67 students graduated with MS degree and 24 with Ph.D degree from the Laboratory.There are now 55 postgraduate students studying in the Laboratory. A training base with high quality researchers has been formed.

Academic exchange and corporation

The laboratory has put great emphasis on academic exchange and scientific cooperation both at home and abroad based on the guideline of "Opening, Exchanging, Cooperating, Competing". Several international joint research projects have been carried out with institutes and universities of USA, UK,Netherland and Japan,such as "Sediment migration and diffusion in Changjiang Estuary ", "Biological sedimentation at Wadden Tidalflat", "Environmental evolution in East Asia"etc. Each year, about 15 persons go abroad for short-term studies, cooperative research and international conferences, Meanwhile more than 10 foreign scholars visit the Laboratory for lecturing and research projects. The Laboratory subsidized 410,000 RMB for 37 open projects in recent years. The guest researchers from other institutes undertook 89 percent of those projects. There are about 20 guest researchers in the laboratory every year.