Chinese Academy of Sciences (PDF) - low res version

CREDIT: COURTESY OF CAS
Research CAS/In Focus
Climate Change: Carbon
Budget and Relevant Issues
To confront climate change issues and find an optimized
approach for sustainable development in
China, a program has been put in place that aims
to tackle a series of S&T issues by bringing together
multiple disciplines at CAS. Issues to be addressed
include quantitative verification of the total terrestrial
carbon budget of China, identification of opportunities
for creating/strengthening carbon sinks, developing
the means to create/strengthen these carbon
sinks, and analyzing the relationship between the
increase in greenhouse gases and future global climate
change.
This program is expected to meet the following
goals: (i) to build a system of data resources, scientific
knowledge, and supportive technologies for the
creation of national policy on reducing greenhouse
gases and strengthening carbon sink potential as
well as implementing strategic decision-making
for sustainable development of the nation; (ii) to
significantly improve the quality of domestic research
in fields such as ecological systems and climate change, quantification
and verification of territorial carbon budget, technologies and measures to
strengthen carbon sinks in ecological systems, and managerial policies for
regional carbon budgets as well as to achieve a significant improvement in
S&T development as a basis for addressing climate change and increase
China’s role in the international climate change community; and (iii) to
establish a team of high-level S&T professionals capable of dealing with the
current trend of integration of different disciplines.
This program will set up a total of 15 subprojects to pursue its goals,
falling into five task clusters: greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration
of ecological systems, sensitivity to climate change, impacts of and
responses to climate change, and green development.
Contacts: Professor Liu Yi, liuyi@mail.iap.ac.cn, and Professor Lu Daren,
ludr@mail.iap.ac.cn
By reforming
the existing way
that IT research
is conducted,
technology and
scientific research
can be improved.
Next Generation Sensor
Technology Research in China
A strategic priority research program in
next generation information technology (IT)
research has been established in China
that aims to meet growing demands for a
countrywide network of sensors, including
information sensing equipment, information
transmission, and information processing
equipment. The overarching challenges
to a widely distributed sensor network are
power dissipation, performance, cost, and
security. This program is based on the innovative
concept of fusing humans, computers,
and physical systems into a Human
Computer Physical Network Cloud.
To fully utilize the opportunity of this triple
Figure 3. A new generation of IT-based on systematic,
transformative innovation.
integration, the concept of a so-called Sea-Network-Cloud (a sea of sensors
connected to a transmission network, all linked to a processing cloud)
has been proposed and a test platform built. By reforming the existing
way that IT research is conducted, technology and scientific research can
be improved, while simultaneously establishing a technical foundation for
bringing together technological, infrastructural, and social resources.
This program promotes the real-world evolution from 2-D to 3-D integration
through the fusion of human, computer, and physical systems by
combining Zettabyte (ZB)-level data, Sea-Cloud processing (the collection
and processing of data from the sensors and the deposition of this
data into a central processing center), end-to-end evolved networks with
quality assurance, and sensors collecting data about the physical world.
The program is designed to provide key technical support for the construction
and development of a more intelligent, secure, and serviceoriented
information society. To achieve this goal, a systematic and innovative
new generation IT technology has to be developed, as shown
in Figure 3.
This program will face significant scientific challenges, including: developing
a system architecture for IT technology over the next 20 years
that is designed for efficiency; limitations in the ability to simultaneously
collect and process large amounts of data; the evolution, robustness,
adaptability, and manageability of the future network; providing
easy access to large amounts of complex information from heterogeneous
sources; and developing a secure IT system that balances cost
and efficiency.
CAS has initiated a number of international collaborations around the
Sea-Network-Cloud. This program aims to further international collaboration
on the evolution of IT infrastructure and the development of highperformance
computing as well as high-performance core routers. This will
create a foundation for building out future information and sensor networks,
provide effective access to information, and achieve effective and more
intelligent management of natural resources and maintenance of information
security.
Contacts: Professor Tian Jing, tianjing@iie.ac.cn and Ms. Wang Yuhan,
wangyuhan@iie.ac.cn
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