Qingdao is a coastal city, surrounded by the Yellow Sea, and is located at the southern end of Shandong Peninsula. It had a GDP of 129.2 billion USD in 2013 and a population of 8.72 million in 2011. Jiaozhou Bay is a semi-enclosed bay, and bordered by Qingdao. Over the last 50 years, JB has been affected by continuously increasing anthropogenic activities such as land reclamation, port construction, landfill, and reservoir construction. The area of Jiaozhou Bay below mean high tide level has been decreased by one third from 560 km² to 362 km² since 1928, which reduces the water-exchange capacity and induces the siltation in main channels. Jiaozhou Bay has accepted most pollutants from Qingdao’s 10 districts and cities. The northeast coast has the worst water quality due to the poor hydrodynamic environment. Terrigenous dissolved inorganic nitrogen is found to be the dominant pollutant in Jiaozhou Bay, the annual discharge of which increased from 1,800 tons in 1980s to 12,000 in 2010s. In addition, Jiaozhou Bay and all the Qingdao coastal regions have been suffering several environmental problems in recent years such as algal blooms in summer and sea ice in winter. Research and relevant legislation and regulation have been implemented for sustainable coastal development in Jiaozhou Bay, so called “mother bay of Qingdao”.
Professor Xianwen Bao completed his PhD in 2003 but started his academic career at Ocean University of China (OUC) in 1993. He has been the Deputy Dean of College of Physical and Environmental Oceanography at OUC since 2005.
Professor Bao’s research concerns coastal oceanography as well as coastal management issues. For the last ten years, he has cemented his position as one of the leading Chinese researchers in the field of coastal oceanography. Since 2008, a total of over AU$ 20 million has been granted to him from a variety of sources including Nature Science Foundation of China, State Oceanic Administration of China, Province or City Government, and other stakeholders. Professor Bao led numerous important projects on China’s coasts and estuaries. His team studied the physical, geological, chemical and biological impacts on marine environment caused by anthropogenic activities, and provided advices for marine environment protection and coastal management. Although most of his work was published in Chinese journals, these papers have been highly recognized by Chinese oceanographers.
Professor Bao teaches marine observation related courses at OUC. He serves as committee member for several domestic and international scientific organizations and programs, prompting interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects.
Dr. Dehai Song completed his PhD in 2013 and started his academic career as a Research Fellow at Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China.
Dr. Song’s research mainly concerns coastal physical oceanography. His work on tidal elevation asymmetry provided a general framework for identifying the constituents responsible for asymmetry and computing the degree of the identified tidal asymmetry, which can be world-widely applied. His study revealed the energy storage function of tidal flats, which is much more important than energy dissipation, and showed that the large-scale development of tidal flats on China’s east coast may cause flooding in neighbouring South Korea. It is both innovative and cutting-edge research. His recent research on sediment transport in the newly completed navigation channel in the Yangtze River Estuary advanced our knowledge on the mechanism of sediment trapping in this channel and the source of trapped sediment.
Dr. Song has attended projects funded by a variety of sources including the Australia Research Council, National Science Foundation of China, State Oceanic Administration of China, and Chinese governments. He has excellent research output relative to the opportunity, including 8 published papers in international peer-reviewed journals.
Xiao Hua Wang
Xiao Hua Wang graduated from Ocean University of Qingdao, China and completed his PhD in Physical Oceanography in 1990 at James Cook University in Australia. He held a postdoctoral research position at the School of Geography and Oceanography (currently School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences), the University of New South Wales at Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia before he became a faculty member in the same school in 1991. He was tenured in 1996. He has been a Visiting Scientist at Princeton University, USA, and a Visiting Professor at University of Bologna, to undertake collaborative research projects.
On 1 July 2006 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer, and on 1 January 2012 he was promoted to Associate Professor. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Ocean University of China.