The research priorities of Resources and Environmental Sciences

Abstract

The great challenges of sustainable development highlight an urgent need to systematically understand the mechanisms linking humans and nature. Resources and Environmental Sciences are a broad and practical discipline focused on coupled human and natural systems. They aim to study the formation and evolution of resources in the earth system, the drivers of various environmental problems, processes and relationships between resources and the environment, particularly under the combined impacts of natural conditions and human activities. The major resources and environmental problems drive the discipline development; international science programmes guide the direction of the discipline; interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration promotes new branches of the discipline; and technological progress results in a research paradigm shift. Facing the critical research requirements of strengthening transand interdisciplinarity, breaking through the key technology, targeting major environmental and disaster issues, and supporting sustainable development, nine critical scientific issues should be focused on climate change impact and adaptation, petroleum and mineral resources, water cycle and water resources, soil and land resources, ecosystems, remote sensing and geographic information science, environmental science and technology, disaster risk, and global and regional sustainable development. Suggestions to enhancing funding systems, improve talent cultivation, develop scientific platforms, and strength international cooperation are provided in this study to support scientific policymaking. The promotion of Resources and Environmental Sciences enables a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of economic development and environmental changes relevant to assure a more sustainable global development.

Keywords

Anthropocene / Sustainable development / Human and natural systems / Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary integration / Key technology / Policy recommendations

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. L1924041), Research Project on the Discipline Development Strategy of Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XK2019DXC006), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China.

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