The Institute of Coastal Zone and Global Change, affiliated to the Department of Geography and Spatial Information Technique at Ningbo University, leverages coastal and marine geography as its foundation, and is committed to understanding the dynamics of coastal zones and addressing global changes. Aligned with the national strategic needs of "adhering to the overall planning of land and sea, developing marine economy, and building a maritime power," the institute focuses on the resource environment and ecological security of coastal zones. It follows a research approach that integrates nature with society, information with management, and the "past" with the "present." Its research endeavors encompass the land-sea interactions, the evolution of resource environments, and sustainable development in coastal zones under the influence of global changes and human activities. The ultimate goal is to serve national, provincial, and municipal efforts in coastal zone resource management, ecological conservation, marine economic development, as well as disaster prevention and mitigation. The institute is responsible for the construction of a second-level master's degree program in coastal and ocean geography, and is committed to strategic and forward-looking interdisciplinary research. The research direction mainly includes:
1. Coastal Zone Resource Development and Management
Utilizing remote sensing imagery, Geographic Information System (GIS), and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies, we monitor environmental changes in coastal zones and offshore areas, predict and assess the potential impacts of human activities on these regions, and subsequently provide support for economic development and environmental protection in these areas.
2. Evolution of Marine Environment and Global Change
Adhering to a research approach that integrates land and sea, as well as the past and present, we employ interdisciplinary research methods such as sedimentology, micropaleontology, and biogeochemistry to study modern oceanic processes, paleoceanographic evolution records, and numerical simulations, thereby gaining a scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying global change.
3. Coastal Zone Environmental Archaeology
From both micro (individual site) and macro (regional archaeological-environmental record integration) perspectives, we reconstruct the evolution of ancient natural environments and human societies in coastal zones, revealing the positive and negative impacts of the environment on human activities, as well as human behaviors of adaptation, transformation, and destruction towards the environment. This work makes theoretical contributions to the sustainable development of human-environment relations and the construction of ecological civilization, providing historical insights and scientific bases for addressing future climate and environmental changes.
The institute has established a teaching and research team with a rational professional and age structure, comprising specialists in marine geology and geomorphology, marine environment, and coastal zone resource and environmental management. It boasts one leading talent under the "Ten Thousand Talents Program" of Zhejiang Province, one talent at the first tier and one at the second tier of the provincial "151 Talent Project", one young and middle-aged academic leader in colleges and universities in Zhejiang Province, four top talents in Ningbo, and one innovative talent under the pan-"3315 Plan" in Ningbo.
The institute boasts a series of large-scale instruments and equipment, including Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM), sediment particle size analyzers, biological phase contrast microscopes, and elemental analyzers. In recent years, it has undertaken 12 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (including 1 key project), over 20 provincial and ministerial projects such as "Jian Bin" and "Ling Yan" initiatives, and published over 100 research papers in SCI/EI journals and domestic authoritative publications. Additionally, the institute has released more than 20 monographs/teaching materials, and won 2 first prizes for scientific research achievements at the provincial and ministerial levels. Numerous achievements have also received affirmative instructions or adoption by provincial and ministerial leaders.