MIDST-CZ: Maximising Impact by Decision Support Tools for sustainable soil and water through UK-China Critical Zone science
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Geographical & Earth Sciences
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
The following will benefit from this research:
1. Those living in and managing the land for food production, and soil and water quality, and their conservation will benefit from the decision support tools (DST) that will be refined or developed based on our Critical Zone integrated understanding of how the environment functions. These tools will allow these stakeholders to be guided on best management practices for their business and the environment. The DSTs will lead to improvements in their quality of life, ensuring the fundamental needs (generation of food and associated economic development; access to water of appropriate quality) and decisions of how to achieve these, are underpinned by a useful knowledge-base.
2. Commercial organisations that depend on innovation, such as 'app' developers will benefit from our engagement with them to explore in what form the decision support tools should be made available. Moreover, the DSTs will be useful to agronomists and the fertiliser industry. Specific interest from two Chinese companies producing nutrients from sewage and other organic wastes has been demonstrated in letters of support.
3. This joint research will remain of benefit to the NSFC, raising their profile in the UK and amongst other critical zone scientists. The exchanges of skills and information that will occur during this research with Chinese colleagues will build international competitiveness of science in both UK and the UK. The research will ultimately demonstrate to the international scientific community the value sensitive environments, and the benefits of international cooperation in research to tackle grand challenges of food security, land degradation and climate change. It will help consolidate each country's position as a future key research partner, and particularly the NSFC in China as a partner of choice for future co-funded research with the UK.
4. Through publication and conference activity, the Chinese and UK academic parties will demonstrate to the community how their scientific endeavour can be used to create tangible outputs to improve the quality of life and global environment for those on low incomes or managing degraded land. They will benefit through enhanced international standing and resultant funded research collaboration.
5. The wider public, and local communities hosting the research, will benefit during the research activity through research team communication activity that meets their passion for and excites them to understand the natural world more deeply. This also includes those not involved directly in the research who may be asked to help gather data and in turn will receive training in new skills. In turn if this encourages greater interest in how STEM subjects also inform social development, the relevant country science base will benefit.
6. Through progress towards achieving sustainable development goals the global community will benefit.
1. Those living in and managing the land for food production, and soil and water quality, and their conservation will benefit from the decision support tools (DST) that will be refined or developed based on our Critical Zone integrated understanding of how the environment functions. These tools will allow these stakeholders to be guided on best management practices for their business and the environment. The DSTs will lead to improvements in their quality of life, ensuring the fundamental needs (generation of food and associated economic development; access to water of appropriate quality) and decisions of how to achieve these, are underpinned by a useful knowledge-base.
2. Commercial organisations that depend on innovation, such as 'app' developers will benefit from our engagement with them to explore in what form the decision support tools should be made available. Moreover, the DSTs will be useful to agronomists and the fertiliser industry. Specific interest from two Chinese companies producing nutrients from sewage and other organic wastes has been demonstrated in letters of support.
3. This joint research will remain of benefit to the NSFC, raising their profile in the UK and amongst other critical zone scientists. The exchanges of skills and information that will occur during this research with Chinese colleagues will build international competitiveness of science in both UK and the UK. The research will ultimately demonstrate to the international scientific community the value sensitive environments, and the benefits of international cooperation in research to tackle grand challenges of food security, land degradation and climate change. It will help consolidate each country's position as a future key research partner, and particularly the NSFC in China as a partner of choice for future co-funded research with the UK.
4. Through publication and conference activity, the Chinese and UK academic parties will demonstrate to the community how their scientific endeavour can be used to create tangible outputs to improve the quality of life and global environment for those on low incomes or managing degraded land. They will benefit through enhanced international standing and resultant funded research collaboration.
5. The wider public, and local communities hosting the research, will benefit during the research activity through research team communication activity that meets their passion for and excites them to understand the natural world more deeply. This also includes those not involved directly in the research who may be asked to help gather data and in turn will receive training in new skills. In turn if this encourages greater interest in how STEM subjects also inform social development, the relevant country science base will benefit.
6. Through progress towards achieving sustainable development goals the global community will benefit.
Organisations
- University of Glasgow (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (Collaboration)
- Sichuan Agricultural University (Collaboration)
- Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Collaboration)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Collaboration)
- Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Collaboration)
Publications
Naylor L
(2023)
Achieving Sustainable Earth Futures in the Anthropocene by Including Local Communities in Critical Zone Science
in Earth's Future
Zheng Y
(2019)
Knowledge management across the environment-policy interface in China: What knowledge is exchanged, why, and how is this undertaken?
in Environmental Science & Policy
Description | The key finding from the Glasgow-led component of this work is that we have a much more in-depth understanding of government, agricultural industry and farmer level interactions, and the ways in which they currently receive training and if/how a decision-support tool will assist them in the future at improving their agricultural practice for: a) economic benefits, helping meet ODA requirements (e.g. poverty alleviation) and b) the environmental impacts of their agricultural practice (e.g. lower fertiliser use with less effect on the surrounding environment). This work is directly informing the development of the DST and models in other parts of the multi-partner project. Due to COVID-19 and our inability to visit China as planned we adopted an alternative approach which was to set-up a weChat account for the project, allowing us to build a network of followers/viewers to answer online surveys and to read our outputs/watch our video etc. This helped us connect with people in China remotely. |
Exploitation Route | Yes, the method of social science research to provide an evidence base for the knowledge exchange of scientific information, and for designing co-produced research outcomes is a model that future projects could adopt, especially where UK scientists are working in countries where governance and training arrangements are lesser known at the outset of projects. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Education Environment Government Democracy and Justice Other |
Description | This project has taken outputs from five earlier projects looking at ecosystem services and the critical zone in a joint NERC-Chinese initiative. The findings of these five projects have been summarised and shared with practitioners and policymakers in China, to illustrate some of the key scientific findings that can help them reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture. These data were shared as formal reports and as part of a conversation to encourage Chinese based policymakers and agriculture industry practitioners to work with us to develop a decision-support model that will help improve agricultural practice (and lead to environmental improvements). In 2024, two key papers from the project were published at the same time. These were selected by the American Geophysical Union (the publisher of the journals) to be featured in their Editors Vox (https://eos.org/ed-vox) - you can read this here: https://eos.org/editors-vox/earths-critical-zone-remains-a-mystery-without-its-people. This has led to widespread press coverage of the research in the UK and further afield. It is also featured in a 20-year retrospective editorial for another high impact AGU journal, showcasing this work as an agenda-setting piece, the only reference that was selected by these authors. This shows the high esteem other academics have in regard to these outputs. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023JF007567 "The editors have considered and consulted with AGU on whether, in the interest of representing additional countries and regions, the journal's aims and scope should be expanded to include topics in agriculture and engineering. Those fields overlap to some degree with our current subject matter and are becoming increasingly relevant to understanding Earth's surface, as anthropogenic activities become more dominant forces in the evolution of the "critical zone" across a wide range of tectonic, climatic, and geographic settings (e.g., Naylor et al., 2023). Taking such a decision necessitates weighing the potential benefits and drawbacks and, while it was decided to not expand the journal in those directions at present, it may be something to consider for the future. The field continues to grow in new directions in which we encourage manuscript submissions and Special Collections, for example, research highlighting nature-based solutions and other restoration approaches." Most recently (February 2024), this blog and associated Herald newspaper article has led to Prof Larissa Naylor being invited to talk about the revised Critical Zone diagram at a leading Scottish music, arts and environmental education festival called the Eden Festival (https://edenfestival.co.uk). The event is due to take place in June 2024. |
First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Environment |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
Description | Webinar on WeChat platform |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | This webinar has been viewed by more than 150 people. |
Title | Social surveys to environmental scientists and local stakeholders in Chinese villages to understand knowledge management dynamics |
Description | Data comprise results of social surveys carried out in China during 2016 - 2018 to environmental scientists and the local stakeholders (farmers and village to county level officials) to understand their knowledge learning dynamics and preference. Surveys were conducted in the rural villages in Puding County, Guizhou Province, Changwu County, Shaanxi Province, and Yujiang County, Jiangxi Province. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/e674e08c-fbf5-411b-940c-7e31014f0e76 |
Description | UK-China ECR Workshop |
Organisation | Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Attending the UK-China ECR Workshop |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Yinlong Xu was one of the interviewees for KE during the workshop. |
Impact | ? |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | UK-China ECR Workshop |
Organisation | Chinese Academy of Social Sciences |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Attending the UK-China ECR Workshop |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr. Tongquan Sun was one of the mentors in the workshop |
Impact | ? |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | UK-China ECR Workshop |
Organisation | Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
Country | China |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Attending the UK-China ECR Workshop |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Yan Gao is one the of key contacts in the workshop |
Impact | ? |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | UK-China ECR Workshop |
Organisation | Sichuan Agricultural University |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Attending the UK-China ECR Workshop |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr. Shenyun was one of the new contacts through the workshop |
Impact | Hi, Larissa, are there any outputs from this workshop? |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | UK-China ECR Workshop |
Organisation | University of Nottingham |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Attending the UK-China ECR Workshop |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr. Bin Wu was the organizer of the UK-China ECR Workshop |
Impact | Hi, Larissa, are there any outputs from this workshop? |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | A knowledge sharing platform based on WeChat |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | On the platform, we have published 41 WeChat articles and among which 28 articles are original articles. Graphic-designed figures to support academic outputs and KE of the project via WeChat. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
Description | Online DST survey |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | There are 19 participants for the online DST Survey covering governmental officials and academics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Stakeholder Workshop 2 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Nanjing Forum: November 21st - 23rd, 2019 Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS), Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Jiangsu Province, Soil society of Jiangsu Province jointly organised 'Symposium on the efficient use of soil, fertiliser and water resources in the Yangtze River Economic Belt' and 'The 5th Jiangsu Academic Forum on Excellent Young Scientists in Soil and Agriculture' on 21st - 23rd November 2019. MIDST team in attendance: University of Glasgow: Ying Zheng University of Aberdeen: Paul Hallett, Joseph Oyesiku Blakemore, Xiangrui Xu Peking University/University of Exeter: Boyi Liang Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences: Shunhua Yang Nanjing University: Hongyan Guo Shanxi Normal University: Shuai Li 1. Overall summary The meeting was attended by 300+ people comprising mainly applied agricultural scientists, with representation from government ministries (?5 people) and industry (?10 people). The aim of the meeting was to bring together experts in agricultural and environmental science in China for discussions on the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, farmland nutrient management, soil health, and biodiversity conservation. Notable guests included Academicians Prof. Fusuo Zhang, Prof. Zhaoliang Zhu and Prof. Yongguan Zhu. News reports from the meeting included: http://newzhs.jaas.ac.cn/show-1068-589-1.html (News report from JAAS) and http://jsnews.jschina.com.cn/shms/201911/t20191125_2430202.html (News report from Jiangsu net). MIDST Co-hosted the "Symposium on the experience and problems of the efficient use of soil, fertiliser and water in the Yangtze River Economic Belt" along with the Station of Farmland Quality and Agricultural Environment Protection of Jiangsu Province (See appendix for agenda). Our interest in this meeting was to network with applied agricultural scientists in China who work more closely at the interface between science and farming than the Chinese collaborators on MIDST. JAAS are directly involved in the Peri-Urbon CZO, hosting field trials on the outskirts of Nanjing and providing expertise on agronomic performance of fertlisers derived from waste. We sought input from scientists and agricultural specialists on practical needs from Decision Support Tools (DSTs) targeted at improved agricultural and environmental performance. This was achieved through the hosting of this symposium and an exhibitor stand. Our symposium had a number of very relevant talks for DST developments. There were 10 talks that covered new fertilisers, machinery, environmental concerns and farmer engagement. Dr Ying Zheng finished the talks in the session by providing an overview of the MIDST project, summarising the work of the UK-China CZO programme. The practical challenges and policy relevance of our research was emphasised by our invited speaker, Director Du Sen of the Ministry of Agriculture. All talks were in Mandarin to ensure full engagement of the Chinese audience. We followed the talks with an open panel session discussion which provided the floor with the opportunity to ask all speakers questions. This included a targeted discussion on research needs for DST development in China. On Day 2 of the meeting, MIDST collaborator Prof Yongguan Zhu provided a talk that celebrated his very recent award as a CAS Academician. This was followed by another discussion forum on challenges facing agriculture and soils in China. Both Paul Hallett and Ying Zheng participated on stage to provide their insight and to guide questions towards DST development. MIDST had an Exhibition Stand throughout the entirety of the event. This had an animation of one of our functional DSTs, computers running other DSTs that we have tested for application in China, and pamphlets in both English and Mandarin summarising the project and aimed at either users or researchers. There was considerable 1:1 discussion, reaching over 100 people. To enable guided discussion, questionairres were given to participants to ask about their knowledge, experience, perceptions and needs for DSTs. The MIDST post docs and 2 PhD students managed to get conference participants to complete 65 individuals. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://www.czo.ac.cn/category/news/research-news/ |