Dr. Chunmiao Zheng, has been a professor of geological sciences at the University of Alabama since 1993. He also holds a chair professorship in water resources at Peking University in Beijing, China, where he is the founding director of the Center for Water Research. He is a fellow of the Geological Sciences of America (GSA). He was named  the Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer by the GSA’s hydrogeology division and received the National Ground Water Association’s John Hem Excellence in Science and Engineering Award. For his outstanding contributions to the hydrological sciences, Dr. Chunmiao Zheng has been named the recipient of the 2013 O.E. Meinzer Award by the Geological Society of America and the 2013 M. King Hubbert Award by the National Ground Water Association. Zheng is the author of numerous papers, books and transport models that are heavily cited each year. He is published in numerous areas of the hydrogeology field, including aquifer remediation design, contaminant degradation process simulation, monitoring network design, single- and multi-rate mass transfer and groundwater-surface water interactions. His books on applied contaminant transport modeling, co-written with Gordon Bennett, are used in classes throughout the world and as reference books by those involved in contaminant hydrogeologic modeling. Prof. Cheng Guodong, was elected the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1993 and had held several important posts such as president of International Permafrost Association (1993-1998) and director of State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soils Engineering (1996-2005). He is the principal investigator of the Heihe River Basin ecohydrological study, an on-going major research initiative (2010-2017) supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Currently he is the director of the Geosciences Directorate of the NSFC.    Dr. Bojie Fu was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. His major research interests are landscape pattern and ecological processes, land use change and environmental effects, ecosystem services and assessment. Dr. Fu is an executive board member of International Association for Ecology (INTECOL), and Vice President of International Association of Landscape Ecology, Vice Chairman of Scientific Committee of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network(CERN) and Vice President of the Chinese Society of Geography. He was invited as editorial board member of international journals of “Landscape Ecology”, “Soil Use Management”, “Landscape and Urban Planning” and “Sustainability Science”. He has published more than 290 scientific papers and 7 books, about 90 papers published in the international journals.

• Arid.- Semiarid.- Subhumid regions.- Desertification.- Woody.- Plant encroachment.- Groundwater depletion.- Salinization.- Soil erosion.- Challenges.