Meeting the environmental challenges

Abstract

Environmental problems such as soil and water pollution, geohazards, land degradation, and desertification are seriously constraining the sustainable development of human society. Finding effective measures to meet these environmental challenges is critical. This article introduced the background of editing this special issue, and the main environmental challenges faced by human were briefly reviewed. Two large-scale scientific programs currently underway in China, the Yellow River Scientific Program and the Qinling Mountains Scientific Program were introduced, and finally building the community with a shared future was proposed as a potential way of meeting the environmental challenges.

Keywords:

• Environmental risk
• health risk
• water pollution
• soil pollution
• geological hazards

Acknowledgments

I am highly grateful for the support from the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Mark Robson who granted me the authority to edit this special issue. The reviewers are critical elements for the successful release of the special issue. Their voluntary but excellent work is sincerely acknowledged. I should also thank the authors who are interested in this special issue and made their submissions in a timely manner. Finally, Dr. Song He is acknowledged for his help in drawing Figures 3 and 4. Prof. Wanfang Zhou is acknowledged for his editing on the early version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support has been received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41761144059], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of CHD [300102299301], the Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation [161098], and the Ten Thousand Talent Program [W03070125].