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The Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) held ‘The Second International Conference on Global Change and the Environment in Asia and Pacific (GCEAP): Inland Waters and Coastal Environment’ from 28 to 29 October. Prof. Joseph Sung, CUHK Vice-Chancellor and Dr. Cao Jianlin, Vice-Minister, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST) addressed at the opening of the conference, where Dr. Cao called for more collaboration of water pollution and water treatment. Prof. Chiu Longsang from George Mason University, USA gave the opening remarks for a series of GCEAP meetings. Also officiating at the conference were Prof. Lin Hui, Director of ISEIS and Prof. Zhang Yuanzhi, Director of Yuen Yuen Research Center for Satellite Remote Sensing of CUHK.

The future of our regional and global environment is facing both great challenges and opportunities. The global environmental changes are imminent and all citizens of the global village are bound to be affected. There is only one home planet and everyone is obligated to appreciate its fragile treasure and strive to protect it.

This second GCEAP helped us understand more about environmental quality and the impact of global climate change on the changing quality of inland waters and coastal environment, including both positive and negative feedback processes. In many coastal regions, rapid industrial, urban and agricultural development have led to changes in land use and land cover and various associated kinds of water pollution. The inland to coastal water cycles influence, and are influenced by, effects from climate change both regionally and globally.

The 2-day conference provided a platform for scientists, industrial company managers, policy makers and satellite data providers to present the advances of inland waters and coastal environment monitoring, and helped strengthen the network for their national and international community.

Experts and scholars from Australia, Canada, Mainland China, North Korea, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and the United States were present to give keynote speeches and presentations. Seven keynote speakers and their topics were:

1.    ‘Late holocene sea level fluctuation altered coral reef ecosystem structure at the dry Tortugas’ by Dr. John Brock, US Geological Survey, USA
2.    ‘Management-relevant remote sensing of temperate to tropical aquatic ecosystems in Australia’ by Dr. Arnold Dekker, Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization
3.    ‘Global observations of intense surface plankton blooms and floating vegetation using MERIS MCI’ by Dr. Jim Gower, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
4.    ‘A remote sensing view of aquatic hazards in East China and the US Gulf Coast’ by Prof. Chuanmin Hu, University of South Florida, USA
5.    ‘Monitoring water quality parameters via ocean color remote sensing’ by Dr. Zhongping Lee, Mississippi State University, USA
6.    ‘NOAA Coral Reef Watch Program from Satellite Observations’ by Dr. Alan E Strong, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Watch Program, USA
7.    ‘Satellite remote sensing of water properties for ocean, coastal, and inland waters’ by Dr. Menghua Wang, NOAA, USA

The event was sponsored by Beijing Earth-View Image Inc., CUHK Chung Chi College, Environmental and Conservation Fund of Hong Kong, and KC Wong Education Foundation.