School of Environment, Tsinghua University, December 7, 2022 (Correspondent Huang Nan, Chen Zhuo) Recently, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced the list of Major Projects of NSFC in 2022 (hereinafter referred to as “Major Projects 2022”). The project “Ecological Utilization and Regulation Mechanism of Reclaimed Water” led by Hu Hongying, a professor from the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, was funded.
The project is a five-year project with five topics, jointly undertaken by Tsinghua University and scholars from the University of Science and Technology of China, Harbin Institute of Technology, Jilin University of Architecture and the Centre for Ecological and Environmental Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hu Hongying is the project leader and the subject leader of “Ecological Risk Generation Mechanisms and Safety Thresholds of Reclaimed Water”, while Professor Xu Ming from the School of Environmental Studies is the subject leader of “Environmental Benefits and Low Carbon Coupling Mechanisms of Reclaimed Water Ecological Utilization”. The ecological use of reclaimed water is a major national need to synergistically solve the problem of water scarcity and water pollution, which is related to water security, water quality and ecological safety of rivers and lakes. The project aims to break through the theories of reclaimed water ecological effect evaluation and water quality safety threshold setting, innovate the principle of reclaimed water quality purification, elucidate the ecological integration mechanism of reclaimed water, develop a low carbon optimization method for the whole life cycle of reclaimed water utilization system, and build a theory and technology system for reclaimed water ecological utilization and safety assurance. The project is of great importance to ensure the safety of water resources and water ecology in China, to support “carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth”, and to achieve the integrated management of water resources, water environment and water ecology.
Hu Hongying and his research team have been focusing on the safe and efficient use of reclaimed water for a long time, and have made a series of achievements in reclaimed water quality and water characterization evaluation methods, reclaimed water treatment and water quality safety guarantee theory, reclaimed water ecological and environmental and industrial use technology, and reclaimed water standards. Xu Ming and his research team are mainly engaged in research on environmental system engineering, and have made a series of achievements in industrial genome theory, scientific methods for environmental data, construction of credible carbon footprint system, and prediction technology for missing data in life cycle assessment. The funding of this major project marks a new step in the research of reclaimed water utilization, which can provide a more systematic and solid theoretical foundation and technical support for reclaimed water utilization.
The Major Projects 2022 is one of the landmark projects established by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), aiming at the frontiers of science and major scientific problems in the country’s economic, social, scientific and technological development and the major needs of national security. Through advanced deployment, multidisciplinary cross-sectional and comprehensive research is carried out to give full play to the role of support and leadership, enhancing China’s capacity for innovation at the source of basic research. The project “Ecological Utilization and Regulation Mechanism of Reclaimed Water” belongs to the second batch of major projects under the “14th Five-Year Plan”.
