College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University

The College of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Lanzhou University (LZU) and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate student and faculty exchange activities and collaborative research projects between the two institutions.

Lanzhou University is one of the top universities in China with a long history and a strong reputation for academic excellence. Founded in 1909 in Gansu province, Lanzhou University has been a pioneer in higher education in China’s northwest region. With more than 70 years of development, the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences has become a comprehensive teaching and research institute. The College offers bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in a broad range of disciplines including Earth System Science, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Geography, Hydrology and Water Resources. The College has established itself as an important base for both fundamental research in earth and environmental sciences and academic exchanges and talent cultivation in western China.

Our department had close collaboration with Lanzhou University through joint supervision of PhD students, collaborative research projects funded by the Hong Kong RGC/NSFC joint research scheme, frequent visits by faculty members and postgraduate students. The current MOU promotes teaching, research seminars, visits, conferences, academic resource, exchange, and arrangement of travel and logistics between the two units. Specifically, the MOU shall facilitate development of joint courses on topics related to climate change, natural hazards, and tectonics, field trips to visit unique environmental and geologic sites in western China and Hong Kong. The MOU will also enhance collaborations among faculty members from both universities to conduct state-of-the-art research in Earth and Environmental Sciences.

CUHK contact(s): Prof. LIU Lin(劉琳)

LZU contact(s): Prof. MU Cuicui (牟翠翠)

MOU initiated on January 1, 2024

Joint field investigations on permafrost in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, 2015 to present

CUHK and LZU scientists conducted joint field investigations on permafrost degradation in central Tibetan Plateau (Elevation: 4430 m above sea level). 

July 2024: Prof. Alex Chow visited LZU and gave a research seminar titled “Forests to Faucets: Protecting Drinking Water Quality at the Sources”

August 2023: Prof. LIU Lin visited LZU and gave a research seminar titled “Deep Learning for Cryospheric Studies”

NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme, “Thermokarst Landforms on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Spatio-temporal Evolution and Future Changes”, Co-PIs: Prof. LIU Lin (CUHK) and Prof. PENG Xiaoqing (LZU)

FAN Chengyan (PhD, LZU) and SHAO Wanwan (PhD, LZU)

1. 1. Fan, C., Liu, L., Zhao, Z., Mu, C. (2025), Pronounced underestimation of surface deformation due to unwrapping errors over Tibetan Plateau Permafrost by Sentinel-1 InSAR: Identification and correction, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 130, e2024JF007854, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JF007854.
   2. Fan, C., Mu, C., Liu, L., Zhang, T., Jia, S., Wang, S., Sun, W., Zhao, Z. (2025), Time-Series models for ground subsidence and heave over permafrost in InSAR Processing: A comprehensive assessment and new improvement, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 222, 167–185, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2025.02.019.
   3. Xia, Z., Liu, L., Mu, C., Peng, X., Zhao, Z., Huang, L., Luo, J., and Fan, C. (2024), Widespread and rapid activities of retrogressive thaw slumps on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 2016 to 2022, Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2024GL109616, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109616.
   4. Xia, Z., Huang, L., Fan, C., Jia, S., Lin, Z., Liu, L., Luo, J., Niu, F., and Zhang, T. (2022), Retrogressive thaw slumps along the Qinghai-Tibet Engineering Corridor: A comprehensive inventory and their distribution characteristics, Earth System Science Data, 14, 3875–3887, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3875-2022.
   5. Jia, S., Zhang, T., Fan, C., Liu, L., and Shao, W. (2021), Research Progress of InSAR Technology in Permafrost, Advances in Earth Science (in Chinese), 36(7), 694–711, https://doi.org/10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2021.055.
   6. Huang, L., Liu, L., Zhang, T., and Jiang, L. (2018), Automatic mapping of thermokarst landforms from remote sensing images using deep learning: A case study in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau, Remote Sensing, 10(12), 2067, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10122067.
   7. Chen, J., Liu, L., Zhang, T., Cao, B., and Lin, H. (2018), Using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry to map and quantify permafrost thaw subsidence: a case study of Eboling Mountain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 123, 2663–2676, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JF004618.
   8. Schuster, P. F., Schaefer, K.M., Aiken, G.R., Antweiler, R.C., Dewild, J.F., Gryziec, J.D., Gusmeroli, A., Hugelius, G., Jafarov, E., Krabbenhoft, D.P., Liu, L., Herman-Mercer, N., Mu, C., Roth, D. A., Schaefer, T., Striegl, R. G., Wickland, K. P., and Zhang, T. (2018), Permafrost stores a globally significant amount of mercury, Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 1463–1471, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075571.
   9. Jafarov E. E., Parsekian, A.D., Schaefer, K., Liu, L., Chen, A.C., Panda, S.K., and Zhang, T. (2018), Estimating active layer thickness and volumetric water content from ground penetrating radar measurements in Barrow, Alaska, Geoscience Data Journal, 4, 72–79, https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.49.
   10. Chen, A., Parsekian, A.D., Schaefer, K., Jafarov, E., Panda, S., Liu, L., Zhang, T., and Zebker, H. (2016), Ground-penetrating radar-derived measurements of active-layer thickness on the landscape scale with sparse calibration at Toolik and Happy Valley, Alaska, Geophysics, 81(2), H1-H11, https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2015-0124.1.
   11. Liu, L., Schaefer, K.M., Chen, A.C., Gusmeroli, A., Zebker, H.A., and Zhang, T. (2015), Remote sensing measurements of thermokarst subsidence Using InSAR, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 120, 1935–1948, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JF003599.
   12. Schaefer, K., Liu, L., Parsekian, A., Jafarov, E., Chen, A., Zhang, T., Gusmeroli, A., Panda, S., Zebker, H.A., and Schaefer, T. (2015), Remotely Sensed Active Layer Thickness (ReSALT) at Barrow, Alaska using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Remote Sensing, 7, 3735–3759, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70403735.
   13. Gusmeroli, A., Liu, L., Schaefer, K., Zhang, T., Schaefer, T., and Grosse, G. (2015), Active layer stratigraphy and organic layer thickness at a thermokarst site in Arctic Alaska identified using Ground Penetrating Radar, Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research, 47(2), 195–202, https://doi.org/10.1657/AAAR00C-13-301.
   14. Liu, L., Jafarov, E.E., Schaefer, K.M., Jones, B.M., Zebker, H.A., Williams, C.A., Rogan, J., and Zhang, T. (2014), InSAR detects increase in surface subsidence caused an Arctic tundra fire, Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 3906–3913, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060533.