Profile

The College of Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) at Henan University is the successor of the Department of Geography of Zhongzhou University established in 1923. Professor Jinglan Feng, a distinguished geologist and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was the first dean of CGES. After years of arduous and hardworking efforts, CGES has developed to a comprehensive and interdisciplinary college featuring with Geography as main body, covering Environmental Science, Ecology, Science and Technology of Surveying and Mapping, and Regional Economics.

Organizational Structure

CGES is composed of four departments: Department of Geographical Sciences, Department of Regional and Urban Sciences, Department of Geographic Information Sciences, and Department of Environmental Sciences. The research and educational institutes established by CGES include Henan Dabieshan National Field Observation and Research Station of Forest Ecosystems, the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Environment and Planning, the Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for the Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions (Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education), Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization & Sustainable Development (Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Science of the Ministry of Education), the Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions Science Data Sharing Platform of National Earth System Science Data Sharing Infrastructure, Regional Economy Research Center of Henan Province (Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Science of Henan Province), the Big Spatio-Temporal Data Industry Technology Research Institute of Henan Province, the Integrative Prevention of Air Pollution and Ecological Safety Key Laboratory of Henan Province, Henan Engineering Research Center for Control and Remediation of Heavy Metal Pollution in Soil, Digital Geographic Technology International Joint Laboratory of Henan Province.

Discipline Construction

CGES offers doctoral degrees of a first-level discipline in Geography, and post-doctoral research station. Besides, there are six doctoral programs of second-level disciplines, including Physical Geography, Human Geography, Cartography and Geographic Information System, Economic Geography, Remote Sensing Information Science and Technology and Ecological Geography. The school also offers two master’s program of first-level discipline in Surveying and Mapping Science and Technology, and Environmental Science and Engineering. Geography ranks the B+ level in the fourth round of discipline assessment by the Ministry of Education, and tied for seventh place in China. Geography has been evaluated as excellent in the final performance appraisal of the first phase construction project of dominant discipline in Henan Province. The Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for the Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions Ministry of Education was examined and received by the Ministry of Education and ranked first among local universities.

Faculty & Staff

CGES has 167 faculty and staff members, including 47 professors, 58 associate professors, 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), 1 academician of Inter-national Eurasian Academy of Sciences (IEAS), 2 double employed academicians, 1 Yangtze River Scholar, 2 Distinguished Young Scholars of National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), 6 first and second level for the National of Talent Project, 2 first batch leading talents in Ten Thousand Talent Program, 2 talents with Outstanding Contribution Award, 2 members of Hundred Talents Program of CAS, 7 experts entitled to special government allowances of the State Council, 3 National Excellent Teachers, 13 distinguished professors of Henan University and Henan Province, 18 overseas visiting professors, 42 PhD supervisors, and 141 with doctorate degrees.

Talent Training

Aiming to strengthen the moral education and talent cultivation, CGES is focusing on fostering high-quality and inter-disciplinary scholars with social responsibility, innovative spirit and practical ability. Three projects (e.g. Integration and Innovation of Regional Model and Information System) won the National Excellent Teaching Achievement Awards. Three textbooks (e.g. Economic Geography, Integration and Application of Regional Model) won Excellent Textbook Award of National Tertiary Institutes. Two courses (e.g. WEB GIS) are National Quality Courses and six (e.g. Physical Geography) are Provincial Quality Courses. The teaching tram of geography is the first batch of Huang Danian’s Style Teaching Team in National Universities. Geography Science is a national characteristic discipline and state professional reform pilot discipline. Two professors won Young Teacher Award of FokYing-Tong Education Foundation. More than 30 National Undergraduate Innovation Entrepreneurship Programs were approved. Students were awarded a silver medal in the second China "Internet +" Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and a first-place prize in the fifth China National Geographic Science Exhibition Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and also won the 2nd place of the video competition, International Society for Digital Earth. He Haishan was awarded the most beautiful college student in the second “Brilliant Henan People”.

Scientific Research

Targeting on the frontiers of geography, to conduct research around the “two mountains and two rivers” (Dabieshan, Funiushan; Yellow River Basin, Huai River Basin), CGES has formed the scientific research system as dominant direction with basin surface pattern, process and ecological security, big spatio-temporal data platform and smart watershed, and environmental change and civilization evolution of the Central Plains Region, geographic system simulation and spatial analysis, watershed human-earth system coupling and sustainable development, and watershed urban-rural system evolution and spatial planning. More than 54 national natural scientific research projects were granted, 5 research rewards of provincial, ministerial and national level were awarded (including the second-place prize of National Science and Technology Progress of “Key Technologies and Applications of Intelligent Map Synthesis and Multi-scale Cascade Update” led by Academician Wang Jiayao), more than 900 articles in SCI, SSCI, EI were published, and some important breakthroughs were made in Nature sub-journals in the past 5years. CGES has been ranked the eighth in Acta Geogtaphica Sinica 80 years’ publication number and the seventh in Geographical Research 32 years’ publication number among all the Chinese universities and institutes.

Social Services

The mission of CGES is to serve the construction of economy, society and ecology, and to promote the regional sustainable development. According to the national major strategic demands of “One Belt and One Road”, “Targeted Poverty Alleviation”, “Big Data Pilot Zone”, “the Core Area of Grain Production”, “Central Plains Economic Region”, “China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone” and others, CGES has contributed to assisting government in policy formulation, policy consultation and technical support. To deepen integration of production, study and research, CGES has completed more than 500 projects, including strategic planning for regional development, urban system, land use, tourism, eco-environmental protection planning, etc. more than 3000 on-job postgraduates have graduated from CGES. CGES is one of the national science education bases. It has opened nature museum, virtual reality laboratory and astronomical observatory to the public for popularization purpose. The contribution of CGES has been highly appraised by the national leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping. CGES undertook the Third-party Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the National Targeted Poverty Alleviation Work, and made due contributions to winning the battle of Poverty Alleviation. The evaluation team of Henan University was awarded as the Advanced Group of the Third-party Evaluation of the State Council, and Professor Qiao Jiajun and Dr. Ma Yuling were awarded the National Advanced Individual by the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council.

Cultural Inheritance and Innovation

CGES devotes to promote cultural inheritance and innovation and to enhance cultural influence. Taking Yellow River civilization as the cultural feature and Yellow River basin as the regional feature, CGES has established Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development Research Center, the Yellow River branch of the Geographical Society of China (GSC) and other institutions to conduct the omni-directional, multi-level, and wide range comprehensive research on Yellow River civilization, and to develop the research and innovation platform. Many activities such as the high-level forum on Yellow River science and the survival and development of the Earth on the Earth Day of April 22nd were successfully held, which have made contribution to sustainable development of the Yellow River area, the inheritance of the Yellow River civilization, and the construction of modern civilization. CGES has undertaken major research projects like the spatial differentiation and evolution mechanism of the specialized village in the Yellow River basin, and published books such as The Development and Harnessing of the Yellow River in the Past 60 Years. The college also won the Second-place Prize of Outstanding Achievements in the Eighth Session of University Campus Culture Construction held by Ministry of Education, National Advanced Grassroots CPC Organization and Advanced Collectives of Henan Province Education System, the First-place Prize of Ten Excellent Student Work Brand of “Great Office of Student Affairs” in Henan Province, and the First-place Prize for Series of Activities Excellent Achievements of the Fourth Session “Pay Honor to the Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture” in Henan universities.

International Exchange and Cooperation

CGES has established exchanges and cooperation with overseas institutes to enhance its international influence. The cooperative partners include the America’s Environment Systems Research Institute (ESRI), the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), University of Miami (UM) and so on. International Joint Laboratory of Digital Geospatial Technology in Henan is also set up.18 overseas professors are engaged and 10 full English or bilingual courses are set up in CGES. Above 50 well-known foreign experts such as Micheal Goodchild, an academician of United States National Academy of Sciences, have built cooperation with CGES. 100 of teachers and excellent students are sent to study aboard and numbers of international conferences are held by the college. Two overseas professors of Ronald Briggs and Milan Konecny have won the Yellow River Friendship Award of The People’s Government of Henan Province in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Cross-border Field Practice for Undergraduate Students to Irish in 2019.