The Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental and Geological Hazards Prevention and Control (hereinafter abbreviated as the Laboratory) was formerly known as “Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Land Remediation and Remote Sensing Application”. It was approved by Guizhou Provincial Department of Science and Technology as a provincial key laboratory and was constructed by Institute of Geochemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences in April 1997. In January 2003, approved by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Science and Technology, it was renamed and co-built by Guizhou University (formerly Guizhou University of Technology) and the Institute of Geochemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences. The original construction site was in Caijiaguan Campus of Guizhou University. On May 10, 2012, after experts’ evaluation, demonstration, and public announcement, the Laboratory was approved by the Ministry of Land and Resources as one of the 46 key laboratories. On July 1, 2015, the Laboratory and the College of Resources and Environmental Engineering of Guizhou University (hereinafter referred to as the College) reached a cooperation and co-construction framework agreement. In September of the same year, the entire Laboratory was relocated to the office building of the College, West Campus, Guizhou University. On December 3, 2016, the Laboratory successfully passed the construction and acceptance meeting organized by the Ministry of Land and Resources and was formally named 'Key Laboratory of Karst Environment and Geological Hazards of the Ministry of Land and Resources'.
The Laboratory has 38 full-time researchers, 14 visiting researchers and 13 mobile researchers. Of the full-time researchers, 15 are professors, 19 are associate professors, and four are lecturers. There are 27 researchers holding doctoral degrees, seven holding master's degrees, two researchers recruited as New-Century Talents of the Ministry of Education, three provincial experts, and four provincial outstanding young talents in science and technology. In 2017, the karst environment geological science and technology innovation team was awarded the “Ministry of Land and Resources Science and Technology Innovation Team”. It has a first class discipline doctoral program in geology; two first class discipline master’s programs in geological resources and geological engineering, and environmental science and engineering; and two engineering master’s degree programs in geological engineering and environmental engineering. At present, nine students have graduated with doctoral degrees and 211 students with master’s degrees. There are currently 16 doctoral candidates and 145 master candidates.
The overall orientation of the Laboratory:'Based in Guizhou, serving southwestern China, facing the whole country.”Strategically using its advantageous location in Guizhou (located in the karst hinterland of Southwestern China), the Laboratory has carried out fundamental, strategic, and applied research in the field of karst geological environment and karst geological hazards prevention and control to meet the national and regional development strategic needs. The Laboratory has established and improved the theory and technical method system of “karst geological environment and geological hazards”, and built an innovation platform that integrates production, study, and research in order to improve the laboratory’s decision-making counseling capability in view of karst resources, environment, and hazards issues. Having made important contributions to the economic construction and social development of Guizhou and Southwestern China, the Laboratory has become a well-known and internationally influential base for scientific research, personnel training, and academic exchange.
The Laboratory has two research directions:
Direction 1: Karst Geological Environment
Aiming at the environmental problems in the southwestern China (Guizhou Province) karst area, the Laboratory has carried out basic research on weathering biogeochemical processes and soil formation rate of carbonate rocks, evolution and response of karst groundwater systems, and agricultural geological background and crop quality.The Laboratory has also provided a theoretical basis for the protection of karst geological environment and groundwater and the development of characteristic agriculture. To tackle all sorts of environmental problems occurreed during the mining operations in the karst area, the Laboratory has also been doing research on the mechanism of mine environmental pollution process, watershed environmental pollution process, environmental impact and risk assessment, comprehensive utilization of solid waste, development of environmental impact friendly materials, and research and development of prevention and control technologies.
Direction 2: Karst Geological Disasters
Relying on the analysis of geological process mechanisms, the Laboratory has carried out research on disaster mechanism, destruction mode, stability evaluation, monitoring and early warning, prevention and control of geological hazards in karst mountainous regions, mechanism of mutual feedback between human engineering activities and geological environmental conditions in karst areas, as well as stability control and disaster prevention of rock and earth mass in the construction of large-scale projects in karst areas.
The Laboratory has set up open funds to sponsor all research and development projects related to karst environment and geological disaster prevention. 'The director fund' is used for the initiation and pre-research of major science and technology projects, and is mainly open to regular researchers and visiting researchers in key laboratories. To date, the Laboratory has offered 680,000 yuan to fund 14 projects.
At present, the Laboratory has fixed assets worth of 24,195,300 yuan , of which 1.545 million yuan is for professional software and the remaining 22,653,300 yuan is for testing equipment. Since 2012, with the support of the National 211 Promotion Program and the Western University Construction Project, it has made considerable progress in view of laboratory equipment, adding 12,535,200 yuan of new equipment. In 2014, under the impetus of the construction of a large-scale instrument and equipment sharing platform at Guizhou University, all large-scale equipment belonged to the Laboratory was included in the sharing platform. As a result, users can access all large-scale equipment of the Laboratory via online reservation.
The Laboratory has cooperated with Nanjing University, Chengdu University of Technology, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the provincial research institutes and enterprises in collaborative scientific research projects and base construction work. It has been successively approved to co-build the Guizhou Province Karst Mountainous Region Geological Hazard Prevention Engineering Technology Research Center, Guizhou Province Geological Engineering Graduate Innovation Practice Base, Guizhou Province Graduate Workstation, Ministry of Land and Resources Chongqing Nantong Mine Geological Environment Field Observation Station, and field research bases of Fuyang Shuanghe Caves, Zhijin Cave, Zhengye Group, No. 114 team of Provincial Bureau of Geology and Minerals, and No. 104 team of Bureau of Nonferrous Metals.
The Laboratory actively popularizes knowledge of earthquakes and geological disasters, as well as the development and utilization of karst resources to the general public, and students.
In the past three years, the Laboratory has undertaken more than 100 scientific research projects, with a total contract funding of 72.4542 million yuan and an account funding of more than 45 million yuan. There are 73 vertical research projects with a funding of 47.327 million yuan (of which 30 are national-level projects with a funding of 21,495,000 yuan and 43 are provincial and ministerial-level projects with a funding of 258.77 million yuan). The Laboratory has published a total of 121 SCI and EI papers and 10 monographs, successfully applied for 23 patents, and obtained 15 invention or utility model patents. It has won three provincial and ministerial awards, and three other important industry awards.
Under the operating model of “opening, mobilization, cooperation, and competition”, strategically using its advantageous geographical located in the southwestern China karst hinterland, the Laboratory has built an innovative platform by integrating production with teaching and research to meet the needs of national and regional development strategies. With all these efforts the Laboratory is seeking to elevate its decision-making and consulting capacities in tackling problems related to karst resources, environment, and disasters so as to make significant contributions to the economic construction and social development in Guizhou and Southwest China.
