The Digital Belt and Road program in support of regional sustainability

The Belt and Road initiative has a significant focus on infrastructure,trade,and economic development across a vast region,and it also provides significant opportunities for sustainable development.The combined pressure of climate variability,intensified use of resources,and the fragility of ecosystems make it very challenging,however,to achieve future sustainability.To develop the path in a sustainable way,it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of these issues across nations and evaluate them in a scientific and well-informed approach.In this context,the Digital Belt and Road(DBAR)program was initiated as an international venture to share expertise,knowledge,technologies,and data to demonstrate the role of Earth observation science and technology and big Earth data applications to support large-scale development.In this paper,we identify pressing challenges,present the research priorities and foci of the DBAR program,and propose solutions where big Earth data can make significant contributions.This paper calls for further joint actions and collaboration to build a digital silk road in support of sustainable development at national,regional and global levels.

An Adjustable Double-sided Bending Mechanism

For the current bending industry needs to achieve bending different thickness,different specifications and double-sided bending production,an automatic adjustable double-sided bending method is proposed.The main steps of this method are as follows:First,the structure model is established according to the bending process requirements;Then,the PLC control system and the robot system are developed;Finally,the digital bending programming of the man-machine interface is carried out.It is proved by practices that the double-sided bending mechanism,control system and robot system are applied to the bending system which improves the bending forming quality,forming precision and processing efficiency.It promotes the rapid development of bending industry and the application prospect is very broad.

The Silk Road agenda of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) program

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road(B&R)aims at facilitating the twenty-first Century economic development of China.However,climate change,air quality and related feedbacks are affecting the successful development of the environment and societies in the B&R geographical domain.The most urgent risks related to the atmospheric system,to the land system and to hydrospheric and cryospheric processes are changing climate-air quality interactions,air pollution,changing monsoon dynamics,land degradation,and the melting of Tibetan Plateau glaciers.A framework is needed in which a science and technology-based approach has the critical mass and expertise to identify the main steps toward solutions and is capable to implement this roadmap.The Pan-Eurasian Experiment(PEEX)program,initiated in 2012,aims to resolve science,technology and sustainability questions in the Northern Eurasian region.PEEX is now identifying its science agenda for the B&R region.One fundamental element of the PEEX research agenda is the availability of comprehensive ground-based observations together with Earth observation data.PEEX complements the recently launched international scientific program called Digital Belt and Road(DBAR).PEEX has expertise to coordinate the ground-based observations and initiate new flagship stations,while DBAR provides a big data platform on Earth observation from China and countries along the Belt and Road region.The DBAR and PEEX have joint interests and synergy expertise on monitoring on ecological environment,urbanization,cultural heritages,coastal zones,and arctic cold regions supporting the sustainable development of the Belt and Road region.In this paper we identify the research themes of the PEEX related Silk Road agenda relevant to China and give an overview of the methodological requirements and present the infrastructure requirements needed to carry out large scale research program.

Climate paleogeography knowledge graph and deep time paleoclimate classifications

The climate paleogeography,especially the climate classifications,helps to interpret the global and regional climate changes and intuitively compare the climate conditions in different regions.However,the application of climate classification in deep time(i.e.,climate paleogeography)is prohibited due to the usually qualitatively constrained paleoclimate and the inconsistent descriptions and semantic heterogeneity of the climate types.In this study,a climate paleogeography knowledge graph is established under the framework of the Deep-Time Digital Earth program(DDE).The hierarchical knowledge graph consists of five paleoclimate classifications based on various strategies.The classifications are described and their strengths and weaknesses are fully evaluated in four aspects:“simplicity,applicability,quantifiability,and comparability”.We also reconstruct the global climate distributions in the Late Cretaceous according to these classifications.The results are compared and the relationships among these climate types in different classifications are evaluated.Our study unifies scientific concepts from different paleoclimate classifications,which provides an important theoretical basis for the application of paleoclimate classifications in deep time.