China's second scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has achieved significant practical results, with its top 10 application achievements officially released on Wednesday (11/19) in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.Led by Yao Tandong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the achievements cover key areas, including ecological conservation, disaster prevention, resource exploration, carbon accounting, traffic safety, and border region development.
Key outcomes include scientific support for plateau ecological protection legislation, the establishment of an Earth observation platform and early warning system, and innovative technologies for disaster prevention and control in permafrost areas, which have helped major infrastructure projects such as the Sichuan-Xizang Railway and expressways.
"We have successfully issued six early warnings, ensuring the smooth progress of local engineering projects and protecting people's lives and safety," Yao said, as reported by Xinhua.
He added that the scientific team has evaluated the disaster risk baseline in the Sichuan-Xizang traffic corridor, including 52 major disaster hotspots, avoiding more than 97 percent of mountain disasters and optimizing the corridor's route for more than 400 kilometers.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is currently showing warming, wetting, and "greening" trends that are amplifying climate impacts both regionally and globally, Yao said.
It also found that the water supply capacity of the "Water Tower of Asia" has increased significantly, with runoff projections showing an increase of up to 49 percent by the end of this century, which is crucial for water security for billions of people.
Since its launch in August 2017, the second expedition has deployed a team of more than 3,000 researchers and over 30,000 personnel, conducting comprehensive surveys across the plateau region.
This scientific expedition has recorded a series of surprising discoveries in terms of biodiversity. Sun Hang, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, stated that the first major discovery was a new group of mammals with echolocation capabilities: pig-tailed mice (Typhlomys).
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