Challenges in the Yellow River Delta Area
Within the Yellow River Delta, economic development as well as high urbanisation rates on the one hand are accompanied by necessary conservation of natural resources on the other hand – a situation that induces several areas of conflict.
The potential conflicts and the clearly existing need for actions are explicitly described in the “Yellow River Delta Development Plan” (Government of the province Shandong, 2009). The region is explicitly mentioned in the national tenth and eleventh five-year plan, and shall become a model region for an ecologically-economically compliant circular-flow-economy. According to the development plan 2009 published by the Shandong Government, it is intended to establish a modern, ecological and efficient development model until 2015.
Objectives of the DELIGHT Project
Objective of the DELIGHT project is to support the efforts of local stakeholders within the Yellow River Delta to implement the development plan for the delta in the upcoming years, to assist and provide the necessary information tailored to the needs of the important stakeholders in order to substantially support their planning processes.
Implementation of an inter- and transdisciplinary information system
An already explicitly enquired, innovative, inter- and transdisciplinary information system for the support of the “Integrated water, land and costal resource management” within the Yellow River Delta will be developed and implemented, customized to the needs of the identified Chinese stakeholders.
The information system stands on the one hand for a knowledge cluster, which is build up for the Yellow River Delta based on the research fields of the project and on the other hand it represents a physically existent information system. The information system is a transport medium for all information products, maps, reports, statistics, recommended procedures, and knowledge developed within the project.
Major research topics and tasks addressed in DELIGHT
In the context of the project DELIGHT, research questions concerning the following fields are addressed and answered:
Comprehensive recommendations and guidelines for actions are derived from findings and will be made available for Users and Stakeholders.
Goals of the DELIGHT Project
Goal of the DELIGHT project and its large Sino-German consortium is to jointly contribute to climate protection, Integrated Land-, Water and Coastal Zone Management (ILWRM, ICZM) and the development of innovative services and technologies in the Yellow River Delta (YRD). This will be reached through joint research and engineering in multidisciplinary fields from natural- as well as socio-economic science, the development of adaptation strategies, as well as the design and implementation of the “Delta Information System for Geoenvironmental and Human Habitat Transition”: DELIGHT.