BMBF Officials meet DELIGHT local project Stakeholder during delegation travel to Qingdao, April 2014

Officials of BMBF and the local Stakeholder of the DELIGHT project from Dongying district in the Yellow River Delta met in Qingdao, to plan the further continuation of the project as well as the research foci for the next two years. The talks led to a mutual understanding of local stakeholder demands and early on preparation of sustainable project implementation. Issues most pressing for the local stakeholders in Dongying include the provision of planning relevant information on coastal dynamics, such as coastal erosion and accretion, changes in coastal forests, wetlands, and inundated areas, an assessment of phenology and biomass for the district, information on landcover and landuse change, including agricultural changes and exposed soil, the provision of information on sediment load and algae loads along the delta’s coast, hydrologic and morphologic information about the river mouth, as well as general information on Yellow River Basin dynamics that might impact the delta.