Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Zone in Ocean University of China in 1983 was approved by the establishment of the Ministry of Education. The first director is one well-known physical oceanographer Professor Chongben He in China. After 1984, the Institute is affiliated to the Department of Marine Geology, the director is Professor Zuosheng Yang. In 1995, it became part of the new College of Marine Geosciences, undergoing 20 years of history. The current director is Professor Guangxue Li and the deputy director is Professor Lihua Cao.
The institute is primarily engaged in estuaries, coastal zone and continental shelf, focusing on ① marine sedimentation, depositional systems and depositional model, the sedimentary record of global change and regional response,Quaternary marine sedimentary processes and events; ② marine sedimentary processes and dynamic simulation; ③ mechanism, prediction and prevention of disasters related to Marine Geology; ④ marine engineering geology, detection, prediction and protection technology of submarine engineering disasters and engineering applications; ⑤ marine function zoning and environmental assessment, environmental and social development of the offshore and marine engineering technology, environmental information processing.
The institute has 14 staffs, including four professors of which three Ph.D., three associate professors. There are more than 50 postgraduate and Ph.D. students. Mainly engaged in learning, teaching and scientific research on estuary, coastal zone, continental shelf and offshore marine geology, estuarine and coastal marine engineering environment. The institute looks forward to joining of domestic and foreign professional and young scholars to seek common development for all.
Since its establishment, the institute took a lot of national science and technology projects, such as major national projects, ocean 863 high-tech projects, 973 major basic research projects, the National Natural Science Foundation in China, and ocean surveying foundation projects, and a number of provincial and ministerial level, local authorized and large-scale companies commissioned projects which mainly are positioned in the Yellow river deltas, estuaries, coastal engineering environment and geological disasters, etc.. It also hosted some international cooperation projects of China-US, China-Germany, China-Australia, China-South Korea and others.
By relying on Laboratory of Marine Sedimentation and Engineering Environment, the institute focuses on the development of on-site investigation and laboratory testing techniques with a number of advanced marine survey equipments such as multi-beam, two side scan sonars, three shallow stratigraphic section-meters, three differential GPS positioning systems, several sets of current meters, etc.. The institute has a group of corresponding laboratory experiments such as dynamic triaxial tool and data processing equipments, and has a fully equipped high-resolution remote sensing processing hardware and software systems.
The institute has published over 200 articles, seven monographs, five textbooks, winning ten various provincial and ministerial awards, three national invention patents, one national "Eighth Five-Year" and one national "Ninth Five-Year" major /outstanding achievements.
Currently, the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Zone takes major and key projects of the national "Tenth Five -Year" period as the basis of domestic and international cooperation in the good teaching and postgraduate training for the high level of scientific research and strives to make to update a higher goal.
