The opening ceremony of the International Training Workshop on Resource & Environment Scientific Data Sharing and Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service for “the Belt and Road”, was held at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on October 10th, 2018. The workshop was jointly supported by the International Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) of UNESCO, Serving for the developing countries along "the Belt and Road”. Xiaohan Liao, deputy director of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ming Zhang, deputy director of the Foreign Cooperation Department, and Fenzhen Su, director of the National Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System attended the opening ceremony. Juanle Wang, responsible person of the training workshop, deputy director of the Geo-Data Science and Sharing Department, and technical director of the IKCEST Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service Centre, moderated the opening ceremony.

Xiaohan Liao, on behalf of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, expressed congratulations on the opening of the training workshop and a warm welcome to 18 international students from 9 countries, including Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Bolivia. In his address, Xiaohan Liao said that data sharing was an important basis for all scientific research activities, and presented several scientific data sharing training activities organized by IGSNRR in recent years. It was believed that this training has helped a number of young scholars from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and South America improve their awareness of and capacity for scientific data sharing and disaster risk reduction. Fenzhen Su, on behalf of the State Key Laboratory of the Resource and Environmental Information System, briefly introduced the development of the laboratory and explained its main research directions. He hoped for enhanced cooperation and exchanges between the laboratory and scientific research institutions along the Belt and Road, and gave best wishes to all of the participants.

Professor Elena Grigorieva from the Institute for Complex Analysis of Regional Problems Far-Eastern Branch Russian Academy of Sciences, Ms. Badam Ariya from the Institute of Geography and Geological Ecology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ms. Lemya Naway from Sudan, and professor Win Naing Tun from the Environmental Research Institute of Myanmar spoke as representatives of the international participants.

On the opening day, deputy director Ming Zhang introduced the cooperation between the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the foreign countries. Professor Juanle Wang introduced the frontiers and related progress of earth data science and sharing. The participants then visited the National Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Pintuzhai, the library of ancient literatures, the National Earth System Scientific Data Sharing Platform, the National Ecosystem Observation and Research Network and other basic scientific infrastructure.

The training workshop lasts 18 days, and focuses on the themes of resources and environmental scientific data sharing and disaster risk reduction knowledge services. The program includes 29 lecture reports, six technical visits and a great deal of computer operations training and exchange activities. There are lectures and reports about the Belt and Road, coordinated development and data integration, data and knowledge services for disaster risk reduction, resources and environmental data platforms and techniques, scientific data standards, scientific research information innovations and practices, remote sensing, and GIS data processing and processing methods. At the same time, the trainees would take part in the Second International Workshop for Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service held by the Institute on October 20th.