Science and technology should play a more vital role in surmounting difficulties in major infrastructure construction projects, ecological environment restoration and reasonable use of resources in west China, according to a Chinese scientist.

To realize the goal, a national lab should be built for research on resources, environment and engineering in the western regions, Cheng Guodong, academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said recently.

The west accounts for 70 percent of China's total land area, featuring varied topography, harsh climate and fragile ecological environment.

Major infrastructure construction projects in the west, particularly the west-east gas transport, Qinghai-Tibet railway and west-east electricity transmission projects, traverse different geological, geomorphological and climatic sections and thus inevitably encounter engineering difficulties in frost and thaw-settlement of frozen soil, loess collapse, landslide and in mudflow, Cheng explained.

Meanwhile, the west is also a bonanza of energy and mineral resources and home to a variety of unique and rare animals and plants that are adapted to the extreme environment there.

It is also difficult to make use of the abundant biological resources in a reasonable way, Cheng said.

China has four fragile ecological zones, namely desert, loess, frigid and karst zones. They are all in the western regions, whichare seen as the ecological shield for the eastern part of China but suffering environmental deterioration as a whole albeit amid partial improvement.

To this end, it is imperative for China to establish a state lab on resources and engineering for the western regions so as to provide necessary scientific and technological support for the nation's great program of developing the west, Cheng concluded.

Source: Xinhua