The year 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the friendship and cooperation between Wuhan University (WHU) and Ohio State University (OSU). Taking the 52nd World Earth Day as an opportunity, the School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering of WHU and the National East Asian Languages Resource Center of OSU jointly organized an “Earth Day: Constructing Sponge Cities, Practicing Green Development” online campaign on April 23 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the friendship and cooperation between the two universities and promote the concept of green development.
Tang Qizhu extending greetings to the participants of the campaign
At the opening ceremony, Tang Qizhu, Vice President of WHU, and Gil Latz, Vice Provost of OSU, reviewed the history of friendly exchanges between the two universities and looked forward to the future cooperation in the light of the theme of the event. Tang Qizhu said that the two universities, with a strong sense of social responsibility, should contribute more to the sustainable development of humankind. Gil Latz expressed his expectation that the two universities would continue the tradition of friendly cooperation and continue to learn from each other and explore together in the future.
In the following session, Ryan Winston’s team from OSU and Zhang Xiang’s team from the School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering of WHU introduced their researches and achievements with the theme of “Restore Our Earth” and “The Sponge City” respectively. Taking the sponge city construction project in Wuhan City as an example, academician Xia Jun from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other experts gave an in-depth explanation of the challenges faced by urban construction, green development, urban waterlogging and the sponge city construction model, and pointed out the future direction of urban development.
A glance of the campaign
As the saying goes, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. In the video produced by the two universities to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their friendship, the audience learned how the two universities supported each other in the fight against COVID-19 in 2020, as well as the many practical collaborations between the two universities over the past 40 years in the areas of exchange programs, talent training and scientific research.
This event is based on the cooperation between the two universities in the field of water resources. It is aimed at promoting public awareness and consciousness of environmental protection by advocating the construction of “resilient” cities that can adapt to environmental changes and cope with natural disasters. The “Earth Day” activity was initiated by Gaylord Nelson and Dennis Hayes in 1970, and has been carried out in nearly 200 countries around the world to raise the awareness of the general public to protect the environment and to encourage people to participate in the environmental movement through a variety of activities, to insist on green living and to improve the global environment.
Wuhan University and Ohio State University signed a cooperation framework agreement in 1981. Over the past 40 years, the two universities have maintained friendly relations through a high frequency of cooperation. The two sides have carried out fruitful cooperation in talent training, scientific research and social services. In the fields of agricultural irrigation, energy research, and library and information science, a large number of new achievements have been produced. The training and exchange of visits between the administrators of the two universities have also provided a good opportunity for the two sides to learn from each other’s ideas and practices in school management.
