On August 9-10, 2015, the GSC Northeast China Regional Conference convened in Changchun, Jilin Province. The theme of this conference is “Geography and Sustainable Development of Northeast China”. More than 300 experts and scholars attended this conference. As a keynote speaker, Academician Liu Xingtu introduced recent progresses on desertification and salinization of cultivated land, water and soil loss in black soil region, and frozen soil degradation. He suggested that scholars should pay close attention to problems of wetland, frozen soil and agriculture in Northeast China so as to promote the sustainable and healthy development of social economy. During the following sessions, the hot topics included Land Use/Land Cover Change and Ecological Environment, Ecological System Evolution and Protection, Economic Geography and Regional Development, Urban Geography and Geography Education, Remote Sensing and GIS Technology Application. Scholars presented their research achievements and gave scientific suggestions for socioeconomic development of Northeast China.

On August 14-15, 2015, the GSC Northwest China Regional Conference and the Environmental Change Symposium were held jointly in Yining, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Renowned geographers were invited to deliver keynote lectures, including “Holocene moisture evolution and its possible mechanism in the arid central Asia” (Prof. Chen Fahu); “Geographic research on major function oriented zoning of China” (Prof. Fan Jie); “Water resource utilization and ecological security in key areas along the Silk Road” (Prof. Chen Yaning); “Disaster statistics in China” (Prof. Yan Junping); “The Silk Road Economic Belt and Xinjiang transport infrastructure construction” (Dr. Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi); “Xinjiang’s urban material changes and ecological challenges” (Dr. Madlen Kobi). 6 special sessions: “the Silk Road Economic Belt and Regional Development of Central Asia”, “Climate Change and Environmental Evolution”, “Industrial Upgrading and Economic Transformation of Western China”, “Water Resource and Hydrological Process”, “Carrying Capacity of Resources and Environment, and Oasis Construction” and “Urban Construction and Tourism Development” were organized. More than 60 scholars exchanged their academic thoughts. At the closing ceremony, 12 graduates received the “Excellent Paper Award”.

On September 25-28, 2015, the GSC Northern China Regional Conference and the Annual Conference of GSC Yellow River Branch were held jointly in Jinan, Shandong Province. More than 400 experts and scholars from 80 institutions attended this conference. The central focus of this conference is “Geographical Innovation and Opportunity towards New Five Modernizations”. Keynote speeches regarding characteristics and tasks of geography (Academician Fu Bojie); Ecological Kuznets curve of human-environmental interactions (Prof. Li Xiubin); Rediscovery of GIS (Prof. Lv Guonian); Spatial expansion mechanism of urban agglomeration in China (Prof. Fang Chuanglin); Water resource security in Beijing (Prof. Gong Huili); China’s geopolitical strategy (Prof. Du Debin); Curriculum construction of physical geography (Prof. Wang Naiang); Province-administered county pilot reform in Henan (Prof. Miao Changhong); Practice and prospect of Shandong development (Prof. Zhao Feng); About the College of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, Shandong Normal University (Prof. Wang Chengxin) were delivered. After 10 keynote reports, 7 sessions are focused on the following: New Urbanization, Industrialization and Industrial Restructuring; Agricultural Modernization and “Three Rural Issues”; Technological Development and Application of Big Data and 3S; Environmental Governance in North China and Integrated Development of Coastal Zones; Development and Ecological Civilization Construction of Yellow River Basin; Human-Environmental Interaction and Regional Sustainable Development; Hot Issues and Editing and Publishing on Geography. These topics indicated the issues and problems of geographic research in China.

Prof. Xu Shiyuan (East China Normal University) and Prof. Xu Xueqiang (Sun Yat-sen University) were awarded the “6th GSC Geographical Science and Technology Achievement Award” at the opening ceremony. 10 outstanding researchers and professors were awarded the “13th China’s National Geographical Science and Technology Award for Young Scholars”.

During the conference, GSC held the 2nd Meeting of the 11th Council of GSC and the 3rd Meeting of the 11th Standing Committee of GSC, which focused on issues of geographical science development in China and GSC’s role in undertaking the functions transferred by the government; prepared for the 33rd International Geographical Congress; formulated the 13th Five-Year Plan of GSC; planned the activities and working tasks in 2016.

On September 27-29, 2015, the GSC Southwest China Regional Conference was held in Guiyang, Guizhou Province. The theme of the conference is “South China Karst Environment and Mountain Sustainable Development”. The conference received more than 200 academic articles. During the keynote session, Academician Lu Yaoru and Academician Cui Peng, Prof. Xiong Kangning, Prof. Deng Wei and Prof. He Daming made excellent presentations. They discussed Guizhou sustainable development; Water and soil loss and mountain hazards, etc. This conference consisted of 5 parallel sessions: Water Resource and Environment in Karst Area; Coordinative Development of Karst Mountain Areas; Eco-environmental Protection and Spatial Analysis Technology Application; Geography Education; Value of Guizhou ichthyosaur from Karst Triassic strata. A total of 74 speeches were made to introduce frontier science in China and geographical features in Southwest China. At the closing ceremony, the awardees received the “Excellent Paper Award” or the “Excellent Paper Award in Fundamental Geographical Education”.

On October 23-25, 2015, the GSC Central China Regional Conference was held in Xinyang, Henan Province. The theme of this conference is “Geography and Regional Development”. More than 200 experts and scholars attended this conference. A total of 12 keynote speeches were arranged. Academician Wang Jiayao was invited to give a speech on “Big data and geographical information science”. The other lectures were: “Geo-information science research on terrestrial system” (Prof. Leng Shuying); “Ecological zoning and space governance” (Prof. Zeng Juxin); “Scientific methods and geography prospects” (Prof. Chen Yanguang); “Spatial-temporal pattern of Chinese phenological changes over the past 50 years” (Prof. Dai Junhu); “Innovation exploration on demography in Wuhan” (Prof. Feng Jian); “Unbalanced development of regional economy and its governance” (Prof. Miao Changhong); “Geography teachers’ professional education action” (Prof. Li Jiaqing); “New normal, new thinking, new pattern” (Prof. Feng Dexian); “Development direction of Jiangxi tourism” (Prof. Li Songzhi); “Spatial-temporal distribution of black carbon aerosol in Winter, Wuhan” (Prof. Zhao Jinhui); “About the College of Urban and Environmental Science, Xinyang Normal University” (Prof. Yu Guozhong). Another 4 special sessions (Physical Geography, Human Geography, Geographical Information Technology, and Geographical Education Study) were organized. 33 scholars delivered oral reports. At the closing ceremony, the awardees received the “Excellent Paper Award”.

On November 29-30, 2015, the GSC Southern China Regional Conference was held in Nanning, Guangxi Province. The theme of this conference is “Ecological Civilization Construction and Southern China Regional Node Function along the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”, enclosing issues in natural resources development, environmental protection, comprehensive territorial management, sustainable regional development, and ecological civilization construction. 10 renowned experts were invited to deliver speeches at the keynote session, they were: “Geography: from science to decision” (Academician Fu Bojie); “Geography in ecological civilization construction” (Prof. Cai Yunlong); “Political world-city system” (Prof. Xue Desheng); “Quantitative research on remote sensing in China” (Prof. Chen Liangfu); “Nitrogen transfer in estuarine critical zone” (Prof. Liu Min); “Geographical thinking and planning design” (Prof. Huang Guangqing); “Service function of Karst ecological system” (Prof. Wang Kelin) ; “Urban and land use change simulation” (Prof. Li Xia); “Guangxi’s role in Beibu Gulf construction” (Prof. Xu Guilin); “Forest transition in Beibu Gulf coastal area” (Prof. Lu Yuan). More than 50 scholars delivered reports in the following special sessions. At the closing ceremony, 20 graduates received the “Excellent Paper Award”. Through active academic exchanges and discussions, scholars shared their thinkings about ecological civilization construction, put forward sound suggestions for Southern China regional node function along the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.

The 6 regional conferences provide more opportunities for geographical scholars and graduate students to exchange ideas, to understand the frontier research in geography research, to present their research achievements. The regional and provincial geographical societies are playing a key role in organizing regional conferences. All these have strengthened the exchanges and communications between provinces and regions, and promoted the mutual cooperation between different geographical organizations.