Soil degradation is an important issue in both China and Italy. Therefore, integration of studies on representative soils from both countries provide an unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of soil processes.  

On 1-2 June 2014, a two-days Sino-Italian workshop was organized in Beijing by Professors Qingsong Liu (IGGCAS), Claudio Colombo (Molise University), and Jizheng He (Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences) to focus on the role of pedology in the development of improved soil, water, and nutrient management practices. The first day of the meeting was held at the IGGCAS to discuss the advances in pedology, soil properties, and soil functioning.  

The second day was held at RCEES and covered new frontier topics from land degradation to substainable land management. Firstly, Dr. Jianguo Che (leader of the foreign affair, IGGCAS) and Prof. Plinio Innocenzo (counsellor for scientific and technology, Italy Ambassey) introduced IGGCAS and the Italian collaborators, respectively. The other participants include Professors Haibin Wu (IGGCAS), Qingzhen Hao (IGGCAS), Chuanyong Jing (RCEES), Fabio Terribile (President of Italian Pedology Society, Naples University), Eleonora Bonifacio (Università di Torino), Giuseppe Corti (Università Politecnica delle Marche), and Giuseppe Lo Papa (Università di Palermo).  

The workshop greatly strengthened future collaboration between the two countries.