Because science is closely tied to economic considerations, China has the potential to make significant contributions to research on the human dimensions of global change. China's geography offers important and unique opportunities for global change studies. China's extensive and highly populated coastline will provide opportunities to study land- ocean interactions in the coastal zone. China's extensive historical writings contain proxy data for cli- mate change that are a unique contribution to research on past changes. Contributions will be strengthened by coupling these analyses with prospective re- search designed to provide projections of future changes.
Ministries play key roles in disseminating emissions data that are crucial inputs to global models.
Data currently available are not sufficient to carry out research that is important to Chinese policy makers as well as the international community. Increased funding through NSFC would expand opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaborative global change research. Research on surface and radiative fluxes in agriculture and observational programs in hydrology are relevant to global change research programs. Contributions from agricultural and water resource research institutions are expected to increase as they become more fully integrated under the rubric of global change studies. Interest in developing global change education programs to meet both national and regional needs deserves further atten- tion and funding.