On November 9, Li Jiabiao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, announced the launch of the United Nations Ocean Decade “Digital Deep-sea Typical Habitats Programme” at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Xiamen International Ocean Week. Xu Dachun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Lin Wenbin, Vice Governor of Fujian Province, ministers from many countries and domestic and foreign guests witnessed the occasion.

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2012-2030, the “Ocean Decade”) is a comprehensive top-level plan for ocean science initiated by the United Nations, aiming to build a stronger governance system based on technological innovation at the global and national levels by stimulating and promoting changes in the field of marine science, in order to achieve sustainable development of the ocean. Since the release of the “Ocean Decade”, Chinese scientists have actively participated. In August 2022, the “Ocean Decade” China Committee was established, with Minister Wang Guanghua of the Ministry of Natural Resources as the chairman of the committee.

The “Digital Deep-sea Typical Habitats Programme” (Digital DEPTH) is the first big science plan focusing on deep-sea science and governance initiated by China under the framework of the United Nations “Ocean Decade”. The programme, approved in June 2023, is led by China Deep Ocean Affairs Administration, with Academician Li Jiabiao as the Chief Scientist, and experts from 39 countries and 64 institutions on six continents are involved.

Centering on the goal of addressing the eighth challenge of the United Nations “Ocean Decade” initiative - “Digital Ocean”, Digital DEPTH focuses on the core scientific blind spots and key technical difficulties in the current global deep-sea environmental governance field, and will place greater focus on the parts of the deep-sea habitat most vulnerable to perturbations from human activities and global change in the next decade, including mid-ocean ridges, seamounts, ocean trenches, deep-sea plains, and polar regions, to enhance human observation, simulation and mapping capabilities for these typical deep-sea habitats, thus helping humanity to find the best solutions to achieve a balance between deep-sea conservation and sustainable development.

Academician Li Jiabiao introduced that advanced technologies will be applied in this programme to carry out deep-sea scientific research, build the intelligent observation system, and promote the sharing of data and samples; By developing habitat mapping and numerical simulation techniques, the cross-habitat connectivity and information transfer process of multi-scale matter and energy will be revealed. The programme is committed to building the “observation-simulation-prediction” digital platform, providing the “digital deep-sea habitat atlas” public product, updating deep-sea zoning management tools, and focusing on cooperation with the younger generation, especially from small island developing countries, least developed countries, and landlocked developing countries, to exchange knowledge and experience in deep-sea science and management.

On the same day, the first international seminar, presided over by Director Fang Yinxia, was held for Digital DEPTH. Heads of China Deep Ocean Affairs Administration, China Oceanic Development Foundation, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and other domestic and foreign institutions made speeches. Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, the All-Russian Institute of Geology in Russia, the National Deep Sea Center, the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS, Shanghai Jiao Jiao University and the SIO delivered reports on topics such as submarine data sharing, submarine plate tectonics, deep-sea observation platform equipment and deep-sea protection.