Sino-German Coal Fire Research - Latest News.
Coal fires are an environmental hazard and a research topic
worldwide. This project aims at the investigation, monitoring and
extinction of coal fires in Northern China.
ICCFR2 | Second International Conference on Coal Fire Research
19-21 May 2010 | dbb forum berlin, Berlin, Germany
As a man-made hazard affecting limited natural resources in specific locales as much as the atmosphere at large, spontaneous
coal seam fires are a delicate object of scientific research. Their very complex nature responds to a whole range of disciplines
and necessitates a concerted interdisciplinary and international effort for effective mitigation. The repercussions of the
phenomenon spread right into the realm of society and politics.
The Second International Conference on Coal Fire Research (ICCFR2) aims to provide the background knowledge which is needed for successful detection, fighting, and environmental assessment
of coal fires. Targeting a problem of truly global concern, these tasks require sound scientific handling and expertise. ICCFR2,
hence, was designed to rally the international vanguard of coal fire research. With a line-up of more than 50 top international
speakers, surveying the entire terrain, from Geosciences and Materials Research, Remote Sensing and Modeling to Fire Fighting
and Mining, as well as CDM & Funding, we are sure the conference will live up to its avowed objective: taking international
scientific cooperation on the subject to a new integrated and interdisciplinary level!
First Announcement and Call for Contributions
ERSEC International Conference 2009
April, 2009
Ecological Research for Sustaining the Environment in China (ERSEC)
is a joint effort between the Chinese Ministry of Education (MoE),
the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the UNESCO
Office Beijing to promote the practical use of ecological research
results in China by creating a dialogue between scientists and
policy-makers. Being the bilateral partner of BMBF for the
scientific-technological cooperation, Chinese Ministry of Science and
Technology (MoST) has also joined in the initiative.
more ...
Project evaluation passed successfully!
December, 2008
The time for the external review had come on 25 and 26 November 2008:
representatives from the six main German partnering institutions –
BAM, BGR, BUW, DLR, LIAG, and TUBAF – gathered in the facilities of
Berlin's WissenschaftsForum to render a comprehensive picture of
their work during the preceding two years. Their presentations were
to be judged by a group of experts loosely affiliated to the project
in supervisory function since its very beginning in 2003.
more ...
Field Campaign to Wuda and Queergou in Xinjiang
October, 2008
Ongoing field work took place in Wuda to control the permanent data
logger, installed in spring this year. The researchers were delighted
that all installations were still working. Gas and temperature
measurements were conducted. In addition some data loggers have been
read out to obtain preliminary data sets for study until the next
field campaign, planned for spring 2009, will take place. Due to the
tight cooperation with the GTZ and the Fire Fighting Department of
Xinjiang a new fire zone in Hutubi County was visited after the field
trip to Wuda. This fire zone is located approx. 100 km west of
Urumqi. As this fire zone will be extinguished during 2009 by the
Fire Fighting Department, it is planned to accompany the extinction
with different aspects of new fire fighting methodologies. To be able
to monitor the fire during extinction, the teams started to install
different data logger for gas and temperature measurements. It is
planned to be on site when the extinction activities will start in
spring 2009.
Symposium on 'Challenges of Climate Change on
the Role of Coal Field Fire Fighting in China'
June, 2008
The Symposium was organized together by a number of partners from GTZ
and BMBF financed projects working on coal fire related issues. The
aim of the symposium was to promote the exchange of experience
between experts and partners and to present documented results,
techniques and know-how through expert lectures. The symposium
kicked-off through a joint meeting and dinner with Mr Wang Yong Ming,
Vice Chairman of People’s Political Consultative Conference of
Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Approx. 90 Chinese participants from
Xinjiang, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shanxi and Xi'an together
with experts from Germany and Australia exchanged their experiences
about coal-seam fire extinguishing technologies.
The symposium consisted of a theoretical and a practical part with a
visit to the coal fire zone Songshutou. The topic of coal-seam fires
in China is increasingly raising interest in the public. Local
television stations and newspapers reported on this symposium. A team
from German television station ZDF joined the excursion to the
Songshutou coal fire zone.
Field Campaign in Wuda in May 2008
May, 2008
The joint team of the project met in Wuda, Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region, to discuss the latest results of modelling aspects and
planned measurement activities within the starting field campaign.
This was the largest team in this project that ever met on-site.
During the campaign that lasted for ten days, different permanent
measurement devices were installed on the fires zone of interest.
This includes devices for temperature and gas measurements as well as
the installation of a heat pipe system by the Federal Institute for
Materials Research and Testing. It is planned to check these
installations at regular times until spring 2009.
Sino-German Workshop on Advanced
Technologies of Remote Sensing
May, 2008
The international workshop on 'Advanced Technologies of Remote
sensing and its applications in Understanding Earth Processes' took
place on May 25th to 27th in Beijing. About 60 researchers and
representatives from different ministries and governmental
organizations participated, aiming to intensify cooperation and
scientific exchange. The workshop was formal initiated by the
Ministry of Land and Resources of the P.R. of China (MLP) and the
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) of Germany. The
focus of the presentations and discussions lay on aspects related to
sustainable land-use management and monitoring aspects of climate
change processes. Due to the current earthquake disaster in the
Sichuan province the use of state of the art technologies in the
field of remote sensing becomes even more important.
Kick-off Phase B
May, 2008
On the same afternoon the formal kick-off event of the Chinese
partners of the Sino-German Research Initiative took place at the
Foreign Experts Building. After the different presentations gave an
overview of the common work packages, a cooperation note between
NRSCC and DLR has been signed. This note expresses the will of the
Chinese and the German partners to even strengthen the cooperation
between the involved research teams in order to gain deeper
scientific understanding of how to detect, quantify, monitor, contain
and prevent the uncontrolled coal seam fires and their possible
negative environmental and economical consequences. The
representatives of NRSCC and DLR state that the Sino-German Coal Fire
Re-search Initiative should be considered a major building block for
the formation of a fruitful long-term cooperation between the
involved institutions and that it shall foster the scientific
exchange and the tight cooperation between the Chinese and German
scientific communities.
Presentation of the ERSEC Book and kick-off
of Phase B
May, 2008
On May 14th 2008, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization, the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC) and
German Aerospace Center (DLR) hold the launching ceremony of the
'International Research on Sustainable Control and Management
Spontaneous Coal Seam Fires: Mitigating a Global Disaster'. The
director and representative Mr. Min Bista, on behalf of the UNESCO
Beijing office, scientific counsellor Mr. Matthias Hack on behalf of
the Germany embassy and the director Mr. Xing Jijun on behalf of the
MOST distributed the ERSEC books to the delegates of the NRSCC, DLR,
Shenhua Group and Beijing Normal University (BNU).
Press
release
Dragon 2
April, 2008
Researchers of the Sino-German Research Initiative became part of the
new DRAGON 2 cooperation programme. The programme is collaboration
between ESA and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the
P.R. China. The 1st Dragon Programme lasted from beginning of 2004 to
April 2008. The 2nd Dragon Programme will run for four years and was
formally launched at the 2008 Beijing Symposium from 21st to 25th
April. Dragon 2 focuses on exploitation of ESA, TPM and Chinese EO
data for science and applications development in land, ocean and
atmospheric applications. The programme brings together joint
Sino-European teams to investigate 25 thematic projects. (
http://dragon2.esa.int
)
2nd meeting of the Industry Advisory Board
April, 2008
The IAB met a second time in Berlin. The current status of the
project was presented by the project coordinators. An important
aspect of the talks focused on the CDM-related activities of the
project. During the past time tight collaboration took place between
researchers from this project together with Chinese experts to
develop the first methodology to get coal fire fighting activities in
line with the CDM regulations. The methodology – and its final
acceptance by the United Nations Framework Convention of climate
Change (UNFCC) – is the essential step for further CDM activities.
Valuable information about legal aspects was provided by the members
of the IAB.
In addition a detailed description of the proposed fire extinguishing
method 'paste backfill' was presented by researchers from Technical
University of Freiberg.
Technical Meeting at BNU
March, 2008
Researchers from different partner organizations met at Beijing
Normal University (BNU) on 28th and 29th of March. Different work
packages of the upcoming Phase B of the Sino-German coal fire project
have been discussed. An important point was the implementation of a
so called "Beijing Office" (BO) at BNU. Employees from different
partner organizations from both sides will work at the BO to assist
the project partner in management tasks. A special focus of the
staffs work is put on translations to foster the communication
between Chinese and German partners. We appreciate the appointment of
Ms. Xue Yanling and wish her all the best!
Field work 2007 in Wuda
October, 2007
The Sino-German researchers met at Wuda, to work together on coal
fire detection and coal fire mapping techniques. The field campaign
was the first large campaign of the team with researchers from China
and Germany within Phase B of the project and continues the former
campaigns from 2003 to 2005. Besides the comprehensive field work on
different fire zones, different aspects of fire extinguishing
techniques were discussed in detail. The important re-sult was the
development of the detailed road map for the upcoming activities for
the next 2.5 years during a two day workshop. A major milestone was
the field trip to Roujigou, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where
experts from the Shenhua Group in Ningxia give a detailed report of
the local situation and current fire fighting activities.
Inaugural meeting of the Industry Advisory
Board
August, 2007
The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) met first time at DLR headquarters
in Bonn. The Sino-German Initiative targets to work on the
development of methods for prevention, advanced extinguishing as well
as on monitoring and long-term observation techniques. As this work
involves research and operational aspects, advice and feedback will
be incorporated by the IAB. The member of the new established IAB
come from the mining and energy industry, legal authorities and from
the financing sector. Their expertise span from mining technology,
mine safety and energy supply to CDM projects, namely project
evaluation processes, project management and financing aspects. This
initiative allow to link exchange from the consulting activities
within the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) German
re-searchers were involved in and interested companies. The IAB
experts will provide advice and comment on those topics raised on
during Phase B. This will foster the link between the project team
and interesting companies and institutions that are currently - or
that plan to be - engaged in CDM related activities. The IAB will
meet twice a year to accompany the progress of the project.
Joint GTZ - Sino-German Coal Fire Research Project
field work in Xinjiang
May, 2007
A team of researchers from BGR and DLR traveled to Xinjiang
Autonomous Province (China) for two weeks to conduct a field
campaign. The fire site was selected by the provincial fire fighting
department in Urumqui, which is supported by the GTZ (German
Technical Cooperation). The main aim of the campaign was to measure
temperatures and gas emissions to get an estimate of the energy
release of the coal fire site in question. The successful
determination of the energy release of a coal fire is a pre-requisite
to the establishment of CDM related base line estimation and
certified emission reduction values.
Shenhua strategy meeting 2007
April, 2007
Scientists from the German consortium together with their colleagues
from the National Re-mote Sensing Centre of China (NRSCC) and from
Shenhua Group Corp. Ltd. meet for a strat-egy meeting at Shenhua
headquarters in Beijing under the lead of Vice President of Shenhua
Mr. Li Dong. Shenhua is the largest coal mining state-owned
enterprise in China and the sec-ond largest coal mining enterprise in
the world and therefore an important cooperating partner of the
project. The most important result of the meeting is that Shenhua
will provide two test areas for the Sino-German Research Initiative
where different extinguishing techniques can be tested and studied in
detail. All attending parties commend on the constructive atmosphere
of the meeting, which was a very important for the project.
Phase B gets final approval. Project extended
until 2010
March, 2007
After careful deliberations by the BMBF the Sino-German Coal Fire
Research Initiative was extended for another three years. Phase B of
the project will run until March 2010 and put its focus on coal fire
extinction and questions concerning the influence of coal fires on
climatology. Currently the different institutions are busy planning
measurment campaigns in different parts in Northern China, where they
will closely cooperate with local fire fighting authorities.
Field campaign 2006 in Wuda
September, 2006
Ongoing research on different test sides in Wuda. Chinese and German
Researchers of the Research Initiative met in Wuda, to update
existing information of the different fire zones, mapped during phase
A. The discussions focussed on fire fighting methodologies and fire
extinguishing techniques. Both aspects are important for the next
phase of the project, ex-pected to be started in 2007. To tighten the
cooperation to different partners also scientific meetings took place
with researchers from the Scientific Department of Shenhua Group
Corp. Ltd. in Beijing as well as with fire fighting experts of the
Fire Fighting Department in Urumqi, capital town of the Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Phase B – Implementation Workshop in Beijing
strives to extend project until 2009
May, 2006
22 experts from the Sino-German Coal Fire Research Initiative met for
two days to coordinate and discuss the implementation plan for the
upcoming research Phase B (2006-2009). They discussed and agreed on a
wide range of issues, concerning activities, sites and methods and
are going to apply for a Phase B to their respective funding
organisations.
more ...
First conference on Understanding, Extinction, and
Prevention of Spontaneous Coal Seam Fires successfully conducted in
Beijing
December, 2005
The "ERSEC Conference on Understanding, Extinction, and Prevention of
Spontaneous Coal Seam Fires" in Beijing took place from 29.11. -
01.12.2006 in Beijing and was hosted by the Sino-German Centre for
Science Promotion.
It was the first conference of its kind, giving many resaerchers an
opportunity to see the latest developments on the subject.
more ...
November workshop of German members in Hannover
November, 2005
The November workshop of coal fire research was hosted from 9.11. -
11.11. 2005 in Hannover by the German Geological Survey (BGR).
The understanding of coal fire ignition, development and propagation
processes as well as the ability to locate coal fires has improved
significantly. Many of the results will be presented at the upcoming
ERSEC conference in Beijing.
Results of numerical coal fire modelling
July, 2005
As a contribution to the Sino-German Research Initiative, the
GGA-Institute performs large-scale numerical simulations of the coal
fires below surface. “Large-scale” is understood as sufficiently
large to include the coal seams (and combustion centres therein), and
the overlying and underlying beds up to the surface. Since the coal
fires are located in depths up to 40 meters below surface, the volume
under investigation reaches sizes of 400x400x80 m³.
more ...
Chinese and German Partners plan details of the
next project phase (Phase B)
June / July, 2005
As the Phase A of the Sino-German Coal Fire Initiative will end July
2005, the Chinese and German partners are currently planning details
of the next project phase (Phase B). Main topics of phase B of the
project will be the eextinction, monitoring and prevention of coal
fires. The planning is already finalized to a high degree and the
main working packages are formulated. The costs are estimated for all
partners and work packages.
more ...
Field campaign 2005 of Chinese and German
geo-scientists successful
June-July, 2005
Currently a field campaign in the coal fire area of Wuda is conducted
jointly by the Chense and German project partners. Field activities
include the renewed mapping of the coal fires supported by GPS,
handheld GIS systems and thermal radiometers by the team of DFD-DLR
and BNU. Furthermore, the German institute BAM and the Chinese AGRS
are collecting geoelectric and geomagnetic measurements to validate
the geomagnetic data acquired during the helicopter campaign in 2004.
more ...
Focus on coal fire risk areas in the broader study
areas
April, 2005
The outlined risk areas constitute locations to be closely monitored
in the future. When a new thermal anomaly is detected within the
delineated areas of coal fire risk a field check by local authorities
is recommended. Areas in the Wuda and Ruqigou / Gulaben surrounding,
which are recommended to be kept under close observation, are: UL:
4398000 N, 658000 E, LR: 4390000 N, 664000 E / UL: 4384000 N, 662000
E, LR: 4364000N, 672000 E
more ...
Technical evaluation for Information System
online
April, 2005
A first engineering web mapping test for the Information System
features an overview of two of the test sites in the Helan Mountains
in Northern China. It is based on the ArcIMS GIS web map publication
framework. The application shows the Wuda and Rujigou test sites in
high resolution Quickbird images and provides additional information
on the extent of coalfires in Wuda in the years between 2002 and
2004. To view the demo in an extra browser window klick
here
.
Planning the ERSEC conference on spontaneous
coal seam fires
April 19, 2005
Today a video conference was conducted between China and Germany.
Participants were the staff of the UNESCO office in Beijing, members
of the coal industry, scientists from several Chinese research
institutions and from the German Remote Sensing Data Canter, DFD of
DLR, in Oberpfaffenhofen. Topic was the planning of the upcoming
ERSEC conference on coal fires. This conference will be held in
Beijing from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2005. Please visit the official
conference website to register.
more ...
Coal fires detectable in low resolution MODIS ratio
images
April, 2005
For the first time it could be proven that MODIS data - although it
has a low resolution of only 1km - can be used to automatically
extract thermal anomalies of very hot coal fires from a ratio image
of the thermal band.
Three MODIS scenes were processed, which were acquired in fall 2002
(September), in winter 2003 (early February) as well as in winter
2005 (early February). All images were night-time images, acquired
from the platform AQUA.
more ...
Sino-German science exchange at BNU and IRSA
March, 2005
Currently, a German scientist of the German Remote Sensing Data
Center, DFD, DLR, is pursuing a three months scientific exchange at
the partner institute of Beijing Normal University Remote Sensing
Department as well as at the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications
in Beijing. The latter is not a project partner yet, but hopes to
join the project in upcoming "Phase B" with an input on thermal
remote sensing research.
more ...
Delivery of detailed coal fire dynamics report
to Chinese mine authorities
March, 2005
A detailed report of the coal fire dynamics in Wuda syncline was
supplied to the Chinese partners BRSC, BNU and SHENHUA in Beijing
this March. The report, which had been translated to Chinese, is a
compilation of each fire's dynamic development over the past 4 years.
The multitemporal field mappings undertaken by the field team of
DFD-DLR were combined with remote sensing analysis results to clearly
present each fires past development, current status and assumed
trend.
more ...
Three PhDs on coal fire demarcation, detection and
quantification completed at DFD-DLR
February, 2005
Three remote sensing related PhDs on coal fires in China were
completed. All three candidates could graduate with honours. The
three PhDs are strongly inter-linked to each other. One PhD focuses
on the automated demarcation of coal fire risk areas from
multispectral remote sensing data. The second PhD presents an
algorithm to automatically detect subtle thermal anomalies from
remote sensing data.
more ...
December workshop of German members in Essen
December 6-8, 2004
The December workshop of coal fire research was held from 6.12. -
8.12. 2004 in Essen at DMT headquarters. All relevant results of the
different work packages were presented. Furthermore, the upcoming
activities for 2005 were discussed.
Additionally, the planning of phase B started in detail. The main
work packages are fixed and the work package speakers are nominated.
A roadmap and strategy for the planning procedure was presented.
Presentation of coal fire research at coal
fire conference in Denver
October, 2004
In October a conference on coal fires was held by the Association of
American Geographers in Denver. The conference offered an open forum
for coal fire researchers world wide and was frequented by the
international coal fire community with participants from the USA,
Canada, South Africa, the Netherlands and Germany amongst others.
During the conference the latest results from remote sensing, geology
and geo-physics of the Sino-German coal fire research inititive were
presented.
Sino-German 2004 summer field campaign
conducted
June 15 - July 15, 2004
The Summer Field Campaign 2004 is the first larger joint field
activity of German and Chinese Partners. A planned joined field
campaign in 2003 had to be shifted due to the SARS problem. The time
window for planning was 15.06.2004 to 15.07.2004, with smaller
activities before and after this time window. The summer field
campaign was centrally planned and managed, including travel- and
activity planning and transport of instruments.
more ...
Discovery of formerly unknown coal fires in
southern Haibowan
June, 2004
Just like in 2003, in 2004 again an area was checked, which showed
thermal anomalies in ETM+ data, which were located within demarcated
coal fire risk areas. About 20 km southeast of Wuda city a larger
underground coal seam fire could be validated, which is rapidly
spreading. The fire has ignited through spontaneous combustion in
improperly sealed former wild mines. Such wild mines pose the
greatest threat for the ignition of new coal fires.
more ...
Presentation of coal fire research at
EARSeL Conference in Dubrovnik
May, 2004
During an EARSeL Conference on Remote Sensing of Land Cover in
Croatia, a talk on land cover changes in the coal fire study areas
Wuda and Ruqigou / Gulaben over the past 15 years was given. In both
coal mining areas the surfaces covered with coal, coal waste
accumulations and coal dust have increased rapidly. This indirectly
represents the strong increase in mining activities within the last
decades. The flourishing of mining operations has lead to increased
migrations into the area.
more ...
Status workshop in Freiberg
January 21-23, 2004
The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg hosted the first
status workshop in Freiberg, Saxonia. The workshop was intended to
mainly exchange first research results of the so called start-up
phase of the project.
All presentations as well as some of the results of the working group
meetings given/summarized at the workshop are available on the
FTP-server.
Successful seminar on new technologies for
coal fire prevention and extinguishing in Wuda, December 2004
December 8-11, 2003
The meeting aimed to exchange technical information about
state-of-the-art fire fighting know-how, about commonly applied fire
fighting techniques and possible ideas for innovative coal fire
extinguishing techniques. An additional intention of the German
delegation was to improve the acceptance of the Chinese colleagues to
agree in principal to a scientific approach for the execution of the
project.
First time detection of unknown coal fires in
Shitanjing and Hulusitai
September, 2003
In September 2003 for the first time completely unknown coal fires
could be detected from remote sensing data exclusively. Thermal
anomalies within ETM+ thermal data, which were located within
demarcated coal fire risk areas, were checked during the 2003 field
campaign. It could be verified that the anomalies found in the remote
sensing data are underground coal seam fires as well as coal storage
pile fires.
more ...
Sino-German field work campaign in September
2003
September, 2003
During September 2003 the project partners pursued a joined four-week
field campaign in the study areas of Wuda and Ruqigou / Gulaben. Work
undertaken during the field campaign included the mapping of the coal
fires, temperature measurements of vents, cracks and the background
surfaces, thermal camera photography, geologic mapping, mineral
sampling, coal sample collection, the validation of thermal anomalies
outside the study areas
more ...
Kick Off Meeting in Beijing
September 9, 2003
After the originally planned kick-off meeting of May 9th had to be
postponed due to SARS, the official kick-off of the Sino-German Coal
Fire Research Initiative took place on September 9th. The meeting was
hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) at
the Beijing Normal University (BNU) and featured guests from the
UNESCO office in Beijing, the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF)
more ...
