Introduction

Centre for Regional Oceans (CRO) is an interdisciplinary platform including Offshore Civil Engineering, Ocean Environment and Ecology and Ocean Disaster Prevention. Marine resources have great potential for exploitation and utilization. Regional ocean environment is considerably influenced by the activities of humankind, as many challenges have been raised due the uncontrolled ocean exploitation and utilization. Globally, the issue of regional ocean environment is gaining elevated attention and becoming a trending topic. In 2015, a watershed area of 85 square kilometers has been granted to Macau SAR. Growing demands for ocean space and coastal resources have generated a need for a comprehensive strategy to enable holistic utilization and management of ocean resources. Therefore, the main objective of CRO are as follows:

To facilitate the development of global tourism and leisure center of Macao;
To improve the response of urban public safety and disaster prevention;
To promote the development of scientific research and innovation center in Greater Bay Area;
To participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and play a decisive role.

CRO will focus on the academic frontiers and solve the following technical problems around the challenges and opportunities at present and future, including:

To protect and remediate coastal marine ecosystems with emphasis on strategic plan of a sustainable development environment, breakthroughs in reclamation, marine ecological protection, marine industry (seawater chemical resources, etc.);
To establish a multi-dimensional (water-gas-solid) collaborative processing mode in a regional area;
To pursue a new roadmap of regional environmental research from the identification of pollution problem, risk assessment and advanced technologies of pollution control;
To conduct the emergency prevention and control of environmental pollution caused by urban drainage and flooding, drinking water safety and seawater intrusion;
To cultivate engineers and develop innovative technologies to provide technical support and guarantee for the moderate diversification of Macao’s economy.