Laboratory Overview

The National Key Laboratory of Green and Long-Life Road Engineering in Extreme Environments is the only national strategic science and technology platform specifically established for road engineering within China’s engineering sector. Its predecessor, the State Key Laboratory of Road Engineering Safety and Health in Cold and High-Altitude Regions, traces its research history back to the Qinghai–Tibet Highway Research Group established by the Ministry of Transport in 1973. For more than five decades, the Laboratory and its predecessor have provided essential technical support for nearly 10,000 kilometres of highways connecting Xinjiang and Tibet with other parts of China, as well as for transportation corridors in China’s western border regions. They have consequently made an irreplaceable historical contribution to maintaining stability in Xinjiang and strengthening national border security.

In August 2021, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other ministries and commissions successively initiated the optimization and reorganization of China’s state key laboratories. In early 2022, on the basis of the former State Key Laboratory of Road Engineering Safety and Health in Cold and High-Altitude Regions, CCCC First Highway Consultants Co., Ltd., Shenzhen University, and Changsha University of Science and Technology jointly established the National Key Laboratory of Green and Long-Life Road Engineering in Extreme Environments as its host institutions. The Laboratory successfully passed the consultation and evaluation for national key laboratories in February 2023 and was formally incorporated by the Ministry of Science and Technology into the national key laboratory development framework for the engineering sector in April 2023.

The Laboratory follows the important national principle that governing the country requires effective governance of its border regions and that governing the border regions requires first ensuring stability in Tibet. It serves major national strategic needs by helping to shorten travel times to border areas, expand strategic depth, safeguard border security, promote economic development, and strengthen the strategic nodes connecting the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. Its research focuses on road engineering in extreme high-altitude environments, which account for approximately one quarter of China’s land area, and in coastal regions, which contribute approximately one third of the country’s gross domestic product.

The Laboratory aims to achieve breakthroughs in the scientific mechanisms governing infrastructure-induced disasters under extreme environmental conditions and in technologies for enhancing the coordinated resilience of structures and materials. Through these efforts, it seeks to play an irreplaceable role in leading technological development in the road engineering industry.

Shenzhen Branch

The Shenzhen branch of the National Key Laboratory of Green and Long-Life Road Engineering in Extreme Environments addresses several major challenges, including the limited adaptability of infrastructure sensing equipment under extreme environmental conditions, the complex initiation and disaster evolution mechanisms of infrastructure deterioration, insufficient diagnostic and early-warning capabilities, the frequent occurrence of coupled infrastructure defects, and the difficulty of implementing targeted repair and disaster protection under extreme environments.

The Shenzhen branch focuses on resolving two fundamental scientific questions. The first concerns the initiation, evolution, and disaster-causing mechanisms of infrastructure deterioration under the combined effects of multiple extreme environmental factors. The second concerns structural failure mechanisms under the action of multiple dynamic hazards in extreme environments.

To address these scientific questions, the Shenzhen branch seeks to achieve breakthroughs in three major technological areas. These include intelligent structural sensing and integrated space–air–ground collaborative inspection and monitoring technologies for extreme environments; intelligent diagnosis based on multiphysics integration and data- and model-driven disaster early-warning technologies; and coordinated infrastructure treatment and resilience enhancement using green, high-performance repair materials and intelligent equipment.

Through these research activities, the Shenzhen branch aims to achieve intelligent infrastructure operation and maintenance, environmentally sustainable development, and extended service life under extreme environmental conditions, while leading the international development of related technologies.

Research Team

The Shenzhen branch currently has 87 permanent members, including one member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and one member of the Engineering Academy of Japan. The team also includes 12 national-level leading researchers, such as recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and Changjiang Scholars, as well as six provincial- and ministerial-level high-level researchers.

The average age of the permanent staff is below 40. The team has a well-balanced academic background, with members drawn from a wide range of disciplines, including civil engineering, transportation engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, computer science, and optoelectronic information engineering. It has formed a young, multidisciplinary innovation team led by academicians, supported by national-level experts, and driven primarily by young researchers who constitute the main force in scientific research and project implementation.