Professor Xiao Hua Wang graduated from Ocean University of China, and holds a PhD in Physical Oceanography from James Cook University in Australia. He is the Co-leader of the Sino-Australian Research Consortium for Coastal Management (SARCCM), University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, and an associate editor for Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (IF= 2.333 Q1) and Limnology and Oceanography: Methods (2.459 Q1), respectively. He was the Director of International Student Recruitment and Exchange (2018-2020), UNSW Canberra, and the Founding Director of the Sino-Australian Research Centre for Coastal Management (SARCCM, 2010-2020), UNSW. He has over 30 years experience in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. His research concerns modelling of ocean circulation, sediment transport dynamics, and understanding of coastal management issues. He has over 150 publications including peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters and one book. His work has been funded by a variety sources including the Australia Research Council and the EU Framework.  

Many world estuaries and coast environments are under tremendous stress in response to the increased anthropogenic forcing. A good understanding of the current state of these marine environment and lessons learnt from these human influences would be extremely valuable to restore and protect these habitats and ecosystems from further environmental degradation and even catastrophe. In this talk, I will use several studies to tell a story about how these environments respond to severe human-induced perturbations, and what has gone right and wrong from environmental and resource management point of view.