Achievement Led by Academician Xu Zuxin Recognized as a 'Beautiful China' Typical Case"

On December 4, 2024, the Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre of the Ministry of Education announced the list of typical case achievements for 2024. Two achievements from Tongji University were included. Among them, the achievement "Solutions and Case Practices for Enhancing the Quality and Efficiency of Urban Drainage Networks in Urban Water Environment Management", led by Academician Xu Zuxin of our college as the chief expert, was selected as a typical case in the "Beautiful China" theme direction.

Urban underground drainage networks are a crucial urban lifeline, and enhancing their quality and efficiency is a "bottleneck" challenge in advancing the "Battle for Clean Water" under the framework of Beautiful China construction. Since the 1990s, the team led by Academician Xu Zuxin at Tongji University has been focusing on the water environment management of Suzhou Creek in Shanghai, pioneering scientific and technological research on heavily polluted urban water bodies in China. Their study revealed that the low efficiency of actual wastewater collection and treatment, despite a high coverage rate of drainage networks, is a key constraint to improving water quality. This case systematically elucidates problems in the dry weather operation, wet weather operation, and design management of drainage networks, including direct discharge of wastewater, mixed connections of stormwater and sewage, sedimentation and defects in pipelines, and the impacts of overflow discharges during rainy weather. Based on this, the study comprehensively summarizes systematic solutions for enhancing the quality and efficiency of drainage networks, and choices for urban drainage systems, and introduces significant engineering cases from the research team alongside typical domestic and international examples and experiences.

Over the years, the team has adhered to a holistic approach to integrating ideological education, research, and teaching, transforming major research achievements and engineering cases into high-quality resources for curriculum-based ideological education and professional teaching. This has significantly advanced the cultivation of top-tier environmental professionals in the new era.

The Ministry of Education’s Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre continues to select typical case achievements to better showcase and lead high-quality cases. This year, the usual case achievements were selected from the 2022-themed cases and the 2023–2024 achievements published by journal alliance members, with 20 themed cases and 10 research cases ultimately chosen as exemplary achievements.