Within the context of global climate change, achieving sustainable development in Northeast Asia will require in-depth research into the key scientific issues from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. This paper assesses that the main issues to be addressed are: (i) researches on the structure, function and differentiation disciplines of the vast and complex regional resources-environmentsocio-economic system that is Northeast Asia and on how the region can respond and evolve. (ii) Failing to find a mode for sustainable development is one of the most serious restrictive factors to development in Northeast Asia. (iii) Development of cross-border regional socio-economic models for sustainable development is essential. And (iv) the strategies above require cross-border technical support platforms to guarantee a consistent approach to regional sustainability in Northeast Asia.

As a critical index for monitoring the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change, net primary productivity (NPP) is widely used to reflect the vegetation productivity under natural conditions. However, little is known about vegetation NPP in Buryatiya Republic, Russia. To fully understand temporal and spatial variations in vegetation NPP and its response to climate change, satellite images of Moderateresolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products in conjunction with ground-based observations of climatology were used to estimate vegetation NPP in Buryatiya Republic from 2000 to 2008. Observed values of vegetation NPP and MODIS NPP products were jointly utilized to verify simulations of vegetation NPP in this area. The Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach (CASA) model was improved by adjusting its parameters with bio-temperature instead of monthly average temperature in a sub-model of soil water content. Model reliability was tested with observed vegetation NPP. Variation in vegetation NPP, and its relationship with climatic factors, was analyzed in detail. Results showed that the modified CASA model can be used to estimate vegetation NPP in Buryatiya Republic, and that the accuracy of the model was generally high with a correlation coefficient of 0.91 (P<0.01). The vegetation average annual NPP was 542.45 g C m^-2 y^-1 and the total NPP was estimated as 1.91E+14 g C y^-1 from 2000 to 2008. Monthly vegetation NPP increased significantly from April to July, decreased rapidly from August to November, and remained steady from December to March of the next year. Vegetation NPP increased with increasing longitude and decreased with increasing latitude. Different vegetation types differ in total NPP, with the highest NPP in forests, followed by forest-steppe, high mountain vegetation, steppe and meadow-swamp. Temperature and precipitation were the primary factors limiting vegetation NPP in this area.

Northeast Asia is a key area for Earth system studies, global change frontier science research and regional sustainable development research. It has a complex ecological environment, a variety of climatic zones and typical human-Earth relationships. This paper outlines a data resources integration system fulfilling the data accumulation and management requirements of the Northeast Asia Resources and Environment Scientific Expedition. The data resources integration system has three subsystems: (i) data resources collection and management standards and specifications system, (ii) data classification system and (iii) a data management and publication software platform. The data resources collection and management standard and specification system has 23 specifications, divided into three types. They are: (i) data collection and processing specification type, (ii) data analysis and archiving specification and (iii) data management and sharing specification. The data resources classification system has four classes, 25 sub classes and 128 data elements. The data management and publication software platform has five function models: (i) data catalogue search model, (ii) metadata management model, (iii) data publication and virtualization model, (iv) data view model and (v) data download model. Based on the designed data integration system a prototype system has been developed and is supported by computer and Web GIS technologies. So far 144 datasets have been integrated into this data system. As more data are accumulated and integrated, it will play an important role in future scientific expedition data application and analysis.