Cryosphere and Global Change: main focuses are studies of alpine glaciers and ice sheets (ice core) global change, cold regions environment and global change, and glacier resource and its dynamic monitoring .

Permafrost and Cold Regions Engineering: main focuses are permafrost physics and cold regions engineering, freezing-thawing processes and its control.

Desertification and Eolian Sand Physics: main focuses are eolian sand physics and wind-erosion mechanism of soil, desertification processes, desertification harnessing.

Climatology and Environment on the Tibetan Plateau and the around: main focuses are plateau climatology and environmental dynamics, arid climatology, and thunder lightning physics and the mechanism of its resulting hazards.

Water-land Resources in the Cold and Arid Regions: main focuses are hydrological processes and water resource in cold and arid regions, capacity of water-land resource and its optimization configuration, utilization of water-land resource and ecological environment, and soil in cold and arid regions and land resource.

Restoration Ecology and Regional Agriculture: main focuses are fragile ecology, water-constrained ecological agriculture, and ecological economics.