The major of resources and environmental science has a long-running history at Yangzhou University, which aims to cultivate professional personnel who have awareness of sustainable development, master basic knowledge of environmental analyses, evaluation and protection and possess basic theories and skills in the following areas: land resources development and utilization, nutrient resources development and utilization, biological resources development and utilization, waste disposal and resources recovery, agricultural and environmental protection, and environmental analyses and testing. The major belongs to one of the characteristic disciplines constructed by Yangzhou University. It has gained substantial achievements in major construction, discipline development, talent training, and employment and further studies and the achievements have been reported many times by "China Science News", "China Education News", "People's Daily" and other national media. It has developed a worldwide cooperative relationship in forms of studying and visiting abroad, further education, invited lectures, and cooperative scientific research, with 35 universities and research institutions in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc.

The major of resources and environmental science has the first-level discipline of agricultural resources and environment approved by the State Council. There are currently 22 full-time professional teachers, including 10 professors, 6 associate professors, 5 doctoral tutors, and 22 master tutors. Besides, experts from famous universities and research institutes at home and abroad, such as Giessen Liebig University in Germany, Appalachian State University in the United States, Nanjing Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, are also employed as part-time professors. The major presides over more than 40 national-level scientific research projects such as National Key Technologies R&D programs, National Natural Science Foundation, more than 60 provincial and ministerial projects, and more than 150 other various scientific research projects, and won more than 20 national and provincial scientific research academic awards. Many teachers serve as experts in the Steering Committee of High Education (Ministry of Education) and members of other national and provincial industry, scientific societies and associations, such as the International Association of Microbial Ecology (ISME), the European Union Earth Science (EGU), the Darwin Biogeochemical Centre in the Netherlands, the Dutch Wetland Ecological Research Centre (CWE), and the German Society for Microbiology (VAAM).

The department of resources and environmental science has strong faculty and excellent teaching facilities. Sixteen faculties have been selected to the provincial "Blue-blue Project", "Six Talent Peaks Project" and "Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talent Project". The department has 3 provincial research and industrial innovation teams and 2 National Exquisite Course and National Exquisite Resource Sharing Course and several excellent scientific research and teaching platforms such as the "Remediation and Engineering Research Branch of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmental Materials and Environmental Engineering" and the "Jiangsu Yangzhou Agricultural Environmental Safety Technical Service Centre", and the "Remediation Laboratory of Land Resources and Soil Pollution" and the "Provincial Teaching Demonstration Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering" jointly built by the Ministry, Jiangsu Province, and Yangzhou University. The department is an important member of the "Collaborative Unit of Jiangsu Province Organic Solid Waste Collaborative Innovation Centre" and the China-Canada "Joint Laboratory for International Cooperation in Agriculture and Food Science" and has established the "Soil Hospital" practice teaching platform of Yangzhou University. The department has more than 20 sets of various large-scale instruments and equipment, and has developed provincial-level industry-university-research cooperation ("School-Enterprise Alliance") with more than 70 enterprises and institutions in Jiangsu province, and has established 22 teaching and scientific research practice bases off-campus.

Nearly two-thirds of the fresh graduates choose to continue their studies in universities and research institutes at home and abroad every year, and the rest of the students are employed by government agencies, enterprises, and other institutions. For decades, graduates have played important roles in teaching, scientific research, production, consulting, management and service positions in resource development, environmental protection, ecological agriculture, and other industries.