The urgent need to comprehend the lived experiences of climate change within the context of urban poverty in the Global South is gaining traction, as even minor climate shocks can have significant consequences for the livelihoods of the urban poor. Southeast Asia, identified as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, remains under-represented in the field of urban climate change research. Responding to the call for more local insights, my study will utilize Citizen Dialogues to explore local narratives of urban climate change in Cambodia and Indonesia. By analyzing these narratives, we aim to demonstrate how local understandings reveal interconnections between everyday challenges faced by Southeast Asia’s urban populations and their rising vulnerabilities in a changing climate. This comparative study will highlight how climate change exacerbates these pre-existing challenges, painting a detailed picture of its impact on Southeast Asian urban life.
Funding Source: XJTLU Research Development Fund (RDF-22-02-095), ‘Local Narratives of Climate Change’ funded by The American Association of Geographers
Research Team: Daniel Yonto, PhD (XJTLU UPD)
Project Period: June 2022 – June 2025 (Ongoing)
Assessing capital-based and capacity-based disaster resilience and validating its contextual-specific and scale-specific key indicators: a case study of typhoon disasters in Suzhou
Along with the trend of living with unpredictable disasters, the traditional interventions of public safety and disaster prevention can no longer meet the needs of the sustainable development of our human society. Building and enhancing disaster resilience has become an effective way to cope with and adapt to those unpredictable and unavoidable disasters. Quantifying disaster resilience bridges the gap between theory and practice. Therefore, this project aims to assess disaster resilience from both capacity-based and capital-based perspectives using a set of localized resilience metrics; and propose an initiative way to validate resilience metrics using survey questionnaire data, allowing for identifying context-specific and scale-specific key resilience indicators. The findings are expected to provide a more comprehensive and intuitive scientific basis and strategic suggestions for resilience interventions in China, in response to our country’s strategic plan for targeted measures in the prevention and control of emergencies and disasters.
Funding Source: National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Programme)
Balancing Economic Growth and Environmental Improvement: Evidence from the Chinese Prefectural-level Cities
This project analyses the relationship between economic growth and environmental improvement in the Chinese prefectural-level cities. It reveals the complexity of balancing the two goals and examines the impacts of several key factors in driving this process.
Funding Source: XJTLU Research Development Fund (RDF)
Research Team: Qiantao Zhang
Project Period: Jan 2023
Automated Vehicles and Sustainable Cities and Regions: An Sino-US Comparison
Building on the recently published “Automated Vehicles and Sustainable Cities: A Realistic Outlook to 2030” (Wang & Oster, 2020), this project systematically reviews the recent developments in automated vehicle technology capabilities, testing performance, and adoption in the US and China. It analyzes consumer preferences and road-traffic-related built environmental characteristics in the two distinct societies, and explores urban and regional planning and management strategies toward safer and more sustainable road mobility in China and the US.
Research Team: Rui Wang (XJTLU), Chuwen Zhong (UPenn), Shuya Guan (UPenn) … (to be expanded)
The urgent need to comprehend the lived experiences of climate change within the context of urban poverty in the Global South is gaining traction, as even minor climate shocks can have significant consequences for the livelihoods of the urban poor. Southeast Asia, identified as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, remains under-represented in the field of urban climate change research. Responding to the call for more local insights, my study will utilize Citizen Dialogues to explore local narratives of urban climate change in Cambodia and Indonesia. By analyzing these narratives, we aim to demonstrate how local understandings reveal interconnections between everyday challenges faced by Southeast Asia’s urban populations and their rising vulnerabilities in a changing climate. This comparative study will highlight how climate change exacerbates these pre-existing challenges, painting a detailed picture of its impact on Southeast Asian urban life.
Funding Source: XJTLU Research Development Fund (RDF-22-02-095), ‘Local Narratives of Climate Change’ funded by The American Association of Geographers
Research Team: Daniel Yonto, PhD (XJTLU UPD)
Project Period: June 2022 – June 2025 (Ongoing)
Assessing capital-based and capacity-based disaster resilience and validating its contextual-specific and scale-specific key indicators: a case study of typhoon disasters in Suzhou
Along with the trend of living with unpredictable disasters, the traditional interventions of public safety and disaster prevention can no longer meet the needs of the sustainable development of our human society. Building and enhancing disaster resilience has become an effective way to cope with and adapt to those unpredictable and unavoidable disasters. Quantifying disaster resilience bridges the gap between theory and practice. Therefore, this project aims to assess disaster resilience from both capacity-based and capital-based perspectives using a set of localized resilience metrics; and propose an initiative way to validate resilience metrics using survey questionnaire data, allowing for identifying context-specific and scale-specific key resilience indicators. The findings are expected to provide a more comprehensive and intuitive scientific basis and strategic suggestions for resilience interventions in China, in response to our country’s strategic plan for targeted measures in the prevention and control of emergencies and disasters.
Funding Source: National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Programme)
Research Team: XJTLU: Jinglu Song
Project Period: 1 Jan 2021 ~ 31 Dec 2023
Relevant Links: 台风中的苏州
Balancing Economic Growth and Environmental Improvement: Evidence from the Chinese Prefectural-level Cities
This project analyses the relationship between economic growth and environmental improvement in the Chinese prefectural-level cities. It reveals the complexity of balancing the two goals and examines the impacts of several key factors in driving this process.
Funding Source: XJTLU Research Development Fund (RDF)
Research Team: Qiantao Zhang
Project Period: Jan 2023
Automated Vehicles and Sustainable Cities and Regions: An Sino-US Comparison
Building on the recently published “Automated Vehicles and Sustainable Cities: A Realistic Outlook to 2030” (Wang & Oster, 2020), this project systematically reviews the recent developments in automated vehicle technology capabilities, testing performance, and adoption in the US and China. It analyzes consumer preferences and road-traffic-related built environmental characteristics in the two distinct societies, and explores urban and regional planning and management strategies toward safer and more sustainable road mobility in China and the US.
Research Team: Rui Wang (XJTLU), Chuwen Zhong (UPenn), Shuya Guan (UPenn) … (to be expanded)
Project Period: June 2024 – present