The Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) established its Sustainable Cities and Landscape Hub (SCL) in 2016, which aims to unite universities and industries from the Pacific Rim to promote sustainable development of urban landscape. Under this platform, Shanghai Jiao Tong University launched the Urban Landscape Biodiversity (ULB) Working Group in 2021 to further explore how to achieve more resilient and dynamic urban environmental protection and development, to enhance biodiversity, to promote comprehensive social and ecological values such as public recreation, environmental education and green economy. Since the establishment of the working group in July, 2021, we have held two webinars with leading scholars from the United States, Australia, India, China explaining how to achieve resilient urban landscapes and biodiversity through approaches such as landscape planning, design and ecological conservation. The series of event has attracted more than 30,000 audience online worldwide.

ULB Working Group Members：

(In alphabetic orders)

MO Fei, WG Leader, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Ken Yocom, WG Co-leader, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Associate Professor, University of Washington

CHEN Ruishan, Professor, School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Jessica DIEHL, Assistant Professor，School of Architecture, National University of Singapore

Catharine Evans, Deputy Head of School and Senior Lecturer, School of Built Environment, University of New South Wales

GUO Yong, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University

Billy Hau, Principal Lecturer, The University of Hong Kong

Kim Duc Chu, Director, Think Playgrounds, Vietnam

Simon Kilbane, Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University

Alessandro Ossola, Assistant Professor, Chair of the Research Committee of the Saratoga Horticultural Research Endowment UC Davis

Mathew Pryor, Associate Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong

XU Xiaoqing, Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture/ CAUP, Tongji University

The 5th Annual Sustainable Cities and Landscape Conference will be held from 6 – 9 September at Hawaii. Shanghai Jiao Tong University supported by APRU, will co-host a ULB Working Group Session and an online Student Symposium titled “Reconciling Cities with Nature in the Post Covid Era：Landscape Approaches and Strategies”.

ULB Working Group Session

Time

8:30am, 8 September 2022 (Beijing Time)

Meeting ID：839 225 56852

Password：361813

Meeting Link：https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83922556852

Livestream at

Program

08:30-08:40  Welcoming Session by SJTU

Representative from the International Affairs Division, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

CHE Shengquan, APRU-SCL-International Steering Committee Representative, Professor in Landscape Architecture, Associate Dean of School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

08:40-09:00  Introduction to the Urban Landscape Biodiversity Working Group and Annual Plan (2022-2023)

MO Fei, WG Leader, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Ken Yocom, WG Co-leader, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Associate Professor, University of Washington

09:00-10:20  Fellow Introduction and Presentations

10:20-10:25  Q&A

10:25-10:30  Closing Remark

Moderator

MO Fei, WG Leader, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Fellow Introductions and Presentations

Ken Yocom

WG-co-leader, Associate Professor, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington

Presentation Title: Intersectional Design Strategies for Supporting Urban Wildlife: The case of the American Beaver (Castor canadensis) in Seattle

Ken is working on research relevant to public perceptions of charismatic wildlife and their influence on conservation actions. He is also working on a public event entitled‘The Ecological Waterfront’ for the World Research Council in October 2022. He will provide a brief overview of previous work on design processes and practices that serve to anticipate and accommodate the reestablishment of keystone species in urban environments.

Mathew Pryor

APRU-SCL-International Steering Committee Representative, Associate Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong

Presentation Title: Urban forestry in Hong Kong —— How the idea of the urban forest has been misconceived in Hong Kong

Mathew is working on studies of wetlands as infrastructure and ecological mitigation. He is also keen to understand how to develop urban forestry in high-density cities. He is teaching an undergraduate studio on urban river revitalization and a seminar course on ecological restoration. In this presentation, he will share research on how the idea of the urbna forest has been misconceived in Hong Kong.

Catharine Evans

APRU-SCL-International Steering Committee Representative, Deputy Head of School and Senior Lecturer, School of Built Environment, University of New South Wales

Presentation Title: Urban biodiversity in Sydney Parks

Catherin is finishing a PhD on the politics of park making in Sydney. She is examining the transformation of 3 post-industrial sites into major parks; the integration and uptake of urban nature and biodiversity is an important theme of my research. She is also teaching a studio for Year 3 undergraduate students which focuses on landscape performance, again with biodiversity as a central concern. In this presentation, she will provide a simple snapshot of the shifting interpretations of urban biodiversity in the three parks in Sydney.

GUO Yong

APRU-SCL-International Steering Committee Representative , Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University

Presentation Title: Landscape Information Modeling for Urban Sustainability

Guo Yong is MIT SPURS Research Fellow 2022. In his presentation, he will talk about the research on Landscape Information Modeling (LIM), which enables professional practitioners to simulate and estimate carbon sequestration and the related topics concerning urban sustainability.

Alessandro Ossola

Chair of the Research Committee of the Saratoga Horticultural Research Endowment, Assistant Professor, UC Davis

Presentation Title: Urban biodiversity can ensure cities from climate impacts

Alessandro has worked on numerous projects related to urban biodiversity, big data and the creation of climate-ready urban landscapes. He will introduce several new projects related to urban biodiversity and greening and how we can increase the climate and ecological resilience of urban landscapes.

XU Xiaoqing

Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture/ CAUP, Tongji University

Presentation Title: Studies on soundscape biodiversity

Xiaoqing has worked on a series of studies on soundscape and biodiversity. In this presentation, she will introduce some cases. One is a study on spatial- temporal soundscape distribution on Dashanbao Protected area, Yunnan province. Another one is voiceprint recognition technology assists biodiversity monitoring.

Simon Kilbane

Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University

Presentation Title: Examining the spectrum of Green Infrastructure in Australian cities

Green Infrastructure is now a ubiquitous term used to describe everything from recycled aggregate in concrete to metropolitan scale urban greening approaches. In considering the potential of green infrastructure its broad policy and public support is examined from the point of view of actual delivery on the ground. I ask what is actually being built, and is this delivering on its espoused benefits of ecological and cultural health and resilience in Australia’s cities? What is new?

Billy Hau

Principal Lecture in School of Biological Sciences, Programme Director, MSc in Environmental Management;Assistant Dean (TPG), Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong

Presentation Title: Research Work on Urban Biodiversity in Hong Kong

Billy Hau focuses on ecological restoration, especially for terrestrial habitats in degraded tropical East Asia. He aims to bring back native forest and the associated forest biodiversity into the degraded landscape in Hong Kong and South China. He is currently the Program Director of the MSc in Environmental Management, and a member of the Town Planning Board. In this presentation, he will introduce research work on urban biodiversity in Hong Kong.

CHEN Ruishan

Professor in Urban Ecology and Landscape, School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Presentation Title: Transforming cities for climate adaptation

CHEN Ruishan is a geographer and a professor of human-environmental interaction. He has worked with UCCRN, IPBES, GIZ, world bank and other international organizations. In this presentation, he will talk about current Chinese initiatives on urban climate adaptation, and potential topics，such as inequality, health, and carbon neutrality, to explore further.

MO Fei

Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Reconciling Cities with Nature in the Post Covid Era：Landscape Approaches and Strategies

—— ULB Online Student Symposium

Fei is working on urban landscape history and conservation. She will introduce the transformation in biodiversity strategies in London from a blue and green space management perspective from 2002 to 2021. It uncovers the fundamental changes from no net loss to net gain in policy making and how this affected blue and greenspace management trends.

Reconciling Cities with Nature in the Post Covid Era：Landscape Approaches and Strategies

—— ULB Online Student Symposium

Time

9:00am, 9 September 2022 (Beijing Time)

Meeting ID： 868 051 11236

Password：202596

Meeting Link： https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86805111236 

Livestream at

Program

More News at

https://www.aprusclfall2022conference.org/