Speakers

Keynote Speakers：

Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Malaya

Research Area: Water and Environmental Engineeing

Speech title: Urbanization and its impact on the watershed 

Abstract: Urbanization is a socio-economic process that transforms formerly rural areas into urban settlements while shifting the population distribution.  As the world's population approaches 8 billion in 2022, more lands are being rapidly developed with urban infrastructure to meet the surging demand. The expansion of global urban areas has resulted in alterations to natural processes, environmental quality and natural resource consumption. Considering rapid urbanization is expected to continue for decades, the expansion of urban areas may pose severe threats to the natural ecology, availability of water resources and geomorphology of the environment. Urban areas also have significant impacts on the local climate system, creating urban heat islands and altering the water cycle, which may increase the occurrence of extreme climate events such as extreme heat and flash floods.  Transformation from natural hydrological cycle to urban water cycle may have detrimental impact on the watershed.   The urban landscape influences infiltration and evapotranspiration, as well as the runoff processes. This is exacerbated by the increase in imperviousness in urban areas, which substantially reduces the total infiltration within a catchment area, which may increase the surface runoff.   When rapid runoff generation transfers volumes into nearby streams via shortened flow pathways, peak discharge increases and hydrological response becomes quicker. Collectively, these further amplify the urban flood risk in major fast-growing cities as the globe warms.

 Faculty of Built Environment, Mara University of Technology, Malaysia

Research Area: Landscape Architecture; Urban Design; Urban Parks and Recreation Planning Management; Biophilic Design, Quality Parks Assessment Method & Criteria; Methods for Park, Leisure and Recreation Research, 

Speech title: Comparative Study on School Children’s Biophilic Learning Setting: A Case Studies of Asian Countries

Abstract: Countless studies have evidence of the significance of nature attachment in learning settings to children's performance globally. Children exposed to a nature learning setting tend to achieve better performance than those in a typical classroom. Studies also found that the current generation obtains indirect nature experiences through various e-learning platforms rather than direct experiences of nature in modern society. Recent studies found that an inconducive school design environment that does not fully support students’ needs and preferences is one of the main reasons for this. Hence, this paper explores children’s choices for biophilic elements in primary school design in three Asian countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. The online survey questionnaire was used as a qualitative method to collect the stipulated data. The results revealed that biophilic elements are highly favourable to the students from all three countries except for the different elements they preferred. In particular, the results found that planting elements within the school area are the most preferred biophilic element by the students in Indonesia (3.69) and Thailand (3.73). 

Meanwhile, in Malaysia, animals (pets and birds) are the most preferred by the students, with (3.71). The data and results presented for this study can be used as a general guideline, particularly in integrating nature as part of the future school design elements in Asian countries. Note that each design preference shows different results based on each school’s preferences in both countries. 

Nanjing Normal University, School of Geography,China

Research Area:Economic geography; regional economic resilience; globalization

Speech title: Exploring the Restructuring of Old Industrial Regions with a Multi-Scalar Theoretical Framework

Abstract:  By reviewing recent literature on the restructuring of old industrial regions/areas in different parts of the world, we will make clear in this paper why isolated theories and paradigms are insufficient to understand and explain their problems. Moreover, we argue that the lock-in concept, arguably the most popular theoretical concept to understand and explain restructuring problems in old industrial regions, suffers from neglecting factors at other scales of analysis affecting the restructuring old industrial regions. Leaning strongly on the multi-level perspective, we therefore develop a multi-scalar theoretical framework to understanding and explain current regional challenges of old industrial regions. 

   Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Research Area:  Architecture and Urban studies, 

Research Experience: Alessandro Bianchi (1969), architect and Ph.D in architectural and landscape design, is faculty member at theSchool of Planning, Architecture, Construction Engineering (AUIC) of Politecnico di Milano since 2001, andAssociate Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU).In 1999 he founded theprivate firm Abad Architetti in Milan, engaged in several architecture and landscape projects worldwide.He is author of several papers and books including:"La citta riconoscibile"(Raffaelli Editore, 1999),"Buildingby Signs/Costruire per Segni: disegno, memoria, progetto”(Editrice Librerie Dedalo, 2003-2010),"Architettura. Linee e controlinee"(Angelo Pontecorboli Editore, 2005), "Studi sul padiglione italiano nelleesposizioni universali"(Maggioli, 2013), "Il Centro Piacentiniano di Bergamo. Dal rilievo urbano alla cittacontemporanea" (Maggioli, 2018),"Landscape by Signs” (Mimesis International, 2019).

Speech title: Disaster, recovery, design:Proposal for scarred landscapes

Abstract: The world’s desire for electronics, fuel and geological riches is etched in devastating shapes and colours all over the globe. In the latest of BBC Future’s Anthropo-Scene series, they show the striking ways that mining has rewritten the surface of the Earth. When we dig to extract a precious metal, a carboniferous fuel, or an ancientore, we remove a chapter of another time. Such materials are, in the words of the writer Astra Taylor, the “pastcondensed”, telling of epic eras of magmatic fury, tropical forests or hydrothermal steam. They take millions of years to settle or crystallise, then only moments to remove with machinery and explosive. We are looking at the myriad ways that mining has transformed the surface of the Earth, whether it’s the striking, unnatural hues of“tailings ponds” or the open-cast landscapes that look like the fingerprints of humanity itself. How to manage a regenerative strategy for disastered sites? Corridors, lakes, greenery, clean energy production... Land art installations, design strategies as redevelopment of a place, between reparation activities and aesthetic actions.