Urban Development Academic Papers

I am pleased to share our latest publication in Nature Cities: “Establishing the Nexus Between Urban Walkability and Thermal Comfort in a Changing Climate.” This work is led by my exceptional PhD student Nisreen Abuwaer and talented postdoctoral researcher Dr. Safi Ullah, whose dedication and depth of analysis make this contribution especially significant for the fields of urban sustainability and climate resilience. The paper examines a crucial but underexplored connection: how climate change (particularly rising temperatures and extreme heat) affects walkability and the lived experience of pedestrians in cities. While walkability is widely recognized as a foundation of sustainable transportation and community health, this review demonstrates that it is inseparable from the realities of a warming world. We present a comprehensive synthesis of literature and modeling approaches, building a framework that integrates physical, physiological, and psychological dimensions of thermal comfort. Our analysis highlights that designing climate-resilient cities requires more than infrastructure improvements. It calls for an evidence-based rethinking of urban morphology, including shading strategies, green infrastructure, reflective materials, and innovative cooling systems such as mist stations. We emphasize that walkability is both a victim of climate change and a powerful tool for climate mitigation, as pedestrian-friendly cities reduce emissions, improve equity, and create vibrant public spaces. The work also points to research gaps that demand urgent attention. There is a need for integrated indices that bring together microclimate data, behavioral responses, and built environment characteristics to better guide planning decisions. Modeling future scenarios of heat exposure under different climate trajectories can help identify vulnerable neighborhoods and support adaptation strategies. This review lays the foundation for future interdisciplinary research that links urban design, health sciences, and climate modeling to create safe, comfortable, and sustainable cities. This publication reflects the collaborative spirit of KAUST Urban Lab, where we aim to produce research that bridges science and practice, providing actionable insights for policymakers, city planners, and communities. Congratulations to Nisreen and Safi for their leadership on this important milestone, which represents a growing body of work dedicated to advancing climate-conscious urban design. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dyqDq9AG #UrbanPlanning #ClimateChange #ThermalComfort #Walkability #Sustainability #UrbanResilience #UrbanDesign #PublicHealth #NatureCities #ClimateAction KAUST BESE KAUST Urban Lab KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

Excited to share the thought-provoking article that Francesco Tonnarelli and I have published in Regional Studies (4.6 Impact Factor , ABS 4) - "Smart Urbanism in Africa: When Theories Do Not Fit with Contextual Practices" 📚 🤔 As we navigate the complex dynamics of #UrbanDevelopment and #technology-driven transformations, it is essential to recognise that not all communities and regions benefit equally. Some urban areas may find themselves lagging behind in the #SmartCity revolution, and mainstream smart city literature tends to predominantly focus on developed regions, particularly in Europe and North America. How global urbanisation trends and smart city concepts align with the unique socio-economic and cultural contexts of #DevelopingCountries has been largely overlooked. This is why we decided to focus on #Africa. The objective is to examine the intricacies of smart urbanism in #AfricanCities: a crucial task for promoting #Sustainable and #Equitable urban development on the continent. 🌟 Article main highlights: 🌆 We explore the evolving landscape of African cities and the challenges faced when implementing smart urban solutions within diverse African contexts. 🔗 We critically examine the gap between smart urbanism theories, often based on Western models, and the complex, dynamic realities of African cities. 🌱 We emphasise the importance of context-specific approaches to smart urbanism, considering factors like infrastructure, governance, economic disparities, and citizen participation. 📈 We provide insights into how policymakers in the public sector, urban planners, and businesses can tailor their strategies to foster sustainable and inclusive smart urban development in African cities. 🌟 Why this matters The research presented in this article serves as a critical reminder that our pursuit of smart city development should not inadvertently leave vulnerable communities behind. It is a call to action for policymakers, urban planners, and technologists to rethink local smart city development strategies and ensure that the benefits of smart city solutions are accessible to all. And a call to action for smart city researchers to sustain more research efforts focused on less developed territories. For those of you who are interested in reading the article, here is the link https://lnkd.in/dYCXvBNu #UnityLab #SmartCities #UrbanInnovation #SustainableUrbanDevelopment #SustainableCities #DigitalGovernance #DigitalTransformations #Governance #InclusiveCities #Africa #Equity #RegionalStudies #LeftBehindPlaces Unity Lab / Urban Innovation Policy Lab, Edinburgh Napier University, TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology

📝 [Open access Published paper alert!] "One Belt, Many Roads: Investigating China’s foreign investment and land-use impacts in Southeast Asia," by Xuewei Wang, Evan Johnson, Diego Manya, Julia Cardwell, and myself is now out in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eQz_4BZw China’s overseas infrastructure investments have impacts that extend far beyond construction. They reshape land use, alter ecosystems, and create urban teleconnections through flows of resources, capital, and environmental change—shaping biodiversity, sustainability, and urban development over the long term. How can we measure these impacts empirically? We use a dynamic panel regression to estimate how Chinese investment from 2008 to 2018 affects land-use change. This approach goes beyond standard models by accounting for both district- and year-level differences, as well as prior changes in land cover. In doing so, it helps avoid overstating the effect of investment in cases where development was already underway before the money arrived. Key Findings: - BRI-linked districts experienced ~5% higher deforestation than the regional average. - Every 1% increase in Chinese investment correlated with a 0.001–0.007% decline in tree cover. - Investments were linked to increases in cropland (+0.35%) and grassland (+2.47%), but showed only modest short-term urban expansion (+0.17%). We found that areas receiving investment experienced more deforestation than nearby regions, along with an increase in farmland and grasslands. Although the short-term environmental changes appear small, longer-term impacts may emerge as urbanization and development continues. This paper has been a labor of a lot of love, starting first when I was still teaching at the now defunct Yale-NUS College. My wonderful undergraduate students Jacob Jarabejo and Damon Lim Wei Da traveled by foot, motorcycle, bus, and plane to Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos to groundtruth some of the land-cover classifications we developed using Google Earth Engine and Landsat data in the lab. Pixels captured from satellites frequently don't fully reflect on the ground transitions and land-use, so it was important for us to sample a selection of random points and land-covers to see what satellite data classifications may have missed. -- Jacob's field notes from Laos: https://lnkd.in/e7qg5i8w -- Damon's field notes from Cambodia: https://lnkd.in/etqQHPx3 Thank you to National University of Singapore for giving me a seed grant to start this work and to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a junior faculty development award to finish it.

New open access paper: We study relationship between housing and environmental exposures to understand the structuring role of housing and planning regimes in environmental inequality (exposure to air pollutants, noise, greenery, and heat stress). First, comparing different housing tenures in the Amsterdam region in 2021, our analyses indicate that ownership housing generally has more favourable exposure than rental. Second, given institutional changes in urban planning and housing development, we find significant differences between construction periods. We find that private rental housing built after the financial crisis (GFC) is significantly more exposed than pre-crisis new-built housing. This is likely related to urbanist planning leading to housing densification near urban infrastructure. With coauthors Anna-Maria Ntarladima Mendel Giezen and Wouter van Gent https://lnkd.in/eGgzr4DH

Cities must prepare for future uncertainties associated with climate change and societal challenges. This study highlights how integrated planning approaches can balance urban growth with ecosystem protection, emphasizing nature-based solutions to enhance resilience. By assessing multiple development scenarios using PLUS and InVEST models, the study identifies strategies to mitigate trade-offs between urban expansion and vital ecosystem services like water yield, carbon storage, and habitat quality. Full text: https://lnkd.in/gZ3i8r7i Led by my excellent PhD student, Kamaleddin Aghaloo #UrbanResilience #SustainableDevelopment #ClimateAction #EcosystemServices

I'm delighted to announce that after a year of rigorous peer review and revision, our research paper has been published in the Journal of Urban Management (Q1 - IF: 3.9 -12% Acceptance Rate): "A Structural Equation Model of the Critical Success Factors for Sustainable Smart Cities: A Case Study of Abu Dhabi" Our study identifies and prioritizes critical success factors for implementing sustainable smart cities, focusing on Abu Dhabi. We found that end-user involvement, accountability, good communication, and project team skills are key drivers for successful smart city initiatives. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and urban planners looking to develop targeted strategies for accelerating smart city adoption. I'm grateful to my co-authors Mohanad Kamil Buniya, PhD, Ibrahim Yahaya Wuni, PhD, and Omar Sedeeq Yousif. I am excited to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on sustainable urban development! Link: https://lnkd.in/dHHv__a9 College of Health Sciences - Abu Dhabi University Abu Dhabi University Sofyan Maghaydah Montasir Qasymeh #SmartCities #SustainableUrbanDevelopment #ResearchPublication

Many studies have shown that low income and vulnerable population lives in urban zones of much higher UHI intensity and with much lower green infrastructure. While this social stratification is very significant in most of the USA and some of the European cities, it seems that the problem has different characteristics in Asian cities. Two of our very recently published studies, carried out together with distinguished Chinese and Korean colleagues : Sarath Raj, Lee Yerim, Geun Young Yun a, M. Santamouris : Contrasting urban heat disparities across income levels in Seoul and London, Sustainable Cities and Societies, 121 (2025) 106215 and Mingqian Li, Chunxiao Wang, YulianWu, M. Santamouris ShuaiLu: Assessing Spatial Inequities of Thermal Environment and Blue-Green Intervention for Vulnerable Populations in Dense Urban Areas, Urban Climate, Volume 59, February 2025, 102328 have investigated the social dimension of urban overheating in the cities of Seoul Korea, London, UK and Shenzhen China. While there is a significant association between income, UHI intensity and green infrastructure in the two Asian cities, it seems that income influences less strongly urban heat islands than in London. This is mainly due to the lack of significant marginalized minorities, the history and the structure of the local societies, the city planning characteristics, the economic development paths followed, and the local policies implemented in both Asian cities. Both studies are available through the following links: https://lnkd.in/gY76ndvN https://lnkd.in/guTr-Phz

Glad to share our latest #review study entitled "On the Two-Way Interactions of Urban Thermal Environment and Air Pollution: A Review of Synergies for Identifying Climate-Resilient Mitigation Strategies" published in Building Simulation. This review explores the two-way interactions between the #urban #thermalenvironment and #airpollution, focusing on summarizing physics-based #modeling efforts and quantitative methods to measure complex dynamics where #UHI can exacerbate air pollution levels, and high levels of air pollution can, in turn, contribute to increased urban heat. This cycle needs to be addressed with #climateresilient #mitigation #strategies that tackle both issues simultaneously. Key findings led us to categorize climate-resilient mitigation strategies into four main areas: modification of urban #morphology, integration of urban #greeninfrastructure, incorporation of #water bodies, and utilization of #cooling materials. These strategies can guide the development of climate-resilient #buildings and #cities, fostering healthier environments amidst growing #urbanization and #climatechange challenges. This review paper is also authored by Pengyuan Shen, Meilin Wang, and Hang Ma. Read the full manuscript here: https://lnkd.in/eK-TZgHN #research #publucation #urbanplanning #environmental #sustainability #buildingsimulation #microclimate #urbandevelopment #health #wellbeing #heat #resilience #climate

I'm thrilled to announce the publication of my latest research paper, titled "Framing Resilience in Saudi Arabian Cities: On Climate Change and Urban Policy," in "Sustainable Cities and Society" (Elsevier). This publication is particularly significant, as "Sustainable Cities and Society" is renowned for its academic excellence, boasting an impressive impact factor of 11.7 and an h-index of 103, reflecting its strong influence in the field. Being published in such a prestigious journal, part of the Q1 quartile in Geography, Planning, and Development, ranking #4/779, is a great honor and a testament to this research's importance. This study explores the resilience of Saudi Arabian cities in the face of climate change, assessing their preparedness for climate impacts with a focus on land use, disaster management, and green infrastructure. The paper highlights the critical role of integrated urban policies in effective climate change management and resilience building. It underscores the importance of digital technologies, climate-smart planning, and public participation in resilience strategies, offering valuable insights into urban resilience, particularly in the Global South context. This work emphasizes the unique challenges and opportunities faced by Saudi Arabian cities in their journey towards climate adaptability. My heartfelt thanks go to my co-author, Patrick Brandful Cobbinah, for his invaluable expertise and insights, which greatly enhanced this study's quality. Additionally, I am deeply grateful to Editor-in-Chief Professor Fariborz Haghighat for his supportive and insightful feedback during this research. Happy reading: https://lnkd.in/e28NKzid #urbanresilience #climatechange #urbanplanning #urbanization  #globalsouth #saudiarabia #saudivision2030

📢 First time sharing a paper on LinkedIn! Our new paper - Ultrafine-Resolution Urban Climate Modeling: Resolving Processes Across Scales - was recently published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. Cities are ground zero for climate impacts, and understanding their complex interactions with the atmosphere requires more than coarse-resolution models. In this work, we explore how ultrafine-resolution urban climate models, especially building-resolving large-eddy simulations (LES), can better capture key urban processes across scales and eventually advance toward actionable solutions, from heat mitigation and disaster risk reduction to climate-resilient urban planning. Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/gfgQ9EcQ Huge thanks to my co-authors and collaborators who made this possible! #UrbanClimate #LES #HighResolution #ClimateModeling #MachineLearning