Working Groups

Working Groups are a core part of the annual APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Conference and provide an important opportunity for delegates to participate in collaborative research and connect with members cross the APRU network. Working Groups typically leave the conference with a planned output related to their group theme and/or connected to the conference location. These groups also provide an opportunity for cross-disciplinary research, for new researchers (Including students!) to expand their networks, and to contribute towards finding solutions to the pressing problems of this century. 

The APRU SCL has established Working Groups around strategic themes that evolve from conference to conference to reflect the key issues and presures for our cities and landscapes across the Pacific Rim:

Age Friendly Cities and Communities

By 2050, over one in five people worldwide will be aged 60 and older, doubling the aging population in 2015. Creating age-friendly cities and communities that include older people of all abilities and social groups to work, live, and recreate is critical to advancing quality of life for all. Yet, crucial urban problems such as housing affordability, extreme weather, and a lack of transportation choices in suburban and rural areas limit many older people’s daily activities and negatively impact their physical and mental health, especially for those with co-morbidities, lower income, and lack of social support. This working group aims to convene scholars from urban planning, geography, gerontology, social work, and public health across developed and developing countries in the Pacific Rim region to unpack urban aging problems experienced by cities and communities in an aging society, propose context-based solutions towards sustainable and educational solutions to support the next generation of leaders for advancing inclusive, age-friendly planning.

WG Lead: Dr. Alex Li, National University of Singapore & Dr. Mei Lan Fang, Simon Fraser University

Civic Engagement & Community Design 

Throughout the Pacific Rim, the rise of civic engagement and citizen actions is transforming the governance of cities and landscapes. Even in countries with limited democracy, citizens and communities have played an important role in mutual aid and self-help, particularly in times of crisis and emergency. However, despite the growing practices of civic engagement, there are continued challenges in forms of tokenism, conflicts, and resistance from society and state institutions. How can citizens and communities participate effectively and meaningfully in matters concerning sustainable landscapes and cities in the Pacific Rim? What are the lessons and insights from current experiments and practice? The goal of the working group is to engage in the advancement and critical assessment of civic engagement and community design practices across the Pacific Rim.

WG Lead: Dr. Jeff Hou, National University of Singapore & Dr. Mari Fujita, University of British Columbia 

Climate Justice & Community Resilience

In previous conferences, we have discussed the root cause of vulnerability in mega cities in the Pacific Rim region and challenges in addressing vulnerability in communities. We then embraced critical topics of resilience and climate justice and investigated the theory of resilience and vulnerability in community and economic development. These focus areas encompass landscape architecture, urban planning and design, geography, landscape and urban ecology, disaster management, environmental and civil engineering, anthropology, governance and public policy, environmental psychology, and sustainability studies, to understand the root cause of risks to communities and innovative solutions to address equity and sustainability under climate change impacts. This working group aims to develop strategies to enhance transdisciplinary research and practice capacity to allow social-ecological-technological systems resilience building in vulnerable communities and their built environment.

WG Lead: Dr. Chingwen Cheng, Pennsylvania State University

Future Regenerative and Differential Cities

The Working Group investigates how current structural transformations of the environmental, social, and technological framework are profoundly reshaping urbanisation, posing new sustainability challenges. Focusing on the dynamic relationships of the networks composing our progressively metastable global ecosystem, we explore whether the disruptive forces of the ever-changing framework, which often deprive, fragment, and marginalize communities, can be leveraged to foster healthier, regenerative, and empowering urban infrastructures, practices, and cultures. Understanding how these infrastructures, practices, and cultures might resist the growing abstraction of the planetarised urban space informs our advocacy for inclusive, equitable, balanced, and regenerative urban futures.

WG Leads: Dr. Manfredo Manfredini, University of Auckland

Landscape & Human Health 

People spend a lot of time indoors, and many have become unfamiliar with nature, which reduces contact with green landscapes. This working group aims to fill the gap between theories and practical design in landscape and human health through an interdisciplinary approach. The working group discusses the core concept of landscape and human health under two aspects: ‘Evidence’ and ‘Application.’ This includes the application of healthy (psychological and physiological) indicators; the use of technological devices in landscape research, analysis of built environment and landscape types; the planning and design of therapeutic landscapes, friendly environment for elders, and healthy green infrastructures; as well as developing healthy evidence-based design processes.

WG Lead: Dr. Tzuhui Angie Tseng, National Tsing Hua University 

Regional Water Infrastructure

Water infrastructure is a fundamental building block and skeletal design element in the function and organization of metropolitan areas. Implicated in climate change and local adaptation, energy use and production, sanitation and human sustenance, agriculture and trade, and species protection and health, water infrastructure has enabled the presence and growth of city-regions – and is essential to their survival and sustainability. This working group has two main purposes. The first is spatial-methodological, and the second is content-substantive. The spatial-methodological purpose entails furthering understanding, application, refinement, and use of an assemblage approach to regional development. The content-substantive purpose focuses on a specific element of water infrastructure, to bring together contributors and experts in the field. An initial focus on dams provides a way to identify, align, and bring together scholars and practitioners in developing an assemblage approach to urban-metropolitan research. Future areas of focus may include culverts and channelized rivers, water treatment facilities, stormwater retention ponds, and human-made lakes.

WG Leads: Dr. Anne Taufen, University of Washington, Tacoma

Renewable Energy Systems & Landscapes

As society continues to deploy renewable energy sources at a rapid pace, there is a real need to thoughtfully consider how technologies and installations are designed with attention to place to enable deployment at scale. This will require further research to understand how and where design should come into energy planning processes, convening stakeholders in large-scale, well-designed conversations to set the vision, and learning from other infrastructure that has had success in transforming landscapes for local value. This working group will focus on developing a landscape-based approach to renewable energy deployment. This will include the development of metrics to assess value streams of landscape architectural design across technologies (solar, wind, energy storage, transmission), and scale and location (urban, suburban, rural, and coastal landscapes). The aim is to highlight place-based generation solutions tailored to unique community attributes.

WG Leads: Dr. Yekang Ko, University of Oregon & Dr. Ncholas Pevzner, University of Pennsylvania 

Smart Urban Technologies

This working group leverages smart technologies, clean energy, and sustainable infrastructure principles to create cities that are energy-efficient, technologically advanced, and capable of meeting the needs of growing urban populations as well as counteracting climate change. By integrating cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, Digital Twin, Industry 4.0, and circular approaches with sustainable practices, this working group aims to develop comprehensive solutions that drive climate action, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance urban life. Through interdisciplinary collaboration among urban planners, engineers, architects, policy makers, and environmental scientists, this working group aims to contribute to a sustainable urban future across the Pacific Rim.

WG Lead: Dr. Mohsen Mohammadzadeh, University of Auckland

Urban Landscape Biodiversity

Since the establishment of the Biodiversity Convention in 1992, many countries have developed strategies and action plans to protect the biodiversity of the plant. Urban areas, which have much larger populations than the countryside, have lost many habitats in the process of urban development. Landscape studies have played a crucial role in protecting urban biodiversity, as they directly work on greenspace planning and design. This working group seeks to enhance biodiversity net gain while improving people’s relationship with nature. As it is essential that we work to balance environmental protection while providing society with more opportunities for public recreation, environmental education, and green economy development.

WG Leads: Dr. Fei Mo, Shanghai Jiao Tong University & & Dr. Sohyun Park, University of Connecticut

Water and Wastewater 

As climate change creates increasingly extreme drought and floods, more pressure is placed on our water and sewer systems. While many urban regions need to respond to an increasing infrastructure deficit, there has also been a rise in alternatives to traditional infrastructure. These include non-sewered sanitation options, nature-based stormwater management solutions, and coordinated approaches to water management, among others. This working group aims to better understand alternative approaches to water and wastewater management. This includes identifying the advantages and disadvantages, the barriers (regulatory, behavioral, technological, etc.), as well as the potential for increased climate resilience and sustainability.

WG Lead: Dr. Kory Russel, University of Oregon