Job title: Research assistant

Project title: Investigating patterns and drivers of population change in global cities to guide urban planning and policy in the post-COVID era

Project description: Due to concerns over density being a risk factor for infection with COVID-19, some big cities around the world have witnessed trends of population loss since 2020. Such trends may result in new waves of suburbanization that could have negative implications for sustainability and climate change. To take actions to minimize potential negative impacts, investigating trends and drivers of population change in cities is essential. Accordingly, the key question of the proposed project is: has the pandemic triggered/accelerated trends of population loss in big cities? Using panel data analysis, it will be first examined if the pandemic has triggered population loss in Tokyo, New York, and London. Next, regression analyses will be performed to understand physical and socio-economic drivers of population loss. Finally, surveys will be conducted to understand appropriate planning measures that need to be taken to renew interest in urban life and avoid unsustainable patterns of suburbanization. This is significant research since the results can help urban planners and designers better understand measures that need to be taken to make cities more sustainable and pandemic resilient.

Job Details:

· Collect and structurize data from the Japanese government (national and prefectural level) official websites

· Conduct a preliminary analysis of the data collected

· Able to work for 15-20 hours per week

· Horuly wages will be based on Hiroshima University rules

Skills and Qualifications:

· The applicant must be based in Japan

· Can read and understand both Japanese and English

· Ability to run R or Stata for Time Series Analysis

· Ability to work independently and be highly motivated to solve technical and methodological issues that arise during the research activities

· Able to attend online/in-person meetings for research discussion

Applications should be sent to: sharifi@hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Review of applications will start on May 1, 2022 and continue until the position is filled.

End of the call

Call for papers for a major editorial project on the SDGs:

Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals-Regional Perspectives

Call for papers for a major project on the SDGDs:

Dear Colleagues,

Second call for papers to contribute to a major editorial project on the SDGDs:

Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals- Regional Perspectives

The process leading to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been negatively influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis as a whole, and its substantial socio-economic impacts in particular, have led to many setbacks. These vary from the emerging of competing priorities, to restrictions in the availablility of financial resources needed to implement the SDGs. The extent of this problem may be better understood if it is considered that there are at present doubts, as to whether the SDGs may be reached by 2030.

This state of affairs suggests that new - and innovative approaches- to support the implementation of the SDGs are needed. One of them is the support to regional implementation efforts across the various geographical regions, and the documentation and promotion of these experiences. It is also important to promote studies, research, projects and good practice, which illustrate how the SDGs may be implemented in practice.

It is against this background that the series "Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals- Regional Perspectives" is being produced. The Series aims to support the acceleration needed for the implementation of the SDGs, by mobilising the academic community, industry and the civil society by generating information and communicating on experiences focusing on the SDGs deemed as being most important for the world´s regions. There will be four volumes, each looking at issues related to a geographical region

Volume 1- the Americas and Caribbean Region

Volume 2- the Asia and Pacific Region

Volume 3- the Africa and the Middle East Region

Volume 4- the European Region

The books will be produced as part of the "World Sustainability Series" https://www.springer.com/series/13384, the leading peer-reviewed book series on matters related to sustainable development. Apart from 37 volumes produced to date, which can be seen here:

https://www.springer.com/series/13384?detailsPage=titles, it entails the Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030113513 (267 entries) and the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals https://www.springer.com/series/15893 (17 volumes, one devoted to each SDG and in excess of 2.500 authors), which is a historical publication since it is the largest editorial project on matters related to sustainable development ever undertaken.

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified research teams, composed by colleagues who may wish to contribute as authors. This is a nice addition to one´s curriculum, with a substantial academic output, which authors may use to further their careers. Colleagues interested to take advantage of this opportunity should contact the editorial team at: SDG-Publications <SDG-Publications@haw-hamburg.de and send abstract with the following details:

Title of the paper:

Summary:

Full name:

Organisation:

Country:

E-mail:

Selected volume (1 to 4):

The deadline for expressions of interest is 10th December 2021. Further details may be shared with the selected colleagues.

Rgds,

The Editorial Team

P.S. Please do not reply to this note, kindly send your abstract to: SDG-Publications@haw-hamburg.de.

End of the call

Book title:

Urban Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Contributions of Smart Solutions and Technologies

Deadline to submit expression of interest: April 15, 2021

Chapter submission deadline: July 31, 2021

The volume will be published by Elsevier

How to express interest: Please see the table of contents below and indicate your interest by sending an email to : sharifi(at)hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Please also submit your CV along with the email.

We also welcome other chapter proposals as long as the proposed chapters are aligned with the aims and objectives of the book.

Overall objective of the book:

Through technological innovation and integration of a wide range of advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), smart cities are expected to contribute to urban climate change adaptation and mitigation. However, limited knowledge exists on the actual and/or potential contributions of smart solutions, as well as, the magnitude of such contributions. Further, there is a lack of methods and frameworks for evaluate contributions of smart city projects and initiatives. By filling these gaps, the proposed book will support urban researchers, planners, and decision makers in their efforts toward developing smart and sustainable cities.

More about the book:

The convergence of climate change and urbanization has caused significant unprecedented challenges for cities globally. As the frequency and intensity of climate-induced stressors and disasters is expected to significantly increase in the future, a top priority for cities and communities is to build up on their resilience and they need scientific support towards this goal. Therefore, it is essential to develop evidence-based scientific solutions to improve the capacities to prepare for, absorb, recover from, and adapt to disastrous events. This requires, not only a better understanding of urban complexities, but also enhanced predictive abilities to reduce uncertainties and to avoid being overwhelmed by extreme events. To deal with these challenges, scientists cannot only rely on conventional methods and need to develop disruptive and transformative approaches. Accordingly, the rapid advances in ICT-enabled smart cities that rely on big data analytics provide manifold new possibilities for scientists to better understand the complexities of urban systems and subsystems, to provide decision makers with better and more regularly updated information on human activities that may relate to climate change adaptation and mitigation, to facilitate online monitoring of risks, to inform different stakeholders on how to enhance their preparation and predicative abilities, and to develop methods that enable real-time response to disasters.

There is now reasonable evidence showing the utility of smart city solutions for resilience and climate change adaptation/mitigation. However, the literature is sector based and fragmented. It is essential to synthesize the existing evidence in a more integrated manner to make it easier for interested target audience groups to understand the potential benefits of smart city projects. Also, there is still a lack of toolkits and assessment frameworks for assessing contribution of smart solutions to climate resilience. In the view of the aforementioned issues, the main research question that this book will address is ‘do smart city projects contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities?’. Other noteworthy questions are ‘what are the indicators of smart city resilience?’, ‘what procedures should be taken to improve efficacy of smart city solutions?’, and ‘what are the opportunities and challenges for promoting smart city resilience and for integrating resilience thinking into smart city planning?’

In addition to providing theoretical insights and synthesizing the state-of-the-art, through detailed analyses of selected smart city initiatives around the world, the proposed book provides insights on how to harness smart technologies for climate resilience and sustainability planning. In addition, the proposed book introduces an assessment framework for evaluating the actual and potential contributions of smart city projects. Performance of selected cases will be evaluated using the framework. The framework can function as a decision-support tool to inform communities of global change and climate-related risks and to enable them to develop better preparation, recovery, and adaptation strategies.

Table of contents

Part I. Introduction

Chapter 1. Urbanization in the context of global environmental change

Chapter 1 sets the stage for the book by providing introductory knowledge on the urbanization trends and their implications in the context of global environmental change. In addition, it will highlight major challenges that need to be addressed and the need for disruptive smart solutions.

1.1 Global environmental change

1.2 The environmental footprint of cities: A historical perspective

1.3 The urban planet and its implications for resource use and environmental quality

1.4 Challenges of urbanization in the Anthropocene

1.5 Policy frameworks for mainstreaming sustainable urbanism (e.g., the New Urban Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), etc.)

1.6 The need for disruptive solutions

1.7 Emerging technological innovation (autonomous vehicles, AI, IoT, Block Chain, ...)

1.8 Summary

Chapter 2. Climate change adaptation and mitigation in cities

Chapter 2 introduces the concepts of climate change adaptation and mitigation and depicts the scale of challenges that need to be addressed.

2.1 Climate change and climate change scenarios

2.2. Climate change and cities

2.3. Resilience and climate change adaptation/mitigation

2.4. Climate change adaptation in cities

2.5. Climate change mitigation in cities

2.6. Summary

Part II. The state-of-the-art

Chapter 3. Smart cities: key definitions and new directions (this chapter is already assigned)

Chapter 3 introduces key concepts related to smart sustainable cities, as well as explains how these concepts have evolved in the context of global environmental change.

3.1. The genealogy of the concept

3.2. Key definitions of the smart city concept

3.3. The underlying principles of smart city concept

3.4. Recent developments in smart cities

3.5. Smart cities and climate resilience

3.6. Summary

Chapter 4. Smart city solutions and climate change adaptation: The state-of-the-art

Chapter 4 provides a state-of-the-art literature review on the actual and potential contributions of smart city solutions related to various urban systems to climate change adaptation.

4.1. Integrated spatial planning and urban systems

4.2. Integrated urban policy making for climate change adaptation

4.3. Transportation systems

4.4. Building systems

4.5. Urban waste management

4.6. Water and energy systems

4.7. Urban form and infrastructure

4.8. Urban green infrastructure

4.9. Urban-rural linkages and circular economy

4.10. Sharing economy

4.11. Urban governance

4.12. Summary

Chapter 5. Smart city solutions and climate change mitigation: The state-of-the-art

Chapter 5 provides a state-of-the-art literature review on the actual and potential contributions of smart city solutions related to various urban systems to climate change mitigation.

5.1. Integrated spatial planning and urban systems

5.2. Integrated urban policy making for climate change mitigation

5.3. Transportation systems

5.4. Building systems

5.5. Urban waste management

5.6. Water and energy systems

5.7. Urban form and infrastructure

5.8. Urban green infrastructure

5.9. Urban-rural linkages and circular economy

5.10. Sharing economy

5.11. Urban governance

5.21. Summary

Part III. Smart city assessment

Chapter 6. The fundamentals of smart city assessment

Chapter 6 elaborates on the underlying principles of smart city assessment. It introduces existing approaches for smart city assessment.

6.1. The origin of the smart city assessment

6.2. Different approaches to smart city assessment

6.3. Underlying principles of smart city assessment

6.4. Smart city assessment and climate-resilient planning

6.5. Summary

Chapter 7. Assessment tools and indicators for smart city assessment

Chapter 7 introduces existing smart city assessment tools and indicators sets and examines their suitability for evaluating actual/potential contributions of smart cities.

7.1. An overview of the existing assessment tools

7.2. Different types of smart city assessment tools (benchmarking tools, maturity assessment tools. Etc.)

7.3. Various dimensions of the smart city (economy, people, governance, environment, living, mobility, data)

7.4. Criteria and indicators for smart city assessment

7.5. Inclusion of climate resilience criteria and indicators in smart city assessment tools

7.6. Summary

Chapter 8. The extent of inclusion of smart city indicators in existing urban sustainability assessment tools

Chapter 8 explores the level of correspondence between smart city assessment tools and other assessment tools available for informing planning and policy making in cities.

8.1. Assessment tools as decision-support systems

8.2. City sustainability assessment tools

8.3. Neighbourhood sustainability assessment tools

8.4. The extent of inclusion of smartness indicators in sustainability assessment tools

8.5. Integration of climate resilience related smartness indicators in the assessment tools

8.6. Summary

Chapter 9. An assessment framework for evaluating contributions of smart cities to climate resilience

Based on information presented in Chapters 6-8, this chapter introduces a framework for assessing actual and potential contributions of smart cities to climate resilience.

9.1. The need for an assessment framework to evaluate contributions of smart cities

9.2. Headline indicators to be included in the framework

9.3. Key performance indicators to be included in the framework

9.4. The structure of the proposed framework (weighting, scoring, etc.)

9.5. Recommendations for implementing the framework

9.6. Summary

Part IV. Case studies

Chapter 10. A global database of smart city projects around the world

Chapter 10 provides information on various smart city projects from around the world. This will include brief information on the history of the projects, their size, their focus, and their highlighted achievements. Cases from developed and developing countries will be included.

10.1. Trends in the development of smart city projects

10.2. Geographical distribution of smart city projects

10.3. Transport-related smart city projects

10.4. Building-related smart city projects

10.5. Smart city projects related to water and energy systems

Chapter 11. Case study 1: A case study discussing contributions of smart solutions and technologies to climate change adaptation and/or mitigation

Chapter 11 will be focused on a selected case study project related to an urban sector (building, transportation, energy, etc,) and will examine its contributions to climate resilience (adaptation/mitigation).

11.1. Introduction of the case

11.2. Evaluation using the contribution assessment framework

11.3. Contribution to climate change adaptation

11.4. Contribution to climate change mitigation

11.5. Lessons learned and challenges to be addressed

11.6 . Sharing economy

Chapter 12. Case study 2: A case study discussing contributions of smart solutions and technologies to climate change adaptation and/or mitigation

Chapter 12 will be focused on a selected case study project related to an urban sector (building, transportation, energy, etc,) and will examine its contributions to climate resilience (adaptation/mitigation).

12.1. Introduction of the case

12.2. Evaluation using the contribution assessment framework

12.3. Contribution to climate change adaptation

12.4. Contribution to climate change mitigation

12.5. Lessons learned and challenges to be addressed

12.6 . Sharing economy

Chapter 13. Case study 3: A case study discussing contributions of smart solutions and technologies to climate change adaptation and/or mitigation

Chapter 13 will be focused on a selected case study project related to an urban sector (building, transportation, energy, etc,) and will examine its contributions to climate resilience (adaptation/mitigation).

13.1. Introduction of the case

13.2. Evaluation using the contribution assessment framework

13.3. Contribution to climate change adaptation

13.4. Contribution to climate change mitigation

13.5. Lessons learned and challenges to be addressed

13.6 . Sharing economy

Part V. Conclusions

Chapter 14. Conclusions and way forward

Chapter 14 concludes the book by summarizing the main discussions and providing.

14.1. Disruptive smart solutions for achieving climate change mitigation targets

14.2. Disruptive smart solutions for improving climate change adaptation

14.3. Integrated approaches for maximizing mitigation-adaptation co-benefits and minimizing trade-offs

14.4. Policy and planning considerations for mainstreaming data-driven smart cities

14.5 way forward

End of the table of contents

I am now accepting applicants for 1-2 Research Assistant positions to work on a 3-month project focused on the analysis of literature on smart cities and/or resilient cities.

I am looking for a research assistant (must be a graduate student) to help me synthesize literature on smart cities/resilience and prepare a 6-8 thousand word at the end. The outputs will be published as either academic articles or book chapters and the RA will be a co-author.

Some basic conditions/requirements are as follows:

- Familiarity with the concepts of smart city and resilience

- Skills in literature review and data extraction/analysis

- Period of employment: initially up to 3 months, 15-20 hours a week

- Compensation dependent on background and Hiroshima University rules

- Graduate student

- Remote work is allowed

- Must be a citizen and resident of one of the following countries (Australia, Japan, South Korea, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Thailand, USA, Vietnam)

Further instructions about the project will be provided to the successful candidate(s)

Contact: Dr. Ayyoob Sharifi (sharifi (at) hiroshima-u.ac.jp). Please include a copy of your CV in your email. Reviewing of applications will begin immediately and continue until a successful candidate is identified.