Specialization: Land Use and environmental Planning

What got you interested in planning?

As a student major in geography previously, I like exploring the interaction between human beings and the space especially in urbanized area. During the two years research assistant experience in UIUC, I luckily joined a project related to urban planning and I am interest in this discipline since then.

What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on?

Exploring the land urbanization process’s influence on urban heat island effect in Indian fast growth cities.

What future goals do you have for your specialization?

Learn more knowledge and gain systematic training in this discipline. Combine novel data source, advanced spatial analysis skills and planning theory to improve the well-being of the urban residents.

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Accepting PhD students

Miyuki Hino is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and an adjunct assistant professor in the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines the linkages between climate hazards, governance, and public policy to drive effective and equitable adaptation to climate change. Recent work has focused on the impacts of sea level rise, the effects of flood risk on property markets, and the use of managed retreat in adapting to climate change. Miyuki received a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Yale University.

IN THE NEWS

Sustainable Development and Natural Hazards: A Conversation with Miyuki Hino

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Affiliations: Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Environment – Ecology & Energy Program (E3P)

Accepting PhD students

Dr. Kittner’s research focuses on planning for sustainable, resilient, and equitable energy systems at multiple scales – from distributed mini-grids to municipal and regional electricity generation. His current projects range from modeling the role of energy storage in reaching California’s zero-carbon electricity target for 2045 to the public health impacts of continued reliance on coal and fossil-fuels. In DCRP, Dr. Kittner is teaching PLAN 390 – Sustainable Energy Systems in Fall 2020. He holds appointments in Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the School of Public Health and the interdisciplinary Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program (E3P).

IN THE NEWS

Conversation with Noah Kittner on Energy Systems

Deploy diverse renewables to save tropical rivers

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Affiliations: Center for Community Capital, Environment – Ecology & Energy Program (E3P)

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Joungwon (Jo) Kwon is a doctoral student who hopes to become an interdisciplinary urban planner and scholar. She is interested in the use of visuals, specifically interactive maps, in plans. She holds an MA Computational Media from Duke University. Her previous work is on “The Use of Geographic Information System for the Adaptive Reuse of Historical Sites: A Study of the Durham Belt Line Trail” which is about the adaptive reuse of the Durham Belt Line, an abandoned railway in Downtown Durham.

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Specialization: Water resources and sanitation planning in developing countries
Hometown: New Delhi, India
Previous degrees: Bachelor of Architecture – School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi ‘12, Master of Regional Planning – Cornell University ‘17

Saumitra’s research focuses focus on risk and vulnerabilities in urban water and sanitation in the context of low- and middle-income countries. Prior to starting his PhD, Saumitra worked on several research projects related to urban water management in India. For his master’s thesis project, he studied the vulnerability of households to flooding in the informal settlements of Kolkata. During his field visits he realized the importance of reliable access to, and provision of water and sanitation facilities for reducing risk and decided to apply to PhD programs to study this subject in greater depth. Saumitra also worked as a research associate at the Tata-Cornell Institute conducting spatial analysis of food systems in India. He also worked as a planner in an interdisciplinary team at Cornell studying the motivations behind the different responses by communities to flooding in Upstate New York.

He was delighted to be accepted into UNC’s program not only because of the program’s reputation for high quality research on water and sanitation but because of the diverse faculty and students that would enrich his education by providing opportunities to learn new approaches and methods for addressing planning problems.

In the department, Saumitra is part of the PhD Policy Committee. He enjoys studying at the PhD office space with his peers, finding it a very stimulating environment where students play a significant role in each other’s education. Saumitra was also the recipient of the Druscilla French Fellowship in 2019.

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Philip Berke’s work focuses on the relationship between community resilience and urban planning with specific focus on methods, theory and metrics of local planning and outcomes. He is the lead co-author of an internationally recognized book, Urban Land Use Planning (University of Illinois Press, fifth edition, 2006), which focuses on integrating principles of sustainable communities into urban form, and co-author of a book, Natural Hazard Mitigation: Recasting Disaster Policy and Planning, which was selected as one of the “100 Essential Books in Planning” of the 20^th century by the American Planning Association Centennial Great Books.  His 2015 publication on community resilience to hazards and climate change received the Best Article Award, the highest award for scholarly research given by the American Planning Association.

His current research focuses on development of the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard   The aim is to better understand interactions among networks of policy institutions, networks of land use and development plans produced by such institutions, and social and physical vulnerability to hazards and climate change.  Application of the Scorecard is currently funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation to assist cities in the US and the Netherlands to improve urban resilience planning.

Berke currently serves on multiple advisory boards including the Urban Institute’s Global Evaluation of the Rockefeller Foundation Global 100 Resilient Cities, National Science Foundation’s Social Science Extreme Events Reconnaissance Platform, and Planet Texas 2050 Technical Advisory Board of UT-Austin.

In the News

Berke leads Center for Resilient Communities and Environment

Resilience Scorecard

Plan to Talk – Episode 1: Colleagues and friends for decades

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Affiliations: Coastal Resilience Center

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