Institute of Urban Environment (IUE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) hosted “CAS-Yale Workshop” in conjunction with Yale University on Oct. 19, 2018, in Anxi, Quanzhou.
Professor Yong-Guan Zhu from IUE, CAS and Professor Karen C. Seto from Yale University co-chaired the workshop. Scholars from IUE, CAS, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), CAS, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), CAS, Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), CAS, Chinese Society for Urban Studies (CSUS), Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Xiamen University were invited to share their academic insights.
The workshop began with welcome remarks by Professor Yong-Guan Zhu and Professor Karen C. Seto, who thereafter delivered keynote speeches on topics of urban public health, the history of urbanization and the evolution of urban studies. Professor Wei-Qiang Chen from IUE, CAS, Professor Cheng Yuan from Fudan University and Associate Professor Zhenbo Wang from IGSNRR, CAS addressed issues concerning urban development and expansion from the perspectives of economy, population and land-use respectively. Professor Weiqi Zhou from RCEES, CAS, Professor Bing Xue from IAE, CAS, Professor Jianqiang Su and Dr. Yupeng Liu from IUE, CAS shared their visions on the theme “Urban Areas and their Environment” by shining light on topics related to urban ecosystem and services, human-natural system, urban microorganisms and health, and the material dependency of urbanization. Professor Tao Lin from IUE, CAS, Associate Professor Zhenqiang Xu from CSUS, and Dr. Long Chen from Tsinghua University introduced China’s sustainable urbanization, smart cities and the application of big data in urban studies under the theme “Big Data to Understand Cities”.
The workshop was highlighted by group discussions set to further communication among the attendees, resulting in several suggestions about the challenges and opportunities of China’s present and future urbanization. Addressing the subject of how to establish new lines of urban studies from multidisciplinary and multi-angle perspectives based on Chinese experiences, the workshop promoted the theorization of urban studies and laid foundations for the in-depth communication and subsequent cooperation between the research groups and scholars.