Xizhen Huang
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Postgraduate Research Student
Areas of interest
Thermal adaptation; Perceived thermal comfort; Urban heat stress mitigation; Green infrastructure; Nature-based Solutions; Urban resilience
Research centres and groups
Research projects
Enhancing urban thermal resilience: A social-ecological-technological systems approach to mitigating heat stress and improving perceived outdoor thermal comfort.
Enhancing the thermal resilience of urban social-ecological-technological systems is imperative for managing heat risks. Because continuing urbanization and urban overheating put people at heat exposure risk. The Urban Heat Island effects combined with the more often excessive heatwaves would make overheating intensity substantial, bringing heat-related health risks as well as resulting in increased mortality and human thermal discomfort. Promoting the resilience of adaptation to extreme weather events is not simply a techno-centric strategy and necessitates the interconnections of social and ecological contexts of a given infrastructure system. Therefore, the overarching aim of this research is to investigate the human adaptive capacity for perceived outdoor thermal comfort during heatwaves and to present a social-ecological-technological approach to developing strategies for mitigating heat stress and enhancing urban thermal resilience.
Background
I hold a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the Qingdao University of Technology (China). I have two masters: one is a Master of Philosophy in Landscape Architecture at the Central South University (China) and a Master of Science (Merit) in Urban Design and International Planning at the University of Manchester (UK). My dissertations studied the social value of urban public green spaces in Changsha (China) and Manchester (UK). Before commencing my PhD, I worked in a design institute as an engineer of General Layout Planning and Design for municipal public engineering projects such as the waste incineration power plant and urban renewal. These academic and professional experiences have led to me developing my research interests in thermal comfort demands from the perspectives of both end users as well as urban planners and designers.
Websites/blogs
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xizhen-Huang-3
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xizhenhuang/