(originally posted on Urban Green Adaptation Diary) One of the consequences of recent world events is an explosion of social media posts, thinkpieces, and even preliminary research into how urban planning – and urban greening – can shape the post-COVID city. Whilst these are welcome and fruitful discussions, they must not deflect from some of… Read More Why urban greening alone will not make a ‘resilient city’
For nearly all of January I was in Japan, where I was based at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology as a Visiting Researcher. When we put together our ESRC UK-Japan Social Science and Humanities Connections proposal last year, one of the activities we proposed was that I would have a visiting position at… Read More The sea, food and local identity on the Fukushima coast
Post from Urban Green Diary We have just had a paper published in Land Use Policy, which reports the findings of a global survey into expert perceptions of barriers to including biodiversity and ecosystem services thinking within policy and governance at the local level. What is the key point of this paper? The aim of… Read More Summary of new paper: expert survey on governance challenges for local biodiversity and ecosystem services
We chose late September for the Japan workshop of our project ‘Building Resilience to Environmental Change in Marginalised Coastal Communities’, supported by the ESRC-AHRC UK-Japan Social Sciences and Humanities Connections fund. Along with myself as Principal Investigator, my RGU colleagues Dr Leon Moller of the Law School and Yi-Chen Huang of the School of Applied… Read More Visit to Soma and Odaka plus workshop – September 2019
A clickbait post has appeared in the Daily Mail (I don’t encourage you to click, but if you want to check for yourself the link is at the end of this post) discussing the reopening of beaches on the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. While there is nothing factually wrong with the article, there is a lot… Read More A bit of perspective on the Daily Mail article on surfing in Fukushima
The second half of May saw a visit of a team from the School of Applied Social Sciences at Robert Gordon University to the Institute of Human Geography in the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, for a week of joint research. This collaborative venture connects the projects ‘Ensuring social wellbeing in climate change adaptation through… Read More Scotland-Vietnam coastal research collaboration: intensive field visit to Quang Nam Province
Last week I was in Taiwan for the final Taiwan workshops for our Royal Society of Edinburgh-Ministry of Science and Technology Joint Research Project into the spatial relationship of green infrastructure and heat hazard. I was joined by my PhD student and Research Assistant Yi-Chen Huang, and met up with Co-PI Dr Wan-Yu Shih of… Read More Report: Taipei forums, workshops and teaching, April 2019
A large earthquake struck Hokkaido overnight on 6 September 2018. It registered Magnitude 6.7, and Shindo 7 was reached closest to the epicentre. There have been 18 fatalities at the time of writing with 24 people still missing, and landslides, power loss and water stoppages across Hokkaido. The quake was centered very close to Tomakomai… Read More Hokkaido earthquake, Tomakomai and CCS: what information is there?
Thrilled to announce three speakers who will be talking about northern Japan this autumn in Aberdeen. More to follow, but for now hold the dates!
On Wednesday 25 July, I had the opportunity to talk to Aberdeen Trades Union Council about a just transition, and what it might mean for Aberdeen and the north-east. With the entire country baking in scorching heat that had caught the attention of the media and policymakers alike, it was a good time to be… Read More Notes on just transition talk at ATUC: Wed 25 July 2018
Dr Leslie Mabon 