Geographically, research activities of members of TEC focus on low latitude parts of Asia, increasingly seen as the most rapidly changing part of Earth’s surface, and an important driver of global scale changes in climate, environmental quality, land cover and socio-economic conditions.  A focus on Asia takes advantage of NUS’s physical location and recognises the many contributions that researchers can make towards improving understanding of dynamic processes and the environmental consequences of rapid development, land cover transformation and climate change across the range of local to global scales. Members of the research group have spearheaded projects in the region concerned with sediment and water quality dynamics; forest hydrology and biogeochemical cycles; rainfall-runoff relationships; behaviour of extreme hydro-climatic events and their geomorphic signatures; microclimatology and urban climates; vegetation change; human-environment interactions, including environment and health; and the impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 on coastal systems, settlements and livelihoods.  Beyond Asia, members of the group have extensive experience of environmental change research in other low latitude locations, notably eastern Africa and the Pacific Islands.

TEC researchers have access to improved Earth Science (Click here to take a look at the Department's GeoLab facilities) and GIS/Remote Sensing laboratories in the Department, which have been the focus of new investments in equipment over the last five years, totaling $1.5 million. These facilities provide improved levels of research-focused laboratory and field-based support. TEC researchers also participate actively in numerous international research networks, groupings and projects; are members of the editorial boards of several internationally-regarded journals; and frequently host workshops and regional and international conferences.  Moreover, many members of TEC engage in crosscutting research programmes hosted in the research group – details of these can be found via the links to members of academic staff involved in TEC.

Ecology/biogeography/human-nature

GIS/remote sensing/geo-techniques

Health

Hydrology/geomorphology/coastal environments

Urban climatology

Coffman, Gretchen

• "Ren, J.W.F. and Coffman, G.C. (2023), Integrating the resilience concept into ecosystem restoration. Restor Ecol e13907. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13907

Feng, Chen-Chieh

• Feng, C.-C. and Mark D. M. (2017) Cross-Linguistic Research on Landscape Categories Using GEOnet Names Server Data: A Case Study for Indonesia and Malaysia. The Professional Geographer, 69(4), 567-578 https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2017.1288575

Kench, Paul

• Kench, P.S., Ford, M.R., Owen, S.D. (2018) Patterns of island change and persistence provide alternate opportunities for adaption in atoll nations. Nature Communications, 9, 605, DOI. 10.1038/s41467-018-02954-1.

Lu, Xi Xi

• Lu, X. X., Ran, L. S., Liu, S., Jiang, T., Zhang, S. R., & Wang, J. J. (2013). Sediment loads response to climate change: A preliminary study of eight large Chinese rivers. International Journal of Sediment Research, 28(1), 1-14.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S1001-6279(13)60013-X 

Luo, Wei

• Luo, W., Liu, Z., Zhou, Y., Zhao, Y., Li, Y.E., Masrur, A. and Yu, M., 2022. Investigating linkages between spatiotemporal patterns of the covid-19 delta variant and public health interventions in Southeast Asia: Prospective space-time scan statistical analysis method. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 8(8), p.e35840. https://doi.org/10.2196/35840 

Luo, Xiangzhong (Remi)

• Luo, X., Keenan, T. F., Chen, J. M., Croft, H., Colin Prentice, I., Smith, N. G., ... & Zhang, Y. (2021). Global variation in the fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to photosynthesis. Nature communications, 12(1), 4866. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25163-9 

Nawaz Muhammad

• Nawaz, M., & Wasson, R. J. (2019). Sediment transfer in an extremely low gradient, low relief, and highly buffered system: Darwin Harbour Catchment, Northern Australia. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, 351-359.

Owen, Susan

• Thompson, M., Owen, S., Lindsay, J., Cronin, S., & Leonard, G. (2017) Scientist and stakeholder perspectives of transdisciplinary research: Early attitudes, expectations, and tensions, Environmental Science and Policy, 74: 30-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.04.006

Penny, Gopal

• Penny, G., Srinivasan, V., Dronova, I., Lele, S., & Thompson, S. (2018). Spatial characterization of long-term hydrological change in the Arkavathy watershed adjacent to Bangalore, India. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22(1), 595-610.  https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-595-2018, 2018

Raghavan, Sri

• Jiang, Z, Raghavan, V.S., Hur, J., Sun, Y., Liong, S.Y., Van, P.D.T. and Nguyen, V.Q. (2019)
  Future changes in rice yields over the Mekong River Delta due to climate change? Alarming
  or Alerting? Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 137(1), 545-555. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-018-2617-z 

Roth, Matthias

• M Roth, C Jansson, E Velasco (2017). Multi‐year energy balance and carbon dioxide fluxes over a residential neighbourhood in a tropical city. International Journal of Climatology, 37 (5), 2679-2698. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4873

Tang, Hao

• Tang, H. and Dubayah, R., (2017). Light-driven growth in Amazon evergreen forests explained by seasonal variations of vertical canopy structure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(10), pp.2640-2644. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1616943114

Taylor, David 

• Chen, Q., & Taylor, D. (2020). Economic development and pollution emissions in Singapore: Evidence in support of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis and its implications for regional sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 243, 118637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118637

Wang, Yi-Chen

• Ong X, Wang YC, Sithithaworn P, Grundy-Warr C, Pitaksakulrat O. 2016. Dam Influences on Liver Fluke Transmission: Fish Infection and Human Fish Consumption Behavior. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 106(4), 755-772. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2015.1122508

Yan, Yingwei

• Yan, Y., Feng, C. C., Huang, W., Fan, H., Wang, Y. C., & Zipf, A. (2020). Volunteered geographic information research in the first decade: A narrative review of selected journal articles in GIScience. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 34(9), 1765-1791, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2020.1730848

Last updated on 15 August 2023

Visiting Professors

Prof Tim Oke, University of British Columbia (Jan to Apr 2002)

IMMF

2015
Patricia Gober, Arizona State University (2 to 13 Oct 2015)

2014
Prof Gan Thian Yew, University of Alberta, Canada (1 to 22 March 2014)

2013
Prof Padraig Carmody, Trinity College Dublin (8 Sep to 28 Sep 2013)
James Goff, University of New South Wales  (2 Feb to 22 Feb 2013)

2012
Dirk De Boer, University of Saskatchewan (10 Aug to 8 Sep 2012)
David Mark, State University of New York (3 to 15 February, 2012)

2011
Anthony Brazel, Arizona State University (10 Jan to 2 Feb 2011)

2010
Gary Brierley, University of Auckland (19 Nov to 8 Jan 2010)

2008
Daniel Sui, Texas A&M University (25 Feb to 4 Mar 2008)
Per Christer Jansson, Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm (4 Apr to 8 May 2008)