Research Projects
Explore our projects.
Politics, Economies And Space
Ongoing
2022-2026
Research Partnership on Asian Infrastructures
Max Weber Foundation
co-PI: James Sidaway, NUS; co-PI: Tim Bunnell, ARI/NUS; Franz Waldenberger, Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien (DIJ)
2023-2026
The ‘Digital Silk Road’ in Post-Pandemic ASEAN: Globalisation, Geopolitics and Development
PI: Woon Chih Yuan, NUS
2022-2027
Climate Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia
Social Science Research Thematic Grant, Ministry of Education
PI: David Taylor, NUS; co-PI: Koh Lian Pin, NUS; co-PI: Miles Kenney-Lazar, NUS
2025-2027
UNELD-Africa: Unpacking non-economic loss and damage to advance science and policy action in Africa
ASCEND (African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development), BAOBAB Initiative
PI: Edmond Totin; co-PIs: Joyce Kimutai, Emily Boyd, Andrew Emmanuel Okem, Mark New, and Petra Tschakert
While economic climate losses are well documented, non-economic loss and damage (NELD), including harms to health, culture, biodiversity, and social systems, remains poorly understood in Africa despite deep, lasting impacts on vulnerability and inequality. This project synthesises a decade of data across human health, agriculture, and mobility/migration, combining rich empirical case studies, risk assessments, geospatial analysis, and policy review. Working with policymakers and communities, it is committed to co-designing assessment methods to make visible diverse NELD experiences, from individual bodies to entire regions and landscapes. Ultimately, the project aims to generate an interactive dashboard to inform adaptation planning, national policies, and equitable climate action on how to detect and reduce NELD across the continent.
2024-2028
Financial Visualisation (FinVis)
NUS
PI: Dariusz Wojcik
The goal of the project is to advance and promote financial visualisation (FinVis) - a new technology for mapping and visualising finance that responds to the growing supply of financial data and the growing societal needs for making sense of this data and better understanding finance and its impacts on economy, society, and the environment.
Key Publications
- Wójcik, D. et al. (2024). Atlas of Finance: Mapping the Global Story of Money. Yale University Press.
- Wójcik, D. (2024). Why finance needs maps and vice versa. The Cartographic Journal, 61(2), 146-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/00087041.2024.2423968.
- Wójcik, D. (2025). Atlas of Finance: Mapping the global story of money in which people and the environment matter. Geoforum 165, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104136.
Completed
2014-2018
Global Production Networks Centre at NUS (GPN@NUS)
Social Science Research Thematic Grant, Ministry of Education
co-PIs: Henry Yeung, NUS; Neil Coe, NUS; Godfrey Yeung, NUS; Karen Lai, Durham University
2017-2022
Research Group on Borders, Mobility and New Infrastructures
Max Weber Foundation
PI: James Sidaway
2020-2023
The Financialization of Agrarian Landscapes in Cambodia
PI: W. Nathan Green, NUS
2021-2024
Innovation, production networks of FCEVs and its regional dynamics in East Asia
PI: Godfrey Yeung, NUS
2023-2025
Urban informality from the global East: Comparing comparisons in Taipei and Singapore
PI: Shaun Teo, NUS
2023-2023
Heatwaves: Just Adaptation and Energy Security
Unnati Australia-India Collaborative Research Grant
PI: Petra Tschakert; co-PIs: Anshu Ogra and Upasna Sharma
Heatwaves, often mislabelled as the “silent killer” of climate change, disproportionately harm socially vulnerable people. In this project, we examined how exposed and structurally disenfranchised citizens and groups in Perth (Western Australia) and Delhi (India) experience heat stress, energy barriers, and everyday losses at the intersection of rising temperatures and institutional abandonment. Through interviews and focus groups with elderly residents, rough sleepers, dwellers in informal settlements, people living with disabilities, policy makers, hospital personnel, and people in the social service sector, the project identified often harrowing embodied experiences with heat in homes and outdoors, unmet needs, and structural inequalities that make it exceedingly difficult to stay cool. Findings inform targeted heat action plans that prioritise equity over one-size-fits-all responses.
2018-2025
Locating Loss from Climate Change in Everyday Places
Australian Research Council, Discovery Programme
PI: Petra Tschakert; co-PIs: Pierre Horwitz, Chantal Bourgault du Coudray, and Carmen Laurence
This interdisciplinary project examined everyday harm from climate change. Our team, which included 2 postdocs (Neville Ellis, Karen Paiva Henrique) and numerous students, worked with 8 communities in Western Australia, from Perth on the Indian Ocean to Southern Cross in the eastern Wheatbelt. Through a creative and iterative methodology, we explored what people value most in their homes, what is already harmed by climate change, and how they make trade-offs between what to protect and what to let go. We revealed what everyday limits to adaptation look like, from socially disadvantaged to privileged lives, and how residents navigate climatic-affective atmospheres, coming to grips with loss, grief, and paradoxical hope.
Key Publications
- Tschakert, P., & Wheatley, A. (2025). More-than-climate politics in rurality: Normative pathways for living with loss and vanishing continuity in place. Journal of Rural Studies, 119, 103752.
- Tschakert, P., Bourgault du Coudray, C., & Horwitz, P. (2024). Walking journeys into everyday climatic-affective atmospheres: The emotional labour of balancing grief and hope. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 7(1), 189-211.
- Kelly, A., Tschakert, P., Lawrence, C., Horwitz, P., Bourgault, C., & Ellis, N. (2024). Place attachment and lived values in Western Australian communities. Applied Geography, 172, 103424.
- Henrique, K. P., & Tschakert, P. (2022). Everyday limits to adaptation. Oxford Open Climate Change, 2(1), kgab013.
- Henrique, K. P., Tschakert, P., du Coudray, C. B., Horwitz, P., Krueger, K. D. C., & Wheeler, A. J. (2022). Navigating loss and value trade-offs in a changing climate. Climate Risk Management, 35, 100405.
Social Cultural Geographies
Ongoing
2023-2026
Capitals of the Future: Place, Power and Possibility in Southeast Asia
PI: Daniel Goh, ARI/NUS Sociology; co-PI: Tim Bunnell, ARI/NUS
2023-2026
The Singaporean Stack: cashless payment, digital infrastructure, and smart citizenship on and beyond Intelligent Island
PI: Dylan Brady, NUS
2023-2029
Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW)
PI: Jacqui True, Monash University; Partner Investigator: Brenda Yeoh, NUS (along with a network of over 30 partner-investigators)
2022-2029
South-South Migration and Migrant Food Insecurity: Interactions, Impacts and Remedies (MiFood Project)
PI: Prof Jonathan Crush, Wilfrid Laurier University; Co-Applicant: Brenda Yeoh, NUS (along with a network of over 50 co-applicants
Key Publications
- Somaiah, B.C., Yeoh, B.S.A., Rahadini, I.A., Lam, T. and Acedera, K.A.F. (2024). Burmese Migrant Domestic Workers Foodwork and Biopedagogies in Pandemic Singapore. Global Food Security, 42, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2024.100792.
- Somaiah, B.C., Yeoh, B.S.A., Acedera, K.A.F. and Lam, T. (2024) Migrant domestic workers and transnational foodcare chains in pandemic times. Geographical Research, 62 (3), 345-357. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12660.
2023-2026
Value Co-Creation for Developing Creative Tourism in Yod-Phulangka, Thailand
Chulalongkorn University
PI: TC Chang, NUS; Co-PI: Thitirat Panbamrungkij, Dept of Geography, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
The project explores creative tourism in the context of a northern Thailand tourist destination, specifically Yod-Phulangka. It considers the elements of creative tourism -- what it is, who constitutes it, the characteristics of local community involvement, and the immersive experiences of creative consumers. The concepts of 'CBT' (Community-based Tourism) and Placemaking are essential in creative tourism, and help frame this project.
2025-2026
C-PICS study: Examining Community Participation of Intensive Care Survivors
NUHS-FASS Research Collaboration Seed Grant
PIs: Elaine Ho (FASS) and Wong Su-Ren (NUHS)
Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is a complex mix of physical, cognitive, and psychological impairments acquired during ICU treatment that affects 25-60% of adults who survive an ICU stay. A majority reported difficulty resuming their usual activities up to 4 years post-ICU, but the extent of the problem is understudied. We propose using and examining the feasibility of a novel mixed-method study design, incorporating a Qualitative GIS approach, to examine the community participation and activity engagement of ICU survivors.
2024-2026
Research-based Capacity Building for Advancing Urban Nature governance in China for climate resilience and ecosystem restoration (CaBUNA)
Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research
PI: Linjun Xie
This project examines how governance arrangements shape the implementation of urban nature-based solutions (NbS) in China to enhance climate resilience and ecosystem restoration. Through case studies in Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Nanning, it identifies successful practices, key interventions, and governance challenges. Comparative insights from Indonesia and Europe will generate transferable knowledge and inform the development of urban living labs to test governance innovations. The project will also produce targeted capacity-building resources for policymakers and stakeholders, advancing science–policy integration and supporting global sustainability frameworks, including the Paris Agreement and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Key Publications
- Shao, M., & Xie, L. (2025). Gardening governance: CSO-government dynamics in Shanghai's urban renewal. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 1-24.
- Liu, S., Feng, M., Xie, L., & Chan, F. K. S. (2025). Challenges and solutions for achieving carbon neutrality through urban green infrastructure in China’s future cities. Nature-Based Solutions, 100263.
2026-2029
Tracing Nurse Trajectories: Multinational Migration Amid Global Competition (NURSETRACS)
Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund [AcRF] Tier 2
PI: Yasmin Ortiga, SMU; Co-Investigators: Brenda Yeoh, NUS; Elaine Lum, Duke-NUS; Yong-Shian Shawn Goh, SIT; Tim F Liao, University of Illinois; and Ex Cabanda, NUS.
2025-2028
FUTUREMIG - Futures of Migration and Mobility
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [SSHRC] Partnership Development Grant, Canada
PI: Anna Triandafyllidou, TMU; Co-applicants: Ebrahim Bagheri, University of Toronto; Brenda Yeoh, NUS; Naika Foroutan, DeZim; and Mary Setrana, University of Ghana; Collaborators: Alice Massari, TMU; Ana Beduschi, University of Exeter; Sascha Priewe, Aga Khan Museum, University of Toronto and Queen’s University; Sarah Smith, University of Western Ontario; and Bernadette Klausberger, Migration Matters
Advances in transportation, digital technologies, and urban design have opened up possibilities for mobility scarcely imaginable fifty years ago. Air travel is widely accessible to a growing global middle class, even as growing numbers of digital nomads live and work from anywhere. But at the same time, residents of burgeoning mega-cities choke on the fumes of perpetual vehicular gridlock, and the poorest billion people have mobility options no better than those of our ancestors. The future of human mobility and migration, and the effects mobility will have on the future well-being of people and the planet, are open questions of critical importance, notably in the era of increasing adoption of advanced digital technologies which promise new types of virtual mobility (e.g. living and working through avatars in a virtual world).
The Future of Mobility and Migration Partnership (FUTUREMIG) is an interdisciplinary partnership that brings together researchers, artists, and civil society organizations from four continents to explore the future of migration through both human imagination and AI-driven predictions. The project responds to the growing need for inclusive, forward-thinking approaches to human mobility in an era shaped by advanced digital technologies.
FUTUREMIG will host themed Future Labs in Berlin, Accra, Singapore, and Toronto. Each lab will focus on a key issue shaping migration and mobility: ageing societies, climate change, mega-cities, and placeless work. These labs will serve as collaborative spaces for dialogue, experimentation, and knowledge co-creation across sectors and disciplines. By combining future studies methodologies with artistic and technological exploration, FUTUREMIG aims to influence policy, enrich public understanding, and build a global network equipped to navigate emerging migration challenges. The project also critically examines the role of advanced digital technologies in shaping migration futures, highlighting both its potential and limitations.
The projects asks the following questions: Will technology completely disrupt the way we ‘move’ (whether travelling for business, migrating, being displaced, or ‘traveling’ in the virtual space for work or leisure) and even the way we think about mobility? How should we govern human mobility to prepare for the decades to come in view of the several challenges the world is already facing now?
This project is conducted in partnership with Migration Matters, Aga Khan Museum, German Centre for Integration and Migration Research, Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana.
Completed
2020-2021
Online Learning and Collaborative Pedagogy
2020-2022
Capitals of the Future, Then and Now: Southeast Asia’s Planned Administrative Centres
PI: Tim Bunnell, NUS; co-PIs: Maitrii Aung-Thwin, NUS History; Daniel Goh, NUS Sociology
2020-2023
Smart Cities in Global Comparative Perspective: Worlding and Provincializing Relationships
PI: Byron Miller, University of Calgary; co-PIs for Singapore team: Tim Bunnell, NUS; Lily Kong, SMU; Orlando Woods, SMU
2020-2025
Peopling Infrastructure: Aeromobilities, Automation, and Mobilisations of Labour in Asia
Ministry of Education, Singapore (Social Science Research Council)
This research project examines the interface between humans and machines in contemporary airport operations. In particular, since COVID-19, there has been a dramatic increase in reliance on advanced automation, artificial intelligence, and other digital solutions to carry out airport functions such as check-in and even baggage handling. Through interviews, site visits, and textual analysis, this research seeks to uncover how workers navigate within a rapidly changing aviation ecosystem, that might point to wider technological shifts in the city. The study draws out the implications of these changing mobility systems on the future of (logistical) labour.
Key Publications
- Lin, W. (2022). Automated infrastructure: COVID-19 and the shifting geographies of supply chain capitalism. Progress in Human Geography, 46(2), 463-483. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325211038718
- Lin, W. (2022). Atmospheric conditioning: Airport automation, labour and the COVID‐19 pandemic. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 47(1), 214-228. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12499
- Lin, W., & Yeo, S. J. I. (2023). Airport robots: Automation, everyday life and the futures of urbanism. In F. Cugurullo, F. Caprotti, M. Cook, A. Karvonen, P. McGuirk, S. Marvin (eds.) Artificial Intelligence and the City. London: Routledge, pp. 169-185. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003365877
- Brady, D., & Lin, W. (2024). Automating passenger work: airport labour at the transductive interface. Social & Cultural Geography, 25(4), 525-543. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2023.2197873
- Lin, W., Adey, P., & Harris, T. (2024). Dispositions towards automation: Capital, technology, and labour relations in aeromobilities. Dialogues in Human Geography, 14(1), 51-70.
https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206221121652 - Lin, W., Adey, P., & Harris, T. (2024). Situating and expanding the scope of dispositions towards automation. Dialogues in Human Geography, 14(1), 89-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231189576
- Adey, P., Lin, W., & Harris, T. (2024). “We touch their heart”: Plastic Automaticity and Affective Labour at Jakarta Soekarno‐Hatta Airport. Antipode, 56(4), 1073-1092. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.13025
- Adey, P., Lin, W., Barry, K., Harris, T., Frétigny, J. B., & Budd, L. (2024). Now boarding: Towards new geographies of aeromobility. Progress in Human Geography, 48(6), 716-736. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325241257535
- Lin, W. (2025). Automation and aesthetic labour: the micro-mobilities of work in airport self-service. Mobilities, 20(2), 329-344. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2024.2325372
- Lin, W., Adey, P., Harris, T., & Brady, D. (2025). Situating automated infrastructure:(Dis) continuities, contingencies and spatialities. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 02637758251397281. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758251397281
- Lin, W., Adey, P., & Harris, T. (forthcoming) Affective Labour at Work: Automation, Technological Precarities and Airport Workers’ Responses to Workplace Change. Geoforum.
- Veenhoven, N., Lin, W., & Ai, Q. (in preparation) ‘Small Failures’ in Automation: Everyday Encounters and Tolerated Glitches in Airport Digital Infrastructures. Digital Geography & Society (target journal)
2021-2024
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Student Mobilities in China-Southeast Asia
PI: Ho Kong Chong, NUS Sociology; Co-PI: Brenda Yeoh, NUS; and a network of 8 other collaborators
Key Publications
- Lee, K.H., Cheng, Y., Lertpusit, S., Ge, Y.R., Yeoh, B.S.A. and Ho, K.C. (2026). Navigating the Belt and Road, and Beyond: Education-Migration and Aspirational Pathways among Internationally Mobile Chinese Young People in Southeast Asia. Population, Space and Place, 32 (2026), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.70192.
- Cheng, Y., Yeoh, B.S.A., Lee, J., Waters, J. and Yang, P. (2023). Migration governance and higher education during a pandemic: Policy (mis)alignments and international postgraduate students’ experiences in Singapore and the UK. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 50 (5), 1138–1156. https://doi.org/0.1080/1369183X.2023.2279731.
2021-2024
Ageing and Social Networks: Mapping the Lifeworlds of Older Singaporeans
Social Science Research Council
PI: Elaine Ho, NUS; Co-PIs: Vincent Chua, NUS Sociology and Feng Chen-Chieh, NUS Geography
Strong social networks can reduce social isolation and enhance the well-being of older adults. This project introduced the concept of "ageing in networks" to capture how older Singaporeans’ social networks are not only emplaced in their residential neighbourhood but also extend to farther places, thereby enhancing their physical activity and social lives. The project used combined Social Network Analysis (SNA) with qualitative methods GIS methods to investigate the social and geographical characteristics of the older Singaporeans in our study.
Key Publications
- Ho, E.L.E., Chua, V., Feng, C.-C., 2025 Seniors are taking the kampung spirit beyond the neighbourhood. The Straits Times. 26 April 2025.
https://nus.edu.sg/newshub/news/2025/2025-04/2025-04-26/SENIORS-st-26apr-pB1andB2.pdf - Chua, V., Feng, C.C., Ho, E.L.E., 2025. Ageing in networks : living alone but connected. Ageing and Society 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X25100329
- Feng, C., Chin, W.C.B., Gao, S., Chua, V., Ho, E.L.E, 2024. Illustrating a Spatial Framework to Aging: Absolute, Relative, Relational, and Mental Space in Singapore. Transactions in GIS. https://doi.org/10.1111/tgis.13235
- Ho, E.L.E., Chua, V., Feng, C.-C., 2024. Ageing in networks: The unbounded geographies of non-migrant and migrant older adults. Progress in Human Geography. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325241263970
- Gao, S., Ho, E.L.E., Chua, V., Feng, C.-C., 2024. More Than Aging in Place: “Aging in Networks” in Singapore. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 114, 2132–2152. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2024.2370922
- Ho, E.L.E, Gao, S., Lim, S.S.F., 2024. Social infrastructures and older adults’ webs of care: COVID‐19 as spatial breach. Trans Inst British Geog 49, e12635. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12635
2021-2024
Ageing and Relocation in Queenstown
PI: Elaine Ho, NUS
2022-2023
Ageing Immigrants and Integration Over the Lifecourse in Singapore
HSS Seed Fund
PI: Elaine Ho, NUS; co-PI: Brenda Yeoh, NUS
This project investigates how immigrant seniors in Singapore experience shifting episodes of vulnerability and agency across the lifecourse and in a transnational context as they progress towards older age. Even as they age-in-place in Singapore, they simultaneously age-across-borders through short-term visits or information communication technologies (ICT) that enable them to maintain familial intimacies and economic ties or even meet healthcare needs in their homelands. The transnational ties they sustain influence their attitudes towards settlement and integration in Singapore, changing as they encounter biographical events across their lifecourse.
Key Publications
- Ho, E.L.E., Yeoh, B.S.A., 2025. Citizenship pathways of “new immigrants” in the later life-course in Singapore. Ethnic and Racial Studies 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2441900
2022-2023
Blended Learning and Interactive Fieldtrip Worksheets
2022-2024
A Study on Cross-National Families in Singapore
PI: Brenda Yeoh, NUS; Co-PIs: Esther Goh, NUS Social Work; Theodora Lam, ARI/NUS; Bernice Khoo, DSO
Key Publications
- Loh, B., Yeoh, B.S.A., Lam, T. and Goh, E.C.L. (2025) Citizenship pathways of children with cross-national parents: strategic and affective contemplations of citizenship choice, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 48 (14), 2881-2899. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2441908.
2022-2024
The Longer-term Impact of Parental Labour Migration: Well-being, Indebtedness and Family Sustainability in Southeast Asia
PI: Lucy Jordan, University of Hong Kong; Co-PIs: Elspeth Graham, University of St Andrews; Kolitha Wickramage, IOM; Co-Investigator: Brenda Yeoh, NUS; Collaborators: Maruja Milagros Asis, Scalabrini Migration Centre; Patrick Duigan, ADB; Tim Liao, Uni of Illinois; Tomas Martin Ernst, IOM; Melissa Garabiles, Ateneo de Manila University; Sukamdi, Universitas Gadjah Mada
2022-2025
Plastic Waste and Women’s Household Practices in Asia and Australia
PI: Brenda Yeoh, NUS; Co-PIs: Natalie Pang, NUS Communications and New Media; Collaborator: Shiori Shakuto, Uni of Sydney
Key Publications
- Tan, Q.H. and Yeoh, B.S.A. (2025). Everyday circular literacy in Singaporean households: Informal relational pedagogies in teaching and learning about circular R behaviours. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 16, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clrc.2025.100256.
- Tan, Q.H. and Yeoh, B.S.A. (2025). Circular sharing: Community-initiated free(cycling) markets/workshops encouraging reuse in Singapore. Journal of Cleaner Production, 493 (144740), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.144740.
- Tan, Q.H. and Yeoh, B.S.A. (2024). The temporal dimensions of textile circularity loops: A community initiative at shortening loops and prolonging textile lives in Singapore. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 206, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107601.
2023-2024
‘Decoding Vernacular Architecture by Guiding Human Intuition with Deep Learning: A Study of Singapore Shophouse Façade in Chinatown’
PI: Heng Chye Kiang, NUS Architecture; co-PIs: T.C. Chang; Xue Xuan, NUS Architecture and 3 others
2023-2026
Youth urbanism and postcolonial futures in comparative perspective
NUS FASS Start-up Grant
PI: Allen Xiao, NUS
This project investigates startup urbanism in Lagos, Africa's largest city and the most vibrant ecosystem, by examining how participation in tech startup entreprenuerhisp reshapes the subjectivity of urban youth. It further provides a comparative analysis of these dynamics within a Nigerian secondary city and selected urban centers across East Africa.
Key Publications
- Xiao, A.H. & Yan, Q. (2026). The spatiality of performative authenticity on social media: A geographical understanding of young African fashion microcelebrities. Geographical Research, 64(1), https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1745-5871.70061
2023-2025
Teaching Pre-University Geography through Role-play and Deep Listening: Enhancing Geographical Inquiry using Interdisciplinary Strategies for Managing Classroom Dynamics
PI: Kamalini Ramdas, NUS; Collaborators: Menusha De Silva, NUS; Shobha Avadhani, NUS Communications and New Media; Robin Loon , NUS Theatre Studies; Josef Tan, Ministry of Education
2024-2025
Education Policy Mobilities
PI: Tan Wenn Er, Co-PI: Elaine Ho (NUS Geography/ FASS Research Division)
2024-2025
The ideological mobility of the “smart city” from Singapore to Kigali
NUS Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Fund
PI: Allen Xiao; co-PI: Eric Kerr
This project complements the widely used political economy approach in the studies of smart cities by developing a social epistemology of the smart city. By critically analyzing the discourses and practices of mobilizing “smart city” ideas from a modeled city, Singapore, to a modeling city, Kigali in Rwanda, this research sheds light on the ways in which ideologies of smart cities are changed and urban epistemic communities are formed. Through conceptually expanding the geographic boundaries of cities to encompass the network of smart city developments, we aim to develop a relational comparative study of two processes of making smart cities and the knowledge-based networks that facilitate their development.
Key Publications
- Xiao, A. H., & Kerr, E. T. (2025). Mapping the conceptual and spatial footprints of Singapore's knowledge transfer to Africa. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 46(2), 179-185.
- Allen, A.H., Sebarenzi, G.A., & Brady, D.B. (2026). Future and imaginary geographies of ‘Africa’s Singapore’: Planning the emergent national-urban nexus of Rwanda-Kigali. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, accepted.
Tropical Environmental Change
Ongoing
2020-2026
Integrated Research Program to Understanding Tropical Peatlands for their Functioning and Utilization
PI: Hao Tang; co-PI: Lupascu M
2020-2026
Integrated Research Program to Understanding Tropical Peatlands for their Functioning and Utilization
Temasek
co-PI: David Taylor
2021-2026
Examining the structural and physiological changes of vegetation in tropical Asia
PYP
PI: Luo Xiangzhong
2022-2027
Carbon Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia
PI: David Taylor
2023-2026
Developing strategies for handling geoprivacy issues in social media data
MOE Academic Research Fund, Tier 1
PI: Yan Yingwei, Co-PI: Filip Biljecki
2023-2026
Natural Adaptation of Atoll Islands to Sea-Level Rise Offering Opportunities for Ongoing Human Occupation
European Research Council Horizons Project
AI: Paul Kench, PI: Gerd Masselink
2023-2026
Climate-driven changes in the terrestrial carbon sink of tropical Asia
MOE AcRF Tier 2
PI: Luo Xiangzhong
2025-2028
Unravelling the impact of sea-water intrusion on carbon loss from coastal peatland plantations in Southeast Asia
MOE AcRF 2
PI: Massimo Lupascu; co-PI: Sanjay Swarup, NERI
Southeast Asia’s coastal peatlands store carbon and support biodiversity, but are being rapidly degraded by drainage and conversion to oil palm and acacia, making them highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, erosion, and seawater intrusion. The latter could reduce agricultural productivity across 30–69% of these lands within 50 years and may accelerate carbon loss by altering biogeochemical processes and microbial communities. This project will quantify impacts on gaseous emissions (CO₂, CH₄) and aquatic carbon export (DOC/POC) along coast-to-inland salinity gradients in Indonesia and Malaysia, combining flux measurements, microbial sequencing, water chemistry, and remote sensing.
2024-2027
The Climate Resilience and Threshold of Trees in Singapore
National Environment Agency Climate Impact Science Research (CISR)
PI: Luo Xiangzhong (Remi); co-PI: Lim Kim Hwa (NUS CRISP); He Xiaogang (NUS CEE)
Climate change threatens tree health, compromising carbon sequestration, urban cooling, and biodiversity. Building a climate-resilient Singapore requires identifying and planting resilient tree species, yet resilience remains poorly understood. This project integrates automated tree health monitoring, satellite remote sensing, and controlled experiments to quantify tree resilience and mortality thresholds across species, age, height, location (urban vs. rural), season, and climate stressors such as heatwaves and drought. We will develop a machine learning model to predict resilience and mortality risk, driven by projections from Singapore’s Third National Climate Change Study (V3), enabling early warning systems and science-based tree management and planning decisions.
2025-2028
Southeast Asia Innovation Alliance for a Global Model of Future Agri-food Systems (SIGMA)
NUS Sustainable Futures
PI: Luo Xiangzhong (Remi); co-PI: Guan Kaiyu (UIUC)
Southeast Asia, a global agricultural powerhouse, faces mounting pressures from food insecurity, environmental degradation, climate change, and socio-economic disparities. This seed grant will support the creation of SIGMA, a new US-SG Academic Alliance co-led by the University of Illinois (UIUC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). SIGMA will unite world-class expertise to develop a sustained program that translates academic innovation into practical solutions for economic development, improved farmer livelihoods, and environmental sustainability. Committed to strengthening agriculture, food security, and community resilience, SIGMA advances both universities’ strategic goals of research excellence, global visibility, and addressing major societal challenges.
2025-2028
Reducing the uncertainty in climate prediction using ecological and biogeographical theories
NUS Foresight Grant
PI: Luo Xiangzhong (Remi); co-PI: Lim Jun Ying (NUS Biological Sciences)
Climate projections remain highly uncertain, largely due to unresolved land carbon cycle feedbacks. Earth System Models estimate warming of 0.32–0.63°C per trillion tonnes of CO₂, leaving wide uncertainty in future temperature rise. We hypothesize that biome distribution—biogeography—is a primary, overlooked source of this uncertainty. Our recent studies show that improved global biome mapping can reduce uncertainty in gross carbon uptake by nearly 80%. This project will (1) advance biogeographic theory and develop robust biome maps for the past two decades, and (2) quantify biogeography–carbon–climate feedbacks and incorporate them into Earth System Models, reducing uncertainty in climate predictions.
Key Publications
- Zhao, R., Luo, X., Walker, A.P. et al. Vegetation biogeography is a main source of uncertainty in modelling the land carbon cycle. Nat Commun 17, 912 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67636-1
2026-2029
Long-term monitoring of element cycles and surface energy budgets in tropical urban and natural ecosystems
National Parks Board
PI: Luo Xiangzhong (Remi); co-PIs: Simone Fatichi (NUS CEE), Matthias Roth (NUS Geog), Pierre Taillardat (NTU ASE)
Green spaces are central to Singapore’s “City in Nature,” providing cooling, carbon sequestration, and flood mitigation. Yet the underlying carbon, water, nutrient, and energy fluxes remain poorly quantified across ecosystems and under urbanization and climate change. We propose establishing long-term monitoring sites in representative natural and urban systems, including three eddy covariance towers and three watershed-scale biogeochemistry stations. These sites will deliver continuous observations of element cycles and surface energy budgets. The data will improve mechanistic understanding, calibrate process-based ecohydrological models, and scale estimates nationally, strengthening Singapore’s capacity for evidence-based green space planning and tropical urban ecosystem research.
2026-2028
Representing the complexity of Singapore’s urban environment and understanding its effects on our weather, including extremes
National Environment Agency
PI: Matthias Roth; co-PIs: Ronald Chan (A*STAR), Hugh Zhang (CCRS)
This project will strengthen urban climate modelling by developing a robust urban representation for next‑generation weather and climate systems, specifically designed for tropical cities such as Singapore. Urban Canopy Models (UCMs) will be implemented within the UK Met Office’s LFRic model, adapted for tropical conditions, and coupled with high‑resolution urban datasets. The work will also develop subgrid‑scale parameterizations for urban turbulence and surface–atmosphere fluxes, run and evaluate simulations against observations, and support integration of complementary AI/ML components through collaboration. Together, these advances will improve forecast skill, support disaster risk reduction, and enable more effective urban climate adaptation and resilience planning.
Completed
2016-2018
Climate Change Projections and Assessment of Impacts; Modelling and Capacity Building Programme-India-ASEAN Region: ASEAN-India Framework
PI: Sri Raghavan
2017-2020
Economic growth and environmental quality in a tropical Asian megacity
Ministry of Education Tier One
PI: David Taylor
2017-2022
Sustainable governance of transboundary environmental commons in Southeast Asia
MOE2016-SSRTG-068, Social Science Research Committee Thematic Grant, Singapore
PI: David Taylor
2018-2020
Numerical Urban Climate Modelling for micro-climate applications, NUS-School of Design & Environment
Co-PI: Sri Raghavan; PI Prof Wog Nyuk Hien, SDE
2018-2020
Role of urbanization on the diurnal cycle of rainfall over Singapore, NEA
PI: Matthias Roth
2018-2021
Spatial Patterns of Liver Fluke Infection and Risk in the Mekong Region
Tier 1
PI: Wang YC
2018-2022
Sediment fluxes and carbon emission from the headwater region of the Yellow River in Tibet Plateau
Tier 1
PI: Lu Xi Xi
2019-2020
A Study on the Application of Volunteered Geographic Information in Post-disaster Recovery Monitoring, National Natural Science Foundation of China
PI: Yan Yingwei
2019-2021
Investigating Climate Risk Hazards Due to Extreme Rainfall and Typhoons in the Southeast/ East Asian Region Towards Enhanced Adaptation Measures, NUS-JSPS
PI: Sri Raghavan
2019-2021
Modelling of weather and climate extremes, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NUS
Co-PI: Sri Raghavan; PI, Prof Philip Liu, CEE
2019-2022
Plastic, pollution and environmental change in Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia
Ministry of Education Tier One
PI: David Taylor
2019-2023
Living at the Edge research programme, Resilience to Nature’s Challenges, National Science Challenge
Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise, NZ
PI: Paul Kench
2019-2023
Establishing a Regional Dataset on Emerging Pollutants to Support Surface Water Management of Seven Large Cities of East and Southeast Asia, APN
PI: Thi Phuong Quynh Le; co-PI: Lu Xi Xi
2019-2023
Coral Reef Island Dynamics
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada
PI: Paul Kench
2020-2021
Climate Governance of Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia
HSS Seed Fund
PI: David Taylor; co-PI, Dr Michelle Miller
2020-2023
Life after Oil Palm: is Agroforestry the solution?
PI: Lupascu M; co-PI: Hao Tang
2020-2023
Towards an urban heat map for Singapore
Tier 1
PI: Matthias Roth
2020-2023
Quantifying the Dynamical Downscaling Uncertainty over Southeast Asia in CMIP6 Models: Historical and Future, Centre for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS)
PI: Sri Raghavan
2020-2023
Ocean Information and Forecasting Study (OIFS2); Numerical Weather Forecasting applications, Technology Centre for Offshore Marine Singapore (TCOMS)
PI: Sri Raghavan
2020-2024
Investigating the impacts of human activities and climate change on mangrove systems in East and Southeast Asia, APN
PI: Loh Pei Sun; co-PI: Lu Xi xi
2020-2024
Cooling Singapore 2.0 - DUCT, NRF
PI: Matthias Roth
2021-2024
Assessing Spatiotemporal Vulnerability, Risk Perceptions of and Behaviors toward Infectious Diseases in Singapore
NUS Reimagine Fund
PI: Wang YC
2021-2024
Riverine sediment loads responses to climate change in High Mountain Asia
Tier 2
PI: Lu Xi Xi; Collaborator: Muhammad Nawaz
2021-2024
Understanding the low-frequency variability of coastal sea level in Southeast Asia using a regional ocean model and observations (@ TMSI)
National Sea Level Program, CCRS-NEA
co-PI: Sri Raghavan, PI- Pavel Tkalich, TCOMS-TMSI
2021-2025
Spatial data mining for spatio-temporal-network framework at multiple geographical scales
Tier 1
PI: Luo Wei
2022-2023
Designing a blended GIS learning pedagogy and evaluating its effectiveness and impact on student learning
NUS LIF-T Grant
PI: Yan Yingwei
2022-2023
Roots to Reefs 360 Film for Aquatic Riparian and Coastal Systems: Blended Learning 2.0
PI: G. Coffman
2022-2023
Wildlife in Wetlands at Singapore Botanic Gardens: Evaluating wildlife use of restored wetlands at SBG and habitat mangement to improve wildlife use as a City in Nature
PI: G. Coffman
2022-2024
The gross CO2 emissions and removals from land-use change in Southeast Asia, SgEC
PI: Luo Xiangzhong
2022-2024
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from soilless crops in Urban Agriculture (UA) in tropical climate
PI: Lupascu M, Hao Tang
2022-2024
The Rhyzosphere Carbon Project
PI: Hao Tang, Co-PI: Lupascu M
2023-2025
Evaluation and development of 100 m uSINGV for extreme rainfall and wind modelling in Singapore, NEA
PI: Matthias Roth
2023-2025
Tracking sea surface temperature change in the tropical Indian Ocean over the past 5 centuries
MOE Academic Research Fund, Tier 2
AI: Paul Kench, PI Xianfeng Wang - NTU
2025
Youth STEM Learning and Empowerment with Drones and VR
Maker Projects - Community STEM Engagement 2024 Grant
Co-PI: Muhammad Nawaz
The project engages under-18s in STEM through hands-on, drone-based workshops and immersive learning. Using real-world scenarios, drones, and virtual reality tools, participants build skills in coding, programming, automation, photography, videography, and 3D spatial visualisation while strengthening creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. With a focus on First Nations students and those in remote and Top End communities, the program empowers young people to pursue STEM pathways and become future leaders in their communities.