Alumna Kwok Yu Ting wins CUHK Young Scholars Thesis Award 2021

CUHK architecture alumna Kwok Yu Ting (PhD 2021) has received CUHK Young Scholars Thesis Award 2021.

Supervised by Prof. Edward Ng, Yu Ting addresses environmental issues resulting from the combined effects of climate change and urbanization in her thesis “Mesoscale Urban Climate Modelling of High-rise, High-density Cities: Implications for Urban Heat Mitigation in Hong Kong”. The thesis presents a novel urban climate modelling approach that can simulate the urban-atmosphere interactions in the high-density, high-rise city of Hong Kong. Firstly, a refined urban dataset is constructed to describe the heterogeneous surface covers, complex urban geometry, and local building archetypes for the high-resolution numerical model. The spatiotemporal changes in temperature, wind, energy balance, boundary layer structure, and heat stress exposure are then examined for different urban planning and development scenarios. Finally, the study reveals potential strategies to mitigate the intensifying urban heat through the tactful design of ventilation corridors and adopting adaptive thermal comfort lifestyles.