Learning Outcomes

Students will be introduced to the emerging, multidisciplinary, and global research effort on developing a science of urban sustainability and the global discussion on how such a science can inform the design and implementation of solutions to mitigate and respond to the effects of climate change on cities. Students will learn about concepts, methods, and modeling frameworks that can be used to study urbanization in China and how ongoing urbanization in China can both be sustainable and resilient to the effects of climate change. Topics include the role of urbanization in socioeconomic development, the drivers of urbanization, the urban scaling framework to study urbanization, urban sustainability, decarbonizing the supply of energy to cities, and the effects of climate change on cities. While the lectures cover insights learned from the study of urbanization worldwide and across eras, they will also focus on the experience of urbanization and economic growth in China from 1980 to 2020.