Measured Insights
The latest blog posts from our research projects.
The Big Picture on Urban Fragility: Presentation at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions
This past July, I was invited to present our Urban Environment and Social Inclusion Index (UESI) at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC '19) in Dalian, China as part of the Global Situation Space forum. This space allows for...
Study Finds Lower-income Neighborhoods Bear the Burden of Urban Heat
Cities pack a lot of heat. Increasing human activity and the clearing of land for infrastructure are quickly driving up their temperatures. This local phenomenon, known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect, is compounded by rising temperatures from global climate...
Beating the Heat: Save Lives by Being a Good Neighbour
Photo Credits: Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash. Originally posted on the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness website. As Montréal cools down from a boiling weekend during which Environment Canada warned of humidex values reaching a high of 45 degrees, the...
Ruicheng: China’s Pilot County of Renewable Energy
On June 22, I joined a team of energy experts on a field trip to Ruicheng county in China’s Shanxi province. Shanxi is known as “the sea of coal,” and is responsible for almost a quarter of China’s total coal output. However, officials and experts in this small county...
Urbanization in Southeast Asia: Field Notes from Cambodia
In May 2019, I visited Myanmar and Cambodia to conduct fieldwork as part of Director Angel Hsu’s research on “Urbanization in Southeast Asia.” Since the start of the year, researchers at Data-Driven Lab have been using satellite images and open social media data to...
Urbanization in Southeast Asia: Field Notes from Laos
Earlier this summer, I packed my bags and headed off to three cities in Laos – Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane – and to Bangkok, Thailand. The main goal of this fieldwork was to collect data on land-use across cities in Southeast Asia. This work will support...
China’s Belt and Road in Southeast Asia: Seed Grant Will Assess Urban Land Teleconnections
Photo of Bangkok's skytrain, from Shutterstock by Pakorn Amonstian. Urban growth is rapidly advancing in Southeast Asia, and this trend will have profound environmental impacts on the region and the world in the coming decades. Nearly half of the world’s urban...
Two events offer sneak peak at updates to the Urban Environment and Social Inclusion Index
The Urban Environment and Social Inclusion Index (UESI), which measures cities’ environmental performance at the neighborhood scale, will soon grow from 30 to more than 160 cities. Two upcoming events will preview these additions to the Index. Data-Driven Lab Research...
Data-Driven Lab receives grant to deepen understanding of climate action in China
Data-Driven Lab will begin a new research project mapping city, province, and company climate efforts in China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and energy consumer. The organization recently received a Chinese Research Programme grant from the Tan Chin Tuan...
Student project streamlines climate action database
On Thursday, May 2, 2019, Luke Hellum, a Yale College data science and statistics and energy studies major, shared the results of his senior capstone research project. Over the past 6 months, he built a statistical R software package that helps clean and organize the...
