As part of the PhD programme in Urban Development & Governance, we offer our IHS PhD researchers the opportunity to present their work at different stages of their research during our PhD colloquia. In this session, Jie Liu shared key findings from her research titled Transportation Resilience in the Context of Disaster Management: A Case Study of Heavy Rainstorms in Zhengzhou, China.
Meet Jie Liu
Jie holds a Bachelor’s and Master's degree in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems. Her doctoral research, titled From washouts to weatherproofing: Effective Adaptation Pathways in Built-up Area, examines how the built environment (transportation systems, ecological systems, cities or regions) adapts more effectively to climate change and extreme weather events.
Effective adaptation pathways in disaster risk governance
Through her research, Jie dives deeper into resilience, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk governance, focusing on the emergency response, short-term recovery, long-term recovery and adaptation phases of extreme weather events under climate change. She aims to envision effective adaptation pathways by enhancing disaster risk governance in strategy proposing, strategy translation, local planning, and implementation.
Last week, Jie delivered an inspiring colloquium session, titled "Opening the policy window for flood prevention in Ahrweiler, Germany." Following the devastating 2021 floods, Ahrweiler deliberately pursued a more weather-proofing path to build back better. Jie’s research dives into how this "window of opportunity" was seized to move toward a more resilient and forward-looking future.
Key findings:
- Cumulative evolution: The policy breakthrough in 2021 wasn't isolated. It was the result of two decades of gradual development, where recurring events, accumulated risk understanding, iterative solution updates, and gradual institutional adjustments finally converged.
- Beyond "build back": Unlike past disasters, the 2021 response focused on "Building Back Better," integrating cross-system resilience enhancement, cross-level collaboration, and cross-administrative boundary governance.
- Framework adjustment: By extending the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), the study identifies three types of "policy windows" and coupling processes, capturing the long-term and staged nature of climate change adaptation.
- Transferable lessons: The Ahrweiler case provides a roadmap for other hazard-prone regions to translate extreme events into climate-resilient adaptation pathway.
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