TIME & LOCATION
August 20, 2025, 10:00-12:00
Room 325, School of Transportation
TOPIC
Under the combined pressures of climate change and rapid urbanisation, cities face unprecedented water challenges. Intensifying floods and droughts, aging infrastructure, and water pollution threaten urban safety, human well-being, and sustainable development. This talk presents a transformative roadmap towards water-resilient cities, highlighting integrated strategies to manage urban water and strengthen adaptive capacity.
Key topics include:
•Multiscale characterisation of urban flood risks for transportation infrastructures under climate change;
•Modelling Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for stormwater management and ecosystem restoration;
•Urban Water Metabolism assessment-applying a systems perspective to water inputs, outputs, and recycling efficiency.
The presentation aims to offer actionable insights for guiding urban water resilience transformations, enabling cities to better adapt to extreme climatic events and water resource pressures.
ABOUT THE LECTURER
Dr. Yangzi Qiu is a tenured researcher (associate professor) at the Water, Environment and Urban Systems Laboratory (Leesu) of École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IPP). She obtained her PhD in Environmental Science and Technology from ENPC in 2021, followed by postdoctoral research at ENPC and the University of Glasgow. She has obtained the “France Chine Jeunes Talents” in 2025.
Her research focuses on several key areas:
(i) integrated modelling of urban water systems and evaluation of innovation deployment scenarios at the city scale;
(ii) multi-scale modelling of rainfall–runoff processes to enhance urban flood resilience, through the development of both physics-based hydrological models and artificial intelligence (AI) models;
(iii) analysis of hydrological responses to Nature-based Solutions for urban stormwater management.
She has led and participated in several national and international research projects on these topics, actively contributing to the development of new approaches for improving water management in urban environments. She is the editorial board member of “Environmental Impact Assessment Review” and “Urban Governance”.