Decarbonizing Cities with Smart City Technologies in Korea

Cities account for 78% of the world’s energy consumption and produce more than 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonizing cities is a priority that requires reducing buildings’ energy use; increasing land use mix and density to reduce motorized transportation; electrifying fossil fuel-dependent systems, including building and transportation systems; expanding renewable energy production; and maximizing carbon sinks.

In this talk, Dr. Albert Tonghoon Han, assistant professor of urban and regional planning in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), will introduce some of the ongoing projects related to this subject conducted by the Planning Lab for Sustainability and Climate Change and the Smart City Research Center at KAIST. The projects include: (1) simulating urban growth and its impacts on land-based carbon sink, (2) enhancing online collaborative planning for effective climate change planning, (3) developing hydrogen-energy-based RE100 city framework, and (4) developing territorial spatial planning and management technology for climate change mitigation.

Dr. Albert Tonghoon Han is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). His research focuses on the following three areas: (1) planning and policy evaluation for urban sprawl mitigation and land preservation; (2) evaluating environmental policies for pollution and climate change mitigation, and (3) data mining for enhancing public participation in the planning process. His previous works were published in top-tier academic journals including the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Planning Education and Research, the Journal of Planning Literature, Land Use Policy, Energy, and the Journal of Urban Affairs.

Prior to joining the faculty of KAIST, Dr. Han was an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a postdoctoral research fellow and a lecturer at the University of Calgary in Canada. Dr. Han holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Iowa, and a B.S. in Life Science and Biotechnology from Korea University.