International Workshop of Urban Geography held in Beijing

The CAS International Workshop of Urban Geography (UGCAS), jointly organized by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was successfully held in Beijing from Sep. 8th to 9th, 2009. About 80 Scholars coming from Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, and mainland China attended the workshop.

UGCAS was funded by CAS, and was fully supported by IGSNRR, with Prof. LIU Yi, director of the institute being the chairman of the Workshop, and Academician LU Dadao and Prof. YU Guirui, the deputy director of IGSNRR addressing the opening ceremony.

In the keynote session, Prof. LIN Jiabin from Development Research Center of the State Council; Prof. ASAMI Yasushi, from the University of Tokyo, and Dr. Simon Xiaobin Zhao from International Centre for China Development Studies, Hong Kong University delivered keynote speeches on the topics of Some critical issues in urban development of Chinese cities , Toward structural change of city planning system in Japan , Competitions of Global Financial Centres: Determinants and the Rise of Financial Centres in China and Hong Kong , respectively.

The Workshop has four regular sessions:

1. Urban Policy: Population, Industry and Land Use;

2. Urban Morphology: Forms and Functions;

3. Social, Culture and Behaviors: Living & Environment;

4. Approach, Data and Analytical Methods.

In addition, there had been a poster session and a data presentation session at the Workshop, where the latest progress in database and data sharing in Earth System Science and Urban Geography, and novel ideas on sampling, survey and data processing were presented.

The Workshop has also set a special discussion on Critical issues, Approaches & Data-sharing in Urban Geography . Prof. GU Chaolin from Tsinghua University, who is also the Deputy Director of The Geographical Society of China, coordinated the discussion.

To cultivate the academic power of young researchers, five Outstanding Paper Award for Young Researchers were selected from the papers presented to the Workshop. The winners are LIN Tao& LI Xinhu (from Institute of Urban Environment, CAS), JI Jue (from IGSNRR, CAS), Meg Elizabeth RITHMIRE (from Harvard University), HUANG Tai (from Zhongshan University), and DU Guoming (from Northeast Agriculture University).

UGCAS has provided a vivid platform for urban geographers to share views, fresh ideas and creative research outcomes, which made it attractive to most participants. It is anticipated that such kind of workshop will become a constant platform, so as to promote the research of urban geography and to contribute to urban development of China, to that of Asian, and to that of the world.