Welcome to Research Frontiers, a podcast series that highlights how our groundbreaking research informs teaching on the 150+ postgraduate programmes available at the University of Bristol.
This episode focuses on the environment, specifically understanding urbanisation. Our host Ruby Lott-Lavigna is joined by Dr Felix Agyemang, Research Associate at the School of Geographical Sciences and Stephen Pearson, a student currently studying an MSc in Climate Change Science and Policy. Together they discuss the dynamics and processes of cities in the Global South, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, through the application of urban modelling techniques.
Find out more about our MSc Geographic Data Science and Spatial Analytics programme
Image Credit: Adobe Stock / goturk_06
Transcript:
00:00:00 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
From the University of Bristol, you are listening to research frontiers. Hello, and welcome to Research Frontiers, a podcast series from the University of Bristol. I’m your host, Ruby Lavinia. And throughout this series, I’ll be joined by a collection of Bristol sport leaders taking a deep dive into the research at the university.
00:00:21 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Which is changing the world and enriching the education of students who study here. Our contributors will include some of the university’s most inspiring minds and the students who learn from them.
00:00:31 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Throughout these conversations will uncover the transformative power of research, both on our society and in solving global challenges, as well as in the future education of students. In this episode, our focus will effects on the environment, specifically urbanization with the locus, and research in the field, and a perfect opportunity to get better acquainted with our.
00:00:51 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
During special guest Doctor Felix Agyemang also joining us on this episode is Stephen Pearson with studying for Monsters and climate change science and policy.
00:01:03 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Welcome to you both.
00:01:04 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
To kick things off on this episode, Felix, it would be great to know what the overarching aims of your research are before we take a deep dive into the projects you’re working on.
00:01:12 Dr Felix Agyemang
And finally will be. You will actually. The aim really is to improve airborne living conditions. So my primary interest is in cities more so developing cities negatives out, but they’re the ones that are that are projected to absorb maturity of the urbanization that would occur in the next.
00:01:29 Dr Felix Agyemang
Decades and, for instance, Citizen African Asia are accounted to absorb about 90% of the organization. The urban population that is expected and just putting contest and the UN projects that there will be additional 3.5 billion people expected between now and 2050 and 90% of that will occur in the global S either in Africa or Asia.
00:01:49 Dr Felix Agyemang
And that is huge enough for care alone.
00:01:51 Dr Felix Agyemang
And the cities in Africa would absorb extra 1 billion, about 1 billion people in the next three decades or so. And that is huge. And based on that, my reaction aim is to deepen understanding of the evolution processes of cities in the global cells and help improve urban living conditions by developing.
00:02:12 Dr Felix Agyemang
Decision making support tools that will guide effective planning and allocation of resources in city.
00:02:19 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
How did you become interested in this subject area and what does your research cover?
00:02:24 Dr Felix Agyemang
My interest is in cities, in the global salt, particularly how they evolve over time and space and how with that understanding, and together with urban modeling techniques and machine learning, we can build.
00:02:37 Dr Felix Agyemang
Tools to support.
00:02:39 Dr Felix Agyemang
Decision making. Now, how did I become interested in this in this area of research and what it has to do with lag?
00:02:47 Dr Felix Agyemang
And also my education so.
00:02:48 Dr Felix Agyemang
I grew up in.
00:02:49 Dr Felix Agyemang
Two settlements in the middle part of Ghana that are starkly different in terms of size and complexity. Their first settlement was a real and town very small town. You would say, exposed the thin card population of less than 2000.
00:03:02 Dr Felix Agyemang
When I moved.
00:03:03 Dr Felix Agyemang
To Kumasi, which is the second capital of Ghana with more than 2 million people.
00:03:08 Dr Felix Agyemang
I felt that the city could not say was more chaotic, overcrowded, polluted and hence always had the feeling that I wanted to contribute in some way.
00:03:19 Dr Felix Agyemang
Ways to solve in these these problems.
00:03:22 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
That’s fascinating. And, Steven, how about you? What brought you to this course? Have you always been interested in this area?
00:03:28 Stephen Pearson
I’ve always had an interest from enough a couple of years ago I found like a wee thing that I’d done when I was about 8 years old in primary school. It was like, what do you want?
00:03:35 Stephen Pearson
To do when you’re older and.
00:03:36 Stephen Pearson
It said I’d like.
00:03:37 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Folder organization.
00:03:39 Stephen Pearson
I’d like to be a green.
00:03:41 Stephen Pearson
Direct and I’m like, I don’t really know what that is. To be fair, I don’t know.
00:03:45 Stephen Pearson
There’s enough broccoli in the world to turn.
00:03:46 Stephen Pearson
You into a green.
00:03:47 Stephen Pearson
Architect. But still it was a nice idea. Nice. We thought for me 8 year old me. But I went in to do physics at my undergrad. So clearly there’s a wee cognitive break there between a green architect and a physicist. But anyway, after my undergrad.
00:04:02 Stephen Pearson
Took a year out and just realised that physics it’s a really big interest of mine but not so much a passion and but actually going back to the the wee child that was in me back then, he probably knew me better than I did at.
00:04:08
It.
00:04:16 Stephen Pearson
The age of 22. So I was like, OK, the environment is what I’m interested in. So I kind of wanted to link physics with policy and actually making a difference kind of thing. And the course down here seemed pretty good for that. So it was a nice link between, like, quite physical science and the climate. So in terms of Urban Development.
00:04:35 Stephen Pearson
I’d say that.
00:04:36 Stephen Pearson
My involvement is it’s more advising people who.
00:04:39 Stephen Pearson
Are involved in urban.
00:04:41 Stephen Pearson
So always had an interest. Yeah, but I don’t think the trajectory has always been in that direction, if that makes sense.
00:04:47 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Well, that’s very sweet that you been inspired by your your younger self feel like you. You spent time focusing on a specific part of the world with your work in sub-Saharan Africa. Can you tell us how it’s illuminated your research?
00:04:50 Stephen Pearson
I know. I’m sure you’re really nice.
00:05:01 Dr Felix Agyemang
After my Masters degree, I went back to Ghana, worked for a couple of years on a project that’s sort of develop a national special development framework for G, and that’s like it’s it’s like a plan basically must have planned for Ghana. And on that project, I had the opportunity of travelling across the Lantern breadth of the country, especially the middle.
00:05:20 Dr Felix Agyemang
Cities and also have the opportunity of travelling outside Ghana to other major cities in Africa like Lagos, Nigeria and what can you do in Burkina Faso and then Johannesburg, South Africa. And what I realised from from these and travels and experiencing of of of these cities is that these cities.
00:05:39 Dr Felix Agyemang
And many more.
00:05:40 Dr Felix Agyemang
Across sub-Saharan Africa are different in many ways. For instance, culturally, but they also show.
00:05:46 Dr Felix Agyemang
Not so common organization challenges such as urban informality, chaos, pollution, high commuting times, overcrowding, and that further heightened, you know, my interest in this area. The area of focusing on cities and solving these Urban Development.
00:06:06 Dr Felix Agyemang
Challenges since I realized largely it’s not just the tournament out of Ghana, but also many, many, many cities across southern Africa.
00:06:14 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
- And your care workers involved with urban data collection, connecting findings with policy making in developing?
00:06:20 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Trees. What’s the process involved with collecting data in another country and how do the processes differ depending on what you’re focusing on?
00:06:27 Dr Felix Agyemang
So pre COVID myself alongside Dr. Son Fox and Doctor Levi.
00:06:32 Dr Felix Agyemang
Wolfe, both at the University of Bristol School.
00:06:34 Dr Felix Agyemang
Of social sciences.
00:06:35 Dr Felix Agyemang
And research partners in Pakistan were experimenting an idea of developing a low cost survey too, that we could use to rapidly generate.
00:06:46 Dr Felix Agyemang
Collecting data and the ideal roles we use.
00:06:49 Dr Felix Agyemang
Just 10 to 15 minutes conduct rapid survey and then use machine learning techniques to actually generate data that goes beyond what we’ve actually collected based on the relationships that the machine will learn from the data we’ve collected. However, coverage track, so that’s that’s trend of.
00:07:08 Dr Felix Agyemang
Research, you know.
00:07:10 Dr Felix Agyemang
To research where now I’m focusing and how to develop deep learning deep learning, basically machine learning and convolutional neural network that detects poverty and block level poverty in Karachi. And then alongside I have another project that I’m working on with.
00:07:29 Dr Felix Agyemang
Such as from hydrology doctor Jeffrey Neal and Lawrence ******, and then also such as from economics and Janos and alongside partners from Vietnam.
00:07:40 Dr Felix Agyemang
Focusing on understanding Future Past and present flood risk in the central Highlands of Vietnam.
00:07:47 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
So based in Boston now, from Ghana to to Bristol, do you feel Bristol has an effect on your response to data or your outlook on data collected from other countries?
00:07:56 Dr Felix Agyemang
Yes, it has. It has influenced our data and particularly University of Bristol, Bristol. Bristol is a leader when it comes to when it comes to research and most of the research.
00:08:06 Dr Felix Agyemang
Athletics and these are protection standards and it has impacted me positively with regards to how I collect data and process data and be more thoughtful about the privacy of and the households and the standards of the University of Bristol has been very, very, very impactful.
00:08:25 Dr Felix Agyemang
And in terms of the applicability of my research to my media surroundings, I have planned and I’ll talk about my my model at some point, which is the TST model.
00:08:36 Dr Felix Agyemang
Now has been developed for African cities, but I’ve planned to generalize that to for U.S. citizen the world globally, and one of the test city for the case that the cities in that global scaling up of the model would be Bristol.
00:08:51 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Right. And Stephen, what made Bristol the choice for you?
00:08:55 Stephen Pearson
I think the main reason that I came down here was I lived in Scotland all my life and I knew I wanted to stay somewhere else and with the course, there really wasn’t anywhere that offered a course quite as suited to me as bristle. It was just such a good blend. The course is.
00:09:12 Stephen Pearson
A mixture of really.
00:09:13 Stephen Pearson
Quantitative climate analysis, as well as quite social theoretical policy with politics and that sort of thing and thought it would be a good opportunity to kind of mix the two and see where the overlaps there. And also I mean you’d be mad not to think Bristol seems a cool city I’ve never visited before. And literally the first day of my course.
00:09:33 Stephen Pearson
Was the first dead set foot in the?
00:09:35 Stephen Pearson
I’ve heard so many nice things like, yeah, it’s been a lovely place to fit in.
00:09:38 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Great. And could you tell us a little bit about your own studies? Has Felix’s work resonated with you in any way through your time at Bristol and kind of what brought you to the area of climate change science and policy?
00:09:49 Stephen Pearson
Felix’s work.
00:09:50 Stephen Pearson
All generally resonates with me, of course, because it’s related to development, which is so closely tied with climate change, especially in the globe.
00:09:59 Stephen Pearson
South and particularly your work, Felix, on risk management, I’ve done quite a lot of work with precipitation and flooding and with flood risk. To be honest, I think my generation in particular, I think it’s almost ubiquitous across the board. We all have an understanding that climate change is a big problem. And throughout my undergrad I really got involved. I dabbled in a wee bit of activism.
00:10:21 Stephen Pearson
I was always interested in environmental stuff.
00:10:25 Stephen Pearson
So it was always for me. Doing a Masters was an opportunity to send my undergraduate degree.
00:10:32 Stephen Pearson
Be in the direction that I want to work in moving forward and working in quantitative climate change. Science was always going to be a good step for me, so that’s how I’ve ended up here.
00:10:51 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Felix, I wanted to ask you about.
00:10:53 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
The TI city model or the informal city model, and how this came to be. What does this involve and how did you develop?
00:11:01 Dr Felix Agyemang
It like I mentioned earlier and I’ve always had interest.
00:11:04 Dr Felix Agyemang
Growing up in wanting to to solve the problems that I saw around me, which included higher value formality, you know, chaos, pollution, congestion. So doing my undergraduate and urban planning masters also in planning. Then my PhD also in in planning but PhD with urban modelling as the focus. So during my PhD.
00:11:25 Dr Felix Agyemang
It was during my future that I started developing this model and the aim was developing.
00:11:29 Dr Felix Agyemang
Goal that would predict the future locations or the locations of future residential development. So I developed for my PhD and find team that at the University of Bristol went to doctors on Fox. So what the model does is that it models that your special behaviour of the key actors.
00:11:49 Dr Felix Agyemang
Not responsible for for development.
00:11:52 Dr Felix Agyemang
In in many noble S cities, which are households as state developers and government. So it models how those 3 interact amongst themselves and also with space to predict their location, their legal status and their income status of future residential development. And the aim is that.
00:12:13 Dr Felix Agyemang
If we know.
00:12:14 Dr Felix Agyemang
Where future expansion is likely to occur, then we keep policy because non planners.
00:12:20 Dr Felix Agyemang
Enough time to run.
00:12:22 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Ahead. And how does it feel to sort of see your model rolled out in the place?
00:12:26 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
You grew up?
00:12:27 Dr Felix Agyemang
It’s amazing. I should, I should say that growing that the problems that I felt I could contribute to to solving that matter, point where for the floating model.
00:12:37 Dr Felix Agyemang
And the model.
00:12:38 Dr Felix Agyemang
Is being applied to those problems. It’s really a privilege and I feel proud, I should say.
00:12:43 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
I’m thinking about your kind of research and motivations.
00:12:47 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Do you feel hopeful?
00:12:48 Dr Felix Agyemang
It’s a good question and.
00:12:50 Dr Felix Agyemang
I I feel I feel.
00:12:51 Dr Felix Agyemang
Hopeful that progress has been made in terms of organization, research focused.
00:12:56 Dr Felix Agyemang
On the global side have policymakers and practitioners and apply the output of the research and the models that we develop is where I think and a lot more, a lot more work that needs to be done to really change the current pattern, because the pattern has hasn’t been great. Really. There seem to be.
00:13:16 Dr Felix Agyemang
Have a big gap between research and practice, really, especially in southern Africa, more work has to be done to really make the output of our research more beneficial to the people for which.
00:13:30 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Is there a country that you’ve looked at that you think is doing this really well?
00:13:35 Dr Felix Agyemang
I mean generally.
00:13:36 Dr Felix Agyemang
Developed countries and largely in the West, tend to play as little Belfast and so on research and also the implementation. The UK for instance.
00:13:44 Dr Felix Agyemang
If you look at.
00:13:45 Dr Felix Agyemang
The 2010 reforms in the planning system.
00:13:47 Dr Felix Agyemang
That took place.
00:13:48 Dr Felix Agyemang
By the then and coalition government. And I mean there.
00:13:51 Dr Felix Agyemang
Were a lot.
00:13:52 Dr Felix Agyemang
Of outcry about.
00:13:54 Dr Felix Agyemang
The scripting for instance original tier of planning, but what you couldn’t take away was the fact that that was based on commissioned work for instance kit because report, which of course you could argue with the findings, but you could you could see.
00:14:08 Dr Felix Agyemang
An approach that policymakers are taking was based on, you know, some form of research that have been commissioned and that, you know doesn’t happen in, in many developing countries.
00:14:18 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Well, hopefully with your research that can be achievable future, OK. And now in this part we’re going to give Steven like a little a little gift. And since we’re on the subject, is there any advice or information that you feel could benefit?
00:14:30 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
You know.
00:14:30 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Point in his course.
00:14:31
Yeah.
00:14:33 Dr Felix Agyemang
I’ll see. I’ll see that you.
00:14:34 Dr Felix Agyemang
Are you are in the right school or the right department when it comes to climate change, science and policy, which you are aware the School of Social Sciences has always been topping the research, the UK Research Excellence framework since since it was initiated, so you’ve got a lot of resources.
00:14:52 Dr Felix Agyemang
To tap from a lot of aspects in the field of of hydrology that you can always talk to and speak with. And I think that is a useful opportunity that you should, you should capitalise on or trust and possible to to actually make use of.
00:15:06 Stephen Pearson
You appreciate that Christmas is.
00:15:09 Stephen Pearson
Early.
00:15:12 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And Steven, do you have any words for prospective students about your time studying at Bristol on a particular course?
00:15:18 Stephen Pearson
Yeah, I think the main thing would be just speak to people like when you’ve got folks like Felix around the department, like, there’s such great experts in the field, like, speak with them. My.
00:15:29 Stephen Pearson
Tutor is Rachel James and she’s a global expert, again in modelling of precipitation events, weather events, these sorts of things, and. But there’s also the Cabot Institute at Bristol, which there are loads of opportunities there in terms of Environmental Research, there’s a lot of academic contacts.
00:15:45 Stephen Pearson
With the met off.
00:15:46 Stephen Pearson
I’m doing my dissertation with the mayor office and which will be really exciting and I’m going to go down to Exeter for a few weeks to work in their headquarters and just things like that. If you speak with people and make the most of your time here, it’s such a great opportunity to speak with some of the leading researchers in what is one of the most exciting.
00:16:07 Stephen Pearson
Fields in science at the minute.
00:16:09 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And looking to the future a bit, where do you imagine your own studies and research will lead you?
00:16:14 Stephen Pearson
I should probably say, who knows I’ve.
00:16:16 Stephen Pearson
My dear, working for an organization like that moving forward would be something I’d be interested in at the moment I would like to do a PhD at some point and but I’m already kind of resigned to the fact that I don’t know what I want that to be yet, so I’ll definitely take a couple of years working in industry or research to kind of get a better idea.
00:16:37 Stephen Pearson
Of what specific direction? Because it is a big commitment.
00:16:40 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Feel. Let’s let’s.
00:16:41 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Talk about your future. You have a diverse range of research subjects. Are you steering it all in a certain direction?
00:16:48 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Or are you quite free in your overall journey?
00:16:51 Dr Felix Agyemang
Yeah, that’s a.
00:16:52 Dr Felix Agyemang
Good one. Yeah. I seem to have diverse interest, but the principal interest is with cities and cities by the cities in the global South.
00:16:59 Dr Felix Agyemang
Because for me, I’m.
00:17:01 Dr Felix Agyemang
Thinking of areas where I could I could make the most impact. I feel the area where I can make most impacts and develop in cities which like I’ve stated.
00:17:10 Dr Felix Agyemang
Account for most of the organization that will take place in the next few.
00:17:16 Dr Felix Agyemang
And like developed cities, largely in the West, urbanization hasn’t necessarily occasioned well-being. Yes, in some parts of the global S has occasioned economic growth, and that is, if you look at the economic growth from the perspective of, you know, GDP and those and macroeconomic indicators.
00:17:35 Dr Felix Agyemang
However, if you look at the growth in terms of the standard of living of people in their communities, humanisation Africa hasn’t necessarily yielded positive outcome. I mean, it’s been, it’s been a mixed bag and.
00:17:48 Dr Felix Agyemang
If we don’t.
00:17:50 Dr Felix Agyemang
Pursue more research that helps us deepen understand.
00:17:55 Dr Felix Agyemang
And of how cities in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the global South and evolve, then these problems are going to exacerbate because the the 90% or the.
00:18:07 Dr Felix Agyemang
2.5 billion.
00:18:08 Dr Felix Agyemang
Airplane population increase that is expected in the global SI mean in Asia and and in Africa would either contribute to the.
00:18:15 Dr Felix Agyemang
Realization of wealth or urbanization of power.
00:18:18 Dr Felix Agyemang
And I feel that if we can develop position making decision support systems like like my model and to guide decision making in these part of the world, we are more likely to achieve realization of wealth realization of an improved standard of living as opposed to organization of poverty and urbanization of environmental.
00:18:38 Dr Felix Agyemang
Relation pollution or their tender negative externality.
00:18:42 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
We’ll end on our optimistic note that an improved standard of living is possible if the right support system and models are in place when it comes to the urbanisation of the global S Felix. Stephen, thank you so much for your time.
00:18:54 Dr Felix Agyemang
Thank you very much Ruby.
00:18:55 Stephen Pearson
Thank you for having us.
00:19:00 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Thank you for listening to research volunteers from Bristol University. We hope you found inspiration, information, answers and more in all of these great conversations. Don’t forget to check in over at www.bristol.ac.uk/study/postgraduate for more details on Bristol courses and information about Bristol University also.
00:19:19 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Keep the podcast nearby, subscribe to research frontiers wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and please do share with people who might benefit to you. Thank you for listening to research frontiers.
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