Centre for the Environment
 

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Yu-Ting Tang

Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Biography

I acquired the knowledge of chemistry, pharmacology and molecular biology during my undergraduate years in the School of Pharmacy in the National Taiwan University. I worked in a cancer research lab since the summer break of my third years. It continued until I obtained a master degree in Biochemistry. Through experimenting using cells and genetic materials, I learned the logic of experiment designs. Hoping to gain a fuller understanding of the interaction between lives and nature environment, I decided to go for postgraduate study at Duke University. There, I further learnt the concept of risk assessment, applying the results of toxicological tests and pollutant fate and transport modelling to quantify the ecological and human health risk resulting from being exposed to environmental hazards.

After graduation, I worked in an environmental consultant company in Ohio and performed human health risk assessments on polluted sites. I observed the review process of the regulatory revision in Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for the brownfield redevelopment program and assisted establishing the technical guidance for the risk assessment. With this experience, I joined the research group in Sinotech Engineering Consultant in Taiwan. Between 2003 and 2005, I contributed to the establishment of human health risk assessment technique guidance for soil and groundwater pollution for the Environmental Protection Administration. After the guideline was announced in 2006, I provided advices to the responsible parties who expecting to establish the remediation strategies using the guidance.

The problems I observed during this period gradually developed into the topic that I hope to conduct further study. I considered the policy framework for brownfield redevelopment in Taiwan transferred from the USA insufficient to handle the local brownfield issues. As my PhD study in the University of Nottingham progressed, I expanded my analyses on the effects of brownfield on environmental sustainability to social and economic sustainability.

Before coming to China from Nottingham, I was conducting post-doctoral research in the School of Geography. The work is supported by a European framework 7 project (Holistic management of brownfield regeneration, HOMBRE) to evaluate the potential of brownfield origination. I reviewed the possible economic indicators for brownfield origination, most of them relevant to deindustrialisation. My task is to establish possible evaluation criteria for the indicators

Expertise Summary

My research interest is primarily on one type of environmental policy, brownfied regeneration. The policy encourages safely and effectively reusing the derelict land and abandoned properties resulted from de-industrialisation or suburbanisation. The recycling of land may prevent further exploitation of undeveloped nature environment and rebuild the local economy and society.

Because of the relevancy of this policy to the environmental protection and socio-economic development, the sustainable development is pretty much the guiding principle of the policy making of brownfield regeneration. Consequently, I also look into the pursuit of sustainable development by different countries or institutions: the ways countries and international organisations put the concept of sustainability into the context of development or into policy makings.

Teaching Summary

Undergraduate (Nottingham, Ningbo):

Module Convenor; Environmental Science Tutorials, Interpreting Environmental Data

Teaching Staff; Environmental Science Dissertation, Global Environmental Processes (Biogeochemistry), Introduction to the Environment.

Research Summary

Preliminary research on the urban transition of ancient Ningbo, primarily the ways human activities and environmental changes interact. Currently, I focus on the interaction between population… read more

Recent Publications

Current Research

Preliminary research on the urban transition of ancient Ningbo, primarily the ways human activities and environmental changes interact. Currently, I focus on the interaction between population increase in the areas and the expanding of artifitical water network.

Past Research

My research interest was primarily on one type of environmental policy, brownfied regeneration. The policy encourages safely and effectively reusing the derelict land and abandoned properties resulted from de-industrialisation or suburbanisation. The recycling of land may prevent further exploitation of undeveloped nature environment and rebuild the local economy and society.

Because of the relevancy of this policy to the environmental protection and socio-economic development, the sustainable development is pretty much the guiding principle of the policy making of brownfield regeneration. Consequently, I also looked into the pursuit of sustainable development by different countries or institutions: the ways countries and international organisations put the concept of sustainability into the context of development or into policy makings.

Centre for the Environment

C/O School of Geography
The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 846 7712