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Brief
As communities around the world grapple with increased climate risks, they’re confronting tough questions about who has a right to the land, how to live with environmental dynamism, and who gets to decide. This presentation shares interrelated research projects on the role of property rights in Taiwan’s flood risk reduction efforts. One compares the evolving land relations and property rights of Han and Indigenous communities living on the frontlines of climate change. Another examines redevelopment mechanisms that have allowed the government to expropriate large tracts of land without full compensation for the purposes of building flood infrastructure. Together, this research shows how Taiwan’s flood risk reduction efforts have come at the cost of the land rights of its most marginalized residents. The injustices and future financial infeasibility of these practices highlight the need for Taiwan to consider alternative adaptation pathways under climate change.

Speaker
Linda Shi is an associate professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Her research concerns how to plan for urban climate adaptation in ways that improve environmental sustainability and social justice. She studies how aspects of urban land governance — including the fiscalization of land use, property rights regimes, and metropolitan regional institutions — shape climate vulnerability and adaptation responses. An urban environmental planner by training, Shi has worked for AECOM, the Institute for International Urban Development, and the Rocky Mountain Institute and consulted for the World Bank and American Institute of Architects on projects and research in the U.S., Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Shi received a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, a master's in urban planning from Harvard GSD, and a bachelor's and master's in environmental management from Yale University.

Note
This lecture requires advance registration and will be conducted in English as an in-person presentation, with no online participation available.