Introduction
The 21st century is characterized by the powerful convergence of rapid urbanization and accelerating climate change. Now, for the first time, more than half of humanity lives in cities. While these dense urban centres are engines of global development, they have also become epicentres of systemic risk. To address these challenges, leading experts across wind engineering, climate science, fire safety, geotechnical and environmental engineering as well as engineering risk and machine learning at City University of Hong Kong formed a collaborative union. This interdisciplinary effort harnessed a powerful synergy, culminating in the Disaster and Climate-Resilient Urban (DCRU) Cluster. Under the leadership of Prof. LI Qiusheng (Leader) and Prof. LEE Wai Ming Eric (Deputy Leader), the DCRU Cluster is dedicated to developing integrated solutions that prevent and mitigate the severity of urban disasters.
Highlights in Research
Climate Resilience
The DCRU Cluster addresses atmospheric and hydrological hazards. We are specialized in wind engineering, structural dynamics and risk assessment. Our expertise also covers extreme rainfall, flooding, and tropical cyclone forecasting.
Geohazard Prevention
The Cluster also works to ensure foundational stability against ground-based threats. It is specialized in the micromechanics of geomaterials, using μCT, DEM modelling, and machine learning. It also focuses on research in geomechanics, tribology and probabilistic-based mechanics. Its expertise also includes environmental geotechnics, energy geotechnics, multi-scale geomechanics and emerging geo-materials.
Pollution Mitigation
The team tackles environmental health crises in urban settings. Its research areas also cover indoor/outdoor air quality, built environment assessment, and the application of CFD and soft computing. It is also specialized in leveraging biology, pan-omics, and smart technology to address challenges like carbon reduction, waste pollution, and built environment renewal.
Fire Safety
The DCRU Cluster focuses on mitigating fire-related risks in urban environments. Its expertise covers computational fluid dynamics, fire-retardant materials, and machine learning applications in fire engineering. It is also specialized in in multiscale fire modelling,
multiphase flows, heat and mass transfer. Also, its research area includes human behaviour during emergencies, building evacuation, and crowd dynamics especially in fire situations.
Representative Projects
Project title: Enhancing Energy Harvesting and Typhoon Resilience of Offshore Wind Turbines in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area under Climate Change
Project Coordinator: Prof. LI Qiusheng
Funding Support: Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, Research Impact Fund (RIF)
Funding Amount: HKD 9.6M
Project Abstract: Coastal regions such as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) are facing increasingly severe climate change- associated impacts and hazards. Deploying offshore wind turbines has become an attractive alternative for energy-system decarbonization and climate change mitigation in the GBA. The proposed project aims to spatiotemporally assess offshore wind resources, optimize wind farm layouts, evaluate typhoon wind hazards, and investigate typhoon-induced structural loads and response of offshore wind turbines in the GBA with consideration of climate change impacts. The deliverables of the projects include a collection of offshore wind resource and typhoon hazard maps that account for climate change, a multi-objective wind farm layout optimization model, and a framework for evaluating structural loads and response of offshore wind turbines. These deliverables will provide important and valuable information for offshore wind energy development, foster the economic performance of offshore wind farms in the GBA, accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to green wind energy, and help reduce carbon emissions and achieve the carbon neutrality goals.
Project title: Relocation of Tsuen Wan No. 2 Fresh Water Service Reservoir to Caverns
Project Coordinator: Prof. LEE Wai Ming Eric
Client: Atkins Realis
Project Abstract: The team acts as a fire safety expert to assist Waterworks Department of HKSAR on vetting the fire engineering proposal submitted by fire consultant.
Research Facilities
1. Wind Tunnel Lab
Major Equipment List
-Boundary-layer-type Wind Tunnel
-Small Wind Tunnel
2. Fluid Dynamics Lab
Main Equipment List
-Water Channel GUNT HM162
-Water Channel C4-MKII-2.5M
-Air Duct Systems GUNT HK710
-Hydraulics Bench (GUNT) × 2
-Hydraulics Bench (Armfield) × 2
3. Advanced 3M Geomaterials Lab
Main Equipment List
-GDS Automated Triaxial Test System with upgrade to apply dynamics pressure inside the soil apparatus
-GDS Instrument #GDSTAS High Pressure Triaxial System 50KN/14MPA/38MM with accessories
-GDS Instruments #ELDYN Enterprise Level Dynamic/Cyclic Triaxial Testing System, 5KN/5HZ
-Miniature single particle crushing, oedometer, triaxial and triaxial-erosion apparatuses suitable for in-situ X-ray microtomography testing
4. Fire Safety and Disaster Prevention Group
The Fire Safety and Disaster Prevention Group (FSDP) was established in 2004 with the mission of enhancing fire safety and disaster prevention in buildings.
5. Research Geomechanics & Tribology Lab
Main Equipment List
-GDS Electromechanical Hollow Cylinder Apparatus 0.5HZ/10KN/100NM
-GDS Bender Element System & Pressure Interface Chamber
-GDS #ADVTTS Bishop & Wesley-type Advanced Triaxial Stress Path System
-High-Pressure Triaxial (Stress Path) System
-Interface (tribological) apparatus (static/dynamic, small/large size) & Impact Apparatus
-High-Performance Computing Facilities
Research Cluster Member List
| Faculty Member | Position |
|---|---|
| Prof. LI Qiusheng (Cluster Leader) |
Chair Professor of Civil Engineering |
| Prof. LEE Wai Ming (Deputy Cluster Leader) |
Professor |
| Prof. YUEN Kwok Kit Richard | Chair Professor |
| Prof. LU Weizhen Jane | Professor |
| Prof. WANG Jianfeng Jeff |
Professor |
| Prof. Kostas SENETAKIS | Associate Professor |
| Prof. CHEN Timothy Bo Yuan | Assistant Professor |
| Prof. KWOK Fiona | Assistant Professor |
| Prof. LU Ping | Assistant Professor |
| Prof. TAN Giin Yu Amy | Assistant Professor |