Jieling Liu is a PhD researcher in the interdisciplinary Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies, a joint initiative between the University of Lisbon and New University of Lisbon. She comes from Guangzhou (Cantão), Southeast China, with an academic background in Political Sciences and Journalism. Jieling is also junior researcher in ‘Urban Health and Wellbeing: a Systems Approach (ISC-IAP-UNU)’ – A global interdisciplinary science programme of the International Science Council (ISC), hosted by the Institute of Urban Environment (IUE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Before joining the PhD Program, Jieling worked as journalist and managing editor for a publication agency Redstar Works based in the coastal city of Qingdao, China, where she was responsible for producing three English-Chinese bilingual magazines – REDSTAR, Qingdao Family & Shandong Education Guide, covering topics of contemporary cultural, educational, socio-economic and environmental affairs.

Jieling’s thesis examines the planning and governance of urban green spaces as common-pool resources for climate change adaptation, health and wellbeing, and institutional change in the context of rapid socio-economic urban development in China, with specific case studies drawn from the city of Guangzhou, a low-laying coastal city in Southeast China facing severe challenges of climate change including sea level rise, intensified heatwaves, heavier monsoon rainfalls and stronger tropical cyclones. Her thesis is applied with the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework (IAD Framework) developed by the American political economist and Nobel economics laureate Elinor Ostrom.

Jieling’s thesis is supervised by Prof. Dr. Franz Gatzweiler, ecological economist and Executive Director of the aforementioned global interdisciplinary science programme ‘Urban Health and Wellbeing: a Systems Approach (ISC-IAP-UNU),’ and co-supervised by Dr. Olivia Bina, Principal Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography and Resource Management of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).