Dr Yunyu Tian is chosen as the winner of the RSAI dissertation award in 2023 for her PhD dissertation entitled “Earth Observation data for assessing global urbanization-sustainability nexuses”, which was successfully defended (with a cum laude distinction) on 6 June 2023 at Wageningen University and Research.

The cum laude distinction (only given to around 5% of all PhD students at Wageningen University) was awarded by an extended evaluation committee of nine persons.  Dr Tian’s PhD dissertation made significant contributions towards the knowledge of urbanization and environmental changes at the global scale. The thesis included highly innovative methodological features such as the use of multi-source (and high quality) Earth Observation data and social data, contributing to academic and policy knowledge relating to global urbanization and sustainability as well as their nexus at the neighbourhood level. Part of the thesis has already been published in the form of academic peer-reviewed papers in the journals Landscape and Urban Planning (2022) and Environmental Research Letters (2022). 

The RSAI congratulates Dr. Tian and her supervisors Professor Martin Herold and Professor Eveline van Leeuwen (Wageningen University).