Chingwen Cheng

About

Chingwen Cheng is the director of the Stuckeman School at Penn State University, having assumed the role on July 1, 2023. She previously served as the program head and associate professor of landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental design at the Design School at Arizona State University. Cheng is a climate justice design educator and advocate for climate actions through co-designing nature-based solutions with communities. Her research focuses on evaluating social-ecological landscape performance, sustainable and resilient urban water systems, and green infrastructure for climate justice. She founded and directed the Hydro-GI Lab, which evaluates design processes and outcomes of nature-based solutions for climate justice, integrating theories of social vulnerability and environmental justice to develop the “Climate Justicescape” assessment framework. Cheng has published extensively in high-impact journals and collaborates across disciplines and international networks to advance urban resilience and climate justice. She is a registered professional landscape architect, LEED-Accredited Professional, and has received numerous awards for her research, teaching, and professional contributions.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Environmental planning
• Environmental science
• Environmental resource management
• Geography
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Ecology
• Computer Security
• Business

Selected publications

• Nature-Based Solutions Scenario Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

  Land · 2024-09-10 · 22 citations

  articleOpen access

  Extreme climatic conditions cause a decrease in ecosystem services, the disruption of the ecological balance, and damage to human populations, especially in areas with socially vulnerable groups. Nature-based solutions applying blue-green infrastructure (BGI) against these negative impacts of climate change have an important role in planning sustainable cities. This study aims to identify priority areas and develop scenarios and strategies for spatial planning to understand the tradeoffs in appr…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Desert urban ecology: urban forest, climate, and ecosystem services

  Environment Development and Sustainability · 2024-11-30 · 9 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Towards the Conceptual Framing of Inclusive Urban Flood Resilience

  Climate · 2025-06-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  The governance of cities in low-elevation zones faces many challenges. Notable among these are losses associated with regular pluvial floods and, more so, the threat of impending extreme floods due to climate change and their impacts on residents, especially amongst socially vulnerable groups. This is exacerbated by the reliance on traditionally exclusive approaches to governance. This paper discusses the flood resilience aspect of urban planning by examining the extent of emphasis on inclusiven…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Redrawing our urban waters

  2022-03-09 · 2 citations

  book-chapter

  Decentralized (or distributed) urban water systems managed at the local level can create, especially when created using a multidisciplinary approach, mutually reinforcing benefits for sustainability and equity, including (1) highly integrated systems for wastewater, stormwater, ground and surface water, and drinking water; (2) more resilient systems with greater adaptive capacity; (3) increased levels of ecological responsiveness; (4) more cost-effective and lower footprint infrastructure; (5) e…

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction to Section 1

  2022-03-09 · 1 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The sustainability of urban development goals relies on the transformative capacity of community resilience. The outcomes of social-ecological-technological systems (SETs) framework include enhancing risk communications between communities and stakeholders and facilitate decision making in order to prioritize resources for vulnerable communities to cope with climate change. The need to address climate justice locally and enhance community resilience is crucial to ensure sustainable development i…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Timon McPhearson

  New School

  9 shared

• Aditi S. Bhaskar

  University of Colorado Boulder

  8 shared

• Kristina G. Hopkins

  South Atlantic Water Science Center

  6 shared

• Lauren McPhillips

  Pennsylvania State University

  6 shared

• Amber Pulido

  Colorado State University

  6 shared

• Benjamin Choat

  6 shared

• T. Meixner

  University of Arizona

  5 shared

• Robert L. Ryan

  5 shared

Education

• PhD in Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

  University of Massachusetts

  2013

• MLA, Landscape Architecture

  University of Michigan

  2001

• BS, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

  National Taiwan University

  1998

Awards & honors

• Knowledge Enterprise Honorable Mention (outstanding research…
• Diversity Virtual Travel Awards (mentor), 2021 IALE-North Am…
• U.S. EPA Campus RainWorks Challenge 2019, Second Place, Demo…
• Educator of the Year, Arizona Chapter American Society of La…
• Director’s Choice Award for Services, The Design School, Ari…

Similar researchers at Pennsylvania State University

• Martin Hollandh-26
• Charles Andrew "Andy" Coleh-17
• Peter Stempelh-9