Project Sites
CiRe has various mixed-methods research projects on civic resilience in Southeast Asia ongoing, exploring how community organisation and civic technologies shape urban politics and development. We currently have projects spanning South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Projects At a Glance
AI for Just Climate Futures
Project Summary
This interdisciplinary project develops participatory AI tools that integrate government, private sector, and community-generated data to support climate resilience. Focusing on marginalized communities in Southeast Asia, the research preserves local environmental knowledge within AI systems and tests participatory approaches across three governance contexts. The project advances environmental justice theory and provides replicable frameworks for democratizing AI in climate adaptation.
The study will take place in Semarang, Indonesia and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In Semarang, we focus on fishing communities in Central Java’s port capital that face acute climate impacts from sea-level rise and intensifying floods that threaten both livelihoods and residential areas. This study levarages technical pilots conducted in Seoul using YOLO Computer Vision and LLM algorithms.
Perforating the City?
Project Summary
This workshop series explores how spatial and social practices—specifically engaging, commoning, and gardening—can foster interaction, understanding, and social permeability in increasingly polarized cities. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the series aims to generate critical dialogue, new insights, and collaborative outputs such as publications and an ongoing community of practice.
Feel Singapore
Project Summary
This project explores how people experience Singapore’s urban spaces through subjective and sensory dimensions. Using an interactive map and online platform, the project collects and visualises public perceptions on the city’s temperature, soundscapes, and neighbourhood change. By mapping these diverse lived experiences, the research examines how environmental conditions shape wellbeing and tests participatory approaches for integrating citizen perspectives into urban research and planning.
Paper Trails: Mapping the printing production networks using DIY sensors and image processing
Project Summary
This project maps the production networks of small and medium-sized printing firms in Seoul’s largest printing district. By following delivery vehicles equipped with GPS and GoPro sensors for two weeks, the study reconstructs firm interactions and activities, revealing the hierarchy and strategies that sustain urban manufacturing communities. The research contributes a “small data” methodology to access sensitive collaborative networks and highlights the critical role of delivery drivers in just-in-time production.
Streets after gentrification: industrial displacement monitoring through street view images
Project Summary
This project uses street view images to track industrial displacement in Seoul resulting from state-sanctioned redevelopment projects. By applying image recognition and OCR to shop facades and signboards, the study maps displaced businesses and traces their survival or relocation. The methodology addresses gaps in quantifying industrial gentrification and provides a richer picture of urban industrial change.
Digital Urban Heritage: Conservation and Coalition in Singapore
Project Summary
This project explores innovations in digital urban heritage and conservation, focusing on a case of ground-up activism to conserve a cultural site in Singapore. Through the case study of the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS) alumni campaign to save 37 Emerald Hill from redevelopment, the research highlights pragmatic, relational, and non-confrontational approaches that achieve tangible outcomes in urban conservation. The project integrates historical methods, qualitative GIS, 3D spatial mapping, and spatial ethnography to document women’s agency, collective memory, and spatial practices in the built environment.