Suwan Shen

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Associate Professor at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Coastal communities face escalating risks from rising sea levels and the increasing growth of vulnerable, aging populations in high-risk zones. These threats are expected to intensify as population growth and aging trends continue. In response to these challenges, this study represents a novel investigation into the synergistic impacts of demograph...

Objectives Quantifying the number of older adults that are food insecure in a specific geographic area is critical in developing and scaling public health prevention and response programs at the local level. However, current estimates of older adult food insecurity only consider financial constraints, following the same methodology as the general p...

OBJECTIVES: Quantifying the number of older adults that are food insecure in a specific geographic area is critical in developing and scaling public health prevention and response programs at the local level. However, current estimates of older adult food insecurity only consider financial constraints, following the same methodology as the general...

Due to global warming and rising sea levels, Honolulu, Hawai’i—a city on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean—is becoming more vulnerable to climate disasters. This article utilizes a mixed-method approach to investigate the challenges of maintaining disaster relief supply chains in the face of the emerging risks to Honolulu. We conduct eighteen in...

Due to global warming and rising sea levels, Honolulu, Hawai’i—a city on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean—is becoming more vulnerable to climate disasters. This article utilizes a mixed-method approach to investigate the challenges of maintaining disaster relief supply chains in the face of the emerging risks to Honolulu. We conduct eighteen in...

Evaluating the performance of air quality models for roadside traffic exhaust dispersion is critical to sustainable environmental development and urban pollution management. This study introduces three models, namely CAL3QHC, ENVI-met and ANSYS Fluent, to model the pollutant dispersion at an isolated busy urban signalized intersection, by taking fi...

Tidal flooding, a tangible, present-day result of sea-level rise, has caused roadway damage and transportation system closures as well as delays, disruptions, and economic losses. There is a need for more research, understanding, and planning for the management of this threat to transportation services. Using data on tidal flooding, transportation...

Groundwater elevations in coastal cities will be affected by climate-change-induced sea level rise (SLR) and wastewater collection systems will experience increased groundwater infiltration (GWI) due to greater submergence of sewer pipes. Commercial sewer hydraulics models consider GWI to be a constant quantity estimated via a low-flow monitoring c...

Using descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, one-way ANOVA, and an environmental justice lens, we considered the social and physical vulnerability factors associated with climate change and flood-related disaster declarations for Alaska Native Villages (ANVs), which are indigenous communities. We found that, on average, compared with communi...

Successful development of new towns is vital for a healthy, highly efficient, sustainable, and symbiotic metropolis. By quantitatively comparing the spatial characteristics and evolution processes between mother city and new towns using a multinomial logit (MNL)–based cellular automata (CA) land-use change model, this study aims to find solutions f...

Published evidence shows that views to blue spaces (e.g. ocean, lake, and river) have positive effects on humans' health and mental well-beings. However, quantitative assessment of blue space visibility is challenging for large spatial areas with complex terrain or built environment. The assessment approach introduced in this study applied an innov...

Nowadays, the massive car-hailing data has become a popular source for analyzing traffic operation and road congestion status, which unfortunately has seldom been extended to capture detailed on-road traffic emissions. This study aims to investigate the relationship between road traffic emissions and the related built environment factors, as well a...

With the development of in-vehicle data collection devices, GPS trajectory has become a priority source to identify traffic congestion and understand the operational states of road network in recent years. This study aims to investigate the relationship between traffic congestion and built environment, including traffic-related factors and land use...

Critical infrastructures are essential for the society and economy. In recent years, climate change has been identified as an urgent and growing threat to critical infrastructures, and many studies have been conducted to assess the vulnerability of critical infrastructures to climate change. However, despite these research efforts, the vulnerabilit...

When compared to large cities in developed countries, the shares of public transportation in most Chinese cities are low. Increasing the competitiveness of urban public transportation remains an urgent problem. A capable evaluation method for public transportation is required to assist the development of urban transit systems. This paper focuses on...

A case study in an old city district with hot-humid climatic conditions in Wuhan, China was conducted to explore the potential renewal strategies favorable to the local residents and pedestrians. For this purpose, a comprehensive mathematical model considering the parameters such as ambient crosswind, solar radiation, natural convection, and a prev...

Disruptions of vulnerable links in transportation networks have been widely recognized as a serious safety issue, generating both traffic congestion and significant traffic emissions. This paper aims to consolidate a proposed land-use adaptation (LUA) strategy into transportation vulnerability assessment, quantitatively exploring the question about...

The National Research Council recently announced that climate change would greatly affect the performance of transportation and urban infrastructures. More frequent precipitation and storms will significantly increase the frequency and magnitude of flooding, which in turn threatens the reliability of urban infrastructures. Intent to help decision m...

Recent studies indicate that climate change will severely threaten our transportation system. As one of the most obvious and direct impacts of climate change, sea level rise is a major concern to the coastal community, especially in regard to transportation infrastructure. Intent to help transportation planners and engineers better understand the i...