ARDHI UNIVERSITY
African Centre for Sustainable Cities Studies
History
The African Centre for Sustainable Cities Studies (ACS) was established in 2021. The initiative for establishment of the Centre came from the support by Vlir-uos. ACS is envisaged to (i) build capacity in education and training, research, innovation and societal outreach to contribute in generating solutions to urban challenges and contribute to the sustainable growth of Dar es Salaam and its wider region in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in general and SDG11 in particular, and (ii) make ARU an internationally recognized, inclusive, civic university that responds to societal and environmental problems. The vision of the ACS is to contribute in attaining a world with inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities in accordance with SDG 11 and its mission is to advance research and education for sustainable cities development and to contribute in generating solutions to societal and environmental problems related to urban development.
Governance
ACS is a University recognized Centre governed by director, coordinators and advisory board. The ACS have three coordinators. The research coordinator will coordinate all research activities. Education and training coordinator will have a duty and responsibility of coordinating all PhDs and Masters training in liaison with sub-projects team leaders, and Inclusive societal outreach coordinator will coordinate all outreach and dissemination activities related to projects by working closely with team leaders.
ACS TEAM
Dr. Atupelye Weston Komba
ACS Coordinator for Education and Training
Dr. Atupelye Komba is a lecturer and researcher in the field of environmental science development at Ardhi University. She holds a BSc. in Geoinformatics from Ardhi University, MSc. in Environmental Science, and PhD in Environmental Science Development, both from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Her research interests focus on applications of remote sensing and GIS in developing indicators for monitoring environmental changes to facilitate decision-making. Recently, she has been using satellite imagery to investigate ecosystem changes surrounding protected areas in East Africa.
Dr. Lukuba N. Sweya
ACS Coordinator of the Participatory and Interdisciplinary Research Unit
Dr. Lukuba Sweya is an academician and researcher with a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research focuses on disaster resilience for environmental systems like water supply, wastewater, sanitation, and drainage. He argues that environmental challenges require a multidimensional approach encompassing technical, organizational, social, economic, and environmental aspects.
Dr. Sweya has published over 15 journal articles and works as a reviewer for various journals in his field. In 2019, he contributed to the UNDRR Global Assessment Report (GAR) for disaster risk reduction and received recognition for his interdisciplinary research.
Dr. Deodatus Patrick Shayo
ACS Coordinator of the Inclusive Societal Outreach Unit
Dr. Deodatus Patrick Shayo is a senior lecturer and researcher in the Department of Economics and Social Studies, Ardhi University. He is a Vice-Chair, International Political Science Association (IPSA), Research Committee (RC10) – Electronic Democracy. He holds a B.A with Education and M.A in Political Science and Public Administration both from the University of Dar es Salaam, and a PhD in Political Science from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Muenster, Germany. His PhD research focuses on crowdsourcing and digitalization of democratic processes. His key areas of research interests include: community crowdsourcing, inclusive digital governance, digital politics, local democracy, digital services and related aspects of inclusive and sustainable digital communities.
MEMBERS
Staff affiliated to ACS are embedded in different Schools and Institute at Ardhi University
PHD STUDENTS
MASTERS STUDENTS
INTERNS
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