This site presents projects across a multitude of topics and locations, generally fielded in the design disciplines. I believe most complex problems can be advanced and mediated through design, using a wide recognition of urban processes, economy, ecologies and social observations.
Biography
My work focuses on the advanced modeling and representation of ecological phenomena, geospatial and heavy data, with applied research covering environmental risk, policy, and the equitable distribution of physical resources. I offer studio and lecture courses on regional landscape planning, landscape media, and GIS and research-based seminars on environmental conservation, modernization and rural development in China, Southeast Asia and Latin America. My current research targets three areas: 1) Advocating for multi-scale landscape planning in economic, humanitarian, and rural development in Myanmar, Nepal and Peru; 2) Urban environmental conservation and development in Hong Kong; and 3) Topology structures for complex spatial and environmental design.
Forum on Sustainable Infrastructure with ADB and WWF
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), together with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, hosted the Forum on Sustainable Infrastructure: Integrating Climate Resilience and Natural Capital into Transport Infrastructure Planning and Design on May 17 and 18 in Hanoi, Vietnam.
During the forum, Ashley Scott Kelly presented innovative ways that design-level considerations can drive sustainable infrastructure planning. His talk, "Infrastructure, Impact and Uncertainty: Scenario-based approaches to upstream design, wildlife connectivity and sustainable construction in transport planning for southern Myanmar", included work on the Dawei Road Link with Dorothy Tang at HKU, WWF, and Smithsonian.
Design Manual for Dawei Road
Tang, D., and Kelly, A.S. (2016). Design Manual: Building a Sustainable Road to Dawei. Worldwide Fund for Nature (Myanmar). 76pp.
Wildlife Crossing
Kelly, A.S., Connette, G., Helsingen, H., and Paing Soe. (2016). Wildlife Crossing: Locating species' movement corridors in Tanintharyi. Worldwide Fund for Nature (Myanmar). 49pp.
HK Development and Conservation Roundtable
Land Development and Conservation in Hong Kong - Roundtable and Workshop convened a panel of academics and NGOs to debate land supply over an interactive mapping platform that composites and visualizes key land data across scales.
3D Terrain Models
3D-printed models of landscape design scenarios for data-poor sites, January 2016
Kelly, A.S., and Tang, D.
Infrastructure scenarios shown at conservation technology symposium in Washington DC
Modelling Infrastructure Scenarios in Data-Poor Regions:
Land change, mitigation strategies, and 3D-printed landscapes
Ashley Scott Kelly, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
Dorothy Tang, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
Hanna Helsingen, Green Economy Team Lead, WWF Myanmar
Nirmal Bhagabati, Senior Scientist, Natural Capital, WWF US
A series of 3D-printed surface models detail design solutions for mitigating impacts of new road infrastructure on wildlife habitat and ecosystem services in southern Myanmar. More methodology than pure technology, these models facilitate dialogue on possible futures and exhibit the increasing levels of detail and narrative achievable with innovative approaches to site design in places that otherwise lack specific data and resolution.
Exhibited at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Fuller Symposium 2015: Wired in the Wild: Can technology save the planet?, National Geographic, Washington DC.
Preliminary Announcement, Hong Kong Land Development Roundtable
Land Development and Conservation in Hong Kong - Roundtable and Workshop
Development debates surrounding conversion of Hong Kong's conservation areas are understandably polarized. These conversations will remain superficial and without traction unless a strategy can be developed for systematically analysing the Development Bureau's "multi-pronged" approaches. While action to improve country park continuity has waned since clear advances two years ago, zoning amendments for some 150 proposed housing locations, almost half within Green Belts, are ongoing to fulfill the Bureau's short-term development goals. Medium- and long-term strategies, including development of country parks and reclamation studies, parallel these efforts. Planners, academics, and citizens must be both supportive and critical of piecemeal and negotiated approaches to development, especially where conservation land uses are at stake. The need for territory-wide dialogue is imminent.
Announcing DCAM Pilot for Tanintharyi, Myanmar
The Development and Conservation Awareness Map (DCAM) is being piloted in Myanmar's Tanintharyi Region with civil society groups and international NGOs. The objective is to coordinate often contradictory knowledge of development projects, at any stage of planning and operation, impacting the region and to facilitate dialogue. This is paramount given the current climate of domestic and international investment in Tanintharyi, the complex state of dual-administration, the simultaneous presence of several international NGOs, the persistence of displaced persons and ethnic conflict, the drafting of new land use plans, forest laws, and impact requirements, and not least the region's critical ecological value. As new plans for projects are discovered or as existing projects change course, they can be added to the map via simple drawing tools, uploading, and commentary by the platform's diverse user groups.
