Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning Zhenhua Chen has published Development Studies in Regional Science: Essays in Honor of Kingsley E. Haynes, along with co-editors William M. Bowen and Dale Whittington. Published by Springer Singapore, the book is part of the New Frontiers In Regional Science: Asian Perspectives series. 

For nearly 50 years, Kingsley Haynes has been dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in applied geography and regional science. He has worked and published widely not only in development studies but also in areas including transportation and telecommunication infrastructure investment, regional economic development, and analytic modeling for decision support. He has published over 220 peer-reviewed and academic publications with over 120 separate co-authors.  

The book examines major policy and planning issues in development studies from the regional science perspective. Using case studies that focus on different subfields, like infrastructure, environment, data science, sustainability, and resilience, it investigates questions such as: “How are communities able to deal with uncertainties raised by conflicts, technology, and external shocks in the process of development?”; “How can nations achieve sustainable development in terms of resource allocation and management?”; and “How can developing countries improve their economic competitiveness while maintaining the objectives of equitable and coordinated growth among different regions?”

Featuring contributions by leading academics and practitioners working at various organizations linked to international development, and including multidisciplinary analyses, the book would appeal to students who are interested in development studies and regional science. It also offers planners and policymakers fresh insights into regional economic development. 

Zhenhua Chen has previously published four books, including Chinese Railways in the Era of High Speed (Emerald, 2015), Economic Consequence Analysis of Disasters: The E-CAT Software Tool (Springer, 2017),  Big Data for Regional Science (Routledge, 2017), and High-Speed Rail and China’s New Economic Geography (Edward Elgar, 2019).

Chen's research interest includes infrastructure planning and policy, regional science, risk and resilience, and big data analytics. He is one of the lead developers of the Economic Consequence Analysis Tool, an Excel-VBA software that is intended for policymakers and analysts who need quick estimates of the economic impact of numerous threats, including terrorism, natural disasters, and technological accidents.

Development Studies in Regional Science: Essays in Honor of Kingsley E. Haynes is available at Springer.