Amanda Giang

Portrait photo of  Amanda  Giang

Amanda Giang

Assistant Professor, IRES
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Canada Research Chair (T2, Environmental Modelling for Policy)

Contact Details

AERL Building Room 434
2202 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada

amanda.giang[at]ubc.ca

Personal website

Research group website

Google Scholar

Research Interests

Climate change, Economic evaluation/analysis, Energy, Environment, Policy and Decision-making, Science-policy interface, Sustainability, Technology

Bio

Amanda Giang is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC. Her research addresses challenges at the interface of environmental modelling and policy through an interdisciplinary lens, with a focus on air pollution and toxic chemicals. She is interested in understanding how modelling and data analytics can better empower communities and inform policy decision-making. Current projects in her research group include developing digital tools to better understand and respond to environmental injustice in Canada, evaluating the impacts of technology and policy on air quality, and exploring how different kinds of knowledge are used in environmental assessment processes.

Projects

Click on each project below to view relevant papers.

Air quality and environmental justice in Canada

Giang, A., Boyd, D.R. §, Ono, A.J. and McIlroy-Young, B., 2022. Exposure, access, and inequities: Central themes, emerging trends, and key gaps in Canadian environmental justice literature from 2006 to 2017. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géograpje canadien. 66(3), pp.434-449. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12754 

Gardner-Frolick, R., Boyd, D.R. and Giang, A., 2022. Selecting Data Analytic and Modeling Methods to Support Air Pollution and Environmental Justice Investigations: A Critical Review and Guidance Framework. Environmental Science & Technology, 56(5), pp. 2843-2860. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c01739 

de Ferreyro Monticelli, D., Bhandari, S., Eykelbosh, A., Henderson, S.B., Giang, A., Zimmerman N., 2022. Cannabis Cultivation Facilities: A Review of Their Air Quality Impacts from the Occupational to Community Scale. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c06372

Giang, A. and Castellani, K., 2020. Cumulative air pollution indicators highlight unique patterns of injustice in urban Canada. Environmental Research Letters, 15(12), p.124063. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abcac5 

Evaluating the role of climate change and infrastructure design on the fate and transport of toxic pollutants

Rodgers, T. , Wang, Y. §, Humes, C., Jeronimo, M., Johannessen, C., Spraakman, S., Giang, A., Scholes, R. 2023. Bioretention cells provide a tenfold reduction in 6PPD-quinone mass loadings to receiving waters: Evidence from a field experiment and modeling. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 10(7), pp. 582-588. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00203 

Rodgers, T., Giang, A., Diamond, M., Gillies, E., Saini, A. 2023. Emissions and Fate of Organophosphate Esters in Outdoor Urban Environments. Nature Communications, 14:1175. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36455-7 

Li, M., Gillies, E.J., Briner, R., Hoover, C.A., Sora, K.J., Loseto, L.L., Walters, W.J., Cheung, W. and Giang, A., 2022. Investigating the dynamics of methylmercury bioaccumulation in the Beaufort Sea Shelf food web: a modeling perspective. Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts. 24(7), pp.1010-1025. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2EM00108J

Air quality, climate, and health impacts of energy transitions – technology, policy, and process

Laskar, I.I., Giang, A. 2023. Mitigation of in-use methane emissions from natural gas-powered shipping: A policy analysis. Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 3:025005. https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/accf33 

Chakraborty, M., Giang, A. and Zimmerman, N. 2023. Performance evaluation of portable dual-spot micro-aethalometers for source identification of Black Carbon aerosols: Application to wildfire smoke and traffic emissions in the Pacific Northwest. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 16:2333-2352. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2333-2023 

Barnard-Chumik, H., Cappe, N. and Giang, A., 2022. Knowledge Hierarchy and Mechanisms of Power in Environmental Impact Assessment: Insights from the Muskrat Falls Hydroelectric Project. The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien. 66(3), pp.462-484. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12758 

*Rossa-Roccor, V., Giang, A., Kershaw P., 2021. Framing climate change as a human health issue – enough to tip the scale in climate policy? The Lancet Planetary Health, Viewpoint, 5(8), e553-e559. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00113-3 

Scholarship of teaching and learning on interdisciplinary sustainability research training

Elder, S., Wittman, H., Giang, A. 2023. Building sustainability research competencies through scaffolded pathways for undergraduate research experience. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 11:1. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2022.00091 

Ramachandran, A., Abdi, K., Giang, A., Gladwin, D., Ellis, N. Collaborative Research Training in Higher Education: An Exploratory Canadian Case Study. Higher Education, Published Online October 24, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2022.2134312 

Ramachandran, A., Abdi, K., Giang, A., Gladwin, D. and Ellis, N., 2022. Transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary programmes for collaborative graduate research training. Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2022.2134312

Courses

ENVR  410 Energy, Environment, and Society

RES 520 Climate Change, Science, Technology, and Sustainable Development

CEEN 525 Energy Policy