Scaling nature-based solutions for climate resilient infrastructure

Role: Research assistant, Sierra Leone
Project: Understanding the role of mangroves as drivers for socio-ecological resilience in Freetown’s informal settlements, Sierra Leone
Affiliation: Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
ORCID ID: 0009-0002-7293-8420
Email: yn285@cornell.edu

Yurim is an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. Holding a City and Regional Planning minor with a focus on informal settlements, she is passionate about collective capacity building, spatial injustice associated with rapid peri-urban sprawl, inclusive climate-smart green urbanisation strategies, and urban circular economy.

In 2024, she represented Korea at the WFUNA College Leaders at the UN, where she developed strategies to diversify Rwanda’s rural industries as a policy response to internal migration pressures. In continuation of her interest in international development, she has been engaging with agribusinesses in sub-Saharan Africa to build impact evaluation frameworks as a Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Team (SMART) fellow within the Emerging Markets Program at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Most recently, she published a paper assessing the fairness in Uganda’s small-scale carbon markets, examining agroforestry as a dual solution for climate change and community development, and identifying lingering structural and operational challenges in carbon crediting systems.

Intrigued by the importance of community-led development in response to climate change, Yurim joined the FOURISH project, focusing on understanding the role of mangroves as drivers for socio-ecological resilience in Freetown’s informal settlements. As a research assistant, she is digitising field notes from participatory workshops and contributing to the project’s dissemination report.