Fall 2008 Issue

Tih-Fen Ting

Mission Sustainability

By Amy Spies Karhliker

Tih-Fen Ting

“I want students to become ecologically aware, literate, responsible citizens who make constructive social changes,” said Tih-Fen Ting, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Ting grew up in the city of Taipei, Taiwan, which sits in the great Danshui River basin. She has an undergraduate degree in biology from Tunghai University and studied birds at the Institute of Zoology in Academia Sinica – the premier research institution in Taiwan. From there, Ting applied to graduate school in the States. She earned her master’s degree from Humboldt State University in Arcata, Cal., and studied the northern spotted owl while there. For her doctoral work, she focused on human populations and human-environment interactions; she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Ting challenges us, as a community, to become aware of our place in the world and the actions we take. The environment provides services to the human community. Our actions, she says, affect Tih-Fen Ting our environment and, ultimately, our health.

For her dissertation research, Ting concentrated on human reproductive behavior from an ecological perspective. She examined how government policies, social class, family organization and wealth influence reproductive decision-making. Her research “hook” demanded that she examine these factors during a period of what she calls “demographic transition:” “My dissertation study,” she said, “allowed me to examine the shifts in reproductive patterns over time, parental investment strategies and the effects of household composition on fertility during the first 35 years of the People’s Republic of China.”

Specifically, Ting focused on the Chinese population during the dramatic social and political changes in Mao Tse Tung’s “Great Leap Forward” and “Cultural Revolution,” attempts to achieve egalitarianism and collective abundance. Mao attempted to eliminate the elite ruling class by replacing it with the peasant class. “While the intentions were good,” she said, “a reverse stratification of social hierarchies occurred.” In other words, those who had been oppressed became the oppressors; those who previously had resources suddenly had none – and many were tortured or died as a result of the political upheaval. Ting argues in her dissertation that “the interplay of individual resource availability and sociopolitical events affects individual fertility behavior and family formation.”

Ting is concerned with population because it alone is the most significant impact we have on the planet. “We change the environment tremendously to meet our needs,” she said.

As an example of human influence on the natural world, she is collaborating on a project in Taiwan with husband and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dr. Terry Bodenhorn. They are examining the interactions between public health and ecosystem health by studying the Danshui River basin in northern Taiwan. “Danshui means ‘fresh water’ and also means ‘clean and slow flowing,’” Ting said. But unchecked and unplanned industrialization and population growth have seriously impacted the quality of the river’s water.

“Part of the problem,” said Ting, “is the levee. People don’t see the river up close any more. They are completely disconnected from it.” Other infrastructure issues, such as not enough sewage treatment plants, inappropriate chemical treatment, low sewer hook-up rates and industrial toxins have caused further degradation of the resource. Ting and Bodenhorn have collected public health data and water quality data for a number of years and will publish a book based on their research.

Tih-Fen Ting (middle) and field crew collect data on the Danshui River		Ting at Nikko National Park in Japan

Ting has seen, firsthand through research experiences, how living conditions can become detrimental for people living in adverse environmental situations. She is particularly interested in land use, population settlement and the socioeconomic impacts of the realities of global warming. This year, Ting, along with Dr. Yang Zhang, former director of the GIS lab, received funds from the College of Public Affairs and Administration to study the sociodemographic impacts of rising sea levels in the U.S. Gulf Coastal region. Their efforts over the summer resulted in the acceptance of their proposed paper, “Socio-Demographic Impacts of Sea Level Rise: A Case Study of Mobile County, Alabama,” by the journal Population and Environment. Ting and Zhang’s work will address social and environmental justice issues of impoverished populations living in underserved and outlying geographic regions.

At UIS, Ting is an outspoken advocate for the environment. She works to ensure that UIS fulfills its objectives laid out in the 2006 UIS Strategic Plan to promote environmental sustainability, including “expand, implement and maintain an effective recycling program on all campus facilities.”

To achieve those objectives, she and chemistry professor Marc Klingshirn, along with Students Allied for a Greener Earth, applied for and received a grant from the State to expand and maintain the recycling program for student housing and new campus facilities. To make this a scholarly effort as well as an altruistic one, SAGE conducted a campuswide waste audit.

Ting also supervises environmental studies graduate students in their research efforts at UIS’ wetland restoration project known as Emiquon. Further, in collaboration with the Friends of the Sangamon Valley, she and her graduate students are monitoring the three-acre prairie restoration area behind the Strawbridge-Shepherd House on campus.

Last, the recently completed new residence, Founders Hall, was designed to have a “green” roof. The roof holds containers of sedum, a succulent plant known for its easy maintenance, water absorption qualities and attractive flowers. Ting and her students will monitor the roof’s performance as a case study.

“Green roofs can serve two functions,” she said. “They can reduce the temperature of the floor below the roof, which reduces energy consumption, and they can capture and retain stormwater runoff.”

Ting will be working with UIS’ horticulturist, Joan Buckles, the grounds crew and students to monitor the temperatures at the roof and below the roof, and to measure water catchment.

Ting’s life-long passion for environmental sustainability has resulted in her scholarly efforts and her championing of the environment, both locally and globally. Further, she is committed to students’ development as human beings and scholars.

“Because we have expanded the general education program,” she said, “one of the things I would like to have happen, more systematically, is for all students to retain an ecological literacy, an understanding of their connection to the environment.”