Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
Date August 4, 2025
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Meet Voss Fellow Rafael Ash ’26: Exploring urban planning in the face of rising seas

Urban Studies and Mathematics concentrator Rafael Ash ’26 is investigating how communities in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Warren, Rhode Island, adapt to their rapidly changing environments through democratic planning, local partnerships, and managed retreat strategies.

Rafael Ash ’26

As climate change accelerates, coastal flooding has become an urgent challenge for communities around the world, from Indonesia to Rhode Island. As an Undergraduate Voss Fellow working under the guidance of Associate Teaching Professor Kate Schapira, Ash is conducting a transpacific study of the democratic planning and design processes in two globally diverse cities to better aid those who live in high-risk regions. 

Through the one-year Voss Fellowship, student researchers like Ash have the opportunity to turn their passions for climate and environmental justice into real-world, engaged research that defies geographic and intellectual boundaries.

How would you summarize your research?

“I’m studying democratic planning and design processes in places that are facing significant flood risk, specifically in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I am right now, and Warren, Rhode Island. These are really different environments, and that's one of the things that makes me interested in looking at them together, because despite all of these contextual differences, they’re both facing climate change as a global challenge.”

How will your research be carried out both in New England and in Jakarta?

“In January 2024, I took a class called ‘The Right to the City: Focus on Indonesia’ with Professor Lauren Yapp, which included a trip to Indonesia focused on urban democratic movements in Jakarta, and we worked very closely with the Rujak Center for Urban Studies. This summer, I am working with contacts I met through that course and conducting place-based interviews with planners, community architects, and housing activists. In Warren, I will lead a series of collaborative workshops, co-organized with the Warren Health Equity Zone, exploring participatory climate design using methods inspired by Rujak’s work.”
 

Ash facilitated a design session last December wherein Warren residents mapped out their “ideal (but inland) neighborhood.”

How does this research build upon your previous research with the Rujak Center for Urban Studies?

“Rujak’s architecture and design work is profoundly democratic and community-centered. Last year, I was inspired by working with them and seeing the levels of deep organizing that they do in the urban planning process. And so as I returned to my coursework and research at Brown, I kept coming back to the work that the Rujak was doing. I noticed that they provided a really key participatory method and framework that was totally missing from U.S. planning. That is what drew me back here.”

“ It’s really important to understand how we can design solutions that not only address the immediate crisis but also work to fix long-term inequalities. ”

Rafael Ash

Why is it important for us to understand the relationship between climate change and managed retreat from affected areas?

“I think both the physical and cultural distance between my two sites illustrates the global challenge of how we manage the coastlines—and the many people who live along them, which is such a huge portion of the world. I think that's going to be a dominating question as we enter an era where we’re seeing the effects of climate change on a daily basis. It’s really important to understand how we can design solutions that not only address the immediate crisis but also work to fix long-term inequalities. That’s becoming a key question as we’re starting to see flooding and sea levels rise all around the world.”

Ash conducting an interview at Kampung Akuarium in Jakarta.

How are you incorporating your findings into your senior thesis?

“My thesis is going to focus on the idea of insurgent democracy within these climate crises and ask, ‘What are the ways that communities can stake out a path forward that’s democratic?’ As the sea levels rise, the neighborhoods are changing and the ground topography is changing, so my thesis will explore how communities can pursue democratic processes that produce new infrastructure, new plans, and new ideas that can both address the climate and feel deeply rooted in community needs. These two case studies will serve as a comparative framework.”

Where do you see your research taking you in the future?

“These questions of managed retreat and democracy bring together environmental justice and housing equity, and I think these are some of the biggest challenges of our time in academia, in policy, and in urban planning. While I’m not yet sure what this project’s next steps will be, I’m inspired and looking forward to using this research to help chart my path forward as I examine these questions and try to tackle these political challenges throughout my life.”

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