About the Webinar

In this webinar, Hazem will share with us how creative ideas diffuse throughout a social system and transform into adoptable innovations. Diffusing innovation is a complex socially-constructed process, which inherently implies coping with uncertainty. With limited or no initial knowledge of success probability, it can be challenging to plan for a new practice to be superior to its precedents? To address this challenge, Hazem will introduce the core principles of the DOI model, present examples of its applications, shed light on a methodological strategy to predict potential adopters’ uptake of an innovation, and invite us through discussion to reflect on how we can apply DOI in our own contexts.

About the Speaker

Hazem Ahmed is a Ph.D. candidate in planning at the University of Waterloo. Hazem is an architect/urban designer with over ten years of experience in university teaching and scientific research that advocates urban open spaces’ ecological and social values. Hazem’s professional and research interests include participatory design, planning, and modeling. His current work focuses on the use of behavioral simulation models to explore the complexity of socio-ecological systems. His Ph.D. combines established sociological theories and behavioral simulation modeling to develop an empirical agent-based model (ABM). The model simulates the diffusion of Green Infrastructure (GI) adoption on private residential yards in the Kitchener/Waterloo area, Ontario. Ultimately, the simulation output shall identify the primary determinants of GI adoption within residential neighborhoods and hence provide evidence-based policy advice for the municipality towards sustainable stormwater management systems.