UDP Travel Bursary 2026: Rehma Saeed

Each year, the School of the Built Environment offers students (studying Urban Design) the opportunity to apply for the Urban Design and Planning Travel Bursary which helps cover travel costs for Dissertation fieldwork. This year, 3 students were awarded a UDP Travel Bursary and here is the first report on how the bursary was used from Rehma Saeed... 

I applied for the UDP Travel Grant 2026 because I believed it would enhance my dissertation research on the importance of climate-adaptive urbanism in the UK, with a specific focus on London, by allowing for trips to London to conduct site visits and interviews in person rather than relying solely on secondary sources.

I was awarded £90 towards this travel. While the panel initially suggested some interviews could be conducted online, I discussed this with my supervisor, and we agreed that an in-person site visit and interview would provide stronger and more contextually grounded data.

My interview with Kristen Guida (Head of Climate and Community Resilience at GLA).

The site visit allowed me to observe conditions directly relevant to my research, including areas of London affected by overheating and surface-water flooding. This gave practical context to the risks discussed in policy documents and the London Climate Resilience Review and clarified how climate vulnerability is unevenly distributed across the city.

The interview component was central to the value of this trip. I met with the Head of Community and Climate Resilience at the Greater London Authority at her office, and she provided practitioner insight that would not have been accessible through documentary analysis alone. Visiting her office was valuable not only for the research itself but also as a student in this field; being shown around and seeing how things operate in practice was an experience I genuinely cherish.

Her perspective on the institutional and cultural barriers to climate adaptation in Britain has directly informed several arguments in my analysis chapters. Overall, the bursary enhanced my data collection process and was a genuinely valuable addition to my research, giving it a level of practical grounding that secondary sources alone could not have provided and I am grateful for this opportunity.

Dense tarmac and concrete surfaces with minimal tree canopy,
illustrating urban heat island (UHI) vulnerability
directly outside the interview site at Palestra House.

Riverside walkway near Blackfriars Bridge consisting of a tree-lined path
and vertical greening on adjacent buildings, contrasting with the
tarmac-dominated conditions on Blackfriars Road and illustrating
small-scale mitigation efforts within London’s blue-green infrastructure strategy.

For more information about our courses in Urban Design, click below:

BA Sustainable Urban Design and Planning

MA/PGD Urban Design