The Making of Hong Kong:
3D pedestrian network as the critical walking infrastructure
The three-dimensional pedestrian network, enabling multi-level city living in a vertical metropolis, is a fundamental consideration in urban planning and design practices for high-density cities.
The Making of Hong Kong:
3D pedestrian network as the critical walking infrastructure
The three-dimensional pedestrian network, enabling multi-level city living in a vertical metropolis, is a fundamental consideration in urban planning and design practices for high-density cities.
within HKUrbanLabs, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
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In September, our paper was published in the special issue of Planning, Transport and Healthy Ageing in Asia. Du, Y., & Sun, G. (2024). Causal mediation analysis of social and environmental factors in pathways from a metro intervention to eudaimonic wellbeing among older people. Journal of Transport & Health, 38, 101844.
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In August, Scarlet presented her findings on using language as the medium for studying spatial cognition at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2024 in London.
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In August, our first cohort of PhD students, Yao and Jianting, passed their viva with excellent results. It is delightful to see that both have had holistic development throughout their PhD journeys and good career prospects.
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In August, Jun.-Prof. René Westerholt spent two weeks as a guest at our lab. One aim of the visit was to develop a joint paper on tactical urbanism further. In addition, René gave a public lecture on methodological aspects of spatial statistical analyses of everyday geographies and held personal consultations with many doctoral and postdoctoral students for professional and career-oriented advice. The research also strengthened relations between RAM and the Urban Analytics and Interventions Research Lab. Both institutions have maintained an intensive exchange over the past few years, which has led, in particular, to the realisation of a joint DAAD research project, including research visits to Dortmund and Hong Kong.
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In August, we jointly hosted two seminars by Prof. Rene Westerholt and PhD student Jin Rui from TU Dortmund Department of Spatial Planning.
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Dongsheng was awarded the Foundation First Year Excellent PhD Award by the Graduate School of HKU for his research achievement in 2023-24.
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In July, Dongsheng presented his latest work on value capture and rail transit-oriented development (TOD) at the 18th International Association for China Planning (IACP) Conference in Hangzhou, China.
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In July, Lirrey's PhD work was selected to be presented at the AESOP 2024 PhD workshop in the French Alps. In addition, he presented his research on communicative rationality in urban renewal at the congress in Paris.
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On June 29, as a course instructor, Jinshuo presented her game experimental research at the 'Peking University Urban Planning and Finance workshop hosted by the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University and Peking University-Lincoln Center.
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Guibo had a short-term academic visit to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy at Cambridge (MA) in June and July. During his stay, he was invited to give a lecture to share the insights from the report of his Lincoln Institute International Fellowship China Program.
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On June 21, we shared our study on experiential learning in global street experiments with Secretaría Distrital de Movilidad colleagues in Bogotá. We had a great exchange on how the process of conceptualization is a key but often overlooked component of the learning process and why international case comparisons provided opportunities to learn.
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On June 18, our street experiment and learning paper was shortlisted for the World Symposium on Transport and Land Use Research (WSTLUR) Best Paper Award. Continuing our study on street and mobility transitions is a great encouragement. Jianting presented her research at the conference.
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On June 4, We invited Professor Meike Levin-Keitel at the University of Vienna to share her work on planning theories through an online seminar.
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May 2024. Dr Jieun Lee's work won the Top Prize in the Journal of Korea Real Estate Analysts Association! She presented her paper at the Korea Real Estate Analysts Association Conference. Jieun Lee, Seo Daehyun (2024). Diagnosis of Development Status and Management Plans to Preserve the Intended Purpose of Quasi-residential Areas: from the Evidence of Seoul. Journal of the Korea Real Estate Analysts Association. 2024.03. http://dx.doi.org/10.19172/KREAA.30.1.5
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In the Journal of Transport Geography, we published a paper on travel behavior changes and subjective well-being determinants among older people in response to a new metro line. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2024.10385
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Guibo Sun is invited to give a seminar at Peking University - Shenzhen to share his recent research on localized bargaining and institutional outcomes in metro infrastructure financing.
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On 18-22 March 2024, Dongsheng He and Dr Jinshuo Wang attended the 18th annual conference of PLPR hosted by the Chair of Land Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) on March 18-22, 2024. They presented our recent work on transaction cost, land value capture practices, and land property rights related to metro infrastructure in Guangzhou and Chengdu.
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Our Urban Studies paper is online: He, D., Sun, G., Li, L. and Webster, C. (2024). New metro and housing price and rent premiums: A natural experiment in China. doi.org/10.1177/00420980231208560
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On 6 March 2024, uLab hosted the visit of a group of researchers and students from Chulalongkorn University, the INDA International Program in Design and Architecture (http://cuinda.com). We presented our lab and our latest global and local street experiment studies. We will continue the conversation in Bangkok during APSA2024!
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Recently, uLab hosted and organized seminars within the university‘s institutions for Prof. Tim Schwanen from the University of Oxford, Prof. Lauren Andres from University College London, and Prof. Zhiji Huang from Central University of Finance and Economics. They had good discussions with the researchers and students after sharing their seminars.
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On 8 January 2024, Guibo shared our project on HKIS surveyors in the planning and development markets of Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia: Opportunities and Challenges. Our findings have yielded seven strategies aimed at overcoming recognized obstacles and enhancing the capabilities of HKIS surveyors to fully unleash their potential in the planning and development markets of the three case countries.
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We have a new paper published: Jianting Zhao, Guibo Sun, Chris Webster (2024). Understanding people-centric street transition: constructing a global geospatial database for pandemic-induced street experiments. Landscape and Urban Planning, 1-16 doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104931
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Guibo Sun was a visiting researcher in the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford from August to November 2023. During his stay, he gave a seminar on natural experiment studies in evaluating the economic and health effects of large-scale metro infrastructures, and conducted other academic exchange activities. https://www.tsu.ox.ac.uk/
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Yao Du attended the ACSP Annual Conference 2023 and presented her latest work on the causal pathways linking the new metro to eudaimonic well-being and the community’s efforts in creating supportive environments for older adults.
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Guibo Sun was invited to give a seminar on “Evaluating the Social, Economic, Health, and Wellbeing Effects of Large-scale Metro Infrastructure Projects through Natural Experiments” in the Urban Big Data Center at the University of Glasgow (9 November 2023).
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We have two members joining the lab, Dr. Jieun Lee and Ms. Jinkun Shen, who will be undertaking housing research! For more details, visit: https://ulab.hku.hk/about-us
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Guibo Sun attended the Healthy City Design International Congress in Liverpool (16 October). He presented his natural experiments studies on large-scale interventions in cities.
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We submitted our research report "Market Research for Hong Kong Planning and Development Surveyors in Belt and Road Countries: Case Studies of Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia" to The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors.
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Jianting Zhao presented her work Public Engagement Tactics in the COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Street Experiments in PLATIAL'X – International Symposium on Platial Information Science in September 2023 in Dortmund, Germany. Guibo Sun chaired a session on place and mobility at the symposium.
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We are recruiting a Post-doctoral Fellow! Join our vibrant research team at HKU and contribute to the impact assessment of large-scale interventions in cities. Apply through https://shorturl.at/iMPS5 by 1 Oct 2023.
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August 2023. Dongsheng has been shortlisted for RTPI Early Career Researcher Award for his work on using natural experiments to study the new metro's impact on walking and physical activity. Check out the paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102939
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August 2023. Jianting Zhao presented her PhD dissertation research on global street experiments in the International Conference on Urban Informatics: https://isocui.org/icui2023/
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July 2023. Jianting attended the PhD workshop of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) in Poznan, Poland. She shared her dissertation research with the PhD students from over 20 universities.
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July 2023. Guibo attended the Association of European Schools of Planning Congress in Lodz, Poland. He shared the research on new metro and subjective well-being among older people. It was a natural experiment in Hong Kong. Among other activities, he contributed to the roundtable discussion on navigating planning theory.
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July 2023. Dongsheng attended International Association for China Planning (IACP) Conference in Tianjin, China. He shared our recent study regarding metro intervention and physical activity among older adults in Hong Kong.
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June 2023. Guibo gave a seminar at a seminar on natural experiments in transport infrastructure and impacts on healthy cities at Tsinghua University. During the seminar, he engaged in discussion with the audience on how planning and design knowledge can reinforce causal inference.
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June 2023. Guibo gave a seminar at PKU-Lincoln Institute (PLC), on Evaluating the social, economic, health, and wellbeing effects of large-scale metro infrastructure projects through natural experiment. Apart from the seminar, he is visiting the PLC through June as a Lincoln Institute China Program International Fellow.
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May 2023. PhD student Dongsheng He attended Planning, Law, and Property Right 17th Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 1-5 (https://www.plpr2023.com/). He shared an undergoing project regarding metro intervention and housing values.
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May 2023. Guibo Sun received HKU Overseas Fellowship Awards 2023/2024 (50,000 HKD). The University Research Committe established the HKU Overseas Fellowship Awards scheme to support ten academic staff of the University to visit overseas institutions for not less than one month to develop research links and academic exchanges.
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April 2023. Guibo Sun gave seminars to Guangzhou Metro Cooperation and Nansha Design Institute on Volumetric Urban Design in Transit-oriented Development in Hong Kong. These are knowledge-exchange activities for his project on "Methodologies for assessing specific social, economic, health and wellbeing impacts of volumetric urban designs of metro infrastructure projects in the Greater Bay Area" (Seed Funding for Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Scheme, 2022.06-2025.06).
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March 2023. PhD student Jianting Zhao attended AAG Annual Meeting 2023 in Denver, Colorado. She presented her working paper on “Public-initiator interactions in the tactical approach of street experiments as a pandemic emergency response”.
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March 2023. We are organising a special issue in Journal of Transport & Health, looking for papers on Asian cities that discuss urban planning and design contexts, transport infrastructure provisions, and healthy ageing. We welcome your submission!
Submit by 1 September 2023: https://bit.ly/408ih0H
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Feb 2023. ​Guibo Sun was awarded the Lincoln Institute China Program International Fellowship. His proposed research on gated communities and metro-created accessibility was selected from global applications through a competitive evaluation process. The fellowship is US$35,000 for starting from 01 March 2023 to 31 May 2024.
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Feb 2023. Guibo Sun and Yao Du published a paper on Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice on "New metro and subjective wellbeing among older people: A natural experiment in Hong Kong". https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103592
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Feb 2023. Guibo Sun gave a seminar to UCL CASA on "Methodologies for assessing social, health and wellbeing impacts of urban interventions in high-density cities."
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Jan 2023. Dr Eun Yeong Choe, Dongsheng He and Dr Guibo Sun published a paper in the Journal of Urban Health. This study used a natural experiment of a new metro line in Hong Kong to examine trade- offs between transit-related and non-transit-related physical activity (PA) among 104 older people based on longitudinal accelerometer data that distinguished transit-related and non-transit- related PA.
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Jan 2023. Dr Guibo Sun received an invite from the Journal of Transport & Health at Elsevier to be an Associate Editor. Journal of Transport & Health is a flagship journal in its field and brings researchers close to some of the most exciting research developments in transport and health. He started the role of associate editor in 2023.
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Jan 2023. Our paper on "natural experiments in healthy cities research" became a Featured Article in Town Planning Review. The editorial team have selected this article as a particularly influential piece from this year’s volume, and, as such, they would like to highlight it via a feature on their blog and make it free to read for a limited period.
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Jan 2023. Guibo Sun gave a seminar at Pt.Talks at Chair of Planning Theory and Urban Development, RWTH Aachen University.
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December 2022. Our paper in the Journal of Transport and Land Use is online! We found older people prefer "bus + metro" rather than metro-dominated travel mode, and mixed-mode benefits physical and mental health. It challenges TOD design in Asian cities, where metro is developed as the public transport system but bus service is often overlooked. https://jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/2152
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Guibo Sun received the Faculty Teaching Award 2022 from the Faculty of Architecture at HKU. The Panel was impressed with the awardee’s "dedication to teaching, and innovative pedagogical approaches to enduring excellence to enhance student learning experiences and learning outcomes". His teaching creates a two-way connection with research in the uLab.
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December 2022. We have a paper published in BMC Public Health. The study addressed how active mobility changed among a study cohort of older people during the pandemic, the role of neighbourhood built environment, and what we could do for post-pandemic transport planning. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14780-8
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November 2022. We have a natural experiment study published in Health & Place. This paper provided causal inference on how a new metro line affects moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and walking among older adults in Hong Kong. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102939
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November 2022. Urban Analytics and Interventions Research Lab has jointly hosted two peer talk sessions, with NURSS (New Urban Researchers' Seminar Series) in October and November. The peer talk aims to strengthen the academic exchange among PhD students.
We featured Víctor Cobs-Muñoz on Environmental justice and place: Creating a framework proposal to approach social-ecological Sacrifice Zones and Liudmila Slivinskaya on Reading Urban Form of Housing Estate through Place, respectively. Both are PhD students from TU Dortmund University. With backgrounds in Chile and Belarus, the two speakers carried their cultural roots into their research interests, which made the talks unique for Hong Kong-based doctoral researchers.
The academic exchanges are funded by the DAAD/RGC Joint Research Scheme (G-HKU703/20).