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
Departmental website: https://www.arch.hku.hk/staff/upad/sun-guibo/
Current Research
My work focuses on Planning, Transport, and Health. The impacts of large-scale interventions in cities, including the development of new metro lines, large-block gated communities, urban renewal projects, and global street experiments, are profound. I specialise in developing natural experiments to estimate the causal effects of such interventions on social, economic and health outcomes (e.g., physical activity, social inclusion, subjective wellbeing, and housing price). In addition, I am working on institutional analysis of the metro infrastructure provision, using the transportation problem as an empirical question to tackle a larger issue in urban governance and to formulate the informal norm of behaviours in institutions through experimental economics (e.g., survey experiment, game-theoretical experiment). My research established essential urban data, new methodologies and causal evidence to extend the scientific understanding of the outcomes of large-scale transport interventions, contributing to healthy, equitable and adaptive cities.
Selected Publications
G. Sun, E. Choe, C. Webster (2023). Natural experiments in healthy cities research: How can urban planning and design knowledge reinforce the causal inference? Town Planning Review, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2022.14 (Featured Article)
G. Sun, Y. Du (2023). New metro and subjective wellbeing among older people: A natural experiment in Hong Kong. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 1-15 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103592
D. He, G. Sun *, C. Li, C Webster (2023). New metro and housing price and rent premiums: A natural experiment study in China. Urban Studies, 1-22 (forthcoming)
J. Zhao, G. Sun *, C. Webster (2023). Global Street Experiment: A Geospatial Database of Pandemic-induced Street Transitions. Landscape and Urban Planning, 1-16 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104931
J. Zhao, G. Sun*, C. Webster (2022). Does China-Pakistan Economic Corridor improve connectivity in Pakistan? A protocol assessing the planned transport network infrastructure. Journal of Transport Geography 100:103327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103327
D. He, G. Sun*, J. De Vos, C. Webster (2022), The effects of metro interventions on physical activity and walking among older adults: A natural experiment in Hong Kong. Health & Place https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102939
G. Sun, C. Webster, X. Zhang, (2021). Connecting the city: A three-dimensional pedestrian network of Hong Kong. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808319847204
G. Sun, J. Zhao, C. Webster, H. Lin (2020). New metro system and active travel: A natural experiment. Environment International, 138, 105605 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105605
G. Sun, D. Wallace, C. Webster (2020). Unravelling the impact of street network structure and gated community layout in development-oriented transit design. Land Use Policy, 90, 104328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104328
G. Sun, C. Webster, A. Chiaradia (2018). Un-gating the cities: A permeability perspective. Urban Studies, 55(12), 2586–2602, https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017733943