Healthy Urban & Buildings (HUB) Lab
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Urban Sensing and Analytics
Drawing on diverse geo-referenced sensing data (e.g., street view images, satellite images), we aim to employ advanced urban sensing and analytics techniques (e.g., computer vision and GeoAI) to precisely assess urban built environment.
Nexus between Environment, Behavior, and Health
We excel in conducting cross-sectional studies to explore the correlation relationships between environment, behavior, and health. Additionally, we are proficient in conducting longitudinal studies to infer causal relationships.
Geospatial Big Data Mining and Spatial modelling
Leveraging multi-source geospatial big data, we aim to employ diverse GIS techniques to uncover intriguing space-time patterns and phenomenon within cities, which contributes to pursuit of sustainable urban development.
ABOUT
Urban design and architecture reflect and guide existing human experience; they also stimulate and generate new human experience. The evolution of technologies, lifestyles, culture, and pandemics continuously redefines the way in which built environment supports healthy behaviors and outcomes.
The Healthy Urban and Building Lab (HUB) develops tools, models and theories for better understanding, quantifying and evaluating the performance of built environment relative to its human behavior and health. HUB creates credible evidence linking design decisions to health outcomes and makes these findings usable for designers and decision-makers.
In lecture, funded research, consultation, training, HUB works with other universities, design firms, and policy makers to provide significant and measurable economic, social and health improvement to the built environment in many cities in China and overseas, with important follow-on impacts on the quality of citizens’ lives. HUB also contributes to the development of street design and greenspace design guidelines for several major cities in China, such as Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai.
Latest Publications
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Wei, D., Liu, M., Grekousis, G., Wang, Y., & Lu, Y.* (2023). User-generated content affects urban park use: Analysis of direct and moderating effects. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 128158. (see more details)
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Wu, X., Chen W. Y., Zhang, K., & Lu, Y.*, (2023). The dynamic impact of COVID-19 pandemic on park visits: a longitudinal study in the United States. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 128154. (see more details)
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Wei, D., Lu, Y.*, Wu, X., Ho, H. C., Wu, W., Song, J., & Wang, Y. (2023). Greenspace exposure may increase life expectancy of elderly adults, especially for those with low socioeconomic status. Health & Place, 84, 103142. (see more details)
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Wei, D., Wang, Y.*, Liu, M., & Lu, Y.* (2023). User-generated content may increase urban park use: Evidence from multisource social media data. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 23998083231210412. (see more details)
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Zhou, Y., & Lu, Y.* (2023). Spatiotemporal evolution and determinants of urban land use efficiency under green development orientation: Insights from 284 cities and eight economic zones in China, 2005–2019. Applied Geography, 161, 103117. (see more details)
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Liu, D., Wang, R., Grekousis, G., Liu, Y., & Lu, Y*. (2023). Detecting older pedestrians and aging-friendly walkability using computer vision technology and street view imagery. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 105, 102027. (see more details)
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Yang, H., Lu, Y.*, Wang, J., Zheng, Y., Ruan, Z., & Peng, J. (2023). Understanding post-pandemic metro commuting ridership by considering the built environment: A quasi-natural experiment in Wuhan, China. Sustainable Cities and Society, 96, 104626. (see more details)
News & Events
HUB members went hiking in early December.
Congrats to Prof. Lu for being awarded as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2023!
PhD student Yuxiao Jiang 's research paper was awarded the Gold Prize at the Jin Jingchang China Urban and Rural Planning Graduate Paper Competition in May 2023.
HUB members went hiking in early December.
Collaboration
HUB Lab has established collaborations with prestigious universities, including the University of Hong Kong, Southeast University, Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Sun Yat-sen University, Tongji University, and East China Normal University, etc. We warmly welcome interdisciplinary collaborations with teams worldwide.