Lab Director
Dr. Yi Lu received his bachelor’s degree of architecture from Southeast University in Nanjing China, his master’s degree from National University of Singapore, and his PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. He practiced in architectural firms in Singapore and China for several years.
He is the Full Professor at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong. He also serves as the program leader of Architectural Studies. Dr. LU is interested in healthy cities, environment-behavior studies, and spatial analysis. His research covers a wide range of topics, such as how urban design affects walking, how street greenery and parks promote health.
He presided two General Projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and three General Research Funds from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council. He has published more than 100 SCI/SSCI papers. He was selected as one of the top 2% world scientists in the field of urban and regional planning by Stanford University in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025. He was also selected as the Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in the field of social science in 2023, 2024, 2025. He is the sole recipient of the 2019 Rising Scholar Award of the International China Planning Association (ICAP). He also serves as the deputy director of the Committee of Environmental Behavior, a member of the Hong Kong Barrier-Free Access Advisory Committee (ACBFA), the subject associate editor of Landscape and Urban Planning, and the editorial board of Cities and Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
Current Members
Yuxuan Zhou is a Ph.D. candidate at HUB Lab, specializing in the field of GIScience and healthy cities. He completed his bachelor's degree in Human Geography and Urban-Rural Planning at Sun-Yat-Sen University and holds a master's degree in Applied GIS from the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on the utilization of geospatial data and spatiotemporal statistical techniques to investigate the linkages between environment, human behavior and health.
Fangqi Liu
Ph.D. Candidate
Fangqi Liu is currently a Ph.D. candidate at HUB Lab. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Urban and Rural Planning from Harbin Institute of Technology and her master's degree from Southeast University. Her research interests include urban perception, healthy cities, data-driven urban studies, and urban visual intelligence.
Yi Liu is currently a Ph.D. candidate at HUB Lab. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in Architecture from the Harbin Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on 3D city modeling and window view perception.
Xinren Zhang
Ph.D. Candidate
Xinren Zhang is currently a Ph.D. candidate at HUB Lab. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Human Geography and Urban-Rural Planning from Nanjing Agricultural University and her master's degree from University College London. Her research focuses on travel behavior and the urban environment.
Yuxiang Zhang is a Ph.D. student at HUB Lab. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Urban-Rural Planning at Harbin Institute of Technology and holds a master’s degree in Urban Planning from Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen. His research focuses on using geospatial data and AI techniques to investigate the relationships between urban form and human perception.
Alumni
Dr. Xinyi Zou
Xinyi Zou is currently a lecturer at the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. She received her doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong and Southeast University. Before this, she obtained her bachelor's degree in architecture from Beijing University of Technology, and pursued her master's degree in architecture at Southeast University. Her research interests lie in the areas of community gerontology and resource allocation, human factors engineering, as well as research on accessible architecture.
Dr. Zhenhua Li
Zhenhua Li received his doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong. Before this, he obtained his master's degree in urban design at Tongji University and bachelor's degree in architecture at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests comprise environment-behavior study, spatial analysis, underground space vitality, built environment and health.
Dr. Dongwei Liu
Dr. Dongwei Liu obtained his doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong. He focuses on applying state-of-art AI, and urban big data (such as eye-level images, 3D city models) to enable the automated assessment of fine-grained, multi-dimensional perspectives on urban greenery, human activity, and human-nature interactions. He holds a master’s degree in urban planning from National University of Singapore and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Southeast University. He has published 6 articles and has 10 papers currently under review in tier-1 journals, including Landscape and Urban Planning, Computer, Environment, and Urban Systems (CEUS), Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (UFUG), Travel Behavior and Society (TBS), Sustainable Cities and Society, and Cities. He also served as a reviewer for top international journals like Cities, Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), etc. He was awarded over HK$300K external research grants as principal investigator from various agencies such as Innovation and Technology Bureau of Hong Kong.
Dr. Di Wei
Dr. Di Wei obtained his doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong in 2024. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Hong Kong. His research interests encompass the built environment, human behavior, big data, and healthy cities.
Dr. Yuxiao Jiang
Dr. Yuxiao Jiang recieved his doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong and Tianjin University in 2024. He is currently an assistant professor at Southwest Jiaotong University. His research gravitates towards urban vibrancy, healthy cities, active transportation, encapsulated in the larger framework of urban studies.
Dr. Xueying Wu
Dr. Xueying Wu recieved his doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong in 2024. She is currently an assistant professor at Shenzhen Technology University. Her research interests comprise built environment and travel behavior, environmental justice, healthy cities.
Dr. Long Chen
Dr. Long Chen recieved his doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong in 2023. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Department of Geography, Leeds University, UK. His research interests involve healthy city, travel behavior, sustainable mobility, and geospatial science.
Dr. Jingjing Wang
Dr. Jingjing Wang obtained her doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong and Wuhan University in 2023. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, China. Her research interests comprise environment-behavior study, spatial analysis.
Dr. Yiyang Yang
Dr. Yiyang Yang recieved her doctoral degree at City University of Hong Kong in 2023. She is currently a Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China. Her major research interest focuses on human-environment relationships, especially the health benefit of exposure to urban natural resources using geospatial data.
Dr. Ruoyu Wang
Dr. Ruoyu Wang now is a probationary Lecturer in Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing, University of Essex. He used to be a Research Fellow in Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast. Ruoyu Wang mainly focuses on health geography research, pays special attention to the impact of urban built environment on various health indicators, and has in-depth research on the impact of urban green space on mental health.
Dr. Dongsheng He
Dr. Dongsheng He earned his bachelor's degree from Sun Yat-sen University, China, and master’s degree from University of Cambridge, respectively. He was a part-time research assistant of HUB lab between 2020 and 2021. His research interests include causal inference of large-scale built environment interventions and transit-oriented development in high-density cities.