Dr Qunshan Zhao
- Senior Lecturer (Urban Studies)
telephone:
+44 (0)1413308534
email:
Qunshan.Zhao@glasgow.ac.uk
Urban Big Data Centre 6-303, 7 Lilybank Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8RZ
Biography
Dr. Qunshan Zhao joined the University of Glasgow on May 2019 as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Urban Analytics in Urban Studies and Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) in the School of Social and Political Sciences. He has been promoted to Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) on August 2022. He holds both Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography/GIScience from the Arizona State University in the USA and a B.E. in Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry, and GIS from the Wuhan University in China. Prior to coming to the UK, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (KER) and Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC) at the Arizona State University.
Curriculum Vitae: CV_QunshanZhao_Aug2023
More detailed information can be found on his personal website.
Research interests
Qunshan's research interest focuses on creating a sustainable urban future and tackling related social, economic, and environmental problems by using new forms of data and related analytical approaches including GIScience (geographic information systems, remote sensing, and spatial analysis), machine learning/deep learning/statistics, operations research, sensor networks, and urban climate modeling and instrumentation.
Ongoing research efforts include urban infrastructure location optimization (urban green infrastructure; bike sharing instracture, alternative refueling stations location modeling), human-environment interactions (human mobility patterns in urban/natural spaces, particularly by mobile phone app data), urban resilience and fuel poverty (fuel poverty and housing environment sensing and evaluation), 3D city modeling, and open source spatial optimization methods development (pysal/spopt).
- Geographic Information Science
- Remote Sensing
- Spatial Analysis
- Machine Learning
- Urban Climate Modeling and Instrumentation
- Urban and Regional Planning
- Urban Sensor Network
Twitter - @QunshanZhao
Research groups
Grants
Ongoing projects
- 2019-2024. Co-I. Urban Big Data Centre Data Service Extension. Economic and Social Science Council (ESRC) (total £6.7m).
- 2022-2025. Co-I. IDEAMAPS: A participatory data-modeling ecosystem for deprived area map production in LMIC cities. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ($1.6m).
- 2023-2025. Co-I. Developing and exploring methods to understand human-nature interactions in urban areas using new forms of big data. Secondary Data Analysis Initiative, ESRC (£0.3m).
- 2023-2025. PI. Estimating building energy efficiency and carbon footprint for achieving a net-zero carbon target via urban sensing and AI. Royal Society International Exchange (£12,000).
- 2023. PI. Sensor-enhanced housing survey for urban heat investigation in London. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (£55,470).
- 2023-2025. Co-I. The housing environment and energy panel: monitoring indoor residential environments and energy use via low-cost housing sensors. Understanding Society Innovation Panel.
- 2019-2024. PI. Data Lab MSc Scholarship. Scottish Funding Council and European Social Fund (15 MSc Scholarship in total).
Completed projects
- 2023. PI. Development of spopt location modelling package to include the capacitated p-median problem. AGILE funding initiative (£7,679).
- 2022-2023. PI. Glasgow 3D City Modeling. Glasgow City Council (£34,122).
- 2021. Co-I. Using Mobile Phone App Data to Understand Urban Mobility in Glasgow. Glasgow City Council (£147,819).
- 2017. PI. Optimizing Tree Locations and Arrangement for Mitigating Urban Heat Island Effects and Improving Human Thermal Comfort in a Hot Arid Urban Residential Environment. Dissertation Research Grant, American Association of Geographers.
Supervision
I am very happy to supervise PhDs and host Visiting Students/Scholars in:
- New Forms of Urban Big Data and Urban Analytics
- GIScience and Spatial Analysis (Spatial Statistics and Optimization)
- Human Dynamics and Mobility Patterns
- Urban Sensing and Urban Climate Modeling
Please email me your updated CV and 2-page research proposal if you are interested.
Update on Aug 2023: Given the number of PhD students I have now, I will only consider very competitive and prospective students in the next year.
I am currently supervising the following Postdoc researchers/Research Intern and Ph.D. students:
Postdoc researchers:
Urban Sensing & Analytics
Research interns:
Ph.D. students:
- Yue Li (with Dr Mingshu Wang) - Prediction of urban traffic flows with new and emergin urban big data by deep learning and computer vision
- Henry Ibitolu (with Dr Chris Beckett and Dr Daniel Fosas in the University of Edinburgh) - A Multiscale Evaluation of Sustainable Earthen Materials for Mitigating Urban Heat Island Effects and Energy Use Reduction in Future Cities
- Zixin Feng (with Prof Alison Heppenstall) - Exploring the electric vehicle driver behaviours for the sustainable future of charging infrastructure
- Mohd Sarim (with Prof Joao Porto de Albuquerque) - Analytical strategies for improving Third Sector employability services in the post COVID-19 recovery
- Yunbei Ou (with Prof Nick Bailey and Dr David McArthur) - The housing market impacts of building energy efficiency regulation.
- Niantang Liu (with Dr Brian Barrett and Dr Richard Williams) - A Deep Convolutional Neural Network-based framework for Crop Classification on High-Resolution Radar & Multispectral Imagery
- Ziying Guo (with Dr John Xiaogang Shi) - Hydrological responses to wetland changes in the Yangtze River Basin in China
Previous supervision:
Sensor Enhanced Housing Survey
Understanding Urban Mobility with Mobile Phone App Data
- Saeed Maadi
- Michael Sinclair (move to his PI SDAI grant)
- Feng, Zixin
Exploring the Electric Vehicle Driver Behaviours for the Sustainable Future of Charging Infrastructure - Guo, Ziying
Hydrological responses to wetland changes in the Yangtze River Basin - Li, Yuxiao
Understanding the informality and formality in China’s rental-dominated neighbourhoods - Liu, Niantang
Advanced Crop Mapping Using Deep Learning Approaches in Satellite Remote Sensing - Ou, Yunbei
The housing market impacts of building energy efficiency regulation - Sarim, Mohd
Analytical strategies for improving Third Sector employability services in the post COVID-19 recovery - Shonowo, Oluwatimilehin Adenike
I have uploaded my tentative research proposal.
Teaching
Postgraduate
- Big Data and Urban Analytics (Course Convener, Fall)
- Programming Tools for Urban Analytics (Course Convener, Spring)
- Urban Analytics Group Projects (Course Convener, Fall/Spring)
- Quantitative Data Analysis (Course Tutor, Fall 2019)
Undergraduate
- Social & Public Policy 2B: Policy, Politics, and Power (Course Contributor, Spring)
- Big Data, Policy & Power (Course Contributor, Spring)
Professional activities & recognition
Prizes, awards & distinctions
- 2020: Global Young Scientist Award (World Geospatial Developers Conference)
- 2018: J. Warren Nystrom Award, an outstanding paper based upon a recent dissertation in geography (American Association of Geographers)
Research fellowships
- 2017 - 2017: Dissertation Research Grant, American Association of Geographers
- 2016 - 2016: Imagery Grant, DigitalGlobe Foundation
- 2016 - 2016: Imagery Grant, European Space Agency
Grant committees & research advisory boards
- 2022 - present: UK Economic and Social Research Council, Secondary Data Analysis Initiatives Grant Assessment Panel
- 2021 - present: UK Research and Innovation, Future Leaders Fellowships Peer Review College Member
- 2022: US National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program
Editorial boards
- 2021 - present: Series Advisory Editors, the Urban Book series, Springer (https://www.springer.com/series/14773).
- 2021 - 2023: Guest Editor, Remote Sensing, Advances in Remote Sensing of Land-Sea Ecosystems (with Dr. Jiwei Li and Dr. Di Yang)
- 2019 - 2020: Guest Editor, Annals of GIS, GIS and Urban Data Science (with Dr. Yijing Li and Dr. Chen Zhong)
- 2018 - 2019: Guest Editor, Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing of Urban Ecology and Sustainability (with Prof. Elizabeth A. Wentz)
Professional & learned societies
- 2021 - present: Secretary, Quantitative Methods Research Group, Royal Geographical Society
- 2018 - 2021: Board member, Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group, American Association of Geographers
Selected international presentations
- 2023: Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University (Boston, USA)
- 2023: Sensible City Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA)
- 2023: University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT, USA)
- 2023: Keynote Speech, Finnish Geoinformatics Research Days 2023 (Helsinki, Finland)
- 2021: Towards Urban Analytics 2.0, the Alan Turing Institute (University of Leeds, UK)
- 2021: GDSL-CDRC Brownbag Seminar (University of Liverpool, UK)
- 2020: SAD 2020 Spatial Analytics + Data Seminar Series 2020 (Newcastle University, UK)
- 2019: Building a Future for the Urban Analytics Blueprints, the Alan Turing Institute (University of Bristol, UK)
- 2019: Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology and Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University (Boston, USA)
- 2018: J. Warren Nystrom Award Presentation, American Association of Geographers (New Orleans, USA)
Research datasets
Additional information
Qunshan's doctoral dissertation, Evaluating the Effectiveness of Tree Locations and Arrangements for Improving Urban Thermal Environment (Link: QunshanZhao_Dissertation), received the J. Warren Nystrom Award from the American Association of Geographers (AAG) as one of the most outstanding research papers, based upon a recent dissertation in 2018.
Qunshan serves as the Associate Director of UBDC starting in 2020 and leads the Urban Sensing and Analytics work package. He also convenes the MSc Urban Analytics Programme (MSc student achievements can be found here). He was the external examiner of MSc Urban Analytics and Visualisation in the University of Warwick and now is the external examiner of MSc Urban Informatics in the King's College London.
Qunshan is currently serving as the Secretary of Quantitative Methods Research Group at RGS-IBG starting from 2021. He served as the Board Member of the Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group (SAM) at AAG from 2018-2021.
Qunshan serves as the Series Advisory Editors for the Urban Book Series at Springer. He is currently in the Grant Assessment Panel of ESRC-SDAI programme, and serves as a research proposal reviewer for UK ESRC, EPSRC, GCRF, UKRI FLF, and NSF GRFP, and a journal reviewer for top-tier international journals such as Landscape and Urban Planning, Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems, Scientific Data, and Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science.
Most recently, Qunshan serves as the programme chair/co-chair/organizing committee members to help organize and host multiple major international academic conferences in the UK including GISRUK 2023 (Glasgow), CPGIS 2023 (London), GIScience 2023 (Leeds), and the upcoming AGILE 2024 (Glasgow).