2023
November
[KE] Our Nature Communications article has been featured in HKU news and reported by a range of media, such as Mirage News, Phys.org, AlphaGalileo, Envnewsbits, Croucher Foundation, Ground News, EurekAlert, etc.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen teamed with Drs. Xuecao Li, Chao Ren, Shengbiao Wu, and Lei Pei got the competitive National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) / Research Grants Council (RGC) Joint Research Scheme Grant 2023/24, with the awarded project focusing on “Advancing pollen-induced health risk assessment with geospatial big data”.
[Paper] One co-author paper entitled “Settlement scaling law reveals population-land tensions in 7000+ African urban agglomerations” has been published in Habitat International. Congrats Gang.
[Paper] Our paper entitled “Remote sensing of urban greenspace exposure and equality: Scaling effects from greenspace and population mapping” has been accepted for publication in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. Congrats Shengbiao and Wenbo.
October
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen has been ranked as the 2023 World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University.
[Paper] Our new correspondence paper entitled “Optimize urban shade using digital twins of cities” has been published in Nature.
[Paper] Our latest paper entitled “Improved human greenspace exposure equality during 21st century urbanization” has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications.
[Service] Dr. Bin Chen joins the Editorial Board of the Big Earth Data journal.
September
[NewMember] Dr. Xiaoxin Zhang joins the FUSE Lab as a Postdoctoral researcher. She is an expert in monitoring urban vegetation change and restoration using advanced EO technology. Welcome to the FUSE lab family!
[NewMember] Dr. Gang Xu joins the FUSE Lab as a visiting Postdoctoral researcher and research fellow. He is an expert in urbanization and complex urban systems. Welcome to the FUSE lab family!
[Paper] One co-authored reply piece “Real-time access to data during outbreaks is a key to avoid a local epidemic becoming a global pandemic” was published in PNAS.
[Paper] One co-authored paper “Positive effects of tree diversity on tropical forest restoration in a field-scale experiment” was published in Science Advances.
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen received the 2023 GIS New Talent Award (高校GIS新锐).
August
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen received the International Society of Digital Earth Young Scientist Award.
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen was invited to give a keynote speech about “Geospatial Big Data in Support of Sustainable Urban Environment” at the 1st Youth Forum on Digital Earth, International Society of Digital Earth, in Beijing, China (August 21-23).
July
[Award] Our paper entitled “Mapping essential urban land use categories (EULUC) using geospatial big data: Progress, challenges, and opportunities” has been selected as the 2021 Best Paper Award.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF) — “From 2D to 3D greenspace exposure: A novel “Pixel-Voxel” integration of green volume estimates and environmental exposure models” with Dr. Shengbiao Wu and Dr. Wei Yao as Co-Is.
June
[Grant] The FUSE Lab was awarded URC Seed Fund for PI Research – Basic Research, “Urban shadow matters: Spatiotemporal dynamic and its association with thermal environments in Hong Kong” with Dr. Bin Chen as PI and Dr. Shengbiao Wu as Co-I.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got the 47th round RAP/PDF Scheme Fund.
[NewMember] Dr. Xidong Chen joins the FUSE Lab as a Postdoctoral researcher on June 1st. He is an expert in large-scale LULC mapping and change detection. Welcome to the FUSE lab family!
[Paper] One paper led by Wei Hong entitled “Impact of early heat anomalies on urban tree cooling efficiency: Evidence from spring heatwave events in India” has been published in JAG. This is the second research study we are looking into the connection between urban greenspace and the thermal environment.
May
[KE] Our greenspace exposure research has been reported by RTHK (香港電台). Dr. Chen was interviewed in the episode ‘Endless Green’ (绿绿无穷) of RTHK (8:45-).
April
[Paper] One co-authored paper “Global age-structured spatial modeling for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) like COVID-19” was accepted for publication in PNAS Nexus.
[Paper] Our article “Contrasting inequality in human exposure to greenspace between cities of Global North and Global South” was one of Top 25 Nature Communications Social Science & Human Behaviour Articles of 2022.
[Paper] Our recent paper entitled “Raveling the nexus between urban expansion and cropland loss in China” has been accepted for publication in Landscape Ecology.
March
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen was invited to give a lecture about “Understanding Urban Environment, Exposure, and Equality (U3E) with Geospatial Big Data” at the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, CUHK.
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen was invited to give a guest lecture about “Remote Sensing Technology, Development, Application and Potentials” for the Doctor of Business Administration programme, at HKU Business School.
[News] Dr. Shengbiao Wu has been promoted to Research Assistant Professor. Huge congrats!
[Award] Our postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Shengbiao Wu received the 2023 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Early-Career Award in Remote Sensing. Big congrats on this milestone achievement!
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen has been elevated to IEEE Senior Member.
February
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen was invited to give a guest lecture about “Urban remote sensing and Environmental Health” at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School.
[Grant] The National Key Research and Development Plan Project – “Green and low-carbon development monitoring and diagnosis optimization application in megacities” kick-off meeting was held in Shenzhen. Dr. Bin Chen is responsible for the sub-topic of “Data-model-driven retrieval of high-resolution urban ecological parameters“.
January
[Paper] Dr. Bin Chen’s commentary paper entitled “Coincided disparity between housing price and health outcome” has been accepted for publication in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
[Paper] One co-authored paper entitled “How to avoid a local epidemic becoming a global pandemic?” has been accepted for publication in PNAS.
[Paper] Our recent paper entitled “Observed inequality in thermal comfort exposure and its multifaceted associations with greenspace in United States cities” has been published in Landscape and Urban Planning.
[Greeting] Happy New Year to everyone! Wish you a happy, healthy, and fruitful 2023.
2022
December
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen received New Talents in Science and Technology of China with Shining Potential Award.
November
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province – General Scheme grant for his project “Long-term dynamic monitoring of Land-Sea Interface (LSI) in Greater Bay Area using remote sensing big data”.
October
[Paper] Our recent paper entitled “Olympic effects on reshaping urban greenspace of host cities” has been accepted for publication in Landscape and Urban Planning.
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen has been ranked as World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University.
[Paper] One co-author paper entitled “Green spaces, especially nearby forest, may reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate: A nationwide study in the United States” has been published in Landscape and Urban Planning.
[Paper] Our paper entitled “Eight Reflections on Quantitative Urban Greenspace Studies: A Mapping-Monitoring-Modeling-Management (4M) Perspective” has been accepted for publication in Landscape Architecture Frontiers.
[Paper] One co-authored paper entitled “Circulation-regulated impacts of aerosol pollution on urban heat island in Beijing” has been accepted for publication in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
[Paper] One paper led by Dr. Shengbiao Wu about “Estimating 10-m land surface albedo from Sentinel-2 satellite observations using a direct estimation approach with Google Earth Engine” has been accepted for publication in ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
September
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientist Grant — “Parcel-based urban land use classification using domain adaptations of sample, feature, and model”.
[Service] Dr. Bin Chen co-chaired with Dr. Hongsheng Zhang for the session “Earth Observations for Sustainable Urban Environment” in the 2022 International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals.
August
[KE] Our Nature Communications article has been featured in HKU news and reported by a range of local and international media, such as 头条日报, 东方日报, 晴报, 星岛日报, Yahoo News, Tech and Science Post, Ground News, Mirage News, Bioengineer, Scien Mag, Asian Scientist, etc.
[Paper] Two recent manuscripts submitted to Landscape and Urban Planning have been back with revision decisions.
[Paper] Our paper entitled “Contrasting inequality in human exposure to greenspace between cities of Global North and Global South” has been published in Nature Communications. A nice contribution to the field of sustainable urban environments.
July
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen received “The Global Young Scientist Award (2022)” and gave an invited talk about “Geospatial big data-driven urban environmental studies”.
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen gave an invited lecture about “Leveraging geospatial big data and interdisciplinary approaches in Urban Environmental Studies” at the International Quantitative Remote Sensing Summer School organized by Wuhan University, University of Maryland, and The University of Hong Kong.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong Early Career Scheme Fund — “Understanding urban greenspace exposure across space and time in China: A novel integration of human-greenspace dynamics and environmental exposure models”.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got one URC Seed Fund for Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Scheme — “Integrated Assessment of Urban Climate-related Risks: Hazard, Exposure, and Vulnerability.”
June
[Paper] Our paper entitled “Beyond green environments: multi-scale difference in human exposure to greenspace in China” has been accepted for publication in Environment International.
[Service] Dr. Bin Chen joins the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Remote Sensing as Associate Editor.
May
[Paper] Our paper entitled “The land-sea interface mapping: China’s coastal land covers at 10 meters for 2020” has been accepted for publication in Science Bulletin.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got one URC Seed Fund for Basic Research—”Urban land use monitor (LUMonitor): Time-series mapping of essential urban land use categories in Greater Bay Area”.
March
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got one URC Small Equipment Grant—”Modelling eye-level green exposure from remotely sensed bird-view observations with a novel 2D to 3D transformation framework”.
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen received The Hong Kong openBIM/openGIS Award with Honorable Mention.
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen gave an invited talk at the Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, on the topic of “Geospatial big data in urban environmental studies”.
[Paper] One paper led by Dr. Bin Chen about “Spatial patterns and drivers for wildfire ignitions in California” was published by Environmental Research Letters.
[Paper] A co-authored paper entitled “A global map of planting years of plantations” was accepted by Scientific Data.
February
[Lecture]Dr. Bin Chen gave an invited lecture about “Human-Urban Environment Spatiotemporal Interaction” at the School of Energy and Environment at CityU of Hong Kong.
[Paper] One paper led by Dr. Bin Chen about “Beyond green environments: multi-scale difference in human exposure to greenspace in China” was submitted to Environment International (under review).
[Paper] One paper led by Ms. Ying Tu and Dr. Bin Chen about “Olympic effects on reshaping urban greenspace of host cities” was submitted to Landscape and Urban Planning (under review).
[Paper] One paper led by Ms. Miao Li entitled “Monitoring Post-Flood Recovery of Croplands Using the Integrated Sentinel-1/2 Imagery in the Yangtze-Huai River Basin” was published in Remote Sensing.
[Book chapter] One book chapter led by Dr. Bin Chen and Dr. Yimeng Song about “Changes of Urban Greenspace Coverage and Exposure in China” was accepted for the Book “Green Infrastructure in Chinese Cities” published by Springer Nature.
2021
December
[Paper] A co-authored paper entitled “Wildfire response to changing daily temperature extremes in California’s Sierra Nevada” was published in Science Advances.
[Service] Dr. Bin Chen was appointed by the Landscape Architecture Frontiers Journal as a founding member of its Executive Editorial Board, for a term of three years.
October
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got one HKU Seed Fund for Basic Research—”Urban land use monitor (LUMonitor): Time-series mapping of essential urban land use categories in Greater Bay Area”.
[Paper] Tu Ying’s paper entitled “Uncovering the Nature of Urban Land Use Composition Using Multi-source Open Big Data with Ensemble Learning” was accepted by Remote Sensing.
[Special issue] Submissions are now welcomed for the co-edited Special Issue “Sustainable Urban Development with the Support of Earth Observations” in All Earth.
September
[Service] Dr. Bin Chen will join the Editorial Board of Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation as Associate Editor.
[Service] Dr. Bin Chen was invited to join the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Remote Sensing, with the specialty section in Remote Sensing Time Series Analysis.
August
[Paper] A co-authored paper entitled “Annual dynamic dataset of global cropping intensity from 2001 to 2019” was accepted by Scientific Data.
[Special issue] Submissions are now welcomed for the co-edited Special Issue “Geo-Information in Smart Societies and Environment” in Remote Sensing with Prof. Qiming Zhou, Dr. Jianfeng Li, Dr. Bin Chen, and Dr. Meng Gao.
July
[Lecture]Dr. Bin Chen gave a guest lecture about “Geospatial data for environmental change studies” for HKU-Career Discovery in Landscape Architecture (CDLA) course.
[Paper] Our new paper entitled “Observed inequality in urban greenspace exposure in China” was published in Environment International.
[Lecture] Dr. Bin Chen gave an invited talk for the Sun Yat-sen University Summer School on the topic of “Space-Air-Land-Sea Intelligence Sensing Technology” on July 14.
[Paper] My second review paper entitled “Mapping essential urban land use categories (EULUC) using geospatial big data: Progress, challenges, and opportunities” was published in Big Earth Data.
[Paper] Our new paper entitled “Mapping Essential Urban Land Use Categories with Open Big Data: Results for Five Metropolitan Areas in the United States of America” was published in ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
[Grant] Dr. Bin Chen got one collaborative project funded by The Research Council of Norway: Researcher Project for Young Talents—Modelling the epidemiological dynamics of past and current zoonotic diseases in humans.
[Award] Dr. Bin Chen received the LAWR 2020 Distinguished Postdoctoral Award from University of California Davis. A huge recognition of the 3-year Postdoc chapter at UC Davis.