Assistant Professor
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
About me
I am an Assistant Professor in Department of Geography and Resource Managementat, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).
My research addresses the interactions between human activities and the environment by developing innovative geospatial analytical methods. I strive to address the issues of the impact of the environment on human health through the lens of movement flows, transportation related emissions and traffic congestion, and built environment. My research primarily relies on large movement datasets (e.g., GPS trajectories), together with a variety of other data sources including individual GPS tracking, mobile sensing, remote sensing, land use, built environment and activity travel diaries (my CV).
Email: zihankan@cuhk.edu.hk
Office: Sino Building 237, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Research Interests: Spatial data analysis and modeling; GPS trajectory mining; Human-environment interactions; Geospatial health studies
Opportunities
I am seeking Research Assistants to collaborate on projects in GeoAI, human mobility modeling, greenspace quality, quantity, and accessibility analysis, as well as urban environmental sensing. If you’re interested, please send me your CV and share how you envision contributing to these projects.
I am also looking for highly self-motivated PhD students in the above areas. If you’re passionate about these topics and wish to join my research group, please email me your CV and a research proposal.
What’s new (2025)
Paper: [A cutting-edge traffic model that uses physics-inspired field theory and path flow modeling to decode the ripple effects of urban congestion, offering smarter, data-driven solutions for untangling city traffic chaos] Shi, H., Kan, Z*., Qi, H., Zhao, Z., Chen, T. and Tang, L., 2025. Beyond the jam: field theory modeling of congestion’s ripple effects on traffic dynamics. GIScience & Remote Sensing, 62(1), p.2547126. My RA as the first author.
Paper: [There is a notable discrepancy in greenspace exposure estimates when different indicators are used. what are the key factors driving this inconsistency?] Su, L., Kan, Z*. and Kwan, M.P., 2025. Exploring the factors behind the discrepancy between two-dimensional and three-dimensional indicators of greenspace exposure, Ecological Indicators. My student as the first author.
Paper: [Why do certain built environment features promote dockless bike-sharing and metro integration in some places and times, but not others?] Wei, J., Kan, Z., Liu, Z., Wang, Z. and Chen, Y., 2025. Exploring spatio-temporal variations in nonlinear correlations between the built environment and metro-bike travel: evidence from Beijing, Transportmetrica B: Transport Dynamics. My student as the first author.
Paper:[Decoupling the complex, dynamic, and multi-scale interactions in human mobility] Zhao, Z., Kan, Z., Kwan, M.P. and Tang, L., 2025. Identifying urban spatial clusters via flow dynamics: a coupled tensor-based method. International Journal of Digital Earth. My student as the first author.
Project: I have been awarded funding through the 1+1+1 Joint Collaboration Fund and the Young Scholar Projects (as PI, June 2025 – June 2027). In this role, I will investigate smart city technologies and explore opportunities for academic exchange and collaboration with the CUHK-SZ team.
Paper: [ We redefine walking accessibility by integrating 3D urban form and ridership patterns, revealing hidden inequities in Hong Kong] Liu, D., Kan, Z., Wang, J., Kwan, M.P., Song, J. and Wei, J., 2025. Using spatially explicit high-granularity 3D geospatial data for quantifying public transport walking accessibility inequality and vulnerability in the x-minute city. Cities.
Paper: [How accessible is the “x-minute city” for those who depend on public transit to move?] Liu, D., Wei, J. and Kan, Z.*, 2025. Integrated transit service status assessment using smart transit card big data under the x-minute city framework. Journal of Transport Geography.
Paper: [How did where people lived and moved shape their mental health during the pandemic? ] Liu, D., Kan, Z., Kwan, M.P., Cai, J. and Liu, Y., 2025..Assessing the impact of socioeconomic and environmental factors on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic based on GPS-enabled mobile sensing and survey data. Health & Place.
Paper: [We propose an adaptive, parameter-free clustering approach that reveals complex, multi-scale movement structures] Guo, X., Fang, M., Tang, L., Kan, Z., Yang, X., Pei, T., … & Li, C. 2025. An adaptive OD flow clustering method to identify heterogeneous urban mobility trends. Journal of Transport Geography.
Paper: [How does human mobility shape traffic congestion, rather than just respond to it? We develop a path-flow model to deal with it] Shi, H., Zhao, Z., Tang, L., Kan, Z., & Du, Y. 2025. Advancing human mobility modeling: a novel path flow approach to mining traffic congestion dynamics. International Journal of Geographical Information Science.