About the lab
The Urban Design Science for Health Lab was established in 2022. It promotes urban design as a scientific discipline and focuses on generating rigorous, policy-relevant evidence to improve built environments, particularly in densely populated and rapidly transforming urban contexts.
The lab integrates spatial analysis, epidemiological methods, and artificial intelligence (AI) to examine how urban form influences human health and wellbeing, especially in high-density contexts. Many urban areas today face intersecting challenges, including population ageing, increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases, extreme heat, environmental pressures, and transport congestion. These conditions demand spatial strategies that are grounded in science, supported by data, and adaptable to local governance and planning needs.
The lab’s current thematic areas include:
• AI in urban design for promoting healthy ageing.
• Future directions for AI applications in urban design research.
• Data-driven spatial modelling for evaluating urban environments in relation to health resilience and well-being.
• GeoAI applications for analysing spatial patterns of health risks and urban exposures.
• Machine learning applications for predicting health impacts of urban form.
• Predictive modelling of health and environmental outcomes using big spatial data.
• Digital twin-based simulations for evaluating built environment interventions on public health outcomes.
• AI-informed spatial strategies for reducing non-communicable disease risk.
• AI-supported spatial decision support systems for informing health-oriented urban governance.
• Walkability, mobility, and access in compact urban settings.
• Urban heat mitigation through spatial and morphological design.
• Science-based urban design and health frameworks for healthy urban regeneration using big data.
• Urban cognition and behavioural modelling for healthy environments.
• Sensor-based urban sensing for exposure assessment in high-density cities.
• Human-centric and ethical dimensions of AI in health-oriented urban design.
The lab operates at the intersection of urban design, population health, spatial analytics, and AI. Its research generates cross-disciplinary scientific knowledge directly relevant to urban design policy, infrastructure, and public health governance.
