ChengHe Guan

ChengHe Guan
Director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Science, Associate Professor of Urban Science and Policy, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Associate Professor, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, NYU
Email
cg157@nyu.edu
Room
N852
Homepage Link
https://urban.shanghai.nyu.edu/
ChengHe Guan is Associate Professor of Urban Science and Policy at NYU Shanghai and Global Network Associate Professor at NYU Wagner. He is Founding Co-Director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Science (LOUD), a Ph.D. advisor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and East China Normal University’s School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and a working committee member of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Prosperity Alliance Office in Shanghai.
 

Select Publications

  • Guan, C., Ren, X., Song, J., Keith, M., Akiyama Y., Shibasaki R. (2026) Unraveling the dynamics of urban park visits: Daytime visitation patterns and behavioral determinants derived from mobile phone data. Cities 178, 107392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2026.107392
  • Xi, S., Yan, K., Guan, C.*, Zhang, B. (2026) Escaping the Natural Capital Trap: Divergent Wealth Pathways and Policy-Sensitive Futures for China’s Resource-based Cities. npj Urban Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00443-9
  • Nie, X., Liu, H., Han, M., Guan, C.* (2026) Evaluating Citizen Participation in Local Public Meetings: An Explorative Approach Using LLMs and Transcripts in the United States. Journal of Planning Education and Research 46(3) 870-882. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X251377693
  • Kim, S., Cho, H., Wu, L., Guan, C.* (2026) Green-blue adaptation strategies and the gentrification paradox in African cities. Nature Cities (Nature Portfolio) https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-026-00432-0
  • Sun, H., Li, C., Huang, K., Li, Y., Guan, C.* (2026) Social Media as a Sensor: Unraveling Nonlinear Drivers of Perceived Thermal Comfort in Megacities. Landscape and Urban Planning 271, 105636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2026.105636

Education

  • DDes
    Harvard University
  • MDes
    Harvard University
  • MArch
    Washington University in St. Louis
  • BArch
    Southeast University
Research Interests
Dr. Guan’s research focuses on the spatial analysis of urban morphology and green-infrastructure planning through three interconnected areas: (1) AI-enhanced urban spatial and digital analytics; (2) blue–green infrastructure analytics using urban sensing; and (3) climate-adaptive urban development and simulation. He has also spearheaded emerging research on robotic urbanization and lightweight urbanization. His work has appeared in leading journals, including Nature Cities, Nature Communications, Scientific Data, npj Urban Sustainability, Journal of Planning Education and Research, and Landscape and Urban Planning.
Courses Taught
  • Urbanization in China
  • Planning Global Cities
  • Social Science Honors Independent Study
  • Spatial Dynamics of Urbanization