
Dr. Zhai Wei (翟煒博士)
Assistant Professor
Urban Resilience, Social Vulnerability,
Urban Computing, Spatial Data Science, GeoAI
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 2017-2021 Ph.D., Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida, United States
- 2017-2020 M.Eng., Computer Engineering, University of Florida, United States
- 2015-2017 M.Eng., Urban Planning, Tsinghua University, China
- 2010-2015 B.Eng., Urban Planning, Hunan University, China
TEACHING
- Geography and the Contemporary World
- Urban Planning
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Urban Resilience
- Social Vulnerability
- Urban Computing
- Spatial Data Science
- GeoAI
Website: https://skywalkerzhai.github.
ACADEMIC AWARDS
- 2021, Paul and Malea Zwick Graduate Student Award, University of Florida
- 2020, Best Poster Award, 2020 DCP Research Symposium, University of Florida
- 2020, Outstanding International Student Award, University of Florida
- 2020, Travel Awards, The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
External Grant
Microsoft AI for Earth Grant (2020.11-2021.11), “Evaluation and Prediction of American’s Mobility under Extreme Weather Events using Artificial Intelligence.” US$ 10,000. PI
Peer-reviewed Publications
Zhai, W., Fu, X., Liu, M., & Peng, Z. R. (2021). The impact of ethnic segregation on neighbourhood-level social distancing in the United States amid the early outbreak of COVID-19. Urban Studies, 00420980211050183. ( https://doi.org/10.1177/
Zhai, W., Peng, Z. R., & Bai, X. (2021). Prototypical Resilience Projects for Postdisaster Recovery Planning: From Theory to Action. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 0739456X211048928. ( https://doi.org/10.1177/
Zhai, W., & Yue, H. (2021). Economic resilience during COVID-19: An insight from permanent business closures. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 0308518X211055181. ( https://doi.org/10.1177/
Zhai, W., Liu, M., Fu, X., & Peng, Z. R. (2021). American Inequality Meets COVID-19: Uneven Spread of the Disease across Communities. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1-21.
Bai, X., Steiner, R. L., & Zhai, W. (2021). Beyond Neighborhood Design: Exploring the Effects of Smart Growth on Older Adults’ Travel Behavior over Time. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 0739456X211020352.
Fu, X., & Zhai, W. (2021). Examining the spatial and temporal relationship between social vulnerability and stay-at-home behaviors in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustainable cities and society, 102757. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670721000512)
Yuan, F., Li, M., Liu, R. , Zhai, W., Qi, B. (2021). Social Media for Enhanced Understanding of Disaster Resilience during Hurricane Florence. International Journal of Information Management.
Zhai, W., Peng, Z. R. (2020). Damage assessment using Google Street View: Evidence from Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida. Applied Geography.
Zhai, W., Peng, Z. R. , & Yuan, F. (2020). Examine the effects of neighborhood equity on disaster situational awareness: Harness machine learning and geotagged Twitter data. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 101611.
Zhai, W., Liu, M., & Peng, Z. R. (2020). Social distancing and inequality in the United States amid COVID-19 outbreak. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space.
Zhai, W., Peng, Z. R. (2020). Where to buy a house in the United States amid COVID-19? Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 0308518X20946041.
Gu, C., Ye, X. , Cao, Q., Guan, W., Peng, C., Wu, Y., & Zhai, W. (2020). System dynamics modelling of urbanization under energy constraints in China. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1-16.
Bai, X., Zhai, W., Steiner, R. L., & He, Z. (2020). Exploring extreme commuting and its relationship to land use and socioeconomics in the central Puget Sound. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 88, 102574.
Zhai, W., Bai, X., Shi, Y., Han, Y., Peng, Z. R., & Gu, C. (2019). Beyond Word2vec: An approach for urban functional region extraction and identification by combining Place2vec and POIs. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 74, 1-12.
Zhai, W., Bai, X., Peng, Z. R., & Gu, C. (2019). From edit distance to augmented space-time-weighted edit distance: Detecting and clustering patterns of human activities in Puget Sound region. Journal of Transport Geography, 78, 41-55.
Zhai, W., Bai, X., Peng, Z. R., & Gu, C. (2019). A bottom-up transportation network efficiency measuring approach: A case study of taxi efficiency in New York City. Journal of Transport Geography, 80. 102502.
Zhai, W. (2018). How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood, by Peter Moskowitz. Journal of the American Planning Association, 84(2), 203-203.