Dongwei Liu
劉棟瑋
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of California, Berkeley
College of Environmental Design · Berkeley, California
Hi, I am Dongwei Liu (劉棟瑋) 👋, a Postdoc Researcher at UC Berkeley. My research connects urban planning, computer vision, and environmental health. Using street view imagery, photorealistic 3D city models, and multi-source urban data, I measure the lived urban environment and investigate its relationships with human health and behavior.
I develop tools to measure urban greenery, biodiversity, human activity, and environmental exposure, with the goal of informing healthier, greener, and more livable cities.
I currently work at 3M Lab, collaborating with Prof. Lu Liang. I obtained my PhD from HUB lab at City University of Hong Kong under the supervision of Prof. Yi Lu, and my master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the National University of Singapore and Southeast University, respectively. I previously worked at the Centre for China Urban and Regional Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, collaborating with Prof. Donggen Wang, and at the Centre for Liveable Cities within the Ministry of National Development (Singapore).
Berkeley, CA, USA
Research
01 / ENVIRONMENTUrban greenery & biodiversity
Citywide street tree inventories, greenery quality, ecosystem services, and environmental justice.
View 4 papers →
02 / EXPOSUREHuman-centered measurement
Eye-level and window-view nature exposure, 3D urban models, and multi-source measurement of neighborhood environments.
View 6 papers →
03 / PEOPLEHealth, mobility & wellbeing
Physical activity, pedestrian behavior, aging-friendly walkability, and inequalities in urban experience.
View 6 papers →Publications
View Google Scholar ↗Citation counts from Google Scholar, updated October 24, 2026.
Urban greenery & biodiversity
- 2026
Evaluating the contribution of city-wide street trees on PM2.5 removal based on Street View Imagery and computer vision technology
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 126, 102413.
DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2026.102413 ↗ Cited by 2 - 2026
Exploring the environmental justice of street tree provision: Adding biodiversity to automatic assessment of street-level greenery
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 115, 129184.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2025.129184 ↗ Cited by 13 - 2024
Tree abundance, species richness, or species mix? Exploring the relationship between features of urban street trees and pedestrian volume in Jinan, China
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 95, 128294.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2024.128294 ↗ Cited by 22 - 2023
Establishing a citywide street tree inventory with street view images and computer vision techniques
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 100, 101924.
DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2022.101924 ↗ Cited by 96
Human-centered measurement
- 2026
Vitality-oriented urban forms are associated with poorer indoor window views in Hong Kong
Habitat International, 178, 104016.
DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2026.104016 ↗ Cited by 0 - 2026
Linking window-view nature exposure with health and wellbeing outcomes: Using photorealistic 3D city models and computer vision technique
Landscape and Urban Planning, 270, 105601.
DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2026.105601 ↗ Cited by 6 - 2026
Beyond top-down and street-view: Associating citywide indoor nature exposure to life expectancy with photorealistic 3D city models and deep learning
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 119, 129361.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2026.129361 ↗ Cited by 3 - 2026
Detecting uneven impacts of rental housing financialisation and platformisation on neighbourhoods in China: A multi-source data mining approach
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 124, 102369.
DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2025.102369 ↗ Cited by 2 - 2025
A methodological review of the assessment of urban greenery exposure
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 114, 129169.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2025.129169 ↗ Cited by 13 - 2025
Contrasting inequalities in collective residence-based and pedestrian-based urban greenery exposure with multi-sourced urban big data and deep learning
Applied Geography, 183, 103743.
DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103743 ↗ Cited by 6
Health, mobility & wellbeing
- 2025
The association of subjective physical disorder and pedestrian volume: A big urban data and machine-learning approach
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 122, 102348.
DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2025.102348 ↗ Cited by 8 - 2025
Exploring the nonlinear effects of greenery on active travel among the ageing population
Journal of Transport Geography, 127, 104299.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2025.104299 ↗ Cited by 2 - 2025
Is perceived safety a prerequisite for the relationship between green space availability, and the use and perceived comfort of green space?
Wellbeing, Space and Society, 8, 100247.
DOI: 10.1016/j.wss.2025.100247 ↗ Cited by 18 - 2025
Nonlinear associations between street-level greenery quantity and quality, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour in Chinese middle-aged and older adults: A socioeconomic equity perspective
Cities, 158, 105618.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105618 ↗ Cited by 15 - 2024
Exploring non-linear effects of environmental factors on the volume of pedestrians of different ages using street view images and computer vision technology
Travel Behaviour and Society, 36, 100814.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tbs.2024.100814 ↗ Cited by 37 - 2023
Detecting older pedestrians and aging-friendly walkability using computer vision technology and street view imagery
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 105, 102027.
DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2023.102027 ↗ Cited by 72
Appointments
University of California, Berkeley
Postdoctoral Research Fellow · College of Environmental Design
August 2026–present
Hong Kong Baptist University
Postdoctoral Research Fellow · Department of Geography
October 2025–August 2026
City University of Hong Kong
Teaching Assistant · Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Ministry of National Development (Singapore)
Research Fellow · Centre for Liveable Cities
May–August 2020
Nanjing Institute of City & Transport Planning
Assistant Engineer · Big Data Centre
July–November 2018
Education
PhD · City University of Hong Kong
September 2021–October 2025
Master of Urban Planning · National University of Singapore
August 2019–July 2021
BEng in Traffic Engineering · Southeast University
September 2015–July 2019 · Outstanding Graduate Thesis
Funding
Establishing city-wide tree inventories with AI and Big Data Technology
Principal Investigator · HK Tech 300 Seed Fund, City University of Hong Kong
2021–2023 · HK$100,000
Urban Greenness and Urban Residents’ Health: A Novel Method to Assess Street Greenery
Principal Investigator · Ideation Fund, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
2022–2024 · HK$100,000
How walkable are the streets for older adults?
Co-Investigator · Interdisciplinary Research Seed Funding, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2023–2024 · HK$15,000 · Street view imagery and deep learning
Teaching & supervision
- City University of Hong Kong — Co-developed CA6241 Urban Big Data. Teaching assistant for Advanced Design Tools, Design Creation – Tectonics, Structural Systems & Materials, and Architectural Design: Context.
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong — Guest lecturer, URBD5704 Research Methods in Urban Design (MSc Urban Design).
- Shenzhen University — Guest lecturer, Urban Big Data: Analysis and Application.
- Hong Kong Chu Hai College — Guest lecturer, Smart Cities: Technologies and Solutions.
- Supervision — Assistant supervisor for 30 final-year undergraduate students in the Integrated Building Development Project (2022–2025); co-supervisor for two master’s dissertations.
Academic and social service
Editorial & peer review
Guest Editor for Remote Sensing and Land.
Reviewer for journals including Landscape and Urban Planning, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Cities, Habitat International, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, and Travel Behaviour and Society, etc.
Leadership
Founder and CEO, DeepGreen Tech Limited (2023–present).
Founder, Football team of Chinese Students and Scholars Association of City University of Hong Kong (2022–2024).
Vice President, Chinese Students and Scholars Association, City University of Hong Kong (2022–2024).
Founder and President, American Society of Civil Engineers, Southeast University Branch (2016–2017).
Academic talks
- Session organizer & chair, “Multi-perspective nature exposure analytics from windows and beyond for health, equity, and urban future”. The 20th International Association for China Planning (IACP) Conference, 2026, Xi’an, China.
- Invited lecture, “Street View Imagery: Analysis and Application”, School of Architecture, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China, 2026
- Invited lecture, “Picturesque Studies and Image Studies”, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 2026
- Invited lecture, “Human-Centered Greenery Exposure Modeling and Analysis using Multi-Source Data and Computer Vision”, City Plus Talk, series 22, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 2025
- Invited lecture, “Big data, deep learning, and smart cities, Department of Architecture”, Hong Kong Chu Hai College, Hong Kong, 2025
- Winner’s talk, “Establishing a citywide street tree inventory with street view images and computer vision techniques”, Jiangsu-Hong Kong-Macao Universities Remote Sensing Mapping Analysis and Academic Competition, Nanjing, China, 2023
- Oral Presentation, “Contrasting resident-based and pedestrian-based urban greenery exposure”. Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Conference (ACSP), 2024, Seattle, US
- Oral Presentation, “Green Justice or Just Green: Comparing resident-based and pedestrian-based urban greenery exposure with a big data approach”. The 18th International Association for China Planning (IACP) Conference,2024, Hangzhou, China
- Oral Presentation, “Comparing resident-based and pedestrian-based urban greenery exposure with a big data approach”. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, 2024, Honolulu, US
- Oral Presentation, “Utilizing computer vision for city-wide street tree profiling and its application”. International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) World Congress, 2023, Stockholm, Sweden
- Oral Presentation, “A pedestrian-count-based approach to assessing walkability and evaluating aging-friendly walking environment using computer vision technology and Street View Images”. The 17th International Association for China Planning (IACP) Conference,2023, Tianjin, China
- Oral Presentation, “The Influence of Built Environment on School Children’s Metro Ridership: An Exploration Using Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression Models”. Transportation Research Board (TRB), 2019, Washington DC, US
Get in touch
Urban greenery, computer vision, and healthier cities.