I am Choh-Ming Li Professor of Geography and Resource Management, and Director of the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong). My research addresses health, social, transportation, economic, and environmental issues in urban areas through the application of innovative geographic information system (GIS) methods. Please visit my website for more information about my projects and professional activities at http://meipokwan.org. Address: Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Journal of urban planning and development, Dec 1, 2021
Abstract The quality of urban settlement is an essential element of people's desire for a bet... more Abstract The quality of urban settlement is an essential element of people's desire for a better life, which has been capitalized into housing prices of local cities. However, previous literature f...
Inequalities in accessibility to grocery stores can lead to disparate health outcomes among the p... more Inequalities in accessibility to grocery stores can lead to disparate health outcomes among the population. Although existing studies have examined grocery accessibility inequality across income and racial/ethnic groups, little research has been dedicated to revealing the intra‐racial disparities of grocery accessibility and comparing inter‐racial and intra‐racial inequalities in grocery accessibility. This study adopts a modified two‐step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, which accounts for the supply/demand inflation effect, and an alternative distribution inequality metric called the Palma ratio to measure the inequalities in grocery access between the richest 10% and poorest 40% of the census tracts within the same racial/ethnic group in Chicago (USA). The results indicate that in Chicago, inter‐racial inequality in grocery accessibility is more serious than intra‐racial inequality, especially because the Hispanic‐majority census tracts generally suffer from low grocery accessibility regardless of their income levels.
Geospatial models can facilitate the delineation of food access patterns, which is particularly r... more Geospatial models can facilitate the delineation of food access patterns, which is particularly relevant for urban planning and health policymaking. Because community food environmental studies use different analysis units or study scales, the rigor and consistency of their evaluations cannot be ensured. This issue is known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). The paper provides a systematic review of past literature on place-based community food environmental research using different analysis units or geospatial models as they pertain to the MAUP. We identify these key findings: (1) the ZIP code zone is not recommended as an appropriate analysis unit for modeling community food access, as it did not have significant correlations with health indicators; (2) using a circular buffer of less than 0.5 km around household locations is most likely to reveal health correlations, compared with network buffers or container-based measures; (3) to reveal health effects of the community...
Journal of urban planning and development, Dec 1, 2021
Abstract The quality of urban settlement is an essential element of people's desire for a bet... more Abstract The quality of urban settlement is an essential element of people's desire for a better life, which has been capitalized into housing prices of local cities. However, previous literature f...
Inequalities in accessibility to grocery stores can lead to disparate health outcomes among the p... more Inequalities in accessibility to grocery stores can lead to disparate health outcomes among the population. Although existing studies have examined grocery accessibility inequality across income and racial/ethnic groups, little research has been dedicated to revealing the intra‐racial disparities of grocery accessibility and comparing inter‐racial and intra‐racial inequalities in grocery accessibility. This study adopts a modified two‐step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, which accounts for the supply/demand inflation effect, and an alternative distribution inequality metric called the Palma ratio to measure the inequalities in grocery access between the richest 10% and poorest 40% of the census tracts within the same racial/ethnic group in Chicago (USA). The results indicate that in Chicago, inter‐racial inequality in grocery accessibility is more serious than intra‐racial inequality, especially because the Hispanic‐majority census tracts generally suffer from low grocery accessibility regardless of their income levels.
Geospatial models can facilitate the delineation of food access patterns, which is particularly r... more Geospatial models can facilitate the delineation of food access patterns, which is particularly relevant for urban planning and health policymaking. Because community food environmental studies use different analysis units or study scales, the rigor and consistency of their evaluations cannot be ensured. This issue is known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). The paper provides a systematic review of past literature on place-based community food environmental research using different analysis units or geospatial models as they pertain to the MAUP. We identify these key findings: (1) the ZIP code zone is not recommended as an appropriate analysis unit for modeling community food access, as it did not have significant correlations with health indicators; (2) using a circular buffer of less than 0.5 km around household locations is most likely to reveal health correlations, compared with network buffers or container-based measures; (3) to reveal health effects of the community...
Space-time analysis is a rapidly growing research frontier in geography, GIS, and GIScience. Adva... more Space-time analysis is a rapidly growing research frontier in geography, GIS, and GIScience. Advances in integrated GPS/GIS technologies, the availability of large datasets (over time and space), and increased capacity to manage, integrate, model and visualize complex data in (near) real time, offer the GIS and geography communities extraordinary opportunities to begin to integrate sophisticated space-time analysis and models in the study of complex environmental and social systems, from climate change to infectious disease transmission.
This volume specifically focuses on research frontiers, comparative research, and research and application interactions in this field in the US and China, arguably the two most dynamic loci for this work today. The contributions to this book, by top researchers in China and the US, productively highlight the differences and similarities in approaches and directions for space-time analysis in the two countries. In light of the recent rapid progress in GIScience research on space-time integration in both countries, the book’s focus on research frontiers in these two countries will attract great interest in both countries and in other parts of the world as well as among related disciplines. In addition, the book also explores the impact of collaborative research and publications underway in this area between the US and China, and will provide an overview of these collaborative efforts and programs.
This book will not only be of interest to university-based GIS researchers and students, but also to those interested in this new area of research and applications like researchers and developers in business, internet mapping and GIS, and location based services (LBS).
This book is a collection of papers reflecting the latest advances in geographic research on heal... more This book is a collection of papers reflecting the latest advances in geographic research on health, disease, and well-being. It spans a wide range of topics, theoretical perspectives, and methodologies - including anti-racism, post-colonialism, spatial statistics, spatiotemporal modeling, political ecology, and social network analysis. Health issues in various regions of the world are addressed by interdisciplinary authors, who include scholars from epidemiology, medicine, public health, demography, and community studies. The book covers the major themes in this field such as health inequalities; environmental health; spatial analysis and modeling of disease; health care provision, access, and utilization; health and wellbeing; and global/transnational health and health issues in the global south. There is also a specially commissioned book review in addition to the chapters included in these six sections. Together, these chapters show cogently how geographic perspectives and methods can contribute in significant ways to advancing our understanding of the complex interactions between social and physical environments and health behaviors and outcomes.
In recent years, geographies of identities, including those of ethnicity, religion, 'race' and ge... more In recent years, geographies of identities, including those of ethnicity, religion, 'race' and gender, have formed an increasing focus of contemporary human geography. The events of September 11th, 2001 particularly illustrated the ways in which identities can be transformed across time and space by both global and local events of a social, cultural, political and economic nature. Such transformations have also demonstrated the temporal and spatial construction of hate and fear, and of increasing incidences of 'Islamophobia' through the construction of Muslims as 'the Other'. As the social scientific study of religion continues to be marginalized within mainstream scholarship, there remains an important gap in the literature.
This timely book addresses this gap by collecting a range of cutting-edge contributions from the social, cultural, political, historical and economic sub-disciplines of geography, together with writings from gender studies, cultural studies and leisure studies where research has revealed a strong spatial dimension to the construction, representation, contestation and reworking of Muslim identities. The contributors illustrate the ways in which such identities are constructed, represented, negotiated and contested in everyday life in a wide variety of international contexts, focusing upon issues connected with diaspora, gender and belonging.
Mobility, accessibility, networks, and interactions across space are at the heart of how spaces a... more Mobility, accessibility, networks, and interactions across space are at the heart of how spaces and places are brought into being and continue to change. In a series of articles that chart the development of thinking about space, place, and transport, this book highlights the role that a geographic perspective has played in transport studies, raises questions about transport policy, and points to additional questions worthy of research. The volume is divided into four parts covering fundamental concepts, individual behaviour in urban spatial context, inter-regional transport and policy issues.
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Papers by Mei-Po Kwan
This volume specifically focuses on research frontiers, comparative research, and research and application interactions in this field in the US and China, arguably the two most dynamic loci for this work today. The contributions to this book, by top researchers in China and the US, productively highlight the differences and similarities in approaches and directions for space-time analysis in the two countries. In light of the recent rapid progress in GIScience research on space-time integration in both countries, the book’s focus on research frontiers in these two countries will attract great interest in both countries and in other parts of the world as well as among related disciplines. In addition, the book also explores the impact of collaborative research and publications underway in this area between the US and China, and will provide an overview of these collaborative efforts and programs.
This book will not only be of interest to university-based GIS researchers and students, but also to those interested in this new area of research and applications like researchers and developers in business, internet mapping and GIS, and location based services (LBS).
This timely book addresses this gap by collecting a range of cutting-edge contributions from the social, cultural, political, historical and economic sub-disciplines of geography, together with writings from gender studies, cultural studies and leisure studies where research has revealed a strong spatial dimension to the construction, representation, contestation and reworking of Muslim identities. The contributors illustrate the ways in which such identities are constructed, represented, negotiated and contested in everyday life in a wide variety of international contexts, focusing upon issues connected with diaspora, gender and belonging.