Research Interests
Vegetation plays a critical role in improving urban environments, including mitigating local heatwaves, reducing air pollution, and providing aesthetic and recreational benefit. As urbanization progresses, driven by population shifts and land transformation, it inevitably alters the biophysical and chemical processes that influence vegetation, affecting vegetation growth. With the global urban population projected to increase, the urban environment will become more complex, and the impact of urbanization on vegetation growth will intensify. This will likely result in a decrease in the stability of urban vegetation and pose challenges to sustainability. Therefore, resilience must be carefully considered when adapting to and mitigating the impacts of urbanization. My current research focuses on investigating the spatiotemporal patterns of urban vegetation resilience during urban development and to understand how urbanization affects vegetation resilience.
Education
- Visiting Ph.D. student, Geospatial Intelligence and Mapping (GIM) Lab, University of Waterloo, Mar 2025 - present
- Ph.D. candidate in Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Sep 2022 - present
- MSc in Physical Geography, Institute of International Rivers and Eco-security, Sep 2018 - Jun 2021
- BSc in Geographic Information Science, Jimei University, Sep 2014 - Jun 2018
Publication
- Yang, F., Liu, Z*., Zhou, Y., & Wei, L. (2025). Urbanization weakens vegetation resilience in the Pearl River Delta, China. Journal of Environmental Management, 373, 123756, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123756.
- Ye, J., Liu, Z*., Yang, F., Wei, L, & Zhou, Y. (2025). The spatiotemporal pattern and driving force of resident bird biodiversity in the urban agglomeration area in the Pearl River Delta. Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni, 64(01), 218-227, doi: 10.13471/j.cnki.acta.snus.ZR20240128.
- Liu, Z.*, Wei, L., Wang, An., Liu, Z., Yang, F., & Zhou, Y. (2023). Building a landscape ecology pathway forward to restore ecosystem in highly urbanized areas. Transactions in Earth Environment and Sustainability, 1, 223-236, doi: 10.1177/2754124X23119956.
- Yang, F., Duan X.*, Guo, Q., Lu, S., & Hsu, K. (2022), The spatiotemporal variations and propagation of drought in Plateau Mountains of China, Scence of The Total Environment, 805, 150257, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150257.
- Liao, K., Yang, F., Dang, H., Wu, Y., Luo, K., & Li, G*. (2022), Detection of Eucalyptus Leaf Disease with UAV Multispectral Imagery. Forests, 13(8), doi: 10.3390/f13081322.