Zhu (Joe) Qian, PhD, RPP, MCIP

Zhu Qian is Associate Professor in the School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Canada. His primary research interests lie in urban land use reform, urbanization and resettlement, planning in urban–rural interface, and urban regeneration in Chinese cities. He has published widely on these topics, including the recent books Property Rights and Urban Transformation in China (Edward Elgar, 2022), When Formalization Fails: The Credibility of Informality in China’s Resettlement Communities (with Chen Yang, Cambridge University Press, 2026), and Reinventing the Chinese City: Urban Regeneration and Governance in Transition (Routledge, 2026).

• urban land use reform

• urbanization and resettlement

• property rights and urban development

• urban regeneration and governance

• planning history

• heritage conservation planning

• all in Chinese cities

His primary research interests lie in urban land use reform, urbanization and resettlement, planning in urban–rural interface, heritage conservation planning, and urban regeneration in Chinese cities.

• Ph.D. Urban and Regional Science, Texas A & M University, United States, 2008.

• M.A. Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Canada, 2002.

• B.Arch. Architecture, Tongji University, China, 1996.

• Associate Director, Graduate Studies, School of Planning, 2026-2029; 2018-2022.

• GEOG 349 - Urban Form and Internal Spatial Structure
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• PLAN 261 - Urban and Metropolitan Planning and Development
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• PLAN 349 - Urban Form and Internal Spatial Structure
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• PLAN 415 - Urban Planning and Development in Transitional China
  • Taught in 2022, 2024, 2026
• PLAN 675 - Special Readings on Selected Planning Topics
  • Taught in 2021, 2025
• PLAN 685 - Urban Planning and Development in Transitional China
  • Taught in 2022, 2024, 2026
• PLAN 702 - Critical Assessment of Theories, Methods and Practices of Planning
  • Taught in 2023, 2026
• PLAN 706 - Contemporary Issues in Planning
  • Taught in 2021, 2023, 2026
• PLAN 803 - Advanced Research Design in Planning
  • Taught in 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• I. BooksQian, Z. (2026). Reinventing the Chinese City: Urban Regeneration and Governance in Transition. London: Routledge.Qian, Z. & Yang, C. (2026). When Formalization Fails: The Credibility of Informality in China’s Resettlement Communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Qian, Z. (2022). Property Rights and Urban Transformation in China. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

• II. Chapters in Books (refereed)1) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2026). The socio-spatial deprivation of residents in China’s rural-to-urban resettlement communities: An analysis with the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, Chapter 36, in Di Felicantonio, C. & Vanolo, A. (eds.) De Gruyter Handbook of Social Geographies, Berlin: De Gruyter (in press), pp. 491-505.2) Qian, Z. (2023). Travel Behavior of Residents in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Neighborhoods: A Study of Two Neighborhoods in Shenzhen, China, in Debnath Mookherjee, George M. Pomeroy, & Le Thi Thu Huong (eds.) Urban Transformational Landscapes in the City-Hinterlands of Asia, Singapore: Springer, pp.41-54.3) Qian, Z. (2023). Evaluating Displaced People’s Life Satisfaction in Urban Resettlement Community in Nanjing City, China, in Braj Raj Kumar Sinha (ed.) Urban Dynamics, Environment and Health: An International Perspective, Singapore: Springer, pp.493-510.4) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2023). China’s Integrated Urban-rural Development: A Development Mode outside the Planetary Urbanization Paradigm? In Zhang, L., Wamuchiru, E., & Ngomsi, C. A. M. (eds.) The City in an Era of Cascading Risks: New Insights from the Ground, Berlin: Springer Nature, pp.147-168.5) Qian, Z. (2023). Location Choices of Micro Creative Enterprises in China: Evidence from Two Creative Clusters in Shanghai. In Zhang, L., Wamuchiru, E., & Ngomsi, C. A. M. (eds.) The City in an Era of Cascading Risks: New Insights from the Ground, Berlin: Springer Nature, pp.186-202.6) Biswas, A., Singh, V., & Qian, Z. (2023). Analysing Land Use Transformation and Water Security: Evidence from the Global North and the Global South. In Chatterjee, U., Bandyopadhyay, N., Setiawati M. D., & Sarkar, S. (eds.) Urban Commons, Future Smart Cities and Sustainability, Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp. 465-483.7) Zhang, S. & Qian, Z. (2020), Community governance in China’s land expropriation-induced resettlement neighborhoods: the case of Shanghai, in Deden Rukemana (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Planning Megacities in the Global South, Routledge pp. 367-381.8) Liu, Y. & Qian, Z, (2020). Land-use Behavior of Farming Households and Rural Land Degradation in a Karst Area of China, in Gao, J., Baikady, R., Govindappa, L., Cheng, S.-L. (Eds.) Social Welfare in India and China: A Comparative Perspective, London: Palgrave Macmillan pp. 73-91.9) Zhang, S. & Qian, Z. (2017). The Impacts of High-speed Rail on Shanghai’s Suburban Communities: Social Sustainability and Environmental Justice. In Caprotti, F. and Yu, L. (eds.) Sustainable Cities in Asia, London: Routledge, pp.99-111.10) Qian, Z. & Bright, E. M. (2015). Houston: a Liveable City without Zoning? In F. Wagner and R. Mahayni (eds.) Transforming Distressed Global Communities: Making Inclusive, Safe, Resilient, and Sustainable Cities, Surrey: Ashgate, pp. 101-116.11) Qian, Z. (2008). Planning a ‘World Class’ City without Zoning: The Experience of Houston. Chapter 14 In Mike Jenks, Daniel Kozak, and Pattaranan Takkanon (eds.) World Cities and Urban Form: fragmented, polycentric, sustainable? New York and London: Routledge, pp. 219-236.

• III. Articles in Refereed Journals1) Yang, C., Qian, Z., Zhao, Y. & Shi, G. (2025). Towards a new paradigm of urbanization through resettlement: practices and insights from China under planetary urbanization. Journal of Planning Education and Research, pp.1-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X2513911182) Yang, C., Qian, Z. & Li, H. (2025). Informality as an approach to claiming the right to resettlement and achieving inclusive rural-to-urban resettlement for landless villagers: the case of Hangzhou China. Journal of Urban Affairs, 47(6): 2215-2239.3) Qian, Z. (2024). Spatial Planning of China’s Lower-tier Cities: Strategies, Implementation, and Consequences, International Planning Studies, 29 (2): 140-159.4) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2024). ‘Art district without artists’: urban redevelopment through industrial heritage renovation and the gentrification of industrial neighborhoods in China. Urban Geography, 45 (6): 1006-1028.5) Su, X & Qian, Z. (2024). Interpreting China’s overbuilding through a behavioral perspective: the role of developers’ excessive optimism, Journal of Urban Affairs, 46 (10), 2185–2203.6) Yang C., & Qian Z. (2024). The new paradigm of future cities? Facilitating dialogues between the 15-minute city and the 15-minute life circle in China based on a bibliometric analysis, Transactions in Planning and Urban Research, 3 (3): 294-312.7) Li H., Qian Z., Yang C., Zheng X., & Wu Y. (2024). How do the characteristics of local officials affect land urbanization bubble? A case study of Hangzhou, China. Applied Geography, 162: 103147.8) Liu Y., Qian Z., Kong H., Rao G., Wu R., Zheng P., & Qin W. (2024). Spatial and temporal change of rural eco-environment, ecosystem services and farmer household livelihood capital in a karst area of China: a case study of Sinan County, Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 23 (5): 1035-1047.9) Qian, Z. (2023). Heritage Conservation as a Territorialized Urban Strategy: Conservative Reuse of Socialist Industrial Heritage in China, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 29 (1-2), 63-80.10) Qian, Z. (2023). Collaborative neighborhood governance: investigating two types of resettlement neighborhoods in suburban Shanghai, China, Urban Policy and Research, 41 (4): 434-451.11) Liu, Y., Qian, Z., Kong, H., Wu, R., Zheng, P., & Qin, W. (2023). Impacts of Eco-Poverty Alleviation Policies on Farmer Livelihood Changes and Response Mechanisms in a Karst Area of China from a Sustainable Perspective. Sustainability, 15: 2618.12) Yang, C., Qian, Z. & Li, Huan. (2023). Measuring the accessibility deprivation of concentrated resettlement communities in China: an integrated approach of space syntax and multi-criteria decision analysis, Applied Geography, 150: 102839.13) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2023). Street network or functional attractors? Capturing pedestrian movement patterns and urban form with the integration of space syntax and MCDA, Urban Design International. 28 (1), 3–18.14) Su, X., & Qian, Z. (2022). Neoliberal financial governance and its transformation under real estate boom and bust: The case of Ordos City, China. Land Use Policy, 112, 104728.15) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2022). Urbanization through resettlement and the production of space in Hangzhou's concentrated resettlement communities, Cities, 129: 103846.16) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2022). The complexity of property rights embedded in the rural-to-urban resettlement of China: a case of Hangzhou, Land Use Policy, vol. 122, 106394.17) Liu, Y., Wang, M., Qian, Z., Hou, B., Chen, X., Lei, Q., He, L. & Zhao, L. (2022). Effect of Farmland Transfer on Poverty Reduction under Different Targeted Poverty Alleviation Patterns Based on PSM-DID Model in Karst Area of China, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Article ID 9143080.18) Qian, Z. (2022). Territorial Governance, Market Integration and Indigenous Citizens in China’s State-led Eco-tourism: Developing the Xixi National Wetland Park, Journal of China Tourism Research, 18 (5): 991-1010.19) Qian, Z. (2021). From Upstart City to ‘Ghost’ City: Informal Housing Finance in Ordos, China. Town Planning Review, 92(6), 697-723.20) Ye, S. & Qian, Z. (2021). The Economic Network Resilience of the Guanzhong Plain City Cluster, China: A network analysis from the evolutionary perspective. Growth and Change, 52, 2391–2411.21) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2021). ‘Resettlement with Chinese characteristics’: the distinctive political-economic context, (in)voluntary urbanites, and three types of mismatch, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development. 13 (3): 496-515.22) Qian, Z. (2021). World Heritage Site inscription and waterfront heritage conservation: evidence from the Grand Canal historic districts in Hangzhou, China. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 16(6), 684-704. 2022 Journal of Heritage Tourism Dallen Timothy Best Paper Award Winner.23) Su, X. & Qian, Z. (2020). State Intervention in Urban Land Supply and its Impact on Real Estate Investment in China: Evidences from Prefecture-level Chinese Cities. Sustainability 12(3), 1019.24) Su, X, & Qian, Z. (2020). Neoliberal planning, master plan adjustment and overbuilding in China: The case of Ordos City. Cities, 105, 102748.25) Zhang, S. & Qian, Z. (2019). Villagers’ Acculturation in China’s Land Expropriation-induced Resettlement Neighborhood: A Shanghai Case, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 74: 174-188.26) Qian, Z. (2019). Displaced villagers’ adaptation in concentrated resettlement community: a case study of Nanjing, China, Land Use Policy, 88: 104097.27) Qian, Z. (2018). Shanghai’s Socialist Suburbanization, 1953-1962. Journal of Planning History, 17 (3): 226-247.28) Zhong, T., Qian, Z., Huang, X., Zhao, Z., Zhao, Y., & Zhou, Y., (2018). Impact of the Top-down Quota-oriented Farmland Preservation Planning on the Change of Urban Land-use Intensity in China, Habitat International, 77: 71-79.29) Su, X. & Qian, Z. (2018). The Impact of Housing Market Fluctuation and Housing Supply on the Housing Opportunities of the Moderate- and Low-income Households in 21st Century Urban China: a Case Study of Ordos City. The China Review, 18 (1): 107-135.30) Qian, Z. & Xue, J. (2017). Small Town Urbanization in Western China: Villager Resettlement and Integration in Xi’an. Land Use Policy, 68: 152-159.31) Qian, Z. & Li, H. (2017). Urban Morphology and Local Citizens in China’s Historic Neighborhoods: A Case Study of the Stele Forest Neighborhood in Xi’an. Cities, 71: 97-109.32) Qian, Z. (2017). Resettlement and Adaptation in China’s Small Town Urbanization: Evidence from the Villagers’ Perspective. Habitat International, 67: 33-43.33) Li, H. & Qian, Z. (2017). Archaeological heritage tourism in China: the case of the Daming Palace from the tourists' perspective. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 12 (4): 380–393.34) Qian, Z. (2016). Political Campaigns and Urban Transformation in Maoist China, 1949-1976. International Development Planning Review, 38 (2): 113-133.35) Qian, Z. (2015). City Profile: Hangzhou. Cities, 48: 42-54.36) Qian, Z. (2015). From the First Five-Year Plan to the Cultural Revolution: Pre-reform Urban Transformation of Hangzhou, China. Planning Perspectives, 30 (4): 571-595.37) Qian, Z. (2015). Land Acquisition Compensation in Post-reform China: Evolution, Structure and Challenges in Hangzhou. Land Use Policy, 46: 250-257.38) Pavlic, D. & Qian, Z. (2014). Declining Inner Suburbs? A Longitudinal-Spatial Analysis of Large Metropolitan Regions in Canada. Urban Geography, 35 (3): 378-401.39) Qian, Z. (2014). China’s Pre-reform Urban Transformation: the Case of Hangzhou during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). International Development Planning Review, 36 (2): 181-203.40) Qian, Z. (2013). Master Plan, Plan Adjustment and Urban Development Reality under China’s Market Transition: a Case Study of Nanjing. Cities, 30 (1): 77-88.41) Qian, Z. (2012). Post-reform Urban Restructuring in China: the Case of Hangzhou 1990-2010. Town Planning Review, 83 (4), 431-456.42) Qian, Z. (2011). Building Hangzhou's New City Center: Mega Project Development and Entrepreneurial Urban Governance in China. Asian Geographer, 28 (1): 3-19.43) Qian, Z. (2011). Shaping Urban Form without Zoning: Investigating Three Neighborhoods in Houston. Planning Practice and Research, 26 (1): 21-42.44) Qian, Z. (2010). Without zoning: Urban Development and Land Use Controls in Houston. Cities, 27 (1): 31-41.45) Qian, Z. (2008). Empirical Evidence from Hangzhou’s Urban Land Reform: Evolution, Structure, Constraints and Prospects. Habitat International, 32 (4): 494-511.46) Qian, Z. (2007). Historic District Conservation in China: Assessment and Prospects. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 19 (1): 59-76.47) Qian, Z. (2007). Institutions and Local Growth Coalitions in China’s Urban Land Reform: the Case of Hangzhou High Technology Zone. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 48 (2): 219-233. Winner of Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies’ (FURS) 2006 International Competition Prize for the Best Essay on Urban and Regional Themes by Young Authors (under 35).48) Qian, Z. (2006). Towards A Collaborative Approach to Urban Conservation Planning in China: An Analysis with reference to Quanzhou. Projections: the MIT Journal of Planning, 5 (June): 49-67.

• IV. Other PublicationsArticles in refereed conference proceedings1) Yang, C. & Qian, Z. (2023). Restructuring urban form through restructuring accessibility: an integrated urban network approach, In Placido Lizancos Mora, David Leite Viana, Franklim Morais, & Jorge Vieira Vaz (eds.) Formal Methods in Architecture: Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Formal Methods in Architecture (6FMA), A Coruña 2022. Singapore: Springer, pp.79-91.2) Qian, Z. (2023). Political, legal and administrative conditions for urban ecological tissue renewal: an investigation of a national wetland park in China. Kantarek A., Hanzl M., Figlus T., & Lukasz M. (eds.) Urban Redevelopment and Revitalization: A Multidisciplinary Perspective: Proceedings of XXIX International Seminar on Urban Form, Lodz University of Technology Press, pp. 1328-1340.3) Qian, Z. & Zhang S. (2021) Community governance in rural villager resettlement neighborhoods in China: rural-urban divide, civic engagement, and state control, IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 892 012001.4) Li, H. & Qian, Z. (2015). Planning for Emerging Megacity Regions in China: Preliminary Research Within a Socioeconomic Framework, in Qisheng Pan & Xinyu Cao (eds.) Recent Developments in Chinese Urban Planning: Selected Papers from the 8th International Association for China Planning Conference, pp. 121-136, Springer.5) Li, H. & Qian, Z. (2015). Spatial Structure of Regional Economic Development in Henan Province, China, in Qisheng Pan & Xinyu Cao (eds.) Recent Developments in Chinese Urban Planning: Selected Papers from the 8th International Association for China Planning Conference, pp. 169-182. Springer.6) Qian, Z. (2011). China’s Pre-reform Urban Transformation: the Case of Hangzhou during Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Selected Papers of 11th International Congress of Asian Planning Schools Association, Tokyo, Japan. 188-199.7) Qian, Z. (2009). Master Plans and Urban Growth Realities in Nanjing, China. Proceedings of the 10th Asian Urbanization Conference, Hong Kong. [CD-ROM]. ISBN 978-962-7589-29-7.8) Qian, Z. (2007). Urban Land Management in a Transition Economy: A Case Study of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Selected Papers of 9th International Congress of Asian Planning Schools Association, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 237-257 [CD-ROM].