Abstract:
City is a huge complex adaptive system which is formed by interconnected elements and subsystems and featured with metabolism, self-organization, flexible structures, and ability to adapt to changing conditions. Urban planners often are faced challenges to know, plan and manage city. This presentation introduces the new opportunities brought by AI to urban system modelling. Via AI-powered modelling, we would have stronger ability to make better plans and policies. Undeniably, there are some challenges or potential risks when we use AI to support planners’ decision.

Introduction of Pengjun Zhao:

Prof. Pengjun Zhao is a Full Professor and the Dean of School of Urban Planning and Design of Peking University. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of UK (FAcSS). He obtained his PhD degree in Spatial Planning at University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research mostly focuses on spatial planning and sustainable transportation. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) for 70 research projects which were funded by international and China domestic organizations, such as EP7 (EU), EPSRC (UK), NSFC (CN), etc. He has more than 300 research outputs, including 12 books and 240 international peer-reviewed papers. He is now the Editor-in-Chief of Cities, the Vice Chair of the IGU Commission on Transport and Geography, the Deputy Chair of New Urbanisation and Urban & Rural Planning Committee of Chinese Society of Urban Studies (CSUS), and the Director of Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Human–Earth Relations, Ministry of Natural Resources of China.