e-Newsletter 2026

Members 

New Projects 

[Apr 2026] Our new project titled "Inclusivity Assessment of Public Spaces for Older Adults’ Physical Activity in Megacities: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and Shenzhen," led by Dr Xiao LI (PI), has been funded by the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute, running from June 2026 to May 2027.

[Jun 2026] A student project titled "Modelling Crash Inequality using Mathematical Indexes," led by POOVANASSERIL GOPAKUMAR Aditya (undergraduate student) and supervised by Dr Xiao LI (PI), has been funded by PolyU's Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scheme (URIS).

[Jun 2026] Our new project titled "Understanding and Enhancing Road Crossing Safety for People with Disabilities," led by Dr Xiao LI (PI), has been funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (ECS scheme), running from Jan 2027 to Dec 2029.

New Publications 

Publications led by GIFT members: 

[Jan 2026] A new paper single-authored by Dr Xiao LI has  been published in Applied Geography. Li, X. * (2026). Identifying High-Risk Roadways Using Crowdsourced Speed Variation Features from Big Mobility Data. Applied Geography. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103889

[Mar 2026] Big congrats to Wenbo LYU for his new paper published in Computers Environment and Urban Systesm. Lyu, W., Lei, Y., Yi, W., Song, Y., Li, X., Dai, S., Qin, Y., Zhao, W. (2026) Casual Discovery in Urban Data with Temporal Empirical Dynamic Modeling: The R Package tEDM. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2026.102435 

[May 2026] A new paper led by Dr Xiao LI has  been published in Computers Environment and Urban Systesm. Shi, J., Li, X.*, Qiao, S., Huang, X., Xu, Y., Wang, S., Zhou, L., Lü, G. (2026) A Mobility-Based Framework for Measuring Socio-spatial Segregation in 30 U.S. Metropolitan Areas. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2026.102462  

Other Publications Co-authored by Dr Xiao LI: 

Rybarczyk, G.*, Zhou, K., Ghorpade, H., Li, X. (2026) Differential Risk Factors for E-Bicycle and E-Scooter Injuries: An NLP-Enhanced National Analysis (2014-2023). Safety Science.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2026.107256  

Ye, W.*, Dai, M., Xie, J., Bi, X., Tao, F., Li, X., Yu, H. (2026) When Attributes Disagree: Gradient Conflict in Image Aesthetic Assessment.  In ICML 2026: Proceedings of  the Forty-Third International Conference on Machine Learning, Seoul, South Korea, July 6-11, 2026.  (CCF-A, Spotlight paper).  https://openreview.net/pdf?id=GrIs035ec3 

Wang, S., Lyu, S., Han, M., Chen, H., Li, X. (2026) Evaluating spatial accessibility based on varying travel choices: A case study of accessing vaccine sites in Greater London. Cities. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2026.107043 

Bian, J., Li, W., Li, X., Quan, S., Chen, A., Zhong, S., Usman, M., Towne Jr, S.D.C., Li, M., Dadashova, B. and Ye, X. (2026). Left behind: forgone medical care due to transportation barriers among adults with physical impairments and disabilities that prevent physical activity in small and rural communities. Travel Behaviour and Society.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2026.101242 

Conferences, Talks, and Academic Visits 

[Jun 2026] Dr Xiao Li visited the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford for Safe-SEND--a collaborative project funded by the Road Safety Trust.

[Jul 2026] Dr Ye TIAN, Assistant Professor from University College Dublin, visited the GIFT lab and delivered a talk titled "Impacts of Urban Form on Environmnental Pollution and Social Justice through Citizen Science" [link]

[Jul 2026] Dr Xiao Li and Kezhou REN attended the 33rd International Conference on Geoinformatics 2026 in Singapore, where Kezhou presented his new work titled "Are All Safe Streetscapes Alike? Convergence and Divergence in Perceived Street Safety Using Vision Foundation Models".

Professional Services and Other Activities 

[Jan 2026]  Dr Xiao Li was elected to the Board of Directors (BOD) of the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (CPGIS), with a service term for 2026-2027.

[Jun 2026] Dr Xiao Li has been invited to join the Editoral Board of the Annals of the Americal Association of Geographers, starting from Jan 2026 to Dec 2029.