Principal Investigator (PI): Peilei Fan 2020-24, Jiquan Chen 2024-25. (Grant #: 80NSSC20K0740; Co-PI: Joseph Messina at University of Alabama).  2020-2025. “Divergent Local Responses to Globalization: Urbanization, Land Transition, and Environmental Changes in Southeast Asia (SEAGUL)” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Funded: $748,148  

From Southeast Asia to Global:

Intrigued by the booming dam construction in Southeast Asia and potential relationship with urbanization, we examined the impacts of hydropower dam construction in nearby areas in a global scale. We analyzed impacts of 631 hydropower dams (≥1-megawatt capacity) constructed since 2001 and commissioned before 2015 (Fig. 1 above) for their effects on economy, population, and environment in nearby areas and examined the results in five regions (Fig. 3 above) and by different dam sizes. We found that recently constructed dams were associated with increased GDP in North America and urban areas in Europe but with decreased GDP, urban land, and population in the Global South and greenness in Africa in nearby areas. Globally, these dams were linked with reduced economic production, population, and greenness of areas within 50 km of the dams.

Fan, P., Cho, M.S., Lin, Z., Ouyang, Z., Qi, J., Chen, J., & Moran, E. (2022). Recently constructed hydropower dams were associated with reduced economic production, population, and greenness in nearby areas. Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108038119 

Project Publications

Edited Special Issues

• Ouyang Z., Wang, C., Fan, P. 2025. Special Issue “Using Remote Sensing and GIS Methods to Study Current Urbanization Issues”. Remote Sensing. (6 paper published) IF: 5.349. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/Y602B3CNT6

• Rahman, A., Azevedo, J., Fan, P. 2025. Special Issue “Contributions of Agroforestry to Ecosystem Services and Climate Action”. Forestry. IF: 2.4. (6 paper published) Cite Score 4.0, #30/153, Q1 (Forestry).  https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/agroforestry_services

Book

Fan, Peilei. (2022). Great Urban Transition: Landscape and Environmental Changes from Siberia, Shanghai, to Saigon. Springer Nature.

Published Manuscripts (* indicate graduate student or postdoc as the first author)

1) Chen, J., John, R., Kolluru, V., Mack, E. A., Fan, P., Yuan, J., ... & Gutman, G. (2024). Natural assets, changes, and variations of the socioeconomic-environmental systems along the Asian drylands belt. Environmental Research: Ecology, 3(4), 045005. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-664X/ad9339

2)     Chen, J., John, R., Shao, C., Ouyang, Z., Mack, E. A., Henebry, G. M., Dong, G., Allington, G.R.H., Pearson, A., Zhao, F., Roy, D., Fan, P., Shirkey, G., Tian, L., Kussainova, M., Chen, J. Reed, D., & Abraha, M. (2021). Towards a Single Integrative Metric on the Dynamics of Social-Environmental Systems. Sustainability, 13(20), 11246. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011246 IF: 3.251 (2020)

3)     Chen, J., John, R., Yuan, J., Mack, E. A., Groisman, P., Allington, G., Wu, J.J., Fan, P., de Beurs, K.M., Karnieli, A. and Gutman, G... & Qi, J. (2022). Sustainability challenges for the social-environmental systems across the Asian drylands belt. Environmental Research Letters 17(2), 023001 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac472f IF 6.793 (2020)

4)     Chen, J., Park, H., Fan, P., Tian, L., Ouyang, Z., & Lafortezza, R. (2021). Cultural Landmarks and Urban Landscapes in Three Contrasting Societies. Sustainability, 13(8), 4295. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084295 IF: 3.251 (2020)

5)     Fan, P., Chen, J., Fung, C., Naing, Z., Ouyang, Z., Nyunt, K.M., Myint, Z.N., Qi, J., Messina, J.P., Myint, S.W., Peter, B.G. (2022). Urbanization, economic development, and environmental changes in transitional economies in the Global South: A case of Yangon. Ecological Processes. 11:65 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-022-00409-6 IF 4.394 (2021)

6) Fan, P., Chen, J., Sarker, T. (2022). Roles of Economic Development Level and Other Human System Factors in COVID-19 Spread in the Early Stage of the Pandemic. Sustainability. 2022, 14, 2342. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042342. IF 3.251 (2020)

7) Fan, P., Cho, M.S., Lin, Z., Ouyang, Z., Qi, J., Chen, J., & Moran, E. (2022). Recently constructed hydropower dams were associated with reduced economic production, population, and greenness in nearby areas. Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108038119 IF 11.2 (2020).

8)     Fan, P., Yue, W., Zhang, J., Huang, H., Messina, J., Verburg, P. H., Qi, J., Moore, N., & Ge, J. (2020). The spatial restructuring and determinants of industrial landscape in a mega city under rapid urbanization. Habitat International, 95, 102099. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2019.102099 IF 5.369 (2020).

9)     Hersperger, A. M., Grădinaru, S. R., Daunt, A. B. P., Imhof, C. S., & Fan, P. (2021). Landscape ecological concepts in planning: review of recent developments. Landscape Ecology, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01193-y IF: 4.510 (2019-2020)

10)  *Grădinaru, S. R., Fan, P., Iojă, C. I., Niță, M. R., Suditu, B., & Hersperger, A. M. (2020). Impact of national policies on patterns of built-up development: an assessment over three decades. Land Use Policy, 94, 104510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104510 IF 5.398 (2020)

11)  *Ouyang, Z., Sciusco, P., Jiao, T., Feron, S., Lei, C., Li, F., John, R., Fan, P., Li, X., Williams, C.A.,  Chen, G., Wang, C. & Chen, J. (2022). Albedo changes caused by future urbanization contribute to global warming. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31558-z

12)  *Pan, S. C., Fan, P., Hu, T. S., Li, H. Y., & Liu, W. S. (2024). An Anticipatory Practice for the Future of Science Parks: Understanding the Indices and Mechanisms on Different Spatial Scales of Regional Innovation Systems. Sustainability, 16(11), 4600. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114600

13)  *Peter, B. G., Messina, J. P., Breeze, V., Fung, C. Y., Kapoor, A., & Fan, P. (2024). Perspectives on modifiable spatiotemporal unit problems in remote sensing of agriculture: evaluating rice production in Vietnam and tools for analysis. Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 5, 1042624. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2024.1042624

14)  *Sarker, T., Fan, P., Messina, J.P., Mujahid N., Aldrian E., Chen, J. (2024a). Impact of Urban Built-up Volume on Urban Environment: A Case of Jakarta. Sustainable Cities and Society. 105 (2024): 105364 IF: 11.7 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2024.105346

15)  *Sarker T.,Fan, P., Messina, J.P., Macatangay, R., Varnakovida, P., Chen, J. (2024b). Land surface temperature and transboundary air pollution: a case of Bangkok Metropolitan Region. Scientific Reports. (2024) 14:10955 IF: 5.0 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-61720-0

16)  *Wang, Y., Chang, Q., & Fan, P. (2021). A framework to integrate multifunctionality analyses into green infrastructure planning. Landscape Ecology, 36(7), 1951-1969. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01058-w. IF: 4.510 (2019-20).

17)  *Wang, Y., Chang, Q., Fan, P., & Shi, X. (2022). From urban greenspace to health behaviors: An ecosystem services-mediated perspective. Environmental Research, 113664. IF 6.498 (2020)

18)  *Yang, W., Li, Y., Liu, Y., Fan, P., & Yue, W. (2024). Environmental factors for outdoor jogging in Beijing: Insights from using explainable spatial machine learning and massive trajectory data. Landscape and Urban Planning, 243, 104969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104969 IF: 8.119 (2022)

19)  Yue, W., Chen, Y., Thy, P. T. M., Fan, P., Liu, Y., & Zhang, W. (2021). Identifying urban vitality in metropolitan areas of developing countries from a comparative perspective: Ho Chi Minh City versus Shanghai. Sustainable Cities and Society, 65, 102609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102609 IF 7.587 (2020).

20)  *Zhang, J., Yue, W., Fan, P., & Gao, J. (2021). Measuring the accessibility of public green spaces in urban areas using web map services. Applied Geography, 126, 102381.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102381 IF 4.240 (2020)

Other Products (Published dataset and tools)

Data and tools published to Harvard Dataverse that include a downloadable dataset, interactive geovisualization application, and code for multi-scale data extraction using Google Earth Engine. Data available for download include vegetation indices, land surface temperature, precipitation, soil quality, and elevation for the 7 target countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) at two administrative levels. The data extraction tools are generalizable and can be leveraged for any country using the FAO GAUL data layers.

1. Peter, Brad; Messina, Joseph; Raney, Austin; Principe, Rodrigo; Fan, Peilei, 2021a, "MSZSI: Multi-Scale Zonal Statistics [AgriClimate] Inventory", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/M4ZGXP, Harvard Dataverse, V3.

2.     Data visualization published to ObservableHQ showing changes in agricultural land (as a percent of the total land area) in Southeast Asia countries from 1961 to 2016.

https://observablehq.com/@cartoscience/southeast-asia-globalization-urbanization-land-and-envir

3. Boumis, Georgios; Peter, Brad, 2021, "Time-Series Matrix (TSMx): A visualization tool for plotting multiscale temporal trends", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZZDYM9, Harvard Dataverse, V1.

4. Peter, Brad; Messina, Joseph; Moragoda, Nishani, 2021b, "Monthly Aggregated NEX-GDDP Ensemble Climate Projections: Historical (1985–2005) and RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 (2006–2080)", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZNEJMS, Harvard Dataverse, V1.