Projects

Transit-to-Parks: Evaluating public transit connections to regional parks and greenways

  • Sponsor/funding program: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Utah Transit Authority (UTA), TransLink, UBC Hampton Grant, UBC Sustainability Scholars Program
  • Period: 2021-ongoing 
  • Research team: Keunhyun Park (Principal Investigator on UBC grant), Alessandro Rigolon (the University of Utah, Principal Investigator on UTA grant), Yiyang Wang (Research Assistant), Paul Liu (Research Assistant), Tony Jiang (Research Assistant), and Kai Hei Mau (Research Assistant).
  • Collaborators: Utah Transit Authority, Metro Vancouver, TransLink

More details regarding publications, project reports, and presentations can be accessed through [Transit-to-Parks Project Page].

Border vacuums: Analysis of underused parks and forests as barriers of urban vitality using mobile phone GPS data 

  • Sponsor/funding program: SSHRC Insight Development Grant, UBC Four-year Doctoral Fellowship
  • Period: 2022-2024 
  • Research team: Keunhyun Park (Principal Investigator), Lorien Nesbitt (UBC, Co-Investigator), Angela Rout (TU Delft, Co-Investigator), Asim Khanal (Research Assistant)
  • Collaborators: Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation 
  • Research objectives: This project has two objectives—1) Develop an analytical approach to identify urban parks and their edges that function as border vacuum of surrounding neighbourhoods and 2) Examine the design and planning attributes of those border vacuums.

Developing automated visitor monitoring tools for better management of urban nature 

  • Sponsor/funding program: NSERC Discovery Grant 
  • Period: 2022-2027 
  • Research team: Keunhyun Park (Principal Investigator), Mingze Chen (Research Assistant)
  • Collaborators: TBD 
  • Research objectives: The short-term objectives are 1) Develop reliable and valid visitor monitoring tools in parks and greenways using WiFi sensors, 2) Automate the behaviour mapping process in parks and greenways, using a combination of WiFi sensor data and UAV flight system, and 3) (using the collected longitudinal data) Estimate visitor volume and movements, using spatiotemporal models. This grant will lay the foundation for achieving UNDER Lab’s long-term research vision to provide urban forestry planning and design with novel monitoring tools, models, and data, which are informative, cost-effective, and accessible to all.

Natural space and health equity: Who benefits: Why and How?

  • Sponsor/funding program: UBC Four-year Doctoral Fellowship, UBC Forestry internal funding
  • Period: 2021-ongoing
  • Research team: Everly Jazi (Principal Investigator), Keunhyun Park (Supervisor)  
  • Collaborators: Matilda van den Bosch, Margarita Triguero-Mas, Michael Meitner
  • Research objectives
    • 1) Assess mental health benefit received from use of nature and access to nature, identifying specific differences between engagement with more natural versus more built spaces
    • 2) Assess any differences in mental health benefit between marginalized and advantaged sociodemographic community members. As a subobjective, see if access to and use of nature can narrow the gap in mental wellbeing between sociodemographic groups (i.e., equigenic effect)
    • 3) Understand marginalized sociodemographic community members’ perceptions and conceptualizations of nature, naturalness, and nature-derived mental health benefits
    • 4) Examine if green place attachment and/or leisure constraints variables modify the association between access/use of nature and psychological wellbeing. As a subobjective, explore if it is together with sociodemographic variables that they have a moderation role in the nature and psychological wellbeing chain

A Socio-Ecologic Framework Supporting Individuals with Disabilities’ Community Living and Participation 

  • Sponsor/funding program: National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research  
  • Period: 2019-2024 
  • Research team: Keunhyun Park (Co-Investigator), Keith Christensen (Utah State University, Principal Investigator), Brent Chamberlain (Co-Investigator), Ziqi Song (Co-Investigator), J.C. Sheen (Co-Investigator), Carlos Licon (Co-Investigator), etc.  
  • Collaborators: Wasatch Front Regional Council, Independent Living Centers in Utah
  • Research objectives: This research project aims to develop a socio-ecologic framework describing the physical environmental factors associated with individuals with disabilities’ community participation (intervention development research). This socio-ecologic framework will be used to examine the effect of mainstream community planning practices and policies on individuals with disabilities’ community participation (intervention efficacy research).
  • Publications
    • Park, K., Nasr-Isfahani, H., Novack, V., Sheen, J., Hadayeghi, H., Song, Z., & Christensen, K. (2023). Impacts of disability on daily travel behaviour: A systematic review. Transport Reviews 43(2): 178-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2022.2060371 [The Editors’ Choice] [download]
    • Park, K., Chamberlain, B., Song, Z., Nasr-Isfahani, H., Sheen, J., Larsen, T., Novack, V., Licon, C., & Christensen, K. (2022). A double jeopardy: COVID-19 impacts on people with disabilities’ travel behavior and community living. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 156: 24-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2021.12.008 [download]