Xinlin Ma
Xinlin Ma
Xinlin Ma
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Location:
202 Wallace Hall295 West Campus Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061
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- Ph.D.-Peking University
- B.S.-Nanjing Normal University
Areas of expertise
- Urban analytics
- Retrofitting & environment
- Space-time behavior
- Data-powered policy evaluation
I am a human geographer studying urban analytics for just and resilient cities, examining how land use, housing, transportation, and climate interventions shape inequality through everyday human behavior and mobility. I integrate geospatial data science, remote sensing, and time-geographic modeling to analyze urbanization processes (especially retrofitting) and their environmental and social impacts. My research centers on three areas: 1) housing and climate equity, using environmental and policy data to assess whether urban retrofitting equitably benefit vulnerable communities; 2) Geospatial intelligence-based urban change detection, fusing remote sensing, street-level imagery, and planning data to capture fine-scale urban transformation; and 3) time-geographic mobility analytics, examining how spatial–temporal constraints shape daily behaviors in urban context. Across these themes, I emphasize translating urban analytics into actionable insights for planning and decision-making.
- Sustainable Urbanization (GEOG/SPIA 2244)
- The U.S. Cities (GEOG 3244)
- Introduction to GIS (GEOG 2084)
- Ma, X., Song, Y., Lyu, F., Yang, Y., Wang, Y, Li, X., Zhong, S. (2025). Revitalizing Cities: The 5R Framework Approach to Urban Retrofitting and Big Data Insights. Growth and Changes, 56: e70018. https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.70018
- Chao, H., Ma, X.(co‑first author), Wang, Y., Hong, H. (2025). Changes of School Travel During Shantytown Redevelopment: Evidence from Heze, China. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 115(9), 2071‑2094. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2025.2522845
- Lyu, F., Kiv, D., Ma, X., Wang, S. (2025) A Video Machine Learning Framework for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Complex Urban Dynamics. Transactions in GIS, no. 5: e70096. https://doi.org/10.1111/tgis.70096
- Liu, A., Zhong, S., Ma, X., Wei, J., Song, Y. (2025). Disentangling the drivers of urban air quality using large‑scale and high-resolution data: Driving towards urban sustainability. Sustainable Cities and Society, 106631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2025.106631
- DeJohn, A., Liu, B., Ma, X., Widener, M., and Liu, Z. (2025). Mobility, ICT, and health: a built environment investigation of older Chinese migrants’ social isolation and loneliness. BMC Public Health, 25, 513. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-21750-3
- Li, X., Ma, X.*(co‑first author), Lyu, F., and Song, Y. (2023). Examine the environmental inequity impact of urban heat mitigation on redlining legacy: case study of Charlotte’s retrofitting, 2001–2020. Frontiers in Environmental Science.https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1218819
- Pang, Z., & Ma, X.* (2023). What drives the vaccination intention against COVID-19? Application of EPPM, TAM, and theories of risk assessment. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 19(1), 2180969. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2023.2180969
- Lyu, F., Ma, X., Song, Y., Zhu, E., & Wang, S. (2023). Large-scale Google Street View Images for Urban Change Detection. DOI: 10.5703/1288284317674.
- Li, X., Ma, X., & Wilson, B. (2021). Beyond absolute space: An exploration of relative and relational space in Shanghai using taxi trajectory data. Journal of Transport Geography, 93, 103076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103076
- Ma, X., Li, X., Kwan, M. P., & Chai, Y. (2020). Who could not avoid exposure to high levels of residence-based pollution by daily mobility? Evidence of air pollution exposure from the perspective of the neighborhood effect averaging problem (NEAP). International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(4), 1223. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041223