About me

Download my CV (updated September 2023)

Hello! I am Keunhyun (Keun) Park, a researcher and teacher of urban nature design and planning. I currently work as Assistant Professor of Urban Forestry at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Forest Resources Management. I lead Urban Nature Design Research (UNDER) Lab at UBC. I am also an Adjunct Professor at Utah State University (USU) in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. At USU, I had been a co-director of VIVID Lab (Visualization, Instrumentation and Virtual Interaction Design Laboratory). With degrees in landscape architecture and urban planning and design, I conduct behavioural research through spatial data analytics and digital technologies. Ultimately, my research aims to understand how to design healthy, just, and resilient cities through urban nature. Primary research agendas include:

• Technology-based behavioural research in urban nature (e.g., drone, sensor, VR/AR): Existing tools for monitoring public space uses (e.g., urban parks, greenways, forests, streets, plazas) suffer from limited reliability and cost-efficiency. My research shows that a more efficient and reliable tool could lead to the better-informed design and decision making
• Sustainable community design and its behavioral outcomes: Smart growth (compact, mixed-use, walkable, and environment-friendly community design) can solve societal issues that sprawl developments have generated, such as public health issues, social isolation, job-housing mismatch, and the destruction of ecological systems. My research examines the effectiveness of smart growth design and policies (particularly, natural elements) on people’s quality of life, including health and travel outcomes.   
• Environmental justice and accessibility in urban nature: Creating conditions for equal access to urban nature (e.g., street trees, urban parks of various sizes, regional and national parks) is an important objective for healthy, just, and resilient cities. My research relates access to urban nature (through different modes of transportation) to communities’ socio-economic status and aims to provide tools to achieve “green justice.”

For more information about my research, please also visit my Google Scholar Profile and Research Gate profile and follow me on Twitter (@keunhyun_park) and Linkedin.