International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Anthony G. O. Yeh

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 1995, Professor Anthony G. O. Yeh is a distinguished Hong Kong urban planner and geographic information scientist whose research and professional work have focused on urban and regional development, planning in Hong Kong, China, and Southeast Asia, and the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to planning. Born in Hong Kong in October 1952, he received his B.A. in Geography and Geology from the University of Hong Kong in 1974, his M.Sc. from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand in 1976, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Regional Planning and Urban Planning from Syracuse University in 1978 and 1980, respectively. After serving as a Research Officer in the Hong Kong Government’s Strategic Planning Unit, he joined the University of Hong Kong in 1981, where he subsequently served as Director of the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning, Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Director of the Institute of Transport Studies, and Dean of the Graduate School. He is currently Chan To-Haan Professor in Urban Planning and Design, Chair Professor of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, and Director of the GIS Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. Elected a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003, he is also a Member of the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom. His international service has included leadership of the Asian Planning Schools Association and the Asia GIS Association, the Presidency of the Hong Kong GIS Association, and the Chairmanship of the Geographic Information Science Commission of the International Geographical Union.

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Professor Yeh’s research has centred on the use of GIS and spatial analytical methods in urban planning and development. His work has addressed the integration of GIS with case-based reasoning, cellular-automata models incorporating environmental and urban-form variables, and spatial analysis of employment and residential location in Hong Kong. He has also examined the social and spatial structure of Chinese cities, the relationship between land-property rights and urban development, and the transformation of the Pearl River Delta, contributing to research on regional development and spatial restructuring in southern China. His research has received the UN-HABITAT Lecture Award, the Dr. Gill-Chin Lim Global Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, the Distinguished Research Achievement Award of the University of Hong Kong, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in GIS of the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences. He has published more than 30 books and monographs and over 180 international journal papers and book chapters, and has served on the editorial boards of journals including Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Transactions in GIS, and Progress in Planning. He has also contributed to public planning and transport policy through service on advisory and statutory bodies of the Hong Kong SAR Government. Through sustained research in GIS-based planning, academic institution building, and the training of younger scholars, Professor Yeh has contributed to connecting spatial information science with urban and regional planning practice and to the development of urban studies and geographic information science in Asia.