Academia

Xiao Ping (XP) Song was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, jointly appointed at the Department of Architecture and Department of Biological Sciences. His research and teaching looked at sustainability and nature in the context of city planning and design, covering topics ranging from statistical programming to geospatial analysis. He managed projects that operationalized research by developing metrics, machine learning pipelines, and predictive software.

Publications

  • Richards, D., Worden, D., Song, X. P., Lavorel, S. (2024). Harnessing generative artificial intelligence to support nature-based solutions. People and Nature, 00, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10622

  • Teo, H. C., Fung, T. K., Song, X. P., Belcher, R. N., Siman, K., Chan, I. Z. W., Koh, L.P. (2023). Increasing contribution of urban greenery to residential real estate valuation over time. Sustainable Cities and Society, 96, 104689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104689

  • Song, X. P., Chong, K. Y. (2021). home2park: An R package to assess the spatial provision of urban parks. Journal of Open Source Software, 6(65), 3609. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03609

  • Song, X. P., Richards, D., Fung, T. K., Drillet, Z., Edwards, P. J. (2021). Design green spaces for people. In Future Cities Laboratory: Indicia 03. Zürich, Lars Müller Publishers.

  • Fung, T. K., Song, X. P., Richards, D., Leong, R. A. T., Drillet, Z., Edwards, P. J. (2021). Interconnect urban nature. In Future Cities Laboratory: Indicia 03. Zürich, Lars Müller Publishers.

  • Teo, H. C., Zeng, Y., Sarira, T. V., Fung, T. K., Zeng, Q., Song, X. P., Chong, K. Y., Koh, L. P. (2021). Global urban reforestation can be an important natural climate solution. Environmental Research Letters, 16, 134059. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe783

  • Song, X. P., Lai, H. R., Wijedasa L., Tan, P. Y., Edwards, P. J., Richards, D. R. (2020). Height–diameter allometry for the management of city trees in the tropics. Environmental Research Letters, 15, 114017. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbbad

  • Song, X. P., Richards, D. R., He, P. J., Tan, P. Y. (2020). Does geo-located social media reflect the visit frequency of urban parks? A city-wide analysis using the count and content of photographs. Landscape and Urban Planning, 203, 103908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103908

  • Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Laboratory (2020). Ecosystem services in urban landscapes: Benefits of tropical urban vegetation. Available at: https://fcl.ethz.ch/news-events/news/2020/07/benefits-of-tropical-urban-vegetation.html

  • Tan, P. Y., Zhang, J., Masoudi, M., Alemu, J., Edwards, P. J., Gret-Regamey, A., Richards, D. R. , Saunders, J., Song, X. P., Wong, L. (2020). A conceptual framework to untangle the concept of urban ecosystem services. Landscape and Urban Planning, 20, 103837. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103837

  • Chang, Cc., Cheng, G. J. Y., Nghiem, T. P. L., Song, X. P., Oh, R. Y. R., Richards, D. R., Carrasco, L. R. (2020). Social media, nature, and life satisfaction: global evidence of the biophilia hypothesis. Scientific Reports, 10, 4125. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60902-w

  • Song, X. P., Richards, D. R., Tan, P. Y. (2020). Using social media user attributes to understand human–environment interactions at urban parks. Scientific Reports, 10, 808. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57864-4

  • Chiam, Z., Song, X. P., Lai, H. R., Tan, H. T. W. (2019). Particulate matter mitigation via plants: Understanding complex relationships with leaf traits. Science of The Total Environment, 688, 398–408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.263

  • Richards, D. R., Fung, T. K., Meili, N., Song, X. P., Dissegna, A., Drillet, Z. , Urech, P., Edwards, P. J. (2019). An ecosystem service design loop for using vegetation to mitigate the urban heat island effect. In Future Cities Laboratory: Indicia 02. Zürich, Lars Müller Publishers

  • Song, X. P., Tan, P. Y., Tan, H. T. W. (2018). Assessment of light adequacy for vertical farming in a tropical city. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 29, 49–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.11.004

  • Song, X. P., Tan, P. Y., Edwards, P. J., Richards, D. R. (2018). The economic benefits and costs of trees in urban forest stewardship: A systematic review. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 29, 162–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.11.017

  • Song, X. P., Richards, D. R., Edwards, P. J., Tan, P. Y. (2017). Benefits of trees in tropical cities. Science, 356 (634), 1241. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan6642


Projects

  • [Project Manager] Assessment of urban ecosystem services in residential neighbourhoods in Singapore, Cities of Tomorrow R&D Programme (2021). $1.5 million (Principal Investigator: Puay Yok Tan)

  • [Project Manager] Development of a biodiversity index for residential towns, Ministry of National Development Research Fund Grant (2016). $1.29 million (Principal Investigator: Kwek Yan Chong)

  • [Co-Investigator] Approaching Singapore’s “30 by 30” goal using building-integrated agriculture, Intra-CREATE Seed Collaboration Grant (2021). $249,540

  • [Doctoral Researcher] Ecosystem services in urban landscapes, Singapore National Research Foundation (2016). $2.26 million (Principal Investigator: Peter J. Edwards)


Teaching

Online Courses

University Courses

  • [Lecturer] LA5301 / LAD4004: Geodesign. Master / Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, National University of Singapore. Aug–Dec 2023
  • [Lecturer] LA5303: Urban Greening Technologies and Techniques. Master of Landscape Architecture, National University of Singapore. Jan–Apr 2020

Workshops

Guest lectures

  • Ecosystem Services in Landscape Design. Master of Architecture, Taylor’s University. Apr 2019
  • Singapore as a Model City: Ecosystem Services in Urban Landscapes. Tembusu College, National University of Singapore. Mar 2018


Talks

Conferences / Symposiums

  • [Presentation] Social media as a tool to understand human interactions with urban nature. 2020 Natural Capital Symposium, San Francisco, USA. Mar 2020
  • [Poster] From place to people: Quantifying recreation among park users on social media. British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, Birmingham, UK. Dec 2018

Government / Industry

  • [Invited Presentation] IoT sensor network deployment at public housing estates: Choosing the right mobile communications technology. Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board. 18 Jan 2023

  • [Presentation] Development of a biodiversity index for residential towns using biodiversity field surveys. Research Forum chaired by Singapore government agency HDB. Participating agencies include MND. 12 Dec 2022

  • [Invited Presentation] Data-driven approaches to understand human interactions with the environment. 5th Smart Planning SOE Workgroup. Co-chaired by Singapore government agencies URA and HDB, participating agencies include JTC, NParks, LTA, MOH and MND. 15 Nov 2019


People


Services

Journal Reviewer