Shared our ECCV paper and GBA-GCs on LinkedIn: public labels, evaluation splits and model weights are available for gated-community research.
My LinkedIn updatePhD Candidate · HKUST(GZ)
MinweiZhao
I work with cities, spatial data, and machine intelligence.
Urban researcher · Based in Guangzhou and Hong Kong
About
Hello, I’m Minwei.
I am a PhD candidate in the Urban Governance and Design Thrust at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), and a member of the Urban Morphology Studio. I was trained in surveying and mapping at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and in remote sensing and GIS at University College London.
My research spans GIScience, GeoAI, computer vision, graph machine learning, and urban studies. I am especially interested in how computational methods change the ways we observe, evaluate, and explain cities—and how those choices shape evidence about urban health and inequality.
Recent news
Urban Boundaries, Social Barriers is now published in the ECCV 2026 proceedings, with a Springer chapter and permanent DOI.
ECCV · SpringerUST-GNN is published in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, combining spatial and topological representations for urban health analytics.
Urban Morphology StudioOur Sustainable Cities and Society paper brings spatial interaction theory and interpretable graph learning together to predict urban commuting flows.
Publication announcement · LinkedInResearch interests
Questions I keep returning to.
My work moves between methodological research and applied urban questions. Current interests include:
- 01
Urban imagery and visual intelligence, including street-view imagery and computer vision
- 02
Graph representation learning for spatial and relational urban data
- 03
Urban health, mobility, morphology, and public space
- 04
Spatial inequality, gated communities, urban boundaries, and equity
- 05
Geographic evaluation, generalization, and interpretable machine learning
- 06
Federated and ownership-aware learning for fragmented urban data
Publications
Publications & conference work
A complete current list is also available on my Google Scholar profile.
Urban Boundaries, Social Barriers: A Benchmark and Vision-Centric Framework for Mapping Gated Communities and Equity Implications
Computer Vision — ECCV 2026, LNCS 17051, pp. 414–432. Published 10 September 2026.
Open preprint · Equal contribution: Minwei Zhao and Weiming Zhang
BibTeX
@inproceedings{zhao2026urbanboundaries,
author = {Zhao, Minwei and Zhang, Weiming and Du, Jiawang and Liu, Qiming and Zhuang, Weiming and Nie, Pei and Wu, Cai},
title = {Urban Boundaries, Social Barriers: A Benchmark and Vision-Centric Framework for Mapping Gated Communities and Equity Implications},
booktitle = {Computer Vision -- ECCV 2026},
series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
volume = {17051},
pages = {414--432},
publisher = {Springer},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-032-37356-4_23},
url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-37356-4_23},
year = {2026}
}Street space as health infrastructure: diagnosing uneven street support for exercise through the spatial triad
Building and Environment, 304: 115095.
Accepted manuscript · Open access
BibTeX
@article{zhao2026streetspace,
author = {Zhao, Minwei and Yang, Guosheng and Zhang, Zhuoni and Biljecki, Filip and Zu, Hanzhi and Wu, Cai},
title = {Street space as health infrastructure: diagnosing uneven street support for exercise through the spatial triad},
journal = {Building and Environment},
volume = {304},
pages = {115095},
doi = {10.1016/j.buildenv.2026.115095},
year = {2026}
}UST-GNN: A unified spatial–topological graph neural network framework for urban analytics demonstrated through a case study on urban health prediction
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 129: 102466.
Open access
BibTeX
@article{zhao2026ustgnn,
author = {Zhao, Minwei and Šćepanović, Sanja and Law, Stephen and Obadić, Ivica and Wu, Cai and Quercia, Daniele},
title = {UST-GNN: A unified spatial--topological graph neural network framework for urban analytics demonstrated through a case study on urban health prediction},
journal = {Computers, Environment and Urban Systems},
volume = {129},
pages = {102466},
doi = {10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2026.102466},
year = {2026}
}Theory-informed and interpretable graph learning for urban commuting flows
Sustainable Cities and Society, 148: 107575.
Author copy
BibTeX
@article{zhao2026theoryinformed,
author = {Zhao, Minwei and Zhang, Dailuo and Shi, Zhecheng and Wu, Cai},
title = {Theory-informed and interpretable graph learning for urban commuting flows},
journal = {Sustainable Cities and Society},
volume = {148},
pages = {107575},
doi = {10.1016/j.scs.2026.107575},
year = {2026}
}Beyond single snapshots: Quantifying multi-scale heterogeneity from street-view imagery and what it reveals about perception
Cities, 175: 107227.
BibTeX
@article{yang2026beyondsnapshots,
author = {Yang, Guosheng and Su, Yunlei and Zhao, Minwei and Li, Chaosu and Wu, Cai},
title = {Beyond single snapshots: Quantifying multi-scale heterogeneity from street-view imagery and what it reveals about perception},
journal = {Cities},
volume = {175},
pages = {107227},
doi = {10.1016/j.cities.2026.107227},
year = {2026}
}Tarot-SAM3: Training-free SAM3 for Any Referring Expression Segmentation
arXiv:2604.07916. Withdrawn preprint.
Withdrawn on 4 August 2026 for revision. The original v1 is available for reference.
BibTeX
@article{zhang2026tarotsam3,
author = {Zhang, Weiming and Xiao, Dingwen and Guo, Songyue and Xiang, Guangyu and Wen, Shiqi and Zhao, Minwei and Chen, Lei and Wang, Lin},
title = {Tarot-SAM3: Training-free SAM3 for Any Referring Expression Segmentation},
journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.07916},
doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2604.07916},
note = {Withdrawn on 4 August 2026; original version v1 remains available},
year = {2026}
}GravityGNN: A Novel Graph Neural Network for Modelling Home-to-Work Spatial Flows in England
19th International Conference on Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management, London. Paper 155.
Best Early Career Paper Award · Proceedings link refers to the conference collection.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{zhao2025gravitygnn,
author = {Zhao, Minwei and Wu, Cai},
title = {GravityGNN: A Novel Graph Neural Network for Modelling Home-to-Work Spatial Flows in England},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management},
note = {Best Early Career Paper Award; Paper 155},
year = {2025}
}Perceiving the fine-scale urban poverty using street view images through a vision-language model
Sustainable Cities and Society, 123: 106267.
BibTeX
@article{wu2025urbanpoverty,
author = {Wu, Chao and Liang, Yongxiang and Zhao, Minwei and Teng, Mingda and Yue, Han and Ye, Yu},
title = {Perceiving the fine-scale urban poverty using street view images through a vision-language model},
journal = {Sustainable Cities and Society},
volume = {123},
pages = {106267},
doi = {10.1016/j.scs.2025.106267},
year = {2025}
}Measuring urban nighttime vitality and its relationship with urban spatial structure: A data-driven approach
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 50(1): 130–145.
BibTeX
@article{wu2023nighttimevitality,
author = {Wu, Chao and Zhao, Minwei and Ye, Yu},
title = {Measuring urban nighttime vitality and its relationship with urban spatial structure: A data-driven approach},
journal = {Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science},
volume = {50},
number = {1},
pages = {130--145},
doi = {10.1177/23998083221108191},
year = {2023}
}Education
Education & supervision
Each stage is shown together with the people and institutions that shaped the work.
Doctoral studies
Urban Governance and Design
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Supervisors
Master’s
Remote Sensing and GIS
University College London
Bachelor’s
Surveying and GIS
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Supervisors
Collaborators
Students & peers
Fellow students and alumni I have worked with on research papers.
Weiming Zhang
PhD candidateHKUST(GZ)
Gated community mapping · Referring expression segmentation
Jiawang Du
PhD studentHKUST(GZ) · Urban Morphology Studio
Gated community mapping
Qiming Liu
PhD student / visiting collaboratorRenmin University of China · HKUST(GZ)
Gated community mapping
Guosheng Yang
Research postgraduateHKUST(GZ) · Urban Morphology Studio
Urban exercise support · Street-view perception
Hanzhi Zu
UMS alumnusHKUST(GZ) · Urban Morphology Studio
Urban exercise support
Dailuo Zhang
PhD studentHKUST(GZ) · Urban Morphology Studio
Graph learning for commuting flows
Zhecheng Shi
UMS alumnusUrban Morphology Studio · Northeastern University (2026)
Graph learning for commuting flows
Yunlei Su
PhD studentHKUST(GZ) · Urban Morphology Studio
Street-view perception
Dingwen Xiao
PhD studentHKUST(GZ)
Referring expression segmentation
Songyue Guo
PhD studentHKUST(GZ) · Data Science and Analytics
Referring expression segmentation
Guangyu Xiang
PhD studentHKUST(GZ) · Data Science and Analytics
Referring expression segmentation
Shiqi Wen
PhD studentHKUST(GZ)
Referring expression segmentation









