Profile
Wendee is postdoctoral researcher nature, health and wellbeing at the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Flourishing and Wellbeing Theme of the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. Wendee primarily uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, specialise in geospatial analysis, to investigate the relationships between urban green and blue spaces and public health outcomes. Her research focuses on how environmental policies and urban planning practices impact subjective and objective mental health and wellbeing. Wendee is passionate about improving urban sustainability and believes that equitable access to high-quality green infrastructure is crucial for addressing health inequalities in both the UK and the Global South.
Before joining the School of Geography and the Environment, Wendee worked on projects investigating the health impacts of urban green and blue spaces, water management of urban green and blue space and carbon emissions of urban land cover change. Wendee completed her PhD in Geography at the University of Melbourne in 2022, where the thesis explored sustainability transitions in urban planning for future cities. She focused on environmental policies related to urban water management and examined the role of hydraulic missions in realizing water sustainability. Her research involved collaborating with local governments and community organizations to assess how environmental policies influence access to nature in urban areas. Alongside her research, she is also the secretary of the Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG).
Publications
Chen, M., Liu, Y., Ye, Z., Wang, S., & Zhang, W. (2024). Vivid London: Assessing the resilience of urban vibrancy during the COVID-19 pandemic using social media data. Sustainable Cities and Society, 115, 105823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2024.105823
Rodgers, S. E., Geary, R. S., Villegas‐Diaz, R., Buchan, I. E., Burnett, H., Clemens, T., ... & Butters, O. (2024). Creating a learning health system to include environmental determinants of health: The GroundsWell experience. Learning Health Systems, e10461. https://doi.org/10.1002/lrh2.10461
Jiang, M., Webber, M., Barnett, J., Zhang, W., & Liu, G. (2022). Making a water market intermediary: the China Water Exchange. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 38(4), 699-716. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2021.1889478
Kattel, G., Reeves, J., Western, A., Zhang, W., Jing, W., McGowan, S., ... & Liu, Y. (2021). Healthy waterways and ecologically sustainable cities in Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei urban agglomeration (northern China): Challenges and future directions. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 8(2), e1500. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1500
Liu, Y., Wang, M., Webber, M., Zhou, C., & Zhang, W. (2020). Alternative water supply solutions: China's South-to-North-water-diversion in Jinan. Journal of Environmental Management, 276, 111337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111337
Chen, D., Luo, Z., Webber, M., Rogers, S., Rutherfurd, I., Wang, M., ... & Zhang, W. (2020). Between Project and Region: The Challenges of Managing Water in Shandong Province After the South-North Water Transfer Project. Water Alternatives, 13(1), 49-69.
Rogers, S., Chen, D., Jiang, H., Rutherfurd, I., Wang, M., Webber, M., ... & Zhang, W. (2020). An integrated assessment of China's South-North Water Transfer Project. Geographical Research, 58(1), 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12361
Zhang, W., & Wang, M. (2018). Spatial-temporal characteristics and determinants of land urbanisation quality in China: Evidence from 285 prefecture-level cities. Sustainable Cities and Society, 38, 70-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.12.011
Xu, H., Zhang, C., Li, W., Zhang, W., & Yin, H. (2018). Economic growth and carbon emission in China: a spatial econometric Kuznets curve? Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci: časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu, 36(1), 11-28.
Zhang, W., & Xu, H. (2017). Effects of land urbanisation and land finance on carbon emissions: A panel data analysis for Chinese provinces. Land Use Policy, 63, 493-500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.02.006 (Essential Science Indicator high citied paper)
Zhang, W., & Xu, H. (2017). Exploring the causal relationship between carbon emissions and land urbanisation quality in China using a panel data analysis. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 19(4), 1445-1462. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9813-8
Xu, H., & Zhang, W. (2016). The causal relationship between carbon emissions and land urbanisation quality: A panel data analysis for Chinese provinces. Journal of Cleaner Production, 137, 241-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.07.076
Xu, H., Zhang, W., & Wu, Y. (2015) Casual relationship between smart land use and urban scale: Evidence from capital cities in China. Urban problems.
Wu, Y., Zhang W., Zhang, Z., & Cai, W. (2015) Satisfaction and its sensitivity analysis on farmers in central villages: based on the investigation on 216 farmers in Tianjin. Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment.