Qian (Chayn) Sun
Associate Professor Qian (Chayn) Sun is a geospatial scientist specializing in urban informatics, GeoAI, and environmental health. She leads the GISail research group at RMIT University, focusing on developing advanced geospatial solutions to improve urban resilience and sustainability. Her research integrates spatial analytics, remote sensing, and machine learning to address complex challenges in urban planning, climate change mitigation, and public health. Chayn has led several key projects with AURIN, including the Integrated Heat Vulnerability Assessment Toolkit, and the development of a national database on Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities to analyze health and environmental inequalities, has published extensively on social vulnerability and heat-health risk in Australian cities. She is also dedicated to mentoring postgraduate students and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
Sessions
This talk presents applications of GeoAI using street-level imagery and spatial analytics: detecting and mapping traffic signs, prioritising urban heat mitigation for active travel, assessing liveable streets through social-spatial configurations, and comparing perceived versus measured built environments. Together, they demonstrate scalable, data-driven approaches to inform urban planning.
This presentation highlights the feasibility and impact of teaching “Cloud-based Open-source GIS Solutions” through student-developed applications. Featuring five selected apps, it demonstrates how project-based learning fosters practical skills, innovation, engagement with open geospatial technologies, preparing students to contribute effectively to the evolving landscape of open GIS.