Yan Song

Assistant Professor
B.Arch., ShenZhen University, China
M.S., Florida State University, Tallahassee
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Office: 314 New East
Phone: (919) 962-4761
Fax: (919) 962-4761
Email: ys@email.unc.edu

Dr. Song has been selected by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to receive a David C. Lincoln Fellowship
to conduct research on land taxation. She was also awarded a UNC Junior Faculty Development grant and
a University Research Council research grant for the 2005-2006 academic year.

Courses
Dr. Song teaches courses on urban spatial structure, land use and environmental planning, land use regulations,
contemporary urbanism in China, and Geographic Information Systems.

• PLAN 499 Comparative Globalization: Transforming Urban China
• PLAN 591/GEOG 591 Advanced Geographic Information Systems
• PLAN 714 Urban Spatial Structure
• PLAN 741 Land Use and Environmental Planning
• PLAN 744 Development and Environmental Mgmt

Research and professional activities
Dr. Song’s research interests includes land use planning, growth management, economics of land use regulations,
spatial analysis of urban spatial structure and urban form, land use and transportation integration, and how to
accommodate research in above fields by using planning supporting systems such as GIS and other computer-
aided planning tools.

Dr. Song’s current research projects address domestic and international issues in the areas of impetus of urbanization
and urban growth, efficacy of land and housing markets, effects of growth management regulations, and integration
of urban land use and transportation plans. Song’s current research projects also document evolution of China’s
urban land and housing policies and urban spatial structure in the era of China’s transition toward a market economy.
Her research projects have been supported by U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Dr. Song has served as a Research Affiliate at the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland
and a Faculty Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. She has also served as a consultant on urban planning
for the city government of Shenzhen, and a consultant on land use and transportation integration for Beijing Municipal
Institute of City Planning and Design in China. Dr. Song also had professional experiences as a planner and an
architect in China.

Selected Recent and Ongoing Research Projects:

• Advanced Modeling System for Assessing Long-Term Regional Development Patterns, Travel Behavior,
Emissions, and Air Quality
   This three-year U.S. Environmental Protection Agency supported study employs Charlotte, NC as a case study to
model the effects of alternative development patterns (compact development versus urban sprawl), implemented
   regionally over a planning horizon of 50 years, on the spatial characteristics and quantity of emissions from on-road
   mobile sources and rail transit vehicles, and levels of tropospheric ozone and fine particulate matter.

• New Urban Development and Natural Hazard Mitigation
This three-year National Science Foundation supported study compares hazard mitigation practices used by New
   Urban developments as a compact urban form to conventional low-density developments and provides guidelines
   on how New Urban developments can be designed to attain the benefits of New Urbanism without increasing the
   threat from hazards.

• Property Tax or Land Tax: Possible Cure for Urban Sprawl?
This two-year Lincoln Institute of Land Policy supported study employs a theoretical model as well as an empirical
analysis to relate size of urban areas to property taxes and provides implications on the influences of different taxes
on urban expansion.

• Plan Integration Projects
   Both one-year Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design supported study and two-year Lincoln Institute
   of Land Policy supported study provide guidelines for efficient social and economic, land use, and transportation plan
   integration and develop modeling tools for improved allocation of land uses and transportation investments to meet
   social and economic needs.

Selected publications

Articles
• “Do physical neighborhood characteristics matter in predicting traffic stress and health outcome?”
Song, Y., G. Gee, Y. Fan, and D. Takeuchi (2007), Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology
and Behavior 10: 164 – 176. Abstract

• “Quantitative classification of neighborhoods: The neighborhoods of new single-family homes in the Portland
Metropolitan Area.” Song, Y. and G.J. Knaap (2007), Journal of Urban Design 12 (1): 1 – 24. Abstract

• “The spillover effects of growth management: Constraints on new housing construction,” Song, Y. (2007), in
C. Connerly, T. Chapin, and H. Higgins (Eds.), Growth Management in Florida: Planning for Paradise.
(pp. 155-167). Ashgate Publishing Limited.

• “Property taxation and urban sprawl.” Song, Y. and Y. Zenou (2006), Journal of Urban Economics 60: 519-534.
Abstract

• “Smart growth and urban development pattern: A comparative study.” Song, Y. (2005), International Regional
Science Review, 28 (2): 239-265. Abstract

• “Measuring urban form: Is Portland winning the war on sprawl?” Song, Y. and G.J. Knaap, (2004),
Journal of American Planning Association, 70 (2): 210 - 225. Full Paper

• “New urbanism and housing values: A disaggregated assessment.” Song, Y. and G.J. Knaap, (2003),
Journal of Urban Economics, 54: 218 - 238. Full Paper

• “Measuring the effects of mixed land uses on housing values.” Song, Y. and G.J. Knaap (2004), Regional Science
and Urban Economics, Volume 34 (6): 663-680. Abstract

Books
• Urbanization in China: Critical Issues in an Era of Rapid Growth. Song, Y., and C. Ding (Eds.) (2007)
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

• Emerging Land and Housing Markets in China. C. Ding and Y. Song (Eds) (2005) Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.