Dr. Yitian Ren (任一田) is an Assistant Professor, Director of Spatial Analysis and Policy Lab (SAP Lab) at the Department of Urban Planning and Design, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU); Associate Researcher of XJTLU; and Honorary Associate at The University of Liverpool.

Dr Ren has cross-disciplinary education trajectory in relation to sustainable built environment. She obtained the BEng in Construction Management and Real Estate and MSc in Management Science and Engineering from Chongqing University, and earned PhD in Planning and Environmental Management from The University of Manchester with Full Scholarship and has won the prestigious Manchester Doctoral College (MDC) Excellence Award.

Dr Ren’s research has been rooted in the field of Urban (re)development, Rural restructuring, Digital Transformation, Entrepreneurial Development, and Sustainable Built Environment. Her research works have appeared in the top journals in the field such as Cities, Sustainable Cities and Society, Land Use Policy, Habitat International, and Scientific Data (Nature Portfolio); with the Google Scholar citation 2350+, H-index 29, i10 index 36. Dr Ren has been named a 2024 Top Scholar by ScholarGPS: #22 in Carrying Capacity (Lifetime) and #57 in Impact Assessment (Prior 5 years). 

Since joining XJTLU, Dr Ren has successfully secured over one million RMB in Research Grants as Principle Investigator (PI) across seven internal schemes and industrial fund, in addition to Co-I on an NSSFC Young Scientis Grant and receiving a Jiangsu Provincial-level Talant Programme.

Dr Ren is Council Member of CRIOCM Chinese Research Institute of Construction Management; Committee Member of Economic Geography Committee of Jiangsu Geographical Society; Seinor Member of New-type Urbanization and Urban-Rural Planning Specialized Committee of the Chinese Society for Urban Studies; and Guest Research Fellow of Alibaba Research Centre for Rural Dynamics. 

Dr Ren serves the Editorial roles of Journal of Urban Management (SCI Q1, TOP 8 in Urban Studies); and Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Nature Portfolio Journal, SSCI Q1); Journal of Building Design and Environment; and invited reviewer for over 30 international journals such as Sustainable Cities and Society; Cities; Habitat International; Technology in Society; Technological Forecasting & Social Change; Journal of Environmental Management; Transportation; Applied Energy; Applied Geography; Landscape and Urban Planning; Technovation; Geography and Sustainability.    

MSc Supervision (AY 25-26)

• Yuqi Sun (Highest Dissertation Mark, Best Dissertation Award)
• Haowei Yang (1st Prize of Industrial Seed Fund)
• He Wang

Call for Papers

• Special Issue of "Urban transition approaches and pathways towards sustainable and smart urban future", Journal of Urban Management. Submission deadline: 31 March 2026. 
• Special Issue of "Low-carbon Built Environment", Buildings. Submission deadline: 30 July 2026.
• Special Issue of "Urban innovation for sustainability: systems, policies and pathways", Discover Cities (Springer Nature). Submission deadline: 30 Jan 2027.

Urban Sustainability & Resilience: Monitoring and assessment of urban sustainability performance; investigation upon urban carrying capacity under the pursuit of sustainable development; low-carbon transition at different spatial scales (community and city); urban resilience-building strategies in response to climate change. Artificial Intellience and urban resilience and sustainability building.

Built Environment and Health Outcomes: Healthy city evaluation research; built envrionment determinants and health outcomes at urban and rural context.

Smart City Development & Platform Urbanism: Development trajectory, stakeholders interaction, and governance paradigm of smart city practices. The making of “platform urbanism” and its societal impacts. 

Digitalisation, Rural Restructuring, and Urban-Rural Linkages: Theories and strategies of rural revitalisation/development, in particular the digital platform driven approaches; rural digitalisation and its subsequent impacts upon rural restructuring and urban-rural relationship. Small towns and their roles in shaping sustainable urban-rural future. 

Urban Regeneration: Theoretical understanding, decision-making approaches of urban regeneration, and its consequences upon urban fabrics and social welfare.

2024- Present. Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Associate Researcher of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Honorary associate with the University of Liverpool

Director of Spatial Analysis and Policy Lab

UPD Student Staff Liase Committee Co-Chair 

Dept Student Affairs Officer; Alumni Officer; Work Placement Officer 

2019-2023. Fully-funded Doctoral Researcher, Manchester Urban Institute & Centre for Digital Development, The University of Manchester.

PGR Representative, Faculty and School PGR Committee Board Member (Representative for over 400 PGRs of School of Environment, Education and Development) 

2021-2024. Research Assistant, Department of Planning and Environmental Management, Manchester Urban Institute, The University of Manchester.

2022-2025. Guest Research Fellow, Alibaba Research Centre for Rural Dynamics.

2020-2024. Teaching Assistant to Undergraduate and Postgraduate modules, Department of Planning and Environmental Management, Manchester Urban Institute, The University of Manchester.

2018. Research Assistant, Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

2016-2019. Key research member of three National Social Science Foundation Projects (including NSSF Major and Key Projects), International Research Centre for Sustainable Built Environment, Chongqing University.

at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University:

UPD 101 Issues and practice of planning in China Ⅰ

DES 004 Future Cities 

DES 004 Research-led, Project-based Teaching

UPD 311 Planning and Property Development

UPD 406 History and Theory of Urban Interventions

Final Year Project (FYP) Supervision

Final Year Project (FYP) Workshop

Master Dissertation Supervision

Academic Advisor to Undergraduate and Master Students

LIF001 on Urban Regeneration; Smart City

at University of Manchester:

International Planning: Systems and Frameworks 

Infrastructure Planning 

International Fieldtrip (Ruhr Region, Germany) 

Rural Planning 

MSc Dissertation in Planning; MSc Dissertation in Real Estate

2026 Editor of Distinction Award, Springer Nature

2025 Jiangsu Province SC PhD Talent Programme

2025 Merit Paper Award, 30th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate (with my FYP & PhD Students)

2024 Top Scholar by ScholarGPS: #22 in Carrying Capacity (Lifetime) and #57 in Impact Assessment (Prior 5 years)

2024 Second Prize Best Paper, Annual Conference of Urban Transformation and Innovation Research, China Society of Urban Science 中国城市科学研究会城市转型与创新研究专委会2024年会 最佳论文二等奖

As of 10/2024, Dimensional-perspective based low carbon city analysis article, designated as ESI Highly Cited Paper, Web of Science - ranked among the top 1% most cited research article in the field of Social Sciences General（ESI前1%高被引论文）

As of 08/2024, Land resources carrying capacity article, designated as ESI Highly Cited Paper, Web of Science - ranked among the top 1% most cited research article in the field of Social Sciences General（ESI前1%高被引论文）

Manchester Doctoral College (MDC) Excellence Award - Best Contribution to PGR Environment (Only awardee of University of Manchester in 2023)

School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) Postgraduate Research Scholarship of University of Manchester

Merit Paper Award in the CRIOCM 24th International Conference on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate

The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF Fellow) 笹川良一优秀青年奖学基金 

Research Training Bursary from methods@manchester

Excellent Master Dissertation Award of Chongqing Municipality 

Excellent Master Graduate of Higher Education of Chongqing Municipality

Best Paper Award in the CRIOCM 23rd International Conference on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate

National Scholarship Award for Postgraduate by Chinese Ministry of Education 国家奖学金(硕士)

Delegate of 7th University Scholars Leadership Symposium, Humanitarian Affairs Asia.

Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Fund Award, The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).

Merit Award, The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) Global Student Challenge.

National Scholarship Award for Undergraduate by Chinese Ministry of Education 国家奖学金(本科)