Dr. Yiwei Yang
Main Focus
I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the
Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanisation at the Max Planck
Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA). My work here focuses on building
multi-layered, multi-scale urban mobility networks both within and across cities,
and on clarifying how multi-level interaction networks shape social, economic,
and environmental outcomes in urban areas.
Theoretical focus
I aim to advance a network- and
interaction-based theory of cities, centered on:
• understanding cities as products of multi-level spatial and mobility networks
rather than static places
• uncovering how core mechanisms of urbanization persist across time, linking
modern cities with ancient urban systems
• re-theorizing the origins of scaling laws in a way that is more realistic,
comprehensive, and grounded in human flows
Methodological focus
I employ a hybrid, data-intensive
methodological framework that combines:
• network science
• mathematical modeling
• agent-based simulation
• large-scale empirical data analysis
Curriculum Vitae
My education bridges design and analytics. I earned a B.Arch. from Sichuan University with a focus on sustainable building design, followed by an M.Eng. and Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning at Tianjin University. My doctoral research examined the patterns, drivers, and governance of urban energy use and carbon emissions across functional spatial units, and it was recognized with the Best Doctoral Thesis honor.
Prior to joining MPI-GEA, I served as an Ernst Mach Postdoctoral Fellow at BOKU University, Vienna, where I led an international project on urban scaling laws. Using high-resolution geodata for the contiguous United States, I quantified how buildings, mobility infrastructure, and operational GHG emissions scale with population density at the level of settlement pixels.
At MPI-GEA, I extend my work on urban scaling by integrating network science and complexity theory to address spatial inequality and equitable development. My core research question focuses on how scaling relations and network structures shape resource allocation, urban outputs, and wealth inequality within and between cities, and how these insights can be used to quantify and mitigate multi-scalar spatial inequalities in support of sustainable and fair urban futures.