Research Area

• Infrastructure and environmental sustainability
• Climate Adaptation
• Modeling urban and regional water, energy system
• Applied data science for sustainability

Research Interests

I am a sustainable engineer specializing in cities, infrastructure, and the environment. I hold a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (2015) and a B.S. in Environmental Science and Economics from Peking University (2010). My focus is on innovative analytic and modeling approaches to understand the performance of urban water and energy system in terms of environmental sustainability and climate resilience. My research involves the deep integration of diverse disciplines such as engineering modeling, sustainability assessment, applied data science, and social theory to develop innovative analytic and modeling approaches. Most important, my research is to answer the mitigation and adaptation strategies for urban system to be more sustainable and resilient. 

Representative Publications (within the last five years)

• Zhuang, Q., Mengru Li., & Lu, Z*. Assessing runoff control of low impact development in Hong Kong's dense community with reliable SWMM setup and calibration. Journal of Environmental Management, 2023, 345, 118599.
• Wang, X., Lu, Z., Li, T., & Zhang P. Carbon-neutral power system transition pathways for coal-dominant and renewable Resource-abundant regions: Inner Mongolia as a case study. Energy Conversion and Management, 2023, 285, 117013.
• Li, Y., Mo, W., Derrible, S., Lu, Z*. Integration of Multi-Objective Spatial Optimization and Data-driven Interpretation to Direct the City-wide Sustainable Promotion of Building-based Decentralized Water Technologies. Water Research, 2022. 118880.
• Lu, Z*. Data-driven Integrated Assessment of Global Wild-Caught Seafood Exported to Hong Kong in Different Representative Concentration and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Advances in Climate Change Research, 2022.
• Mingolla, S., & Lu, Z*. Carbon emission and cost analysis of vehicle technologies for urban taxis. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2021, 99, 102994
• Zhuang, Q., & Lu. Z*. Optimization of roof greening spatial planning to cool down the summer of the city. Sustainable Cities and Society, 2021, 103221
• Lu, Z.; Broesicke, O.; Yan, J.; Chang, M.; Xu, M.; Derrible, S.; Mihelcic, J., Crittenden., Seven Tools to Manage Complex Coupled Human and Natural Systems: A Sustainability Toolbox. Environ. Sci. Technol, 2019, 53, (16),9341-9351.