Hong Wu

  • Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
  • Watershed planning and management

  • Green stormwater infrastructure

  • Urban river restoration

  • Landscape performance

  • Urban sustainability

  • Landscape planning and design in China

221 Stuckeman

Hong Wu

Biography

Hong Wu joined the Department of Landscape Architecture in 2016 and currently holds the position of associate professor. She serves as the co-chair of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s Geospatial and Digital Analytics Track, former co-chair of Penn State’s University Water Council, director of the Penn State Stormwater Living Lab, and a core member of Stuckeman’s Ecology + Design Center. Additionally, Hong is an Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes journal.

Academically trained in architecture and landscape architecture, Hong’s research passion lies in an important and timely set of topics across different spatial scales. As of 2023, she had led or co-led more than 25 research projects, securing over $7 million in grant funding and publishing 40 peer-reviewed articles. Her interdisciplinary research efforts were honored with an Excellence in Research and/or Creative Works award by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture in 2023.

At the regional and watershed scale, Hong applies computer-based models to facilitate natural resource decision-making, especially as it relates to water. Through agent-based landscape change simulation and hydrological modeling, she has investigated the effectiveness of stormwater best management practices and alternative urban development patterns for conserving stream ecosystem health in the context of urbanization and climate change. Presently, her focus lies on optimizing green stormwater infrastructure planning to maximize multiple ecosystem benefits under the deep uncertainty of climate change.

At the site scale, Hong is passionate about exploring innovative design approaches to integrating sustainability into urban landscapes. Her current focus is on investigating the environmental, social, and economic aspects of green stormwater infrastructure across different social and environmental contexts.

Hong previously practiced landscape architecture professionally as a principal of Urban People + Space Landscape Design Studio (Beijing) and a consultant for the Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning and Design Institute. With three international design awards, including a 2012 American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Honor Award, her previous professional work mainly dealt with the transformation of contaminated sites into environmental and social amenities, municipal-scale urban green space planning, and green stormwater infrastructure planning and design in the context of China’s Sponge City Development.

Collected Works