Daoqin Tong

Daoqin Tong is a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. She received her Ph.D. in Geography and M.S. in Civil Engineering from The Ohio State University. Tong’s research focuses on the development and application of spatial analytics, spatial optimization, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial statistics to address complex challenges in urban and regional systems. Her work emphasizes data-driven and decision-oriented approaches to support planning and policy related to urban climate resilience, transportation systems, food and water access, public health, and environmental equity. More recently, her research has advanced spatial modeling and multi-objective optimization to evaluate tradeoffs among heat mitigation, water use, infrastructure investment, and social vulnerability in cities, particularly in arid and water-stressed regions. She has led and collaborated on projects involving urban landscape and green infrastructure planning, food systems and food access, urban agriculture, rainwater harvesting, and transportation resilience, often integrating stakeholder engagement and co-produced decision-support tools. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, Tong's work aims to bridge theory and practice by developing scalable, equitable, and implementable spatial decision frameworks that support sustainable urban and regional planning.