Her main research filed is geography, with interests in urban land use pattern, urban sustainable development and watershed ecosystem management. 

She obtained funds from NSFC, CAS to study the coupling relationship between compact urban form and ecological space, hydrological/water quality effects of urban development, comprehensive carry capacity of large cities etc. with remote sensing and GIS technology in the Yangtze River Delta, China. 

She recently studies ecological space governance in metropolitan areas, material flow analysis and African cities. 

As chief scientist she is leading a project under the Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, to investigate Lake-Watershed integrated management in East Africa great lakes basins. Based on the work in both China and Africa, she has published over 120 papers in peer reviewed English journals or Chinese journals and participated in writing 4 Chinese books and 2 English books.