Mission Statement The Healthy Cities Research Center (HCRC) at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) was established to address the critical social and environmental challenges facing Taiwan today. These include rapid population aging, rising risks of extreme climate events, urban health inequalities, and insufficient community resilience.

Our Team The Center is composed of an interdisciplinary team of experts spanning various fields:

Urban Planning: Prof. Ping-Li Chen and colleagues

Public Health & Medicine: Experts in epidemiology and clinical medicine

Health & Leisure: Prof. Li-Chuan Lin

Architecture & Environmental Planning: Prof. Yu-Cheng Wu and Prof. Shih-Ming Chen

Disaster Management: Prof. Jung-Hong Hong

Leadership & Legacy The Center was previously led by Dean Shu-Chen Hu of the College of Medical and Health Science at Asia University. Under her leadership, she championed the "Health in All Policies" (HiAP) approach, pioneering an interdisciplinary model for urban health promotion and age-friendly environmental research.

Since August 2025, Professor Tzu-Yuan Chao has served as the director. Integrating her profound research expertise in healthy cities, age-friendly environments, climate change adaptation, and spatial planning systems, she drives the Center's vision of creating robust, livable, and sustainable cities.

Core Philosophy Our core philosophy emphasizes being "people-centered, science-based, interdisciplinary, and action-oriented." Through scientific research, education, data platform development, and policy engagement, we are committed to assisting central and local governments in enhancing urban health governance and strengthening the health resilience of socially vulnerable groups.