Visiting Assistant Professor
GIScience, decision science, applied mathematics, spatial uncertainty, big data and CyberGIS, disaster management
Research
Dr. Zhang is currently a visiting assistant professor. She will start her new appointment as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University in fall 2019. She has lived, studied, and worked in China, Finland, and the U.S. She has collaborated with researchers and professors in various fields of sciences, including GIScience, computer science, atmosphere science, environmental science, military science, hydrological, agricultural and nuclear science. Through her interdisciplinary research, Dr. Zhang aims to develop intelligent spatial decision support systems for building urban resilience and improving urban sustainability. She explores several inter-related sub-research themes, such as spatiotemporal data modeling, uncertainty analysis of geographical information and risk, human and artificial intelligence, knowledge acquisition and representation, and big data and advanced cyberinfrastructure. Her research covers the application areas of disaster management, critical infrastructure modeling and protection, urban security, and food-water-energy nexus.
Her research has been supported by a number of U.S. and European governmental agencies such as National Science Foundation (NSF), United States Department of Agriculture(USDA), Consortium for Nonproliferation Enabling Capabilities (CNEC), the European Union, European Statistical Office, Business Finland, Academy of Finland, Finnish Defense Forces, and Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland.
Selected Publications
[1] 2019 Zhao J., Zhang, Z., Sullivan, C., Identifying anomalous nuclear radioactive sources using Poisson Kriging and mobile sensor networks, PLOS ONE Journal (Under Review).
[2] 2018 Zhang, Z., 2018, Geospatial Software Institute: A Knowledge Hub for Driving Sustainable Geospatial Software Ecosystem. The 3rd NSF Workshop on Conceptualizing a National Geospatial Software Institute (Accepted).
[3] 2018 Huang, H., Li, Q., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Y., Wang, S. Remote sensing evaluation for urban ecological quality combining vegetation condition and landscape pattern. Ecological Indicators (Under Review).
[4] 2018 Zhang, Z., Virrantaus, K., Yin, D., Soliman, A., and Wang, S. A spatiotemporal population model for emergency management based on social media and urban infrastructure data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. (Under Review).
[5] 2018 Hu, H., Lin, T., Li, B., Zhang, Z., and Wang, S. A Bayesian spatiotemporally varying coefficient model for analysis of the non-stationary relationship between corn yields and weather. Annals of the American Association of Geographers (In revision).
[6] 2018 Zhang, Z., Hu, H., Yin, D., Kashem, S., Li, R., Cai, H., Perkins, D., and Wang, S. A CyberGIS-enabled multi-criteria spatial decision support system: a case study on flood emergency management. International Journal of Digital Earth (Special Issue on Social Sensing and Big Data Computing for Disaster Management) (Accepted). https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2018.1543363
[7] 2018 Armstrong, M., Wang., S., and Zhang., Z. The Internet of Things and fast data streams: prospects for geospatial data science in emerging information ecosystems. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 46(1): 39-56.
[8] 2018 Seppänen, H., Luokkala, P., Zhang, Z., Torkki, P., and Virrantaus, K. Critical infrastructure vulnerability- a method for identifying the infrastructure service failure interdependencies, International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, 22: 25-38.
[9] 2017 Zhang, Z., Demsǎ, U., Wang, S., and Virrantaus, K. A spatial fuzzy influence diagram for modelling spatial objects’ dependencies: a case study on tree-related electric outages. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 32(2): 349-366.
[10] 2016 Zhang, Z., and Virrantaus, K. Use of fuzzy decision-making approach in analysis of the vulnerability of street network for disaster management. Nordic Journal of Surveying and Real Estate Research, 11(2): 7-19.
[11] 2014 Zhang, Z., Demsǎ, U., Rantala, J., and Virrantaus, K. A fuzzy multiple- attribute decision making modelling for vulnerability analysis on the basis of population information for disaster management. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 28(9): 1922-1939.
[12] 2010 Zhang, Z., and Virrantaus, K. Analysis of vulnerability of road networks on the basis of graph topology and related attribute information. Philips-Wren G., Jain L.C., Nakamatsu K., Howlett R., eds., Advances in Intelligent Decision Technologies, 353-363, New York: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
[13] 2010 Zhang, Z., Rangsima, S., and Virrantaus, K. A spatio-temporal population model for alarming, situational picture and warning system. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 38 (2): 69-74.
Education
2016 Doctor of Science (with distinction) in Geoinformatics, minored in applied mathematics, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University (before Helsinki University of Technology), Finland
2009 Master of Science (Technology) in Geomatics, Department of Surveying, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
2005 Bachelor of Environmental Engineering, Tampere University of Applied Sciences
Awards
2018 Awarded the travel grant for the 3rd NSF Workshop on Conceptualizing a National Geospatial Software Institute.
2016 Awarded Doctor of Science degree with distinction.
2012 Awarded Doctoral Programme in Built Environment grant from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, 55080 €.
Links
NSF Geospatial Software Institute: http://gsi.cigi.illinois.edu
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Research gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zhe_Zhang53
Courses
GEOG 678 Web GIS (online)
GEOG 660 Applications in GIS (online)
GEOG 478 Web GIS (in class)
GEOG 665 GIS Modeling (online)
Additional Information
Professional Experience
- Assistant professor, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, September 2019 (future)
- Visiting assistant professor, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, September 2018 - May 2019
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, CyberInfrastructure and Geospatial Information Laboratory CIGI, Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, January 2017-August 2018.
- CyberGIS Studio Coordinator, CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, October 2017-August 2018.
- Application Specialist, Department of Spatial Data Infrastructure Services, National Land Survey of Finland, August 2016-December 2016.
- Researcher, Research group on Geoinformatics, Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, 2009-2016
Professional Affiliations
- Knowledge-based & Intelligent Engineering System (KES International)
- International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- American Association of Geographers (AAG)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS)
