Zhe(Sarina) Zhang
Assistant Professor
Geographic Information Science, Cyberinfrastructure and CyberGIS, Geospatial Artificial Intelligence, decision science, applied mathematics, Sustainability, Disaster Management
Research
Dr. Zhang is an assistant professor of the Department of Geography and an affiliate faculty of Electrical and Computing Engineering at Texas A&M University. She currently serves as a director of the Cyberinfrastructure and Spatial Decision Intelligence research group at Texas A&M University and a council member of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System. She is the chair of the Cyberinfrastructure Specialty group at the American Association of Geographers. She also leads the CyberGIS and Decision Support Systems research initiative at the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science.
Her research and teaching interests broadly include geographical information science and systems (GIS), cyberinfrastructure and cyberGIS, geospatial artificial intelligence, and human-centered decision-making. Her research focuses on advancing cyberinfrastructure and geospatial data science to provide data-intensive solutions to complex human-environment interaction problems, sustainability, and disaster resilience challenges.
She has received research funding from several U.S. federal and state agencies such as NSF, NOAA, NASA, US DOT, National Geographic Society, and Texas Department of State Health Services, and served as principal, co-principal, and co-investigator for over $18 million in research grants. She has published peer-reviewed articles in several leading GIS-related journals, such as the International Journal of Geographic Information Science, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Transactions in GIS, and the International Journal of Digital Earth. She has served as a guest editor of Transactions in GIS and an associate editor of Computational Urban Science.
In recognition of her impactful research outcomes and outstanding education and outreach records, Dr. Zhang received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2023!
Dr. Zhe Zhang is actively recruiting MS and Ph.D. graduate students as well as visiting scholars to join the Cyberinfrastructure and Spatial Decision Intelligence (CIDI-Spatial) research group at Texas A&M. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Zhe Zhang via email zhezhang@tamu.edu.
Selected Publications
Song, Z., Zhang, Z., Tao, J., Chapman, P., Chang, P., Gao, H., Liu, H., Brannstrom, C., (2024). Mapping the Unheard: Analyzing Trade-Offs between Fisheries and Offshore Wind Farms Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. Annals of the American Association of Geographer, https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2023.2285371.
Li, D., Thompson, C., Behzadan, A., Meyer, M., Gao, H., Zhang, Z. (2023) A Reinforcement Learning-based Routing Algorithm for Large Street Networks. International Journal of Geographical Information Science,38 (2), 183-215
Li, D., & Zhang, Z. (2023). MetaQA: Enhancing human-centered data search using Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) language model and artificial intelligence. Plos one, 18(11), e0293034.
Alizadeh, B., Li, D., Hillin, J., Meyer, M. A., Thompson, C. M., Zhang, Z., & Behzadan, A. H. (2022). Human-centered flood mapping and intelligent routing through augmenting flood gauge data with crowdsourced street photos. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 54, 101730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2022.101730
Li, D., Chaudhary, H., and Zhang, Z., (2020). Modeling Spatiotemporal Pattern of Depressive Symptoms Caused by COVID-19 Using Social Media Data Mining. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(14), 4988. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17144988
Armstrong, M., Wang., S., and Zhang., Z., (2018). 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. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2018.1503973
Zhang, Z., Hu, H., Yin, D., Kashem, S., Li, R., Cai, H., Perkins, D., and Wang, S., (2018). A CyberGIS-enabled multi-criteria spatial decision support system: a case study on flood emergency management. International Journal of Digital Earth, 12(11), 1364-1381. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2018.1543363
Zhang, Z., Demsǎ, U., Wang, S., and Virrantaus, K., (2018). 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. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2017.1385789
Zhang, Z., Demsǎ, U., Rantala, J., and Virrantaus, K., (2014). 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. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2014.908472
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
Courses
GEOG 678 - Web GIS
GEOG 660 - Applications in GIS
GEOG 665 - GIS Modeling
GEOG 695 - Frontiers in GIScience
GEOG392/676 - GIS Programming
GEOG 360 Natural Hazards
