About Me
Welcome to my personal website! As a trailblazer at the forefront of scientific discovery, I am dedicated to develop innovative GIScience methods to investigate the complex dynamics of human-environment interactions. My work sets new standards, sparking creativity and novel imagination in the public health with GIScience area.
Education & Work
2011 - 2015 B.E., Geography, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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2015 - 2018 M.S., Urban Planning, Peking University, Beijing, China
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2018 - 2019 Land Investor, China Overseas Land & Investment LTD., China
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2019 - 2020 Research Assistant, Landscape Ecology, Peking University, Beijing, China
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2021 - 2025 Ph.D., Geography, Texas A&M University, Texas, the United States
Publications (Citation: 340)
Landscape Ecology
Ying, L., Shen, Z., Yang, M. and Piao, S., 2019. Wildfire detection probability of MODIS fire products under the constraint of environmental factors: A study based on confirmed ground wildfire records. Remote Sensing, 11(24), p.3031.
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Zhao, Y.B., Yang, M.Z. and Ni, H.G., 2018. An emergy-GIS method of selecting areas for sponge-like urban reconstruction. Journal of Hydrology, 564, pp.640-650.
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Shen, Z., Yang, M., Feng, J., Li, X., Peng, P. and Zheng, Z., 2017. Geographic patterns of alpine flora in China in relation to environmental and spatial factors. Biodiversity Science, 25(2), pp.182-194.
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Yang, M., Zou, L., Cai, H., Qiang, Y., Lin, B., Zhou, B., Abedin, J. and Mandal, D., 2022. Spatial–temporal land loss modeling and simulation in a vulnerable coast: A case study in coastal Louisiana. Remote Sensing, 14(4), p.896.
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Abedin, J., Zou, L., Yang, M., Rohli, R., Mandal, D., Qiang, Y., Akter, H., Zhou, B., Lin, B. and Cai, H., 2024. Deciphering spatial-temporal dynamics of flood exposure in the United States. Sustainable Cities and Society, 108, p.105444.
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Xie, Y., Shen, Z., Wang, T., Malanson, G.P., Peñuelas, J., Wang, X., Chen, X., Liang, E., Liu, H., Yang, M. and Ying, L., 2024. Uppermost global tree elevations are primarily limited by low temperature or insufficient moisture. Global Change Biology, 30(4), p.e17260.
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Shen, R., Li, J., Yang, M., Zeng, M. and Zhou, M., 2015. Spatial distribution of heavy metals in roadside soils based on voronoi diagram: A case study of Wuhan city. In Geo-Informatics in Resource Management and Sustainable Ecosystem: Second International Conference, GRMSE 2014, Ypsilanti, MI, USA, October 3-5, 2014. Proceedings 2 (pp. 732-739). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.​
Public Health
Zhou, B., Zou, L., Yang, M., Lin, B., Mandal, D. and Abedin, J., 2024. Overlooked voices under strict lockdown: mapping humanitarian needs in 2022 Shanghai COVID-19 outbreak. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 51(3), pp.347-365.
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Lin, B., Zou, L., Yang, M., Zhou, B., Mandal, D., Abedin, J., Cai, H. and Ning, N., 2024. Progress in understanding human-COVID-19 dynamics using geospatial big data: a systematic review. Annals of GIS, 30(4), pp.513-533.
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Lin, B., Zou, L., Zhao, B., Huang, X., Cai, H., Yang, M. and Zhou, B., 2024. Sensing the pulse of the pandemic: unveiling the geographical and demographic disparities of public sentiment toward COVID-19 through social media. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 51(3), pp.366-384.
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Tian, H., Cai, H., Hu, L., Qiang, Y., Zhou, B., Yang, M. and Lin, B., 2024. Unveiling community adaptations to extreme heat events using mobile phone location data. Journal of Environmental Management, 366, p.121665.
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Zhou, B., Zou, L., Mostafavi, A., Lin, B., Yang, M., Gharaibeh, N., Cai, H., Abedin, J. and Mandal, D., 2022. VictimFinder: Harvesting rescue requests in disaster response from social media with BERT. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 95, p.101824.
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Lin, B., Zou, L., Duffield, N., Mostafavi, A., Cai, H., Zhou, B., Tao, J., Yang, M., Mandal, D. and Abedin, J., 2022. Revealing the linguistic and geographical disparities of public awareness to Covid-19 outbreak through social media. International Journal of Digital Earth, 15(1), pp.868-889.
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Zhao, Y.B., Wu, G.Z., Gong, Y.X., Yang, M.Z. and Ni, H.G., 2019. Environmental benefits of electronic commerce over the conventional retail trade? A case study in Shenzhen, China. Science of the Total Environment, 679, pp.378-386.​
Sleep Health
Yang, M., Zou, L., Ma, H., Li, W., Abedin, J., Tian, H., 2025 (in progress). Evolution of Insufficient Sleep with Environmental Determinants from 2014 to 2022
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Yang, M., Zou, L., Ma, H., Li, W., Li, Z., 2025 (review). The Geographical Boundary of Insufficient Sleep: from Southwest to Northeast in the United States
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Yang, M., Doria, E., Zou, L., Li, W., 2024 (review). Social-Natural Cues on Circadian Rhythm through the Lens of GIScience: A Systematic Literature Review
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Yang, M., Zou, L., Li, W., Lin, B., Zhou, B., and Abedin, J. 2024 (review). Sleepless Cities under Social Isolation: Geographically and Temporally Revealing Daily Rhythm Alterations through Social Media
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Key Achievements & Experience
Research Activities
2014 Academic Symposium on Environmental Science and Technology in Wuhan Universities
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2017, 2022, 2023, 2024 American Association of Geographers Conference (AAG)
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2023 American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting (AGU)
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2024 Cartography and Geographic Information Society and University Consortium for Geographic Information Science Symposium (CaGIS+UCGIS)
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2024 TxGIS Day International Forum
Teaching Activity
2024 Teaching Assistant in Principles of Geographic Information Systems. Introducing concepts of design, planning and implementation of GIS by using ArcGIS Pro. Texas A&M University
2024 Lecturer in Frontier of Geographic Information Systems. Introducing GIScience in Sleep Health. Texas A&M University.
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2023 Lecturer in Geodatabase. Introducing How to Manage and Analyze Spatial Data in Geodatabase. Texas A&M University.
Scientific Projects
2014 - 2015 Heavy Metal Pollution Research with School of Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University
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2015 - 2016 Involved in research and writing for the White Paper on the Innovation Ecosystem in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Bay
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2017 - 2018 Participated in National Natural Science Foundation of China, “The spatiotemporal pattern, causes, and response to climate change of alpine treeline in the Three Parallel Rivers area of Yunnan”, PI: Zehao Shen, Department of Ecology, Peking University
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2020 - 2021 Spatiotemporal Distribution and Driving Mechanisms of Forest Fires in Yunnan, and Multi-scale Vegetation Responses (General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China), PI: Zehao Shen, Department of Ecology, Peking University
2021 - 2022 Co-authored the Book of GeoAI and Human Geography (Editors: Xiao Huang, Siqin Wang, John Wilson, and Peter Kedron) and Handbook of GeoAI (Editors: Song Gao, Yingjie Hu, and Wenwen Li)
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2023 - 2024 Circadian Rhythm Research, Collabrated with Biology Department, Texas A&M University
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2025 - Insufficient Sleep Research, Collabrated with Google DeepMind
Awards
2012 - 2015 Student Scholarship Award, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
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2015 Merit Graduated Student, Wuhan University, Beijing, China
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2016 - 2017 Student Scholarship Award, Peking University, Beijing, China
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2017 Merit Student Worker, Peking University, Beijing, China
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2021 Student Travel Award for attending 2021 Annual Meeting of the AAG
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2024 John Odland SAM Student Paper Competition the 2nd Award, 2024 AAG
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2024 Student Paper Competition Winner Certificate from ICA, CaGIS+UCGIS
Skills & Hobbies
Programming Language: Python, R, SQL, Matlab
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Professional Softwares: ArcGIS, QGIS, ENVI, ERDAS
Traveling
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Table Tennis, Badminton, Soccer
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Work Out
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Janpanese Language
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Major Work
Geography Work
Using GIS-RS technologies and Machine Learning to spatially and temporally analyze social-environmental questions.
Ecological Work
Field investigation in alpine mountain and river valley areas about the impact of global climate change on species diversity
Sleep Health Work
Combining with Big data and AI technologies to reveal the spatial-temporal pattern of human sleep health and underlying associations with environment determinants.