Education

• Ph.D., University of Florida, Geography
• M.S., Texas A&M University – Kingsville, Environmental Engineering
• BS, Liaoning University of Petroleum and Chemical Technology, Environmental Science

Other Credentials

• Tropical Conservation & Development Certificate, University of Florida

Professional Affiliations

American Assoc. of Geographers | American Geophysical Union | American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists| Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | International Assoc. For Landscape Ecology – North America

Current Courses Taught

• GIST 5200: Geospatial Visualization
• GIST 5220: Spatial Modeling and Data Analysis
• GIST 5350: Enterprise GIS Systems

Research Interests

Remote sensing applications on human-environment interactions, Geospatial Analytics, digital image processing, machine learning and GeoAI, citizen science, cloud-based big data analysis and management, land change science.

Representative Recent / Ongoing Projects

• NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) macrosystems biodiversity
• Geospatial analytics on Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and citizen science
• Large-scale land-use, and urban-wilderness interface mapping
• Invasive species patterns under different climate change scenarios
• Geospatial data literacy

Representative Publications

Nagy, C, Balch, J, Bissell, E, Cattau, M, Glenn, N, Halpern, B, Ilangakoon, N, Johnson, B, Joseph, M, Marconi, S, Riordan, C, Sanovia, J, Swetnam, T, Travis, W, Wasser, L, Zarnetske, P, & Yang D. (n.d.). Harnessing the NEON Data Revolution to Advance Open Environmental Science with a Diverse and Data-Capable Community. Ecosphere. 12(12), e03833.

Yang, A., Yang, J., Yang, D., Xu, R., He, Y., Qiu, H. Human Mobility to Open Space and Public Parks under COVID19 Pandemic and Wildfire Seasons in Western and Central United States. GeoHealth. 2021:e2021GH000494.

Kitzes, J, Blake, R, Bombaci, S, Chapman, M, Durán, S, Huang, T, Joseph, M, Lapp, S, Marconi, S, Oestreich, W, Rhinehart, T, Schweiger, A, Song, Y, Surasinghe, T, Yang, D, Yule, KM. Expanding NEON biodiversity surveys with new instrumentation and machine learning approaches. Ecosphere. In press.

Yang, D., Yang, A., Yang, J., Xu, R., & Qiu, H. (2021). Unprecedented migratory bird die–off: A citizen–based analysis on the spatiotemporal patterns of mass mortality events in the western United States. GeoHealth, 5(4), e2021GH000395.

Yang, D., & Fu, C. S. (2021). Mapping regional forest management units: a road-based framework in Southeastern Coastal Plain and Piedmont. Forest Ecosystems, 8(1), 1-17.

He, Y., Xu, R., Prior, S. A., Yang, D., Yang, A., & Chen, J. (2021). Satellite-detected ammonia changes in the United States: natural or anthropogenic impacts. Science of The Total Environment, 147899.

Merz L, Yang D, Hull V. A Metacoupling Approach to Watershed Management: The Case of an Irrigation Project in the Transnational Limpopo River Watershed. Sustainability. 2020, 12(5):1879. DOI: 10.3390/su12051879.

Herrero H, Waylen P, Southworth J, Khatami R, Yang D, Child B. A Healthy Park Needs Healthy Vegetation: The Story of Gorongosa National Park in the 21^st Century. Remote Sensing. 2020, 12(3):476. DOI: 10.3390/rs12030476.

Yang D, Wan H, Huang TK, Liu J. The Role of Citizen Science in Conservation Under the Framework of Telecoupling. Sustainability. 2019, 11; 1108. DOI: 10.3390/su11041108.

Kapsar K, Hovis C, Silva R, Buchholtz E, Carlson A, Dou Y, Du Y, Furumo P, Li Y, Torres A, Yang D, Wan H, Zaehringer J, Liu J. Telecoupling Research: The First Five Years. Sustainability. 2019, 11(4): 1033. DOI: 10.3390/su11041033.

Yang D. Mapping Regional Landscape by Using OpenStreetMap (OSM): A Case Study to Understand Forest Patterns in Maya Zone, Mexico. Volunteered Geographic Information and the Future of Geospatial Data, February 2017, 138-157; IGI-Global., ISBN: 9781522524465, DOI:10.4018/978-1-5225-2446-5.

Yang D, Yang A, Qiu H, Zhou Y, Herrero H, Fu C-S, Yu Q, Tang J. A Citizen-Contributed GIS Approach for Evaluating the Impacts of Land Use on Hurricane-Harvey-Induced Flooding in Houston Area. Land. 2019; 8(2):25. DOI: 10.3390/land8020025.

Yang D, Fu C, Smith A, Yu Q. Open Land-Use Map: A Regional Land-Use Mapping Strategy for Incorporating OpenStreetMap with Earth Observations. Geo-Spatial Information Science. 20(3): 269-281, 2017. DOI: 10.1080/10095020.2017.1371385.

Marsik M, Staub CG, Kleindl WJ, Hall J, Fu C, Yang D, Stevens FR, Binford MW. Regional-scale management maps for forested areas of the Southeastern United States and the US Pacific Northwest. Nature Scientific Data. 2018 Aug 28; 5:180165. DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.1651.

Yu Q, Jiang Q, Yang D, Yue D et al. Incorporating Temporal and Spatial Variations of Groundwater into Constructing Water-based Ecological Network: A Case Study in Deng Kou County. Water, 2017, 9(11): 864. DOI: 10.3390/w9110864.

Cao G, Chu Y, Yang D, Southworth J. A New Different Image Creation Methods Based on Deep Neural Networks for Change Detection. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 38(23): 7161-7175, 2017. DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2017.1371861.