Ziying Jiang

Education

• Ph.D., Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA
• M.S., Environmental Science, Peking University, China
• B.S., Geography, Beijing Normal University, China

Courses Taught

• GEO121: Earth’s Physical Environment
• GEO441/541: Introduction to GIS
• GEO442/542: Advanced GIS
• GEO448/548: Techniques and Applications of Remote Sensing

Research Interests/ Experience

My primary research interest lies in integrative study of land use/ land cover change using GIS. My dissertation research focused on simulating human disturbances to tropical rainforest. As I now work in Middletown, a rust belt city with spreading blight, changes to the urban built environment and its impact caught my attention. I began collaborative research examining the effect of land bank demolition on crime prevention in the city of Hamilton, a neighboring small city similar to Middletown. With a broadened interest on urban land use, I also developed interest in comparing the pathway of city growth in the “Global North” and in an economic developing area, more specifically, the evolution of city hierarchy over the past four decades in eastern China.

Publications

• Jiang, Z. “Assisting employment readiness program placement with GIS”. FOCUS on Geography (Submitted for Initial Review).
• Jiang, Z., & Conover, T. “The Effect of Demolition on Crime Prevention in the City of Hamilton, Ohio.” Cities (Submitted for Initial Review).
• Driscoll, A.G., Angeli, N.F., Gorchov, D., Jiang, Z., Zhang, J., Freeman, C. 2016. “The Effect of Treefall Gaps on the Spatial Distribution of Three Invasive Plants in a Mature Upland Forest in Maryland.” Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. 143(4): 349–358.
• Ziying Jiang, Bo Xu, 2014. Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis of the Spatially Varying Relationship between Farming Viability and Contributing Factors in Ohio, Regional Science Policy & Practice
• Xu, B., Z. Jiang. 2013. “Spatial Analysis of Farming Viability and its Contributing Factors in California.” Proceedings of Geoinformatics 2013 conference, Kaifeng, Henan, China. June 18-20, 2013 (peer reviewed). DOI:10.1109/Geoinformatics.2013.6626184
• Jiang, Z. 2007. “The Road Extension Model in the Land Change Modeler for Ecological Sustainability of IDRISI.” 15th ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, November 7-9, 2007, Seattle, WA

Service Interests

My service to the profession, the university, students and the community revolve around my professional interest and expertise in helping people to utilize geospatial techniques, especially GIS principles and skills, to improve their decision making. As scholar and educator, my contribution to the community is primarily through GIS Service-Learning, which provides community partners with GIS services to address their needs on spatial information at no cost to them. The community partners who benefited from the Service Learning include Butler County MetroParks, Butler County Small Business Development Center, Hamilton Urban Gardens, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Middletown Area YMCA. Service-Learning also prepares students with knowledge and skills to find and keep jobs, and connects students with possible employment opportunities.