Ph.D. in Geography (Concentration: GIS, Big Data, & Mobile Computing)

Department of Geography, Univesity of Utah, USA

Dissertation: Modeling wildfire evacuation as a coupled human-environmental system using triggers

Advisors: Dr. Thomas J. Cova & Dr. Philip E. Dennison

M.S. in Cartograhy and Geographic Information Systems (Concentration: Geoinformatics)

Institute of Remote Sensing & GIS, Peking University, China

B.S. in Geographic Information Systems (Concentration: Software Engineering)

School of Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), China

Assistant Professor of GIS

Department of Geography, The University of Alabama, USA

Assistant Professor of GIS

Department of Geography & Geospatial Sciences, South Dakota State University, USA

Research Associate (Supervisor: Dr. Jianguo (Jack) Liu)

Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Michigan State University, USA

Project: Food security and land use: the telecoupling challenge (the Belmont Forum)

Research Assistant (Supervisor: Dr. Quynh Nguyen)

Department of Health Promotion and Education, University of Utah, USA

Project: HashtagHealth: A social media big data resource for neighborhood effects research (NIH)

Project website: https://hashtaghealth.github.io

Research Assistant (Supervisor: Dr. Neng Wan)

Utah Geo-Health Lab, Department of Geography, University of Utah, USA

Project: Understanding life-space characteristics based on cell-phone collected data (NIH)

Research Assistant (Supervisors: Dr. Thomas J. Cova and Dr. Philip E. Dennison)

Center for Natural and Technological Hazards (CNTH), University of Utah, USA

Project: Protective action triggers (NSF)

Research Assistant (Supervisor: Dr. Chengqi Cheng)

Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Peking University, P.R. China

Project: Global spatial information organization and its relevant applications

GIS, Systems Modeling & Integration, Spatial Analysis, Big Data Analytics, Open Science

Hazards, Public Health, Transportation, Sustainability, Agriculture

Li, Y., Li, D., & King, C. (2022). “Food Insufficiency among Job-Loss Households during the Pandemic: The Role of Food Assistance Programs”. Sustainability, 14(22), 15433. doi:10.3390/su142215433 [pdf]

Li, D.* (2022). “A data-driven approach to improving evacuation time estimates during wildfires for communities with part-time residents in the wildland-urban interface”. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 82, 103363. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103363 [pdf][Video]

Jiang, Y., Han, S., Li, D., Bai, Y., & Wang, M. “Automatic Sidewalk Trip Hazard Detection and Mapping Using Mobile Devices and Deep Learning”. Expert Systems with Applications, 227, 117980. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2022.117980 [pdf]

Jiang, Y., Huang, Y., Liu, J., Li, D., Li, S., Nie, W., & Chung I. “Automatic Measurement and Mapping of Construction and Demolition Debris Using Drones, Deep Learning, and GIS”. Drones, 6(10), 279. doi:10.3390/drones6100279 [pdf]

Yue, X., Antonietti, A., Alirezaei, M., Tasdizen, T., Li, D., Nguyen, L., Mane, H., Sun, A., Hu, M., Whitaker, R., & Nguyen, Q. “Using Convolutional Neural Networks to derive neighborhood built environments from Google Street View images and examine their associations with health outcomes”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12095. doi:10.3390/ijerph191912095 [pdf]

Ketchpaw, A.R., Li, D.*, Khan, S.N., Jiang, Y., Li, Y, & Zhang, L. “Using structure location data to map the wildland-urban interface in Montana, USA”. Fire, 5(5), 129.. doi:10.3390/fire5050129 [pdf]

Khan, S.N., Li, D.*, & Maimaitijiang, M. “A Geographically Weighted Random Forest Approach to Predict Corn Yield in the US Corn Belt”. Remote Sensing, 14(12), 2843. doi:10.3390/rs14122843 [pdf]

Nguyen, Q., Belnap, T., Dwivedi, P., Nazem, A., Kumar, A., Li, D., Whitaker, R., Tasdizen, T., & Brunisholz, K. “Google Street View images as predictors of patient health out-comes, 2017-2019”. Big Data and Cognitive Computing. doi:10.3390/bdcc6010015 [pdf]

Wang, T., Jin, H., Fan, Y., Obembe, O., and Li, D. “Farmers’ adoption and perceived benefits of diversified crop rotations in the margins of Corn Belt”. Journal of Environmental Management, 293, 112903. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112903 [pdf]

Li, Y., Wang, S., Cao, G., Li, D., & Ng, B.P. “Disentangling Racial/Ethnic and Income Disparities of Food Retail Environments: Impacts on Adult Obesity Prevalence”. Applied Geography. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102607 [pdf]

Cova, T.J., Li, D., Siebeneck, L.K., & Drews, F. “Towards simulating dire wildfire scenarios”. Natural Hazards Review, 22(3). doi:10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000474 [pdf]

Li, D.*, Li, Y., Nguyen, Q.C., & Siebeneck, L.K. “A study on the GIS Professional (GISP) certification program in the U.S.”. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 9(9), 523. doi:10.3390/ijgi9090523 [pdf]

Li, D.*, Cova, T.J., Dennison, P.E., Wan, N., Nguyen, Q.C., & Siebeneck, L.K. “Why do we need a national address point database to improve wildfire public safety in the U.S.?”. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 39, 101237. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101237 [pdf]

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. "Setting Wildfire Evacuation Triggers by Coupling Fire and Traffic Simulation Models: A Spatiotemporal GIS Approach". Fire Technology, 55, 617–642. doi:10.1007/s10694-018-0771-6 [pdf]

Xu, Z., Chau, S., Ruzzenenti, F., Connor, T., Li, Y., Tang, Y., Li, D., Gong, M., & Liu, J. "Evolution of multiple global virtual material flows". Science of The Total Environment, 658, 659-668. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.169 [pdf]

Meng, H.-W., Kath, S., Li, D., & Nguyen, Q. C. "National substance use patterns on Twitter". PLOS ONE, 12(11), e0187691. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187691 [pdf]

Nguyen, Q., McCullough, M., Meng, H., Debjyoti, P., Li, D., et al. "Geotagged U.S. Tweets (2015-2016) as Predictors of County-Level Health Outcomes". American Journal of Public Health doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303993 [pdf].

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Using reverse geocoding to identify prominent wildfire evacuation trigger points”. Applied Geography, 87, 14-27.doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.05.008 [pdf]

Xu, Z., Tang, Y., Connor, T., Li, D., Li., Y., & Liu, J. "Climate variability and trends at a national scale". Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03297-5 [pdf]

Nguyen, Q., Meng, H., Li, D.,Kath, S., et al. "Social media indicators of the food environment and state health outcomes". Public Health, 148, 120-128. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2017.03.013 [pdf]

Cova, T.J., Dennison, P.E., Li, D., Siebeneck, L.K., Drews, F.A., & Lindell, M.K. "Warning triggers in environmental hazards: who should be warned to do what and when?" Risk Analysis, 37(4), 601-611. doi:10.1111/risa.12651 [pdf]

Nguyen, Q., Li, D., Meng, H., Kath, S., Nsoesie, E., Wen, M., & Li, F. "Building a national neighborhood dataset from geotagged Twitter data for indicators of happiness, diet, and physical activity". JMIR Public Health & Surveillance. doi:10.2196/publichealth.5869 [pdf]

Nguyen, Q., Kath, S., Meng, H., Li, D., Smith, K., VanDerslice, J.A., Wen, M., & Li, F. "Leveraging geotagged Twitter data to examine neighborhood happiness, diet, and physical activity". Applied Geography, 73, 77-88. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.06.003 [pdf]

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “A household-level approach to staging wildfire evacuation warnings using trigger modeling”. Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems, 54, 56–67. doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2015.05.008 [pdf]

Guo, X., Cheng, C., Tan, Y., & Li, D. “Study on Unified Encoding Method for Topographic Map Based on Subdivision Framework”. Periodical of Ocean University of China, 44(3). (in Chinese)

Geng, X., Cheng, C., Song, S., & Li, D. “Global Subdivision Systems Based on Map Kilo-Grids”. Geography and Geo-Information Science, 2(3). (in Chinese)

Li, D. “Geocoding and reverse geocoding". In Cova, T.J. & Tsou, M. (Eds.), Comprehensive Geographic Information Systems. Vol. 1, Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.09593-2 [pdf]

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “An open-source software system for setting wildfire evacuation triggers”. 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on the Use of GIS in Emergency Management. doi: 10.1145/2835596.2835600 [pdf]

Li, D. & Cheng, C. "A proposed architecture for emergency response systems based on Digital Earth". Proc. SPIE 7840, the Sixth International Symposium on Digital Earth: Models, Algorithms, and Virtual Reality.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Establishing wildfire evacuation zones—a coupled human-environmental system approach”. Proceedings of the 13th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit & 4th Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference. (Extended abstract)

Li, D. “Transportation infrastructure in disaster resilience assessment”. GIS Professional, 291, 12-14. [pdf]

Qi, Y., Li, D., Fang, W., et al. “Using Build Forge to Install Tivoli Provisioning Manager”. IBM SSPD database, Document ID: TD105637.

“ In the Age of Fast-Moving Fires, What's the Best Way to Get People Out?”. KQED Science (Living With Wildfire: California Reimagined Series), June 3. (Reporter: Jeremy Siegel).

Instructor

GEOG 790 Seminar: GIS Programming (Python Programming with ArcGIS) [Syllabus]

Instructor

GEOG 477/577: Spatial Databases [Syllabus][Flyer]

Instructor

GEOG 476/576: Web GIS [Syllabus][Flyer]

Instructor

GEOG 473/573: GIS Data Creation and Integration [Syllabus][Flyer]

Instructor

GEOG 786: Geographic Information Systems [Web GIS] [Python programming]

Instructor

GEOG 372: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems [Syllabus]

Instructor

GEOG 474/574 GIS: Vector and Raster Modeling [Syllabus]

Instructor

GEOG 5140: Methods in GIS (an advanced GIS course)

Guest Lecturer (teaching practicum)

GEOG 5180/6180: GIS & Python (ArcPy section)

GEOG 471/571: Introduction to GIS Programming (Python Programming)

GEOG 790 Seminar: GIS Programming (Python Programming)

GEOG 473/573: GIS Data Creation & Integration

GEOG 476/576: Web GIS

GEOG 786: Geographic Information Systems (Advanced Web GIS)

GEOG 477/577: Spatial Databases (PostgreSQL/PostGIS)

GEOG 474/574: GIS: Vector & Raster Modeling

GEOG 372: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

GEOG 1180: Introduction to Geo-Programming (Python programming)

Instructor. Technical Training Session: Basics of Scripting with Python. The 2019 Black Hills Digital Mapping Agency Conference, Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Instructor. Technical Training Session: Using Python in Geocoding/Reverse Geocoding. The 2019 Black Hills Digital Mapping Agency Conference, Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Instructor. Technical Training Session: Introduction to Git. The 2018 Black Hills Digital Mapping Agency Conference, Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Li, D. “A data-driven approach to improving evacuation time estimates for resort communities during wildfires”. The 2022 Black Hills Digital Mapping Agency Conference, Rapid City, SD, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “Modeling Protective Action Triggers in Wildfire Evacuation: Challenges and Opportunities”. Great Plains Rocky Mountains Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, U.S.A.

Khan, S.N., Li, D., & Maimaitijiang, M. “Geographically Weighted Machine Learning to Predict Corn Yield in the U.S. Corn Belt”. Great Plains Rocky Mountains Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, U.S.A.

Li, D. “A data-driven approach to improving evacuation time estimates for resort communities during wildfires”. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New York, NY, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “An Introduction to Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding”. South Dakota Statewide Geospatial Conference, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “Why do We Need a National Address Point Database to Improve Wildfire Public Safety in the U.S.?”. South Dakota Statewide Geospatial Conference, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “A data-driven approach to improving wildfire evacuation time estimates in resort areas”. The 16th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit and 6th Human Dimensions conference, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, Y., Wang, S., Cao, G., Li, D., & Ng, B.P. “Disentangling Racial/Ethnic and Income Disparities of Food Retail Environments and Obesity Prevalence”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Dwomoh, K. & Li, D. “Using GIS and Big Data to Map Wildland-Urban Interface in California, USA”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “Wildfire evacuation modeling in the big data era: Opportunities and challenges”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “Using Computer Models, Big Data, and GIS to Improve Community Wildfire Evacuation Planning”. AutoCarto 2020, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D., Li, Y., Nguyen, Q.C., & Siebeneck, L.K. “Mapping the Certified GIS Professionals in the U.S.”. Applied Geography Conference, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “Mapping the Certified GIS Professionals (GISPs) in the U.S.”. GIS in the Rockies, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. (Virtual)

Li, D. “An introduction to the GIS Professional (GISP) certification program”. The 2019 Black Hills Digital Mapping Agency Conference, Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Li, D. “A study on the GISP Certification program in the U.S.”. The Annual Meeting of the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division of the Association of American Geographers, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.

Li, D. “An introduction to ArcGIS Collector”. South Dakota Statewide Geospatial Conference, Mitchell, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Li, D. “An introduction to online geocoding and reverse geocoding services”. South Dakota Statewide Geospatial Conference, Mitchell, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Li, D. “A preliminary study on the GISP program in the U.S.”. South Dakota Statewide Geospatial Conference, Mitchell, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Coupling fire and traffic simulation models to set wildfire evacuation triggers”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Washington DC, U.S.A.

Wan, N., Li, D., Cho, L., & Wetter, D. “Applying mobile technologies in public health research: challenges and opportunities for geographers”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Washington DC, U.S.A.

Li, D. “Using online reverse geocoding services to set wildfire evacuation triggers”. The 2018 Black Hills Digital Mapping Agency Conference, Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A

Li, D. “A preliminary examination of wildfire evacuation zoning: Evidence from the Vineyard Fire and the Carr Fire”. The 2018 Annual Meeting of the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division of the Association of American Geographers, Manhattan, Kansas, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Coupling fire and traffic simulation models to set wildfire evacuation triggers”. The 4th Fire and Evacuation Modeling Technical Conference, Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A. [Video]

Li, D. “Modeling wildfire evacuation triggers using open GIS”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Identifying prominent wildfire evacuation trigger points with reverse geocoding”. Great Plains/Rocky Mountains Division of the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S.A.

Li, D. “An open source tool for tracing international food trade flows under the telecoupling framework”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Setting wildfire evacuation triggers by coupling fire and traffic simulation models”. The 5th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Setting wildfire evacuation triggers by coupling fire and traffic simulation models: a spatiotemporal GIS approach". Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Cova, T.J., Li, D., & Dennison, P.E. “Spatio-temporal representation issues in modeling evacuation warning triggers”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Promote Open Science in Wildfire Evacuation Modeling: An Open-Source Software System for Setting Wildfire Evacuation Triggers”. The 26th Quarterly Salt Lake GIS Users Group (SLUG) Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “An open-source software system for setting wildfire evacuation triggers”. The 1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on the Use of GIS in Emergency Management (EM-GIS), Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Integrating fire-spread and household-level trigger modeling to stage wildfire evacuation warnings”. Geocomputation 2015, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Setting wildfire evacuation triggers by coupling traffic simulation, trigger modeling, and reverse geocoding”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual meeting, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Establishing wildfire evacuation zones—a coupled human-environment system approach”. Managing Fire, Understanding Ourselves: Human Dimensions in Safety and Wildland Fire, Boise, Idaho, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Household-level wildfire evacuation trigger modeling”. AutoCarto 2014, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “A framework for improving the use of online reverse geocoding services”. Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual meeting, Tampa, Florida, U.S.A.

Li, D. & Cova, T.J. “Using geotagged tweets to explore geographic disparities of Twitter users: a case study of New Jersey state, U.S.”. CaGIS/ASPRS 2013 Specialty Conference—Imaging and Mapping for Disaster Management: From the Individual to the Global Community, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.

Li, D., Cova, T.J., & Dennison, P.E. “Household-level wildfire evacuation trigger modeling”. Maps on the Hill, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Li, D. “Social media in natural disasters: mapping tweet density in Hurricane Sandy”. Maps on the Hill, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Li, D. & Cheng, C. "A proposed architecture for emergency response systems based on Digital Earth". The Sixth International Symposium on Digital Earth, Beijing, China.

Finalist for the Student Honors Paper Competition, Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers

Jeanne X. Kasperson Student Paper Award, Hazards, Risks, and Disasters Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers

Student Travel Award, the Associated Student of University of Utah (ASUU)

Travel Award for Transportation and Communities Summit 2015, Point B: University of Utah Transportation Student Group

NSF Travel Award for San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)'s Summer Institute 2015

NSF Travel Award for the 13th International Conference of GeoComputation

Student Travel Award, the Associated Student of University of Utah (ASUU)

Graduate Student Travel Award, the Graduate School of University of Utah

Graduate Student Travel Award, the Graduate School of University of Utah

Second-class Scholarship for Graduate Student, Peking University

Second-class Scholarship for Graduate Student, Peking University

First-class Scholarship for Graduate Student, Peking University

Sino Petroleum & Chemical Scholarship, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

First-class Professional Scholarship, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

First-class Professional Scholarship, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

Second-class National Scholarship, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

Study Model of China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

Third Prize in Mathematics Competition, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

Second Prize in the 2005 National English Contest for College Students

Python, C/C++, Java, R, Perl, Matlab, IDL

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Apache HTTP/Tomcat Server

Android, iOS, eMbedded Visual C++

OpenLayers, Leaflet, GeoServer, PostGIS, ArcGIS Server/ArcSDE

OpenMP, MPI, GPU, SLURM Scheduler, Kepler, gprof, IPython

RedHat/Ubuntu Linux, Bash, Vim, Linux/Unix system programming

Visual Studio, Eclipse, PyCharm, Android Studio, Xcode, WebStorm

PostgreSQL/PostGIS, SQL Server, DB2, MySQL, MongoDB

Git, SVN, Microsoft Visio, Rational Rose, Build Forge

ArcObjects/ArcEngine, OpenGL, Qt, VTK, ILOG CPLEX, Gurobi

ArcGIS/ArcPy, ENVI, ERDAS IMAGINE, QGIS, Google Earth Engine

NetLogo, Repast, MATSim (traffic simulation)

GDAL/OGR, OpenTools, PROJ.4, JTS, JOSM

FlamMap, FarSite, FireFamilyPlus, BehavePlus, fireLib

Big Data, Health Informatics, Mobile Health

Traffic Simulation, Transportation Planning, Public Transit

Global Sustainability, Telecoupling, Food Security, Land Use Change

Precision Agriculture, Agro-Informatics