Bingqing Liang

Associate Professor of Geography

Graduate Coordinator

Bingqing Liang
Location

ITTC 209

Phone
(319) 273-3609

Bingqing Liang

Associate Professor of Geography

Graduate Coordinator

Honors and Awards

2015: Junior Faculty Awards for Outstanding Efforts in Seeking Sponsored Funding. University of Northern Iowa,IA. 

Education

PhD: Geography, Indiana State University, USA (Dec 2008)
M.A.: Geography, Indiana State University, USA (May 2005)
B.S.: Geography Education, South China Normal University, China (Jul 2002)

Teaching Interests

Teach students how to use various geographic tools including cartography, remote sensing, GIS, and GPS to spatially map, analyze, and understand the impact of human-environment interaction on different environmental and socioeconomic issues.

Research Interests
  • Urban environment: urban impervious surface estimation, urban landscape mapping, urban land change detection at multiple spatial and temporal scales, scale-effect of census-based urban land surface temperature modeling, urban environmental quality assessment with the integration of remote sensing and GIS;

  • Demographic and Social issues: scale-effect of census-based residential population estimation,  spatial analysis of foreclosure pattern in California;

  • Natural Resource Management: the impact of Marcellus Shale gas drilling activities on water quality, the effect of land use and land cover change on water quality;

  • Remote sensing and GIS algorithms validation, comparison, and application: fractals, spatial autocorrelation indexes, spatial metrics, texture, artificial neural network, object-oriented classification, scale effect examination based on multiple spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution.

Selected Grants and Awards Received (Total Support > $1 M)
  • A Pilot Project to Update High Resolution Land Cover Dataset for Selected Iowa Counties (UNI 2022-23 Capacity Building Grant Competition, Co-PI, 2023 - Present)

  • Modeling Solar Radiation Potential and Urban Heat Utilizing Mobile Sensors and Topographic Data (Iowa Energy Center, Competitive Grant Program, Co-PI, 2021 - Present)

  • Integration of the Google Earth Engine Cloud-based Scientific Data & Analysis Platform across UNI Geography Department Geospatial Technology Courses (Iowa Space Grant Consortium, Curriculum Development Program, Co-PI, 2019 - 2020)

  • MRI: Acquisition of a Hyperspectral Field Spectroradiometer to Enable Interdisciplinary Research (National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program, PI, 2018 - 2020)

  • Implementing the Development of a Landscape of Building Energy Use for the City of Des Moines, Iowa (UNI Pre-Tenure Grant, PI, 2016 - 2017)

  • Developing a Landscape of Building Energy Use for the City of Des Moines, Iowa (Iowa Energy Center, Opportunity Grant Program, Co-PI, 2016 - 2017)

  • REU - Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Hyperspectral Imagine (National Science Foundation, Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, PI, 2014 - Current): link (http://www.geotree.uni.edu/en/reu/home/)

  • Development of a Solar Potential Map and Web Mapping (Iowa Economic Development Authority, Co-PI, 2015 - 2016)

  • Planning the Interdisciplinary Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Hyperspectral Imagine (UNI CSBS Summer Research Grant, PI, 2015)

  • Planning and Implementing the Interdisciplinary Research Experience for Undergraduates in Hyperspectral imagine in Arlington, VA (Iowa NASA EPSCoR Travel Grant, PI, 2015)

  • Characterizing Urban Landscape by Using Fractal-based Texture Information (UNI CSBS Summer Research Grant, PI, 2014)

  • Assessing the Effects of Future Land Use/Land Cover Change on Surface Water Quality in Middle Cedar Watershed, Iowa (UNI CSBS Project Grant, PI, 2013 - 2014)

  • Assessing the Effects of Historical and Future Land Use/Land Cover Change on Surface Water Quality in Middle Cedar Watershed, IA (UNI 2011-12 Large Scale Capacity Building Grant, PI, 2012-2013) 

  • Teaching World Geography Online (UNI Summer Online Course Development Awards Grant, PI, 2012)

Professional Accomplishments

(Note: * graduate students)

Zhang, Y.*, and B. Liang. (2021) Evaluating the vulnerability of farming communities to winter storms in Iowa. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators

Wilson, C., and B. Liang. (2018) Projecting future land use/land cover by integrating drivers and plan prescriptions: the case for watershed applications. GIScience Remote Sensing

Liang, B., and Q. Weng. (2018) Characterizing urban landscape by using fractal-based texture information. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.

Wilson, C., B. Liang, S. Wilson, and F. Akiwumi. (2018) Land use, microclimate, and surface runoff linkages: space-time modeling from Rokel-Seli River Basin, Sierra Leone. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, XLII-4/W8, 225-230.

Li, W., Y. Zhou, K.S. Cetin, S. Yu, Y. Wang, and B. Liang. (2018) Developing a landscape of urban building energy use with improved spatiotemporal representations in a cool-humid climate. Building and Environment. 163:107- 117.

Liang, B., and Q. Weng. (2014) Multiscale Fractal Characteristics of Urban Landscape in Indianapolis, USA. In: Scale Issues in Remote Sensing, edited by Q. Weng, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, pp. 230-252.   

Liang, B., Q. Weng., and X. Tong. (2013) An evaluation of fractal characteristics of urban landscape in Indianapolis, USA using multi-sensor satellite images. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 34(3): 804-823.

Liang, B., and Q. Weng. 2011. Assessing urban environmental quality change of Indianapolis, United States by the remote sensing and GIS integration. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 4(1): 43-55.

Weng, Q., Liu, H., Liang, B., and D. Lu. 2008. The spatial variations of urban land surface temperatures: pertinent factors, zoning effect, and seasonal variability. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 1(2):154-166.

Liang, B., and Q. Weng. 2008. A multi-scale analysis of census-based land surface temperature variations and determinants in Indianapolis, United States. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 134(3): 129-139.

Liang, B., Weng, Q., and D. Lu. 2007. Using remotely sensed impervious surface data to estimate population. In: Remote Sensing of Impervious Surface, edited by Q. Weng, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Fl, pp. 409-430.

Weng, Q., Lu, D., and B. Liang. 2006. Urban surface biophysical descriptors and land surface temperature variations. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 72(11): 1275-1286.