SPARC GIScience Lecture Series

Lecture Title: Advancing Spatial Decision Support: From Participatory GIS to CyberGeoAI

Speaker: Zhe Zhang, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University

About the Talk: Coastal communities are facing increasing vulnerability to natural disasters and environmental challenges, including stronger hurricanes, flooding and pressures on fisheries. Addressing these issues is important for protecting local populations and enhancing the sustainable growth of the Blue Economy. This presentation examines how geospatial technologies, particularly participatory GIS and explainable GeoAI can enhance disaster management. Topics will include case studies of participatory GIS applications in disaster management, followed by a transition to data-driven methods for developing path-faithful explainable GeoAI for decision support. By integrating causality model, our approaches enable a deeper understanding of how specific locations, time periods and variables interact to shape predictive AI outcomes. The presentation will conclude with an overview of a newly funded NSF CyberTraining project, which aims to build a global training network for applying GeoAI in disaster management.

Speaker Bio: Zhe Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Geography at Texas A&M University, with joint appointments in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. Zhang has served as Chair of the Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers, elected to the Board of Directors of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society, and serves as Chair of the Research Committee of the University Consortium for GIS. Her research focuses on developing spatial decision support systems by integrating advanced cyberinfrastructure, GeoAI and participatory design to address critical challenges in disaster management and sustainability. Her work has been funded by the NSF, NASA, USDOT, NOAA and the National Geographic Society. Zhang serves as the Co-PI of the Texas A&M FASTER High-Performance Supercomputer and as a Co-Investigator of the Texas A&M ACES Supercomputer. Zhang serves as PI on eight externally funded grants, totaling over $3 million. Zhang has received  the Pathways Award from Texas A&M Faculty Affairs, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Distinguished Contribution Award from Women in GIS and Esri.