Photo: Professor Contact info Email: xyao@uga.edu Office: 212C GG Building Phone Number: 706-583-0326 Research Interests: Geospatial data science: GIS, spatial statistics, machine learning, network analysis, Geovisaulization Subject areas of focus: Urban Transportation, Public Health CV: CV-Yao-Short_1.pdf (129.04 KB) Dr. Yao is a professor of Geography at the University of Georgia. As a geospatial data scientist, her research interests focus on geospatial techniques ranging from GIS, spatial statistics, machine learning methods, network analysis, and geovisualization. With domain interests in urban transportation and public health, she also applies geospatial techniques to study various urban and health problems. Dr. Yao is a past chair and current vice-chair of the ICA (International Cartographic Association) commission on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling. She is also the President-Elect of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS). Dr. Yao is always happy to recruit promising graduate students interested in developing and/or applying geospatial analytical techniques to study urban or health problems. Education Education: Ph.D , University at Buffalo, State University of New York MSc., ITC (now Twente University), the Netherlands B.S., Wuhan University, China Course Instruction Courses Regularly Taught: GEOG 4/6370-4/6370L GEOG 4/6470-4/6470L GEOG 4/6380 GEOG 8570 GEOG 8350 Research Selected Publications: Tahmasbi, B., F. Roozkhosh, X.A. Yao. (2024). Encounter Network and its application to study epidemic spreading. Transportation Research Record. (Accepted). Tian, Y., Yao, X.A.*, Madden, M. Grundstein, A. (2023). Synergic effects of meteorological factors on urban form-outdoor exercise relationship: A study with crowdsourced data. Journal of Geographical System. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-023-00424-x. Yao, X.A*., A. Crooks, B Jiang., J. Krisp, X. Liu, H. Huang. (2023). An Overview of Urban Analytical Approaches to Combating the Covid-19 Pandemic. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. (In press). https://doi.org/10.1177/239980832311747 Yang, H., X. Yao*, R. Liu, C. Whalen. (2023). Developing a place-time-specific transmissibility index to measure and examine the spatiotemporally varying transmissibility of COVID-19. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2023.2182758. Tian, Y., Wang, A., Mora, S., deSouza, P., Yao, X., Duarte, F., Lin, H., & Ratti, C. (2023). Improving NO2 prediction by integrating tree diversity, urban form, and scale sensitivity through mobile monitoring. Applied Geography, 154, 102943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102943 Wei, X., & Yao, X. (2022). A GIS representation framework for location-based social media activities. Transactions in GIS, 26, 1444– 1464. https://doi.org/10.1111/tgis.12929 Tian, Y., deSouza, P., Mora, S., Yao, X., Duarte, F., Norford, L. K.,Lin, H., Ratti, C. (2022). Evaluating the Meteorological Effects on the Urban Form–Air Quality Relationship Using Mobile Monitoring. Environmental Science & Technology. doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c04854 Oh, D., Yao, XA.* (2021). Geo-Information Assessing Place Type Similarities Based on Functional Signatures Extracted from Social Media Data. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10090626 Huang, H., Yao, X. A., Krisp, J. M., & Jiang, B. (2021). Analytics of location-based big data for smart cities: Opportunities, challenges, and future directions. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 90, 101712. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.COMPENVURBSYS.2021.101712 Fan Q, X.A. Yao XA, X. Han. 2021 Spatial variation and disparity in female breast cancer relative survival in the United States. Cancer. doi: http://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.33801. Wei, X., X. Yao*. 2021. Constructing and analyzing spatial-social networks from location-based social media data. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 48(3):258-274.https://doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2021.1891974 Tian, Y. X.Yao*. 2021. Urban form, traffic volume, and air quality: a spatiotemporal stratified approach. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399808321995822 Mertzlufft, C. E., M. Madden, N. Gottdenker, J. Runk, A. Saldana, S. Tanner, J. Calzada, X. Yao. 2020. Landscape disturbance impacts on Attalea butyracea palm distribution in central Panama. International Journal Of Health Geographics 19, 58(2020). doi:10.1186/s12942-020-00244-y Liu,R., X.Yao, C. Guo & X. Wei (2020) Can we forecast presidential election using twitter data? An integrative modeling approach. Annals of GIS, DOI: 10.1080/19475683.2020.1829704 Tian,Y., X.Yao*, L .Mu. Q. Fan. (2020). Integrating meteorological factors for a better understanding of the urban form-air quality relationship. Landscape Ecology. 35(10): 2357-2373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01094-6 Liu,G. X Yao, Q. Fan. (2020). Agglomeration centrality examination of cities: an urban transport perspective. Sustainable Cities and Society. 61:102273.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102273 Rickless,D., X, Yao*, B. Orland, M. Welch-Devine. (2020). Assessing social vulnerability through a local lens: An integrated geovisual approach. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 110(1):36-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1625750 Liu*, G. X. Yao*, Z. Luo, S. Kang, W. Long, Q. Fan, P. Gao. (2019). Agglomeration Centrality to examine spatial scaling law in cities. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. 77:101357. Fan, Q., X.Yao*, Spatio-temporal Analysis and Data Mining of the 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in West Africa. (2019) In Y. Lu., & E. Delmelle (Eds.), Geospatial Technologies for Urban Health. Springer. pp.181-208. Yao, X., Huang, H., Jiang, B., & Krisp, J. M. (2019). Representation and analytical models for location-based big data. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2018.1562068 Tian, Y*., Yao, X.*, & Chen, L*. (2019). Analysis of spatial and seasonal distributions of air pollutants by incorporating urban morphological characteristics. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 75 : 35-48. Wei, X., & Yao, X.* (2018). A Conceptual Framework for Representation of Location-based Social Media Activities. In 10th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2018). Melbourne, Australia: Schloss Dagstuhl-Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik. doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.GISCIENCE.2018.62