Dr. Qi Zhang is a human-environment geographer with research interests in coupled human and natural systems, land use change, forest conservation, and household livelihoods.

He uses spatial data such as satellite observations and socioeconomic data collected from household surveys to examine when, where, how and why land use and land cover change.

He integrates statistical models, agent-based models, remote sensing algorithms and machine learning techniques to answer questions that address the most urgent needs towards achieving sustainability goals such as land conservation.