Dr. Liu’s primary research focuses on remote sensing and GIS analysis of environmental and ecological systems, urban sustainability, and climate change. She is particularly interested in: assessment of environmental influences on public health, investigating quality of life in urban settings, evaluating urban sustainability and resilience for coastal land, identification of population vulnerability to storm surge flooding, scale effect of environmental analysis, urban- induced land-use and land-cover change detection, and human-environment interactions. She was the first recipient of the 2010 ERDAS Award for Best Scientific Paper in Remote Sensing given by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) (1st place). She has received multiple research funds from USDA, NOAA, DHS (Department of Homeland Security), and the ODU Office of Research.

Peer reviewed journals:

  1. Samany, N.N., H. Liu, R. Aghataher, and M. Bayat. Ten GIS-based solutions for managing and controlling COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. 2022. Spring Nature Computer Science 3:269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-022-01150-9.
  2. Hamza, S., I. Khan, L. Lu, H. Liu, F. Burke, S. Nawaz-ul-Huda, M. F. Baqa, and A. Tariq. 2021. The relationship between Neighborhood Characteristics and Homicide in Karachi, Pakistan. Sustainability, 13(10): 5520. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105520.
  3. Wu, Yu., H.F. Lee and H. Liu. 2020. Effect of temperature and precipitation change on crime in urban areas. Asian Geographer, 37:1,17-31, DOI: 10.1080/10225706.2019.1678046.
  4. Hossein Shafizadeh-Moghadam, Q. Weng, H. Liu, and R. Valavi. Modeling the spatial variation of urban land surface temperature in relation to environmental and anthropogenic factors: A case study of the Tehran metropolitan area, Iran. GIScience & Remote Sensing, accepted on February 25th, 2020.
  5. Firozjaei, M.K., S.K. Alavipanah, H. Liu, A. Sedighi, N. Mijani, M. Kiavarz, and Q. Weng. A PCA-OLS model for assessing the impact of surface biophysical parameters on land surface temperature variations. Remote Sensing. Accepted on September 2, 2019.
  6. Liu, Hua, and Q. Weng. 2018. Scaling effect of fused ASTER-MODIS land surface temperature in an urban environment. Sensors, 18(11), p4058.
  7. Liu, H., J. G. Behr and R. Diaz. 2015. Population vulnerability to storm surge inundation in coastal Virginia, USA. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 12 (3), 500-509.
  8. Weng, Q., B. Xu, X. Hu and H. Liu. 2014. Use of earth observation data for applications in public health. Geocarto International, 29(1), 3-16. DOI:10.1080/10106049.2013.838311.
  9. Weng, Q., X. Hu, D. A. Quattrochi and H. Liu. 2014. Assessing intra-urban surface energy fluxes using remotely sensed aster imagery and routine meteorological data: A case study in Indianapolis, U.S.A. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 7(10), 4046-4057.
  10. Diaz, R., J. G. Behr, F. Longo and H. Liu. 2013. A systems framework for modeling health disparities in the prevalence in chronic conditions following a natural disaster event. International Journal of Privacy and Health Information Management, 1(1), 12-28.
  11. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2013. Landscapes metrics for analyzing urbanization-induced land use and land cover changes. Geocarto International, 28(7), 582-593. Doi:10.1080/10106049.2012.752530.
  12. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2012. Environmental factors and risk areas of West Nile Virus in the southern California, 2007-09. Environmental Modeling and Assessment, 17(4), 441-452. Doi:10.1007/s10666-011-9304-0.
  13. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2012. Enhancing temporal resolution of satellite imagery for public health studies: A case study of West Nile Virus outbreak in Los Angeles in 2007. Remote Sensing of Environment, 117(2), 57-71.
  14. Liu, H., Q. Weng and D. Gaines. 2011. Geographic incidence of human West Nile Virus in northern Virginia, USA, in relation to incidence in birds and variations in urban environment. Science of the Total Environment, 409(20):4235-41. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.07.012.
  15. Ezer, T. and H. Liu. 2010. On the dynamics and morphology of extensive tidal mudflats: Integrating remote sensing data with an inundation model of Cook Inlet, Alaska. Ocean Dynamics, 60, 1307-1318. doi:10.1007/s10236-010-0319-x.
  16. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2009. An examination of the effect of landscape pattern, land surface temperature, and socioeconomic conditions on West Nile Virus (WNV) dissemination in Chicago. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 159, 143-161. doi: 10.1007/s10661-008-0618-6.
  17. Weng, Q., X. Hu and H. Liu. 2009. Estimating impervious surfaces using linear spectral mixture analysis with multi-temporal ASTER images. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 30(18), 4807-4830. doi: 10.1080/01431160802665926.
  18. Ezer, T., and H. Liu. 2009. Combining remote sensing data and an inundation model to map tidal mudflat regions and improve flood predictions: A proof of concept demonstration in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L04605. doi: 10.1029/2008GL036873.
  19. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2009. Scaling effect on the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature: a case study of Indianapolis, United States. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 75(3), 291-304.
  20. Liu, H., Q. Weng and D. Gaines. 2008. Spatio-temporal analysis of the relationships between WNV dissemination and environmental variables. International Journal of Health Geographics, 7:66. doi: 10.1186/1476-072X-7-66.
  21. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2008. Seasonal variations in the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature in Indianapolis, U.S.A. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 144, 199-219.
  22. Weng, Q., H. Liu, B. Liang and D. Lu. 2008. The spatial variations of urban land surface temperatures: pertinent factors, zoning effect, and seasonal variability. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 1(2), 154-166.
  23. Weng, Q., H. Liu and D. Lu. 2007. Assessing the effects of land use and land cover patterns on thermal conditions using landscape metrics in city of Indianapolis, United States. Urban Ecosystems, 10(2), 203-219.
  24. Liu, H., G. Zhu and K. Huang. 2003. Design of the examination system based on World Wide Web by the use of ASP Technology (in Chinese). High Level Education Research in Science and Engineering, 3, 53-55.
  25. Huang, K., F. Bian, H. Liu and L. Yu. 2003. The investigation of EJB web of telegraphy operation system (in Chinese). Science & Technology Progress and Policy, 20, 268-269.
  26. Zhu, G., S. Dai, and H. Liu. 2001. The Design of Multimedia CAI Packet of “Map Analysis and Application” (in Chinese). Cartography, 3, 37-38.

Book chapter:

  1. Liu, H. and Q. Weng. 2013. Scaling issues in studying the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature. Accepted by Scale Issues in Remote Sensing. John Wiley & Sons Inc..