AAG 2025 at Detroit, MI

On March 24-28, 2025, GEAR Lab members attended the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers at Detroit, Michigan.

In the AAG 2025 meeting, Dr. Lei Zou from the GEAR Lab served as the chair of the Geographical Information Sciences & Systems (GISS) Specialty Group and organized a series of GISS signature events, including the GISS Tobler and TGIS Distinguished Lectures, GISS Student Paper Competition, and GISS Award Ceremony.

GEAR Lab members organized 12 sessions, served on 3 panels, delivered 12 presentations, and won three awards! Whoop!

Dinner party with members from GEAR Lab (PI: Lei Zou), GIResilience Lab (PI: Heng Cai), and Compass Lab (PI: Yi Qiang); From left to right: Yifan Yang, Xiang Li, Bing Zhou, Binbin Lin, Hao Tian, Heng Cai, Zongrong (Jasper) Li, Lei Zou, Yi Qiang, and Palash Das

2024-2025 AAG GISS Specialty Group BOD Members; Left to Right: Dr. Nan Ding (EZRouting, Commercial Director), Dr. Gengchen Mai (UT Austin, Vice Chair), Dr. Lei Zou (Texas A&M, Chair), Dr. Song Gao (UW Madison, Past Chair), Dr. Yi Qiang (U of South Florida, Communication Director), Dr. Yingjie Hu (U at Buffalo, Academic Director), Dr. Binbin Lin (Texas A&M, Student Director)

Session Organization

In this conference, GEAR Lab members organized the following sessions:

1. Strengthening Community Resilience with Innovative Data, Techniques, and Models #1 (Chair: Kejin Wang, Organizers: Kejin Wang, Bing Zhou, Lei Zou, Heng Cai, Nina Lam, Volodymyr Mihunov)

2. Strengthening Community Resilience with Innovative Data, Techniques, and Models #2 (Chair: Kejin Wang, Organizers: Kejin Wang, Bing Zhou, Lei Zou, Heng Cai, Nina Lam, Volodymyr Mihunov)

3. GeoAI and Deep Learning Symposium: Spatial Data Science and GeoAI Ethics: Bridging Research and Education (Chair: Yue Lin, Organizers: Yue Lin, Bing Zhou, and Hongyu Zhang)

4. GISS Waldo Tobler and TGIS Distinguished Lecture in GIScience (Chair: Lei Zou, Gengchen Mai, Organizers: John Wilson, Lei Zou, Gengchen Mai, Yingjie Hu, Samantha Arundel, Binbin Lin)

5. GISS Award Ceremony and Reception (Chair: Lei Zou)

6. Past, Present and Future of GIScience: Reflections on Webinar Series and Path Ahead (Chairs & Organizers: Bandana Kar, Zachary Christman, Lei Zou)

7. GeoAI and Deep Learning Symposium: GeoAI for Disaster Resilience (Chair: Bing Zhou, Organizers: Ryan Zhenqi Zhou, Yingjie Hu, Lei Zou, Manzhu Yu, and Morteza Karimzadeh)

8. Community Resilience Research of Past, Current and Future: A Panel Discussion on Challenges, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned (Chair: Kejin Wang, Organizers: Kejin Wang, Bing Zhou, Lei Zou, Heng Cai, Nina Lam, Volodymyr Mihunov)

9. GeoAI and Deep Learning Symposium: Social Sensing and GeoAI for Public Health - Session Ⅰ (Chair: Binbin Lin, Organizers: Lei Zou, Xiao Huang, Mingzheng Yang)

10. GeoAI and Deep Learning Symposium: Social Sensing and GeoAI for Public Health - Session ⅠI (Chair: Binbin Lin, Organizers: Lei Zou, Xiao Huang, Mingzheng Yang)

11. GIScience Advances in Climate Change and Environmental Health - I (Chair: Joynal Abedin, Organizers: Joynal Abedin, Lei Zou, Robert Rohli, and Yan Lin)

12. GIScience Advances in Climate Change and Environmental Health - II (Chair: Joynal Abedin, Organizers: Joynal Abedin, Lei Zou, Robert Rohli, and Yan Lin)

    
    

Panel Session on Past, Present, and Future of GIScience; Left to Right: Dr. Bandana, Kar, Dr. Lei Zou, and Dr. Zachary Christman

Panel Session on Disaster Resilience Measurement and Modeling; Left to Right: Dr. Kejin Wang, Dr. Heng Cai, Dr. Nina Lam, Dr. Bandana Kar, Dr. Qunying Huang, Dr. Peter Howe, Dr. Yi Qiang, Dr. Xiao Huang, Dr. Bing Zhou, and Dr. Lei Zou

Presentations

GEAR Lab members delivered and participated in a total of 12 presentations, including:

Panel Presentations:

1. Lei Zou, Panelist, Title: Expect the Unexpected: the Mindset toward a Sustainable Future. Panel Session: AAG 2025 Symposium on Spatial AI & Data Science for Sustainability: Spatial AI and Data Science for Sustainability Solutions.

2. Lei Zou, Panelist, Title: Responsible GIScience: Paradigms, Challenges, and Opportunities. Panel Session: The past, present, and future of GIScience.

3. Lei Zou, Panelist, Title: Adapting, Developing, and Balancing: Sustainability in the Shadow of Heat and Air Pollution. Panel Session: Towards a Sustainable Urban Climate: Confronting Heat and Air Pollution Challenges.

   
   

Dr. Lei Zou's panel presentation on AI and Data Science for Sustainability

Dr. Lei Zou's panel presentation on GIScience for Heat and Air Pollution Studies

Panel Session on AI and Data Science for Sustainability; Left to Right: Dr. Shaowen Wang, Dr. Li An, Dr. John Wilson, Dr. Lei Zou, and Dr. Yingjie Hu

Paper Presentations:

1. *Zhou, B., Zou, L. STEP toward Responsible GIScience: Paradigms, Purposes, and Challenges. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

2. Sumiya, N., Cai, H., Zou, L. Quantifying Health Burden Disparities Driven by Air Pollution Exposure. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

3. *Lin, B., Zou, L., Tian, H., Cai, H., *Yang, Y. Predicting Healthcare System Visitation Flow by Integrating Hospital Attributes and Population SES with Human Mobility Data. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

4. Li, X., Qiang, Y., Zou, L., Cai, H. Impact of Natural Disasters on Human Migration in the United States from 2000-2020. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

5. *Yang, Y., Zou, L., *Zhou, B. Hyperlocal Disaster Damage Assessment Using Bi-Temporal Street-View Imagery and Pre-Trained Image Processing Models. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

6. Osborne-Gowey, J., Jepson, W., Lamphere, J., Zou, L. Hidden Waters: Housing Infrastructure and Water Insecurity in Galveston, Texas. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

7. *Abedin, J., Zou, L., Akter, H., Rohli, R.V., *Yang, M. Health Hazards and Air Pollution: The Rise of Brickfields in Bangladesh. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

8. *Yang, M., Zou, L., Li, W., Tian, H., *Lin, B. Extreme Heatwave Unevenly Disrupted Circadian Rhythm in the United States Using Multi-Sourced Geospatial Big Data. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

9. Zou, L. Climate-LEAD: leveraging geospatial data science to mitigate environmental health disparities in overburdened communities. AAG 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.

   
   

Kudos to all the GEAR lab members for a successful and productive AAG meeting. We are excited to see everyone at AAG 2026 in San Francisco!