Gang-Jun Liu

Dr Gang-Jun Liu is actively involved in geospatial sciences research at the School of Sciences at RMIT University. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Henan University, an Adjunct Professor at Nanjing Normal University, and an Adjunct Research Professor at Henan Institute of Geographical Research.

Since 1990s, he has developed the first state-wide fine resolution digital elevation model for Victoria in; GIS-based approaches to the extraction of fine resolution hydrographical features from located air-borne LIDAR point clouds; discrete wavelet based image fusion algorithms; state-wide climate surfaces for both Victoria and Tasmania; DEM-based methods for mapping riparian zones, variable width stream buffers, flood plains, potential breeding habitats of endangered species, and potential breeding habitats of malaria transmitting mosquitoes; 3D network models and 3D GIS applications; and an integrated indicator of location disadvantage for non-driving seniors in urban space.

Dr Liu is currently the primary supervisor to 6 PhD and 4 Masters students pursuing GIS-based approaches to: site-specific solar energy potential modelling in the urban context; assessing groundwater contamination risks imposed by historical and current land uses; the development of an intelligent 3D platform for supporting a range of applications in 3D urban space; the development of an integrated transport simulation platform for enabling intelligent and efficient movement through urban space; mapping and understanding of spatial variation in education performance by schools across urban space; mapping spatial accessibility to essential community services, and identifying areas of location disadvantage for different population groups at fine spatial resolution.

Dr Gang-Jun Liu has over 30 years’ experience, in both government and tertiary institutes, in developing and applying GIS-based approaches to spatial modelling, analysis and visualization of both flow-related and other geographical phenomena.

His recent research efforts have been focused on the measuring and mapping of spatial accessibility to a range of valued destinations (e.g. work, school, retail and recreation, health and community services, including green space and place of worships) in urban context (e.g. the Melbourne metropolitan area) for different population groups (e.g. aged, children, young, faith followers) using various travel modes (car, bus, tram, train, bike, and walk).

Dr Liu’s current research efforts includes:

- 1. The development of a GIS-based database and algorithm for linearly referencing various events (e.g. travel speeds along different route segments, timed patronage statistics at different stops) to, and dynamically segmentation of, the public transport route system.
- 2. The development of a multimode transport GIS database, including spatial and attribute datasets on road network, public transport infrastructure and services, cycling and walking infrastructure, fine resolution spatial pattern of land use including the spatial distribution of other essential services and facilities, and of demographically disaggregated population groups.
- 3. Working with GPS-tracked bus movement data and associated patronage data for dynamically segmenting bus routes and ranking bus stops, characterising the spatio-temporal patterns of traffic congestions, developing of a vehicle carbon emissions based congestion charging model, according to vehicle type, as well as distance and speed travelled.
- 4. The development of an origin-destination (OD) matrix based simulation models, calibrated with historical and real-time vehicle tracking data, for reliable forecasting and efficient communication and sharing of vehicle arriving time at stop level.
- 5. The development of a GIS-based suitable, multimode network traversing / travel mode transferring algorithms for trip planning, path finding and route visualization.
- 6. The development a set of GIS-based tools / models, incorporating suitable accessibility measures from both service users’ and service provider’s perspectives, for the measuring and mapping of the spatial variations in service accessibility, for the identification of spatial clusters of locations with transport disadvantage, and for the spatial optimization of urban transport systems and land use structures, based on the dynamically evolving spatial matches between provision levels of different services and demand levels for or consumption levels of different services, and for the optimization of service provision to these disadvantaged locations.

Dr Gang-Jun Liu advocates for integrated urban transport and land use development, actively pursues the development of a GIS-based framework that allows for reliable, scalable, distributed processing of big data including historical archives and real-time streams on cloud platforms, and aims for the achievement of sustainable urban systems and quality of urban life.

Prior to joining RMIT in March 2002, Dr Liu was a Senior GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Victoria, Australia. His current industry-related research interests are in the developments and applications of digital geospatial information techniques.