His research interests are land system modeling, agricultural sustainability, and climate change adaptations by integrating rural householder surveys, field & remote sensing observations, data/knowledge-driven process models, and machine learning models Geo-AI. He aims to provide valuable help on rural householders and areal developments.

2025-present: Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences

2018-25: Associate Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences

2017-18: Assistant Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences

2015-17: Post-Doctoral Research Associate, State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences

1. Yihang Huang, Zhengjia Liu*. 2025. Increasing accumulated temperature pushed the maize planting limit northwards: Phenomenon analysis and coping strategy. Earth’s Future, 13, e2025EF005937.

2. Zhengjia Liu, Haoning Wang. 2025. Regional revitalizing divergences and reasons of targeted policy-driven rural developments in China with the help of provincial panel data. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 35(3): 483-500.

3. Zhengjia Liu, Jiaqi Yang. 2025. Revealing geo-spatial disparity responses of cropland area dynamics to regional population size and economic development in China. Ecological Indictors, 181: 114394.

4. Zhengjia Liu, Yihang Huang, Yongsheng Wang*, et al. 2024. Identifying the potential construction areas and priority of well-facilitated farmlands by developing a simple but robust method: A case study in dryland agriculture regions based on public data. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 134: 104166.

5. Ruijie Wen, Zhengjia Liu*. 2025. Exploring trade-offs and synergies between economy development and ecosystem sustainability of the eco-fragile regions in the context of food security. Journal of Cleaner Production, 510: 145604.

6. Yihang Huang, Zhengjia Liu*. 2024. Improving Northeast China’s soybean and maize planting structure through subsidy optimization considering climate change and comparative economic benefit. Land Use Policy, 146: 107319.

7. Yu Liu, Zhengjia Liu*, et al. 2024. Spatially explicit priority optimization of land ecosystem services in the ecologically fragile region. Land Use Policy, 147: 107356.

8. Zhengjia Liu, , , , , , Jieyong Wang*, et al. 2022. Patterns and causes of winter wheat and summer maize rotation area change over the North China Plain. Environmental Research Letters, 17: 044056.

9. Xueqi Liu, Yansui Liu*, , Zhengjia Liu*. 2022. Evaluating potential impacts of land use changes on water supply-demand under multiple development scenarios in dryland region. Journal of Hydrology, 610: 127811.

10. Humin Zhong, Zhengjia Liu*, et al. 2022. Understanding impacts of cropland pattern dynamics on grain production in China: An integrated analysis by fusing statistical data and satellite-observed data. Journal of Environmental Management, 313:114988.

11. Yuqing Jian, Zhengjia Liu*, et al. 2022. Response of landscape dynamics to socio-economic development and biophysical setting across the farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China and its implications for regional sustainable land management. Land Use Policy, 122: 106354.

12. Ming Wang, Zhengjia Liu*, et al. 2019. Mapping sugarcane in complex landscapes by integrating multi-temporal Sentinel-2 images and machine learning algorithms. Land Use Policy, 88: 104190.

13. Zhengjia Liu, Yansui Liu, Jieyong Wang*. 2021. A global analysis of agricultural productivity and water resource consumption changes over cropland expansion regions. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 321: 107630.

14. Zhengjia Liu, Jieyong Wang*, et al. 2020. Understanding the impacts of ‘Grain for Green’ land management practice on land greening dynamics over the Loess Plateau of China. Land Use Policy. 99: 105084.

15. Zhengjia Liu, Yansui Liu*, Yurui Li. 2019. Extended warm temperate zone and opportunities for cropping system change in the Loess Plateau of China. International Journal of Climatology, 39: 658-669.

16. Zhengjia Liu, Yansui Liu*, Yurui Li. 2018. Anthropogenic contributions dominate trends of vegetation cover change over the farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China. Ecological Indicators, 95(1): 370-378.

17. Zhengjia Liu, Yansui Liu*, et al. 2018. Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Performances of ERA-Interim Precipitation and Temperature in Mainland China. Journal of Climate, 31(11): 4347-4365.

Mapping: ArcGIS, ENVI, Photoshop, Google Earth Engine

Programing: Matlab, ArcPy, IDL, C/C++, Fortran