Farewell to Jiale Liang: A Year of Research and Collaboration at EPFL
© 2025 EPFL
As his one-year academic journey at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) comes to an end, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to Jiale Liang, a visiting PhD student from Nanjing University, China, for his outstanding contributions to research and collaboration within the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), CEAT Lab.
Jiale Liang is a PhD candidate in Geography at the School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, specializing in land use change, sustainable cropland utilization, and territorial spatial planning. His research explores the mechanisms and spatial responses of cropland degradation under the dual pressures of socioeconomic development and climate change.
From November 2024 to November 2025, Jiale joined CEAT EPFL as a visiting PhD student funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), under the supervision of Dr. Jérôme Chenal. During this period, he immersed himself in EPFL’s vibrant academic environment, gaining valuable insights into European theories and methodologies in land system science, spatial planning, and sustainable transition.
At EPFL, Jiale’s research focused on the nonlinear mechanisms and social drivers of cropland degradation, integrating machine learning and geographic modeling to investigate the transformation from terrain-dependent to human-dominated degradation processes. His interdisciplinary approach reflects the growing importance of computational and spatial tools in understanding complex human–land interactions.
Through his close collaboration with the CEAT EPFL research team, Jiale completed three academic manuscripts, now under revision or peer review, addressing key global and regional challenges:
The measurement and mechanism reconstruction of mixed land use in urban built-up areas;
The aging-driven hidden degradation of global cropland;
Migrating thresholds and regional disparities of cropland degradation between southern and northern China.
To date, Jiale has contributed to over 25 academic publications, including nine as first author, with four already published and five under review or revision. His scholarly output and international collaboration underscore his commitment to advancing sustainable land use research and global environmental change studies.
Among his notable publications are articles in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Journal of Mountain Science, Acta Ecologica Sinica, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, with forthcoming papers under review in Cities, Land Use Policy, and Geography and Sustainability.
Reflecting on his time at EPFL, Jiale shares:
“My year at EPFL has profoundly broadened my international academic vision and deepened my understanding of the complexity of human–land systems. The collaborative and innovative environment here has laid a solid foundation for my future research on global sustainable land use.”
As Jiale returns to Nanjing University to continue his doctoral studies, we sincerely thank him for his remarkable contributions to the EPFL research community. His dedication, curiosity, and academic excellence have enriched our collective understanding of land systems and sustainability.
We wish Jiale every success in his future academic and professional endeavors, and look forward to continued collaboration between EPFL and Nanjing University.