Enjie Li

Degree Seeking:  Ph.D. Human Dimensions

Faculty Advisor:  Joanna Endter-Wada

Other Departmental and Program Affiliations:
iUtah EPSCoR, NSF
Ecology Center

Biography:
Enjie Li is a doctoral student in Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Science and Management at Utah State University in the Department of Environment and Society. Enjie specializes in geographic information systems, spatial analysis and modeling. Her research focuses on the integration of water and land use planning in the urbanizing arid west. Additionally, Enjie is interested in urban water policy design and analysis.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Enjie received a master's degree in Bioregional Planning from Utah State University in 2012. Her thesis examined the land use and land cover dynamics under Climate Change in urbanizing Intermountain West. A native of China, Enjie also received her bachelor's degree in Rangeland Science from China Agricultural University in 2010.

Enjie is a graduate research fellow with the NSF EPSCoR iUTAH project, “Innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydro-sustainability.”  Her current iUTAH project has three ojectives: 1) explore how population growth, urban form, water policies, and climate change affect urban water environment at multiscale levels in the Wasatch Range Metropolitan Area (WRMA); 2) develop a conceptual framework and modeling options representing the complex relationship between urban development and water resource management; and, 3) investigate tools for integrated water- land modeling, and visualize different scenarios of urban growth under distinct water-sustainability emphasis and growth theories.

Thesis:
Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics under Climate Change in Urbanizing Intermountain West:  A Case Study from Cache County, Utah