Nianhua Liu

Maps Make Magic!

Educational Background

Since 2022.10, Doctoral Researcher, Chair of Cartography and Visual Analytics, TUM, Germany

2026.02-2026.04, Research Visit, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

2025.09-2026.02, Visiting Researcher, geoGAZElab, Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

2020.10-2022.06, Master Degree, Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Austria

2020.10-2022.06, Master Degree, Department of Geoinformatics, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic

2019.07-2019.10, Research Assistant, University of Alberta, Canada

2015.08-2020.06, Bachelor Degree, Geographic Information Science, Sun Yat-sen University, China

Working Experience

2024.12 up to now, EIT Urban Mobility Consultancy & Evaluators and Rapporteurs

2023.12-2024.04, Consultant, AutoNavi (AMap)

2022.07-2022.12, GIS Intern, United Nations Agency - International Fund for Agricultural Development

2021.05-2022.05, Working student, GeoVille Information Systems and Data Processing GmbH

2021.03-2025.01, Writer, Geoawesome

2018.08-2025.02, Earth Observation & Geospatial Industrial Analyst, 36Kr & NIKKEI Asia

Volunteering

2022.03-2024.03, UN Mapper: Coordinate Chinese volunteers group to translate mapping tutorials

2022.09-2024.12, YouthMappers at TU Munich: Founder and President of chapter

2018.12-2019.10, Mapbox China: Completed Chinese tutorials related to Mapbox GL JS for Web apps 

Journal Paper Publications

• Liu, N., Feng, Y., Wang, S., Wei, M., Chen, D., & Meng, L. (2026). Understanding trust in climate change communication: the role of user characteristics and decision time. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 1–22. doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2025.2604671

• Liu, N., Wei, M., Feng, Y., Wang, S., & Meng, L. (2025). Maps as a double-edged trustworthiness elevator for climate (mis)information on social media. International Journal of Digital Earth, 18(1). doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2025.2501245

• Liu, N. and Strobl, J., 2022. Impact of neighborhood features on housing resale prices in Zhuhai (China) based on an (M) GWR model. Big Earth Data, pp.1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/20964471.2022.2031543

• Wang, S., Liu, B., Feng, Y., Liu, N., & Meng, L. (2025). Seeing through walls: indoor spatial learning with X-ray vision-enabled mixed reality. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 1–21. doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2025.2517605

• He, Y., Pu, H., Liu, N., Zhang, Y. and Sheng, Y., 2022. An Analysis of Food Accessibility of Mountain Cities in China: A Case Study of Chongqing. Applied Sciences, 12(7), p.3236. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12073236

Conferences & Presentations

• Liu, N., Wei, M., Wang, Y., and Meng, L. (2026). Beyond AI: Exploring Retained Improvement of Reasoning Ability in LLM-Assisted Human Credibility Assessment on Social Media. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media

• Liu, N., Feng, Y., and Meng, L.: Why Maps are More Favored Visuals in Climate Change Newsfeeds on Social Media? Exploring the Influence of User Characteristics, AGILE GIScience Ser., 6, 35, doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-6-35-2025, 2025.

• Liu, N., Wang, S., Xu, W., and Feng, Y. (2025): Evaluating Augmented Reality-based Spatial Learning Assistance for Emergency Escape Training, AGILE 2025 Geo xR Workshop, sites.google.com/view/geo-xr-workshop-agile205/home

• Liu, N., Feng, Y., Wang, S., and Meng, L.: The Impact of Maps on Climate Information Communication: An Empirical User Study on Social Media Trustworthiness, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 7, 92, doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-7-92-2024, 2024.

• Liu, N., and Zhuang, L. (2024): An Exploratory Study of Promoting the Crisis Crowdsourcing Mapping Workflow with Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) model, Mobile Tartu 2024 Poster Session, mobiletartu.ut.ee/program/

• Liu, N., Liu, B., Feng, Y., & Meng, L. (2023). Comparative User Experiments in Cognitive Pitfalls of Climate Change Information. Abstracts of the ICA, 6, 143. https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-6-143-2023

• Liu, N., Salazar, J., Chen, C., Wang, S., Netek, R., Popelka, S., & Meng, L. (2023). Using Eye-tracking to Evaluate Visual Behaviours on GIS Enhanced Football Animations. Abstracts of the ICA, 6, 144. https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-6-144-2023, 2023.

• Zhang, Y., Liu, N. (2026). SpatiaLLM: A Multi-Agent Framework for Adaptive and User-Aware Mixed Reality Content Placement. 2026 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW).

• Zuo, C., Liu, N., Fu, C., Ivanovic, S., and Brülisauer, F.: Designing Map-Based Dashboards for Mobility Digital Twins, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 10, 327, doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-10-327-2025, 2025.

• Wang, S., Zhang, Q., Liu, N., Feng, Y., and Meng, L.: Leveraging Interactive Mixed Reality for Dynamic Situational Information Updating in Fire Evacuation, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 10, 295, doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-10-295-2025, 2025.

• Gao, Y., Gella, G. W., & Liu, N. (2022). Assessing the Influences of Band Selection and Pretrained Weights on Semantic-Segmentation-Based Refugee Dwelling Extraction from Satellite Imagery. AGILE: GIScience Series, 3, 36. https://doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-3-36-2022

• Wang, S., Liu, B., Zhang, C.,Liu, N., & Meng, L. (2023). Visualizing indoor layout for spatial learning using Mixed Reality-based X-ray vision. Abstracts of the ICA, 6, 267. https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-6-267-2023, 2023.

Reviewer

• Information Fusion
• Cartography and Geographic Information Science
• Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis
• Journal of Urban Mobility
• Annals of GIS
• The ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2025, 2026)
• The International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2026)
• ISPRS Technical Commission IV Symposium

Awards and Grants

• Winner of IFRC Solferino Academy MDH Challenge
• IFRC Limitless Academy (Top 10 Final Awardees)
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) Cross-disciplinary Research Funding for Early-Stage Visiting Scholars
• 1st Place DTN Presentation Award in the DTN pitching session, ElT Urban Mobility Doctoral Training Network 6th Annual Forum
• Best Student Presentation Award & Travel Grant Award at AsiaCarto 2024
• German Cartographic Society (DGfK) Scholarships for EuroCarto 2024
• AGILE 2025 Student Grants
• EIT Urban Mobility Student Entrepreneur Grant
• Honorary award in CYBERCARTOGRAPHY Competition 2022, AGILE, ICA, and ISPRS
• Best paper award in 11th and 13th GeoMundus Conference
• Mapathon Winner of 13th GeoMundus Conference
• Mapbox China Top Developer 2018

Membership

• EIT Urban Mobility - Doctoral Training Network
• ACM Professional Membership
• IEEE Student Merbership
• NFDI4Earth - Academy fellow
• ICA-CogVis: Member in Commission on Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization of the International Cartographic Association
• Conception X cohort 8
• NGC: Member in Working Group Next Generation Cartographers of the International Cartographic Association
• ISPRS WG IV/5: Member in ISPRS Working Group - Geovisualization, Augmented And Virtual Reality
• Young Professionals - Rundertisch GIS
• German Cartographic Society Bayern Section (Sektion Bayern der DGfK e.V.)