Dr. Jiang joined the department in 2008 as a visiting assistant professor, working on spatial modeling of land use effect and environmental sustainability of developing agriculture-based advanced biofuels. Before coming to Michigan State University, he was a John Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), sponsored by the National Sea Grant Fellowship Program of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). At NSF, he was involved in the cross-disciplinary funding program, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Huamn Systems (CNH), which promotes quantitative, interdisciplinary analyses of relevant human and natural system processes and complex interactions among human and natural systems at diverse scales. He also served as an NSF observer participating in semi-term review of three Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, including site visits to the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTER in Michigan, a site designated to studying ecosystem services from agriculture; the Central Arizona-Phoenix (CAP) urban LTER, focusing on interactions of ecological and socio-economic systems in an urban environment; the Plum Island Ecosystems (PIE) LTER in Massachusetts, which has an emphasis on understanding the long-term response of coastal watershed and estuarine ecosystems to changes in climate, land use, and sea level. Dr. Jiang has provided extensive consulting services, including addressing China’s water resources issues through a short-term appointment to the World Bank China Analytical Advisory Assistance (AAA) Program, and providing analytic assistance on a groundwater pollution damage assessment case in the U.S. Dr. Jiang received his Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, an M.S. in Environmental Planning and Management, and a B.E. in Environmental Engineering.

Professional Interests

• Environmental and natural resource economics
• Land use economics, regulation, and law
• Habitat conservation and public financing
• Economics of advanced biofuels
• Spatial modeling and simulation of natural resource management
• Water resource management and policy
• Spatial econometrics and hedonic valuation

Selected Publications

Jiang, Yong, Stephen K. Swallow, and Peter Paton, 2008, “Designing a Spatially-explicit Nature Reserve Network Based on Ecological Functions: An Integer Programming Approach,”Biological Conservation 140(3-4), 236-249.

Jiang, Yong, Stephen K. Swallow, and Michael P. McGonagle, 2005, “Context-Sensitive Benefit Transfer Using Stated Choice Models: Specification and Convergent Validity for Policy Analysis,” Environmental and Resource Economics 31(4), 477-499.

Jiang, Yong, 2008, “Water Scarcity in China: Current Situation (Chapter 2)” and “Deepening Water Rights Administration and Developing Water Markets (Chapter 5),” in World Bank China Analytical and Advisory Assistance Report: Addressing China’s Water Scarcity: A Synthesis of Policy Recommendations in Selected Water Resource Management Issues, World Bank, Washington D.C.

Jiang, Yong and Yuhui Zhuo, 2000, “Trade and the Environment: Policy Implication to China,” Urban Environment & Urban Ecology (in Chinese)13(2), 36-38.

Funded Research Projects

• Working with Professor Scott M. Swinton on a sub-project of the U.S. Department of Energy funded bioenergy project – Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, including modeling land use effect and environmental sustainability of agriculture-based biofuels (cellulosic ethanol) development in the U.S.