Weimin Li

Weimin Li, Ph.D., ASLA, is currently the Graduate Coordinator of the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program and a full Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Environmental Design at the California State Polytechnic University Pomona. Dr. Li has more than 20 years of academic and professional experience in landscape architecture, environmental design, and geospatial science and technologies. As the graduate coordinator, she leads program admission, advising, curriculum improvement, recruitment, assessment, and other critical program development and coordination aspects. In addition, she serves in national academic and professional associations, including LAAB Board member (Education), National ASLA's Education Committee, Project Lead and University Representative for the International Geodesign Collaboration, etc. 

Dr. Li specializes in systemic landscape planning and advanced geospatial technologies, including geospatial data collection and integration, geospatial analysis, geoprocessing modeling, high-resolution remote sensing imagery processing, and 3D landscape construction, as well as their wide range of creative application in landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental planning practice in California and beyond. She has been one of the leading faculty members and Principle Investigators of the well-known Ecosystemic Landscape Design Master Capstone Studio of Cal Poly Pomona's MLA program for eight years. In such settings, she has advised third-year Master's students in conducting research, planning, and design projects for many institutions, NGOs, municipalities, including the City of Los Angeles, the City of Garden Grove, the Orange County Parks, the Trust for Public Land, etc. The academic and professional work of Dr. Li and her students has received many academic and professional awards,  including but not limited to National ASLA Professional Honor Award in Research category, National ASLA Student Award of Excellence in Community Service category, Winner of the Wayne Grade Memorial Student Competition, and EPA's Campus Rainworks Challenge Honorable Mention award. 

In addition to Ecosystemic Landscape Design and Geodesign, Dr. Li also researches the environmental and social impacts of contemporary landscape design and planning on different dimensions of sustainability and quality of life in urban and rural settings, including water usage and conservation, storm-water management, urban green space connectivity, and accessibility, wildlife habitat conservation, multimodal transportation, neighborhood safety, public health, environmental justice and so on. She is familiar with qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools, including advanced statistics, and has extensive experience conducting outreach among communities with diverse cultural and socioeconomic compositions. She has published 20 peer-reviewed articles, made more than 40 presentations, and invited talks at national and international conferences. In addition, she has been very active in all levels of collaboration in grant writing. She has received more than 2 million dollars of funding as PI, Co-PI, and senior personnel to support multidisciplinary research, planning, and design projects with collaborators in the United States and other countries. 

Dr. Li's teaching echoes her research interests and includes introductory and advanced GIS, intermediate landscape design, methods and application in landscape architecture, environmental analysis, and advanced ecosystemic landscape design studios. She has rich experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate students in landscape architecture. Students have highly rated her teaching, and she has received the "Outstanding Graduate Faculty" award for multiple years and university level of recognition of "Outstanding Academic Advisor." She holds a B.S. in Environment and Resource Planning, an M.S. in Physical Geography, and a Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.

Last Update: June 2021