My research examines how climate change and land management impact water resources, focusing on the conditions, trends, and availability of water systems worldwide and their interactions with the atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, and society.

My contributions to frontier science advancements in these areas are driven by novel and innovative combinations of different types of data and modeling for coupled natural and social systems, incorporating also frontier methods such as machine learning and other AI and participatory approaches involving multiple societal actors. The field of Engineering Geoscience emphasizes sustainable water and environmental science, engineering, and management, areas I am committed to advancing. This work supports KTH’s vision and goal of becoming a global leader in engineering for sustainable development.

I am also the Director of WaterCentre@KTH, where I lead and coordinate research activities and events aimed at advancing water-related innovations for a sustainable future. In this role, I promote collaboration among researchers, industry partners, stakeholders, and civil society to address pressing water challenges.

I am co-founder of an interdisciplinary (GeoSpAtial daTa-mOdel-aRtificial Intelligence) SATORI Research Lab for coupled natural-human systems which brings together expertise from different disciplines and collaborating university groups. This research lab is part of the Stockholm Trio University Alliance’s (KI, KTH, SU) overarching initiative, Stockholm Trio for Sustainable Action. The aim is joint high-impact research, education, and outreach on coupled natural-human systems using geospatial data, physically based models, AI technologies, and participatory approaches to address compelling global change and sustainability challenges.

The importance of my research contributions and my research leadership are demonstrated in my various ongoing projects and publications. I have formulated and gained research funding for these in steep international and national competition, from a range of prestigious external funding organisations. These include, for example, Knut och Alice Wallenberg Foundation KAW, the Swedish Research Council (VR), Formas, the EU (Horizon Europe), and also from Digital Futures within the KTH system.

Beyond my own research, I also serve as an associate editor for prestigious international scientific journals, and as guest-editor for important special collections, actively contributing to shaping the science frontier advancement, relevance and impact in my areas of research. I am also evaluating research proposals for both national and international research councils.

My main research interests are:

- Complex Human-Nature Systems Analysis and Risk Assessment

- Regional and global hydrology and water resources issues

- Combined effects of land use and climate change on hydrological responses

- Sustainable urban and rural development and adaptive land-use planning for decision support

- Vulnerability assessment to water-related disasters and conflicts (application of modeling, machine learning, AI)

- AI-powered knowledge integration to Carbon-neutrality

- Nature-based solutions and ecosystem services;

- Smart city

Our team

Elisie Kåresdotter (postdoc at SEED/KTH), Landscape resilience, adapt and mitigate hydrological extremes

Arya Preetha Vijayan (postdoc at SEED/KTH), Groundwater fluxes and transport of pollutants from land to sea

Ioannis Iakovidis (Ph.D. student at SEED/KTH), Real-time monitoring system of changes in water bodies

Sara Anamaghi (Ph.D. student at SEED/KTH), Forest Resilience

Amir Rezvani (Ph.D. student at SEED/KTH), Sustainable planning, hydrological extremes, NBS

Jung-Ching Kan (Ph.D. student at SEED/KTH and SEI), AI and Machine Learning

Marlon Vieira Passos (Ph.D. student at SEED/KTH and SEI ), HydroHazards

Massoud Behboudian (postdoc at SEED/KTH), Water Resources Systems Management

Mahdi Panahi (postdoc at SU), AI in Geoscience

Jessica Page (postdoc at SU), AI-powered knowledge integration to Carbon-neutral Cities

Carla Ferreira (postdoc at SU), land use and climate change, Finished 2023

Navid Ghajarnia (postdoc at SU), global hydrology, Finished 2022

Samaneh Seifollahi (postdoc at SU), water system analysis and management, Finished 2022

Elisie Jonsson (Ph.D. student at Su), climate change and conflicts (main supervisor), Finished 2024

Jessica Page (Ph.D. student at SU), sustainable urban and regional development (main supervisor), Finished 2023

Jacopo Cantoni (Ph.D. student at SU), IoT and data mining (co-supervisor), Finished 2024

Romain Goldenberg (Ph.D. student at SU), urban ecosystem services (co-supervisor), Finished 2022

Yan Ma (Ph.D. student at SU), hydroclimate and infectious diseases (co-supervisor), Finished 2022

Selected recent national and international assignments

- Associate Editor of Nature Scientific Reports,since 2023.

- Associate Editor of Water Resources Research,since 2023.

- Associate Editor of AMBIO (A Journal of the Human Environment),since 2019.

- Associate Editor of Land Degradation and Development (LDD), since 2018.

- Guest Editor of Special Issue on STOTEN, Anthropocene,Land Degradation and Development,Journal of Environmental Management,Water, Sustainability, Remote Sensing, Nature Scientific Reports

- Representative of Sweden and member of the Board and Steering Committee of European COST Action CONNECTEUR; Land4Flood; DAMOCLES; FIRELINKS; FutureMed

Research

Selected Ongoing Projects

2024-2028, PI for RESOLVE: Developing climate-resilient and eco-sustainable railway earthwork by mitigating geohazards while balancing biodiversity, funded by Horizon Europe, 200 000 Euros
2024-2027: PI for LandEX: Improving Landscape resilience by integrating measures to adapt and mitigate hydrological EXtremes, funded by Formas, 300 000 Euros
2024-2026: PI for DeepAqua, Revolutionizing the quantification of surface water changes with deep learning funded by Digital Futures, 200 000 Euros
2023-2026: PI from KTH for 'PUDDLE JUMP: Promoting Upstream-Downstream Directed Linkages in the Environment: “Joined-Up” Management Perspectives' funded by Formas, 300 000 Euros
2023-2027: PI from KTH for ReForMit: Understanding and securing the resilience of forest-based climate change mitigation funded by Formas, 1 400 000 Euros
2022-2025: PI for ' Nature for Insurance, Insurance for Nature (NATURANCE)' funded by Horizon Europe, 300 000 Euros
2021-2025: PI for 'Science for a secure society: Hydro-climatic hazard, risk, and crisis management in Sweden (CrisAct)' funded by VR. 680 000 Euros
2021-2025: PI for 'AI-powered knowledge integration to Carbon-neutral Cities' funded by Formas. 400 000 Euros
2021-2024: PI for ‘Deep Reinforcement Learning and Large-Scale Simulations' funded by Digital Futures. 120 000 Euros (total project budget 250 000 Euros)
2024-2026: Co-PI for DeepFlood: Enhancing large scale Flood Detection and Mapping using PolSAR, Metaheuristic, and Deep Learning Algorithms, funded by Digital Futures, 200 000 Euros

Recently completed

2020-2022: PI for ‘ChangeMakers - Start-ups for sustainable environment created by youngsters change makers’, funded by Central Baltic. 190 000 Euros (total project budget 1 078 848 Euros)
2018-2022 Director of Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO). Funding from Stockholm University and private sector for research in climate change and the environment of the Mediterranean region. Total budget (5 years) about 500 000 Euros.
2019-2022: PI for ‘Carbon-neutral cities’, funded by VR. 388 700 Euros
2019-2022: PI for ‘The missing link: How does climate affect human conflict and cooperation through water?’, funded by Formas. 300 000 Euros
2019-2021: Co-PI for ‘The 'infrastructural turn' in urban service delivery: insights into municipal solid waste management in African cities’, funded by Formas. 260 000 Euros
2018-2022: Co-PI for ‘COASTAL – Collaborative land-sea integration platform’, funded by EU- H2020. 500 000 Euros (total project budget 5,000,000 Euros)
2020: PI for ‘Coupled social-ecological systems modeling of urban land-use changes, greenhouse gas emissions, and management policies’, funded by Region Stockholm. 40 000 Euros
2019: PI for ‘Developing a mapping framework for Arctic wetlands across scales’ funded by Arctic Avenue and ASIAQ. 20 000 Euros
2018: PI for ‘Nature-based solutions for flood-drought risk mitigation in vulnerable urbanizing regions. Planning funds for interdisciplinary research initiatives. 10 000 Euros
2018: Co-PI for ‘Water monitoring networks – iWater’, funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, awarded in 2018, 602 200 Euros
2018: Co-PI for ‘iWater - Övervakning av vattenkvalitet för framtidens smarta städer, funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, 2018, 47 200 Euros
2017: PI for ‘Landscape analysis and climate change’, funded by Swedish Government - Strategic Research Area Funds. 137 600 Euros
2017: PI for ‘Sustainable urban-regional development and watershed planning in Stockholm region’, funded by Stockholm County (SLL). 40 000 Euros
2017: PI for ‘Scoping for resilience and management of Arctic wetlands’, funded by the Swedish Ministry of Environment and Energy through Formas. 26 380 Euros
2016: Co-PI for ‘Water monitoring networks –iWater’, funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, awarded in 2016, SEK 150 000 Euros
2015: PI for ‘Ecosystem services supply and beneficiaries in the landscape’, funded by SSEESS, KVA. 10 000 Euros
2014-2018: PI for ‘Quantifying the influence of various land uses and/or management strategies on the hydrological impacts of high flows and other extreme weather events, under current and future climate conditions’, funded by Formas. 300 000 Euro