Potential topics are 1) drought mechanisms, risk, and predictability, 2) large-scale land surface modeling focusing on the land cover and use change impact, 3) reservoir monitoring via remote senesing and unmanned vehicles, and 4) socio-hydrology with a focus on the dynamics of social response during water-related disasters.
If you are interested in these research topics, please contact me (jhkam@postech.ac.kr)
(NOTICE) Photo and Content Credit from the HCR group website: Dr. Jonghun Kam
Hydroclimatology@POSTECH is currently looking for highly motivated graduate applicants.
NEWS:
6/5/2026:
Eunmi's work on spatiotemporal and economic impacts of media on water conservation during the 2022-23 drought is accepted in Water Resources Research. In this study, she proposed anexplainable AI approach and found that drought-related news patterns can serve as a proxy to inform potential region and stage-specific water-saving targets, reflecting differences between metropolitan and rural areas. This study underscores the value of explainable AI in providing a quantitative framework to capture human-nature interactions and support the design of targeted drought communication strategies in a timely manner.
Eunmi Lee, Seunghui Choi, Sangeun Lee, Newsha K Ajami, Hyeoncheol Yoon, Xiaogang He, and Jonghun Kam, Spatiotemporal and Economic Impacts of Media on Water Conservation during Drought: An Explainable AI Approach, Water Resour. Res. (accepted)
Big Contrats to Eunmi!
5/30/2026:
Kiru's work on changes in risk communication with forecast error types during Typhoon Khanun is accepted in GeoHealth. In this study, he investigated associations of emotional divergence in risk communication with forecast error types during Typhoon Khanun from over 4,300 online discourses in the NAVER Report Talk platform. He found that the spatial discrepancies of precipitation forecasts are associated with distinct emotional responses of the public: overestimation (underestimation) makes anxiety and worry (stress and confusion) the dominant emotion types in the discourses.
Kim and Kam, 2026, Associations of Emotional Divergence in Risk Communication with Forecast Error Type during Typhoon Khanun, GeoHealth, accepted.
Big Contrats to Kiru!
5/30/2026:
Icha's work on streamflow reconstruction in South Sulawesi, Indonesia is accepted in Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. In this study, she developed an ensemble learning framework for streamflow reconstruction. This study finds that incorporating spatial information and large-scale climate indices, such as Pacific Warm Pool Region and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, improves the predictive performance substantially, and the aleatoric uncertainty remains as a primary source, driven by inherent variability of streamflow.
Ludyawati et al., 2026, An Ensemble Learning Framework for Streamflow Reconstruction Incorporating Aleatoric and Epistemic Uncertainty, J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud., accepted.
Big Contrats to Icha!
5/22/2026:
Yena is a recipient of the outstanding presentation award at the 2026 Korean Water Resources Association (KWRA) annual meeting. She presents her work on in-land nutrient transports to marginal seas of the Korean peninsula. This year, Eunmi, Kwang-Hun, Sung-Jun, and Dr. Kim presents their recent studies during this year's KWRA annual meeting.
Good jobs to all, and big congrats to Yena!
4/29/2026:
A "News and Views" article in Nature Climate Change (NCC) introduces our GRL article on Tropical Cyclones Unevenly Shape Drought Propagation. In NCC, "News and Views" articles inform readers about the latest advances in climate change, as reported in recently published papers or at scientific meetings. Please check the following article in NCC:
Hassan's work on AI-based near-future projections of sediment in Pakistan is accepted in Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. This study highlights emerging sediment-induced operational challenges at the Tarbela Reservoir that is the largest reservoir in Pakistan. The trained AI model demonstrate that escalating sediment loads cause substantial Tarbela Reservoir infilling, potentially reducing the gross storage below 20% of the design capacity in 2040s.
Raza et al., 2026, AI-based Near-Future Projections Reveal Emerging Sediment-Induced Operational Challenges at the Tarbela Reservoir in Pakistan, J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud., 65, 103381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2026.103381
Big Contrats to Dr. Raza!
3/9/2026:
Seunghui's work on XAI-based operation for NOx emission control is accepted in Environmental Technology & Innovation. This study displays how XAI can be employed to understand the current operation patterns of a solid refuse fuel combustion facility in South Korea and related NOx emission rates. The optimized operation of XAI is recommened through explainable scenario experioment.
Choi et al., 2026, Explainable AI-based Optimization of Facility Operations for Excessive NOx Emission Control: A Case Study of a Solid Refuse Fuel Combustion Facility
Big Contrats to Seunghui!
3/6/2026:
Dr. Hassan Raza is a recipient of the 2025 POSTECHIAN Fellowship (Achievement Category). This fellowship is supported by the BrainKorea21 Four Program.
Big Contrats to Dr. Raz!
3/3/2026:
Dr. Kam receives the IOP Outstanding Reviewer Award 2025 for Environmental Research: Water. He served on an editorial board of Environmental Research Letters and is now serving on Environmental Research Series Advisory Panel Member. He received the IOP Outstanding Reviewer Award 2019 for Environmental Research Letters in 2020. <click>
2/27/2026:
Eunmi is a recipient of the outstanding presentation award at the 2025 KOREAN SOCIETY OF HAZARD MITIGATION Annual Meeting. Her presentation title is Explainable AI-based assessment of national flood risk over the Republic of Korea.
Big Congrats to Eunmi!
2/27/2026:
Jiam and Yena are selected as a recipient of POSTECH Study Abroad Program. Yena will have a financial support for her partipicipitaiton of the 2026 EGU General Assembly in Vienna Austria through the POSTECH Study Abroad Program (short-term track). Jiam will have a financial support for his long-term visit to University of Waterloo, Canda through POSTECH Study Abroad Program (long-term track).
We really appreciate the POSTECH's generous support for Jiam and Yena.
Big congrats to Jiam and Yena!
2/23/2026:
Sungjun joins our research group. He has been an undergraduate interns in our research group developing satellite- and drone-based reservoir monitoring since the summer undergraduate intern in 2024.
Welcome onboard, Sungjun!
2/17/2026:
Guibin's study on S2S-scale Soil Moisture Forecasting and Flash Drought Mechanisms is accepted in Water Resour. Res. This study was initiated at Xi'an University of Technology and finished during his visit at POSTECH.
This study presents various data-driven deep learning (DL) frameworks designed to bridge this S2S FD forecasting gap and uncover underlying drought-inducing mechanisms via interpretability. We developed multiple spatiotemporal DL models (e.g., ConvLSTM, U-Net) and a Bayesian model averaging (BMA) ensemble to forecast pentad-scale (5-day) Standardized Soil-moisture Index (SSI), serving as the basis for subsequent FD identification. Results show that the BMA ensemble provided reliable SSI forecasts up to 12 pentads (~60 days, spanning the entire FD lifecycle), outperforming advanced physics-based NWP and pixel-wise benchmark models.
Big congrats to Guibin!
2/13/2026:
This year our research group have three graduates from the M.S.E. and Ph.D program including Hassan (Ph.D. graduate), Icha (M.S.E.), and Gihoon (M.S.E.). It was my pleasure to advise them over past years. Sorry for missing their commencement ceremony, but I have no doubt that he/she is ready for the next chapter of his/her life. I wish the best for the next journey.
Big Congrats to Dr. Raza, Icha, and Gihoon!
1/29/2026:
Yeonjin is selected to receive a financial support for her five-month visit to Lund University, Sweden (Host Scientist: Dr. David Wårlind) through the Sweden Korea Education, Research, Innovation Collaboration (SKERIC). The financial support covers travel costs and insurance, and monthly subsitence allowance. She will work on land surface vegetation modeling duringt the five-month vistit.
Yeonjin and I deeply appreciate this generous support.
Big Congrats to Yeojin!
01/01/2026:
Happy New Year!
2025 was another productive year for my group. Six refereed articles led by my group members are published in 2025. The list of the artilces are below (bold: student/postdoc first author).
A key publication in 2025 is Dr. Asoka's paper that revisited my first PhD study and scaled it up to the global assessment of the impact of TCs on soil moisture drought. I appreciate Dr. Asoka's work.
Other publications are also intruiging to hydroclimatology and disaster risk reduction research communities. I appreciate all hard work of my research group memebers. More publications are forthcoming in 2026! Wish the best to all my group members and alumni.
6. Choi, S.**, Liu, A.**, S. Lee, H., Yoon, and J. Kam*, 2025, The Interplay of News Media, Social Media, and Public Search Behavior during the 2022–2023 South Korea Drought, Humanit. Soc. Sci. Commun. (accepted). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-06398-z
5. Asoka, A.**, & J. Kam*, 2025, Tropical cyclones unevenly shape drought propagation. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2025GL120290. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL120290
4. Razza, H.**, D. Wang, and J. Kam*, 2025, More record events in streamflow over Pakistan revealed by observation-constrained projections, Environ. Res. Lett., 20, 084079. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adf130
3. Lee, E**, Y.-W. Young, Y.-H. Jung*, and J. Kam*, 2025, Explainable AI-based Risk Assessment of Pluvial Floods over South Korea, J. Environ. Manag., 385, 125640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125640
2. Kim, B.-H.**, S. Hossain, and J. Kam* 2025, High-resolution gridded streamflow for Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basins in Bangladesh (1951–2023) , Sci. Data, 12, 673. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05014-8
1. Kim, B.-H.**, Y.-O. Kim, and J. Kam*, 2025, Hyper-resolution naturalized streamflow data for Geum River in South Korea (1951–2020), Scientific Data, 12, 210. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04486-y