12/02/2021:

Dr. Kam's paper about diversity in the observed functionality of dams and reservoirs was accepted for publication in Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability (a new IOP Journal). This work assessed the observed functionality of over 2,000 Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD) database-registered dams and reservoirs at 990 Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) gage stations around the world. Results show that overall the dams and reservoirs function well as designed but uncertainties of their impact are larger as their storage capacity is larger. It was found that some stations have experienced "stationarity is dead" (that is, the accumulative effect of climate signal overcomes the capacity of water infrastructures) while stationarity is still alive at most of the stations, indicating an emerging need for the upgrade of stationarity-based water infrastructure maintenance and design.

This work was initiated by encouragement and discussions of my postdoc mentor, Chris Milly (USGS Hydrologist), and support of my primary postdoc mentor, Thomas Knutson (NOAA/GFDL meteorologist). 

Kam, J. 2021: Diversity in the Observed Functionality of Dams and Reservoirs, Environ. Res.: Infrastruct. Sustain., 1,  031003.  https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ac3f3f

11/29/2021-12/03/2021:

We are heading to Deagu, South Korea to join IWRA's XVII World Water Congress. 

We are so excited to see all the presentations at WWC 2021!

Our group will give three oral and three poster presentions as below:

11/04/2021:

I am very difficult and sad to share a news that Prof. Eric Wood passed away last night (November 3, 2021).  Please take a time for his memory today. If you are in the surface hydrology or global hydrology, I have no doubt that you are a beneficiary of his works.  

We all remember you with warm thoughts and memories, Eric. Rest In Peace.

Here are the links for a new article at Princeton, his biography, and a video from his former graduate and postdoc researchers.


11/02/2021:

Yena and I won an outstanding oral presentation award during the 2020 Korean Society of Environmental Engineering (KSEE) Annual Meeting. The presentation title is  "Contribution of nutrients from rivers and streams in South Korea to adjacent seas (한반도 근해로 유입된 하천수의 영양염류 기여도 분석)." This study was supported by the NSF Basic Research Laboratory Program (Lead-PI: Prof. Kitack Lee).

This presentation includes mainly the results from Yena Kim's study during her summer undergraduate internship in our research group last summer. After graduating from Kyung Hee University, Yena started her MSE/Ph.D. study in our group at POSTECH. 

Congrats to Yena! 

11/01/2021:

Dr. Chang-Kyun Park joins our group. He completed his Ph.D. under the mentorship of Prof. Ho at Seoul National University and he is a recipient of the NRF of Korea Sejong Fellowship for Spring 2021.

10/22/2021:

Junho Song (my former Ph.D. student at University of Alabama) passed his Ph.D. defense. The title of his Ph.D. disseration is "MULTI-SCALE RISK AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIAL DAM FAILURE IN THE UNITED STATES." 

Big Congrats from the other side of the Earth, Dr. Junho Song! 

10/15/2021:

Dr. Akarsh Asoka Kumar accepted a job offer from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR-NGRI) in India. Congratulations and good luck with your new position!

09/27/2021:

Dr. Kam's paper about global public interest in earthquakes was accepted for publication in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Springer-Nature Journal). This work focused on understanding how public interest in earthquakes changes during the emergence of 17 significant earthquakes over the globe, using multiple data sets. We found the Western dominance in the dynamics of global public interest in earthquakes. We also found that there are two weeks after the earthquake occurrence to effectively raise donations, charities, and aid resources for earthquake relief and recovery.

09/20/2021:

Dr. Kam's paper about northwest Russia is a in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society's special issue of "Explaining Extreme Events of 2020 from a climate perspective" (JIF: 8.8 and Rank: 4/94 (Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)). This work focused on understanding how anthropogenic influences affect the record-breaking warm and wet winter 2019/20 over northwest Russia, using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6).

08/30/2021:

The proposal, "Multi-scale assessment of drought mechanisms and predictability", was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea. The goal of this project is to better understand global drought mechanisms and predictability across the spatial and temporal scales through the water cycle. We are seeking postdocs and graduate students who are highly self-motivated. Please contact us if you are interested in this project.  

09/06/2021:

Yena Kim (MS/PhD) and Jiam Song (MS/PhD) join our research group. Welcome aboard!

07/26/2021:

The proposal, "Impact of the land and terrestrial ecosystem in East Asia on global/local carbon cycle", was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea. The goal of this project is to better understand the role of land and terrestrial ecosystem over East Asia in the global/local carbon cycle.

This project is a sub-project of "Understanding of East Asia Climate-Carbon Interactions" led by Hanyang University (Lead-PI: Prof. Sang-Wook Yeh). The Participant Institutes are Seoul National University, POSTECH, and Pukyong National University. We are so excited to join this multi-disciplinary research team. 

07/16/2021:

We made the first landing of our "DUO" at Daljeon-Li Lake near the POSTECH campus. The Daljeon-Li Lake is an artificial lake for agriculture use. DUO measured the depth and temperature of water and the quality of water during the navigation. It was lots of fun even thought it was scorching hot (over 30 degree C). I am so proud of our group members and appreciate their hard work at the site. Please see a video of DUO's first landing here <click>.

We will use the in-situ data from DUO to construct the map of water quality and quantity of Daljeon-Li Lake and investigate interactions of water quality and water quantity over time and space.

06/15/2021:

Kwanghun Lee (Graduate Research Intern) joins our research group. Welcome aboard!

04/07/2021-04/08/2021:

We had a two-day workshop and the site demo for unmanned boat, DUO, with two engineers from Dongmoon ENT. Now, we have a bunch of data from measuring water depth and speed, and quality every second. 

Thanks to Dongmoon ENT engineers who visited us and gave a tutorial workshop and a test of DUO's first launch. Thanks to our group members who participated the two-day workshops.

We are looking forward to another launch of DUO soon. 

04/08/2021:

A manuscript about dam-related hazard potential was accepted in Water (JIF: 2.54). The first and second authors are Mr. Junho Song and Ms. Madden Sciubba (University of Alabama). This paper used the information of around 70,000 (out of 90,000+) US dams from the 2018 National Inventory of Dam (NID) database to assess their cumulative impact and risk of the at the regional scales of the 12 NOAA Rvier Forecasting Center (RFC).

Good job and congrats, Junho and Madden! 

02/24/2021:

A manuscript about Paleohydrology was accepted in Water (JIF: 2.54). This work was supported by the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program (Lead-PI: Matthew Therrell (University of Alabama) and the NSF Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change (P2C2) program (Lead-PI: Glenn Tootle (University of Alabama)). I joined these two projected as a co-PI at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

02/22/2021:

Anqi Liu (PhD) and Eunmi Lee (MSE) join our research group. Welcome aboard!

2/2/2021:

Dr. Kam's paper about the 2012 US drought was accepted and is now available on-line. 

Kam, J., S. Kim, and J. Roundy, 2021, Did a skillful prediction of near-surface temperatures help or hinder forecasting of the 2012 US drought?, Environ. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe1f6.

This paper was initially concevied by the results from Dr. Kam's ERL paper in 2014. The authors are Sungyoon Kim (a PhD student at the University of Alabama) and Dr. Joshua Roundy (an assistant professor of the University of Kansas). 

1/28/2021:

A remotely operated boat with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profile (ADCP; flow speed and water depth) and an EXO2 environmental sensor (water quality) arrived at our lab

We named this boat "DUO" since it can measure simultaneously water quantity and water quality data along river streams. In March, we will have a tutorial workshop with engineers from DONGMOON ENT. Co., Ltd. Welcome aboard, Duo!

1/28/2021:

Dr. Kam's paper about the 2015-19 Western Cape Drought was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society's special issue of "Explaining Extreme Events of 2019 from a climate perspective" (JIF:9.38 and Rank: 2/93 (Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences)). This work focused on understanding how anthropogenic influences affect the long sustained Western Cape drought over 2015-2019 using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). 

The co-authors include Drs. Seung-Ki Min (POSTECH), Piotr Wolski (U of Cape Town, South Africa), and Jong-Seong Kug (POSTECH).