Department of Geography

 Water Resources Management
Watershed Hydrology
Nonpoint Source Pollution Modeling

      His academic interests are: assessment of the effect of land use/cover change on watershed hydrology, nonpoint source pollution modeling, ecosystem indicators, water resources management, and comparative analysis of Sino-U.S. water resources policies. He has developed an ArcView Nonpoint Source Modeling (AVNPSM) interface between ArcView GIS and AGNPS (Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Model) to facilitate watershed analysis. The interface has been applied to 11 countries. For the past few years, he has been developing and refining a distributed large basin runoff model (DLBRM) to support water resources research and decision making in the Great Lakes Basin of the United States, in collaboration with Dr. Thomas E. Croley of the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). Currently, he focuses on adding soil erosion and sedimentation, storm water, and nutrients to the model. Internationally, he has been conducting collaborative research on watershed modeling in the Yellow River Basin with Chinese researchers since 1997. He has been appointed as an adjunct professor of Lanzhou University, Jiangxi Normal University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research (Beijing) and Cold and Arid Region Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Lanzhou). He was named as an Outstanding Overseas Chinese Scholar (one of 113 worldwide) by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005.

   He has received over 30 research grants totaling over $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Michigan Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Foundation, and The Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has published numerous articles in both national and international journals, including Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, Environmental Modeling and Software, Geographical Analysis, Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal of American Water Resources Association, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Water International, and Journal of Environmental Sciences.

   He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, including Geographic Research, Principles of Conservation and Environmental Management, Water Resources Management, Contemporary Issues in Resources Management, and Remote Sensing of Environment. Currently he applies simulation models to computation and allocation of Total Maximum Daily Loading (TMDL) in his water resources management classes.

    He is a member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and has served as peer review panelist for the EPA Office of Research and Development Competitive Research Grants (1996, and 2002-2006); Secretary and Treasurer of AAG Water Resources Specialty Group; member of the American Water Resources Association International Affairs and Watershed Hydrology and Management Committees; and editorial board member of Resources Science. He was awarded The National Research Council (NRC) Senior Research Associateship for his sabbatical research during the 2001-2002 and has reviewed research proposals for EPA, USDA, NSF, NASA, and other institutions, and manuscripts for over 10 journals. He is listed in Who’s Who in America (Marquis Who’s Who), Directory of American Scholars, and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering since 2001.