XH
Member Since 2017
Xie Hu
Assistant Professor, Peking University
Professional Experience
Peking University
Assistant Professor
2021 - Present
University of Houston
Assistant Professor
2020 - 2021
University of California Berkeley
Postdoctoral Fellow
2018 - 2020
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Education
Southern Methodist University
Doctorate
2018
Southern Methodist University
Doctorate
2018
Wuhan University
Masters
2013
China University of Geosciences Wuhan
Bachelors
2011
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Honors & Awards
Natural Hazards Early Career Award
Received December 2022
Citation
As the Ph.D. adviser of Dr. Xie Hu, I congratulate Xie for the 2022 AGU Natural Hazards Early Career Award for the innovative study of natural hazards using radar remote sensing and geophysical modeling.
Xie received a B.S. in GIS from China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, in 2011 and an M.S. in remote sensing from Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in 2013. She joined Southern Methodist University (SMU) in August 2014 to pursue a Ph.D. in geophysics with a focus on natural hazards studies using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations and geophysical modeling. After Xie received her Ph.D. from SMU in 2018, she worked with Prof. Roland Bürgmann at the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoc during 2018–2020. After being an assistant professor at the University of Houston for 1 year, Xie joined the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University in 2021.
Xie’s research focuses on using remote sensing data, especially InSAR, to characterize ground deformation and surface disturbance associated with natural hazards. She also has been engaged in investigating triggering mechanisms of natural hazards based on statistical, numerical, and analytical models, and artificial intelligence. Her interdisciplinary research spans the fields of natural hazards, geodesy, geophysics, geology, hydrology, civil and environmental engineering, and climate sciences.
As an early-career scientist, Xie is already scientifically prolific in natural hazards studies. She published 20 papers in high-impact journals, including 13 first-authored ones. A glimpse into her research highlights includes the following: (1) quantifying surface deformation and inverting subsurface channel geometry/thickness and hydrogeological forcings of landslides; (2) unveiling and forecasting the decaying consolidation settlement of tailings impoundment and surface deformation associated with mountain excavation and city construction; (3) investigating stress perturbations and seismicity due to mining waste transfer and hydrological load changes, and diagnosing hydromechanical coupling in shallow crust during underground coal mining; (4) quantifying water storage cycles of aquifers and basin-wide hydrogeological properties by correlating seasonal displacements and groundwater levels; and (5) synergizing hydroclimatic, topographic, geological, and seismological data sets to characterize land motions and surface disturbance due to winter storms using machine learning.
Xie is an early-career scientist of high diligence and intelligence and has demonstrated outstanding critical thinking and exceptional capability for frontier research. Xie is innovative in her scientific interests in a very broad range of natural and anthropogenic hazards using advanced tools and methods, and hence truly deserves the 2022 Natural Hazards Early Career Award.
—Zhong Lu, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
Response
I feel truly honored to receive this AGU Natural Hazards Early Career Award. I am grateful to my advisers, mentors, and colleagues for their nomination and recognition in a common research field that I have been dedicated to for the past decade. Natural hazards generalize the environmental phenomena that put lives and property at risk. Everyone around the world is vulnerable to natural hazards. Research on natural hazards requires cross-disciplinary knowledge to bridge the gaps between observations and mechanisms, between risks and policies, and between engineering and science. Enlightened by the academic programs in geophysics, remote sensing, and GIS that I enrolled in and by numerous critical discussions with my advisers and colleagues, I was motivated to research natural hazards using remote sensing data and methods. My research has been relying on radar remote sensing and mathematical and physical models to elucidate the spatial and temporal ground deformation and land cover changes associated with natural hazards such as landslides, groundwater depletion, and extreme precipitation events. Beyond that, we also explore the role of geological and hydroclimatic variables as well as human activities in the timing, geographic locations, and triggering mechanisms of individual and cascading hazardous event(s).
Like many early-career scientists in their thirties from different parts of the world, we are in an age with seemingly insurmountable challenges. This recognition from our field of professionals gives me enormous strength to keep moving forward. I will continue developing remote sensing methods and quantitative models to better understand the dynamic processes and mechanisms of natural hazards. As a junior faculty, I hope my teaching and advisership can help the younger generations gain a better understanding of natural hazards, motivate their knowledge-seeking behaviors, and develop their career paths in related fields.
—Xie Hu, Peking University, Beijing
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Current Roles
Member
Natural Hazards Canvassing Committee
Member
Natural Hazards Committee for Travel Award Committee
Publications
![](/-/media/Feature/Common/Agu/Images/Publications/Journals/Geophysical-Research-Letters.jpg?h=1178&w=1180&hash=4880D968F0E3D877CB064FD2593561E9)
Glacier Retreat in Eastern Himalaya Drives Catastrophic Glacier Hazard Chain
Cryospheric responses to climate warming include glacier retreat, altitude‐dependent thermal instability, and abundant meltwater, which incre...
April 10, 2024
![](/-/media/Feature/Common/Agu/Images/Publications/Journals/Geophysical-Research-Letters.jpg?h=1178&w=1180&hash=4880D968F0E3D877CB064FD2593561E9)
Machine‐Learning Estimation of Snow Depth in 2021 Texas Stat...
September 02, 2022
![](/-/media/Feature/Common/Agu/Images/Publications/Journals/JGR-Solid-Earth.jpg?h=1364&w=1354&hash=CE417AAF14E686162E7CAD306C7DFC6E)
Stress Perturbations From Hydrological and Industrial Loads ...
December 07, 2021
AGU Abstracts
Deep-learning Characterization of Geohazards in Qinghai Tibet Engineering Corridor
APPLICATIONS OF AI/ML USING REMOTE SENSING, SOCIAL SENSING, AND MODEL DATA TO STUDY HAZARD II ONLINE POSTER DISCUSSION
natural hazards | 15 december 2022
Yiling Lin, Xie Hu
The railways and highways along the Qinghai Tibet Engineering Corridor (QTEC) were established on the frozen soil. Intensive engineering construction ...
View Abstract
Revisit Landslide Inventory in California Using Remote Sensing Big Data and Machine Learning
RECENT ADVANCES IN SAR AND INSAR PROCESSING, BIG DATA ANALYSIS, AND EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS I ONLINE POSTER DISCUSSION
geodesy | 15 december 2022
Yuqi Song, Xie Hu
Landslides are general natural disasters worldwide. Knowledge on the landslide distribution is fundamental for landslide monitoring, disaster mitigati...
View Abstract
ICA-Based Spatiotemporal Characterization of Vertical and Horizontal Deformations from InSAR Time Series
RECENT ADVANCES IN SAR AND INSAR PROCESSING, BIG DATA ANALYSIS, AND EARTH SCIENCE APPLICATIONS I ONLINE POSTER DISCUSSION
geodesy | 15 december 2022
Sayyed Mohammad Javad Mirzadeh, Xie Hu, Estelle Ch...
Spatiotemporal characterization of both vertical and horizontal deformations, associated with deep and shallow solid-earth processes, provide the insi...
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Volunteer Experience
2024 - 2027
Associate Editor
JGR Machine Learning and Computation Section
2024 - 2027
Member
Natural Hazards Committee for Travel Award Committee
2024 - 2026
Member
Natural Hazards Canvassing Committee
Check out all of Xie Hu’s AGU Research!
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