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Research output per year
Dr.
Accepting PhD Students
PhD projects
Dr Shasha Han welcomes inquiries from prospective PGR students in her areas of interest.
Research activity per year
Dr Shasha Han is an Assistant Professor in Physical Geography (Hydrology and Water Resources) in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) at the University of Birmingham (UoB). Her research mainly focuses on three interlinked themes: 1) Enhancing probabilistic flood forecasts, flood inundation mapping, and advancing the modelling of hydroclimatic extremes with reduced uncertainty; 2) Investigating changes in floods (e.g. magnitude, frequency, timing, and flashness) over time in the changing world and attributing the drivers (e.g. climate, land use, and pre-flood conditions) behind these changes; and 3) Advancing our theoretical understanding of hydrological processes considering both natural dynamics and the impacts from human activities.
Dr Han is passionate about hydroclimatic extremes, flood non-stationarity, hydrologic modelling, flood forecasting, climate change impacts, uncertainty analysis, urban hydrology, climate extremes and health, and data science.
Google Scholar | ORCID | Twitter: @DrShashaHan
A selection of involved funded research projects:
IDAI Pump Prime fund: Preprocessing multi-modal hydrological data to develop a causal foundation AI model of hydrological system (01/02/2025 - 31/07/2025)
NERC Doctor Training Partnerships (DTP): Towards the next generation probabilistic flood forecasting system for the UK (01/04/2024 – 21/10/2027)
NERC Doctor Training Partnerships (DTP): Flood futures: how is flood risk evolving in the UK? (25/09/2023 – 30/04/2027)
NIHR RIGHT5 grant (£3M): Improving primary healthcare for patients with non-communicable diseases during severe flooding in India (01/01/2024 – 31/12/2028)
John Fell Fund: The impacts of urbanisation on river flooding (10/09/2020 - 17/01/2022)
NSERC FloodNet Project (CAD $5M) Theme 3: Development of Canadian Adaptive Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System (01/09/2014 – 26/08/2019)
Current research group members:
Mohammed Alharbi (PhD; co-supervisor; 2022 - 2026): Integrated analyses of groundwater and surface water – impact of bedform geometry and flood conditions on groundwater-surfacewater interactions
Chenlu Yang (PhD; lead supervisor; 2023 – 2027): Flood futures: how is flood risk evolving in the UK?
Ritesh Moon (PhD; lead supervisor; 2023 - 2027): Integrating machine learning with process-based models to enhance flood forecasting
Saad Ferman (PhD; co-supervisor; 2023 - 2027): Evolution of the transition between droughts and floods across the UK
Hanqi Zuo (PhD; co-supervisor; 2024 – 2027): Towards the next generation probabilistic flood forecasting system for the UK
Dan Yang (Visiting Scholar; host; 2024 - 2025): Dynamic process and evolution of gully erosion
Chandni Thakur (Postdoc; co-supervisor; 2025 – 2027): Flood risk and flood forecasting in Kerala and Bihar (India)
Chenguang Xiao (Data Scientist; lead supervisor; Mar 2025 - Jul 2025): Hydrological multi-modal machine learning
Daryl Cortez (Visiting Student; lead supervisor; Mar 2025 - Sep 2025): Improving hydrological modeling across diverse catchment types using machine learning
Dr Shasha Han completed her PhD at McMaster University (Canada), where her work focused on probabilistic flood forecasting using advanced Bayesian techniques. She contributed to the development of the Canadian Adaptive Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System (CAFFEWS), and predicted future flood inundation by incorporating various sources of uncertainty and accounting for climate change impacts. Before joining the University of Birmingham, Dr Han worked as a research associate at the University of Oxford (UK), where the focus was on investigating the impacts of urbanisation on river flooding and projecting river flows in the UK considering both urban expansion and climate change. At the University of Birmingham, her research has expanded into diverse areas, including flood non-stationarity, short-term flood prediction, long-term flood projection, integration of machine learning in hydrology, flood and drought alterations, surface water and groundwater interactions, as well as flooding and public health.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
Manaseki-Holland, S. (Principal Investigator), Hemming, K. (Co-Investigator), Sitch, A. (Co-Investigator), Jowett, S. (Co-Investigator), Greenfield, S. (Co-Investigator), Han, S. (Co-Investigator), Nirantharakumar, K. (Co-Investigator), Hall, J. (Co-Investigator), Blackburn, S. (Co-Investigator), Widmann, M. (Co-Investigator), Jordan, R. (Co-Investigator) & Krause, S. (Co-Investigator)
1/01/24 → 31/12/28
Project: Other Government Departments
Larsen, J. (Co-Investigator) & Han, S. (Principal Investigator)
25/09/23 → 24/09/26
Project: Research