Biography

In my work, I focus on understading the plant, soil and water dynamics in crop and grassland agroecosystems. I look at different aspects such as plant physiology, functionality, and diversity, and their response to drought and heat stresses. I also develop and apply novel mathematical process-based modeling approaches to address the interaction of these complex processes. I endorse developing novel methods to assimilate real-time remote-sensing data into agroecosystem models for more accurate prediction of agricultural productivity and sustainable crop production.

Research interests:

  • Understanding the response of crop and grassland ecosystem to drought, temperature and heat stresses
  • Agroecosystem modeling with focus on plant-water relations at multiple scale
  • Model calibration, model parameterization, uncertainty analysis in environmental systems
  • Assimilation of remote sensing data into Agroecosystem models for real-time

Software

SWAT and SWAT-CUP

Level: Professional

I have been using SWAT and SWAT-CUP since 2012 when I started the EPP fellowship program in eawag, switzerland. I …

EPIC

Level: Professional

I have been using EPIC since 2013 mainly to simulate cereal crops in Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to my previous …

MONICA

Level: Professional

I have been using MONICA since 2018 for simulating crops and grasslands for different projects. In 2019, together …

Lintul5

Level= Good

I have been using Lintul5 since I have been involved in the DAAD exchange program with University of Tasmania (UTAS). In …

HEC-HMS

Level: Professional

I have applied HEC-HMS to simulate flood events in the Tamar Basin of Iran. The project was conducted during my Msc …

Python

Level: Good to very good

Since 2014, I have been frequently programming in Python. I first used it to develop my EPIC+ interface which …

Matlab

Level: Good to very good

I started programming in MATLAB in 2008 for developing optimization algorithms for calibration of hydrological …

Education

 
 
 
 
 

PhD in Environmental Systems Sciences

ETHZ Zürich and Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Dec 2013 – Jun 2018
Title of thesis: Application of a spatially explicit biophysical crop model to assess drought impacts on crop yield and crop-drought vulnerability in sub-Saharan Africa
 
 
 
 
 

Master of Science in Water Resource Planning and Management

Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Apr 2010 – Sep 2010
Title of thesis: Automatic calibration of hydrologic event-based model using PSO meta-heuristic algorithm
 
 
 
 
 

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

Urmia University, Faculty of Engineering, Urmia, Iran

Apr 2006 – Sep 2007

Professional experience

 
 
 
 
 

Lecturer and scientist [Akademischerrätin and Wissenschaftlerin]

Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation, University of Bonn, Germany

Apr 2021 – Present
Responsibilities:

  • Teaching MSc and BSc courses (see section of teaching)
  • Supervising and co-supervisor of PhD/MSc/BSC students (see section of supervision)
  • Writing scientific papers
  • Writingesearch proposals for funding new positions
  • Conducting and leading research projects with focus on:
    1. Interfacing remote sensing data with crop models for reducing model uncertainty
    2. Development/application of agroecosystem models in case studies across globe
    3. Developing methods for calibration of agroecosystem models and uncertainty analysis
    4. Climate change impact assessment under rainfed and irrigated systems
    5. Development of methods for assimilating satellite-driven variables into crop models
 
 
 
 
 

Post-doctoral researcher

Leibniz Hannover University, Hannover, Germany

Jan 2021 – Mar 2021

Title of project: Improving the agro-hydrological simulation of irrigation in catchments under extreme climatic conditions by using ensemble

Funded by: DFG

 
 
 
 
 

Post-doctoral researcher

Leibniz Center for Agriculture Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany

Jan 2018 – Dec 2020

Title of project: SattGrün - Satellite-based information for grassland management

Funded by: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL)

Responsibilities:

  • Conducting and leading research projects with focus on
    1. Development and application of agroecosystem models in Germany, Africa, Spain
    2. Developing methods for calibration of agroecosystem models and uncertainty analysis
    3. Climate change impact assessment under rainfed and irrigated systems
    4. Development of methods for assimilating satellite-driven variables into crop models
  • Supervising and co-supervising of PhD/master students in collaboration with internal/external supervisors
  • Writing scientific papers
  • Writing research proposals for funding new positions
 
 
 
 
 

Researcher

Eawag, Duebendorf, Switzerland

Nov 2012 – Jan 2018

Title of project: Application of a bio-physical crop model to assess crop-drought vulnerability in Sub-Saharan Africa under present and future climate

Funded by: Swiss National Foundation (SNF) under project number: CR21I3_146430. Dec.2013-Nov.2016

Responsibilities:

  • Applying EPIC+ crop model to simulate the impact of droughts on crop yields in a historical context with specification of duration and types of droughts concerning different stages of crop growth at the grid cell level
  • Assessing the crop-drought vulnerability by incorporating the magnitude of crop yield loss, relative production failure, as well as the frequency of the drought events in each geographical unit (mostly at the country level)
  • Investigating the socio-economic factors influencing the crop-drought vulnerability and mapping out the hot spots of high vulnerability to droughts in SSA.
 
 
 
 
 

Researcher

Amirkabir University of Technology

Nov 2010 – Feb 2012 Tehran-Iran

Role:

  • Collaborating on project about optimizing the operation of Ekbatan dam for sediment flushing
  • Teaching assisstant

Funded by: Water Research Institute and Amirkabir University of Technology

Responsibility:

  • Linking PSO algorithm with a numberial model developed to simulates sediments in reservoir
  • Optimizing the flushing time considering reservoir sediment load
 
 
 
 
 

Project manager and team leader

TARH O SAZE CASPIAN: Building & Infrastructure Engineering Company, Tehran, Iran

May 2010 – Oct 2012
Responsibilities:

  • Designing urban storm water collection
  • Hydrologic analysis of flooding events in urban systems
  • Modeling and visualization of urban storm water collection using AutoCAD
 
 
 
 
 

Engineer

Civilmarmar Building & Infrastructure Engineering Company, Urmia-Iran

May 2007 – Sep 2007
Responsibilities:

  • Designing services and advices for rehabilitation, renovation and construction of roads and higway projects
  • Modeling and visualization of roads and highways using AutoCAD
  • Quantity surveying and estimating of project costs

Teaching

 
 
 
 
 

Ecological conditions and climate change

University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Jul 2021 – Present

Role

  • Co-lecturer

Topics

  • Climate change causes and patterns
 
 
 
 
 

GIS-basic concepts and applications

University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Jul 2021 – Present

Role

  • Main lecturer

Topics

  • GIS Basics and data types
  • Projections and classifications
  • Databases for weather and climate information
  • Spatial databases for land use/cover and soils and administrative information
  • GIS & R
 
 
 
 
 

Crop and ecosystem analysis and modelling

University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Apr 2021 – Present
Role

  • Co-lecturer
 
 
 
 
 

SPACE-Water: Hydrological modeling with SWAT

University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

Mar 2017 – Mar 2017

Role

  • Invited lecturer

Topics

  • Concepts related to calibration, validation
  • Uncertainty analysis
  • Practical exercise on these concepts using SWAT
  • Practical exercise on SWAT-CUP.
 
 
 
 
 

Hydraulic

Qazvin islamic azad university, Qazvin, Iran

Apr 2011 – Sep 2012
  • Two credit Points bachelor program

Role

  • Main lecturer
 
 
 
 
 

Fluid mechanic

Qazvin islamic azad university, Qazvin, Iran

Apr 2011 – Sep 2012
  • Three credit Points bachelor program

Role

  • Main lecturer
 
 
 
 
 

Hydraulic and hydrostructures

Qazvin islamic azad university, Qazvin, Iran

Apr 2011 – Sep 2012
  • Three credit Points bachelor program

Role

  • Main lecturer
 
 
 
 
 

Hydrology

Amirkabir university of technology, Tehran, Iran

Apr 2010 – Sep 2012
  • Two credit points bachelor program

Role

  • Teaching assistant
 
 
 
 
 

Advanced hydrology

Amirkabir university of technology,Tehran, Iran

Apr 2010 – Sep 2012
  • Two credit Points bachelor program

Role

  • Main lecturer

Peer-review Journals

Cropping systems and agricultural management strategies affect soil organic carbon dynamics in semi-arid regions

In this study, we investigated the response of SOC and its fractions to various combination of agricultural management practices based …

A review of estimation methods for aboveground biomass in grasslands using UAV

Grasslands are one of the world’s largest ecosystems, accounting for 30% of total terrestrial biomass. Considering that aboveground …

Uncertainty in climate change impact studies for irrigated maize cropping systems in southern Spain

This study investigates the main drivers of uncertainties in simulated irrigated maize yield under historical conditions as well as …

Probabilistic modeling of crop-yield loss risk under drought: a spatial showcase for sub-Saharan Africa

Assessing the risk of yield loss in African drought-affected regions is key to identify feasible solutions for stable crop production. …

Improving the simulation of permanent grasslands across Germany by using multi-objective uncertainty-based calibration of plant-water dynamics

The dynamics of grassland ecosystems are highly complex due to multifaceted interactions among their soil, water, and vegetation …

Impact of crop management and environment on the spatio-temporal variance of potato yield at regional scale

The uncertainties associated with crop model inputs can affect the spatio-temporal variance of simulated yields, particularly under …

Mapping Crop Types and Cropping Systems in Nigeria with Sentinel-2 Imagery

Reliable crop type maps from satellite data are an essential prerequisite for quantifying crop growth, health, and yields. However, …

Crop growth and soil water fluxes at erosion-affected arable sites: A model inter-comparison based on weighing-lysimeter observations

Four lysimeters with different soil types were used that cover the range of soil variability in an erosion-affected hummocky …

Modelling climate change impacts on maize yields under low nitrogen input conditions in sub‐Saharan Africa

We evaluated the impact of varying [CO2], temperature and rainfall conditions on maize yield, for different nitrogen (N) inputs (0, 80, …

A quantitative analysis for determining socio-economic factors conferring crop drought vulnerability

we linked maize drought vulnerability index to socioeconomic factors conferring droughts at country level and tried to identify which …

Reducing computational costs of automatic calibration of rainfall-runoff models: Meta-models or high-performance computers?

We compared the performance of the two approaches applied to overcome the computational costs of automatic calibration of the HEC-HMS …

Spatial assessment of maize physical drought vulnerability in sub-Saharan Africa: Linking drought exposure with crop failure

Crop yields exhibit known responses to droughts. However, quantifying crop drought vulnerability is often not straightforward, because …

Drought vulnerability assessment of maize in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from physical and social perspectives

Drought as a slow-onset phenomenon inflicts important losses to agriculture where the degree of vulnerability depends not only on …

Conference presentations

Wet grassland biomass yield prediction considering species composition dynamic

Every grassland has considerable annual vegetation composition dynamics, especially in sites with shallow water levels (Toogood & …

Assimilation of remote sensing data into agro-ecosystem model for a real-time prediction of grassland productivity

Grassland management in intensive agriculture environments is increasingly constrained by environmental regulations, aiming for more …

Spatio-temporal dynamic of crop drought vulnerability in Sub-Saharan Africa

We explored the diverse statistical approaches used to decompose crop model uncertainty

Future of permanent grasslands in Germany, implications for grassland management

Cropping systems models have become an essential tool to simulate crop growth, development and yield at different scales to produce …

Assessment of bio-physical drought hazards. A case study of Karkheh River basin in Iran

Iran has been affected by frequent droughts. Climate change is expected to intensify the situation in the future. Extreme drought …

Drought vulnerability assessment of wheat and barley production under climate change-A case study of Karkheh River Basin in Iran

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is far from becoming self-sufficiency in cereal production. The recurrence of droughts in the past decades has …

The Impact of climate data uncertainty on calibration of the SWAT model

Meta-modeling for calibration of HEC-HMS rainfall-runoff

Application of rainfall temporal distribution on HEC-HMS and SWMM model

We explored the implications of using coarse resolution input data on model outputs

Contact

  • +49 (0)228 73 3258
  • Katzenburgweg 5, Bonn, 53123
  • Enter building, first floor, room 0.010
  • Monday to Friday 08:30 to 17:30