Pouya Vahmani - Earth and Environmental Sciences Area

Biography

Dr. Pouya Vahmani is an expert in urban climate modeling and climate change impacts in urban areas. His research uses a range of numerical models including regional climate models, land surface models, urban canopy models, and hydrological models informed by rich remotely sensed and ground-based observations to further the scientific understanding of the critical elements in achieving sustainable development including urban micro-climate and hydrology, regional to local scale climate processes, extreme weather, and climate adaptation and mitigation.

Dr. Vahmani joined the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division (CESD) in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) in 2016. His recent research themes include the water conservation benefits of heat mitigation, future of exposure to extreme heat in California, and regional climate projections of adaptation and mitigation planning. Before Berkeley Lab, he was a research associate at the University of Southern California (USC), where he focused on the interactions between regional climate and urban heat mitigation and water conservation strategies as well as utility of satellite-based information in the regional climate modeling frameworks.

Before joining USC, Dr. Vahmani was a NASA fellow and a graduate student in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he got his PhD in Hydrology and Water Resources (major) and Atmospheric Sciences (minor). Dr. Vahmani has also been a visiting scholar in University of California Irvine (UCI) and Colorado School of Mines.

Research Interests

The overarching goal of my research is to understand the impacts of human activities on the Earth's energy and water cycles. My research has been focused on the effectiveness of different heat mitigation strategies (e.g. cool roofs), climatic consequences of water conservation measures (e.g. drought tolerant vegetation), and impacts of urban irrigation on the climate at a regional scale. The tools that I use include urban canopy models, regional climate models, land surface models, and remote sensing of urban areas. Currently, I am employing a satellite-supported regional climate modeling framework over California to investigate the consequences of global climate change and land use change on the climate of major metropolitan areas and to evaluate different mitigation and adaptation strategies, for these regions.

Awards

IAHS Best Early Career Scientist Paper Award, the Gothenburg Assembly, 2013
NASA Earth System Science Fellowship (NESSF), University of California, Los Angeles, 2012; 2013
Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship, the Center for Energy and Sustainability/California State University, Los Angeles, 2010
Special Recognition in Graduate Studies, CSULA 2010 Honors Convocation, 2010
Outstanding Poster Presentation Award in Engineering, 2010 CSULA Student Symposium, 2010
Graduate Student Fellowship, the Center for Energy and Sustainability/California State University, Los Angeles, 2009
Graduate Student Scholarship, Shahid Bahonar Uni. of Kerman (Iran), 2006
First Ranked Graduating Student in Civil Eng. Class, Shahid Bahonar Uni. of Kerman (Iran), 2006