Earth systems · Data · Decisions
From environmental change to resilient action.
HAO Lab combines environmental science, engineering, artificial intelligence, and optimization to understand risk and design better decisions for coupled human–natural systems.
Research pillars
Two connected questions guide our work.
01
Climate & Ecosystem Risk
How do flash droughts, heatwaves, wildfire, and water stress reshape ecosystem productivity, carbon exchange, and recovery?
- Flash drought and heatwave impacts
- Ecosystem water-use efficiency
- Carbon and greenhouse-gas dynamics
02
Decision Optimization & Resilience
How can uncertain forecasts become transparent, robust, and actionable decisions for communities and engineered systems?
- Stochastic and robust optimization
- Risk assessment and early warning
- Decision-support system design
How we work
Methods designed for complex systems.
We pair physical understanding with modern data and decision science. The goal is not only better prediction, but better choices under uncertainty.
Earth observation
Remote sensing, field observations, and multi-source data integration.
AI & uncertainty
Machine learning, model ensembles, and uncertainty quantification.
Process modeling
Hydrologic, ecosystem, and coupled human–natural system models.
Decision science
Operations research, stochastic optimization, and decision support.
Explore the work—and join it.
See our publications or learn about fully funded Ph.D. opportunities in HAO Lab.
HAO Lab 