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School of Earth, Society & Environment Department of Earth Science & Environmental Change

Jida Wang

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Dr. Jida Wang is a broadly-trained physical geographer and hydrologist. His work focuses on surface water abundance and dynamics, particularly in lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands. He studies how these water stores function as sentinels, regulators, and integrators of climate change, and how lakes of different types interact with the river systems, the cryosphere, the carbon cycle, and human water managements. He conducts such studies through applications and innovations of integrated methods, which combine multi-sensor satellite remote sensing, in situ measurements, hydrological modeling, and AI/ML.

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Geography and Geographic Information Science
Associate Professor, Earth Science and Environmental Change

Recent Publications

Deng, X., Ke, L., Jiang, L., Nielsen, K., Fan, X., Wang, J., & Song, C. (Accepted/In press). A review of altimetry waveform retracking for inland water levels. Geodesy and Geodynamics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geog.2025.02.001

McQuillan, K. A., Allen, G. H., Fayne, J., Gao, H., & Wang, J. (2025). Estimating Wind Direction and Wind Speed Over Lakes With Surface Water Ocean Topography and Sentinel-1 Satellite Observations. Earth and Space Science, 12(3), Article e2024EA003971. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EA003971

Wang, J., Pottier, C., Cazals, C., Battude, M., Sheng, Y., Song, C., Sikder, M. S., Yang, X., Ke, L., Delhoume, M., Gosset, M., Oliveira, R. R. A., Grippa, M., Girard, F., Allen, G. H., Xu, X., Zhu, X., Biancamaria, S., Smith, L. C., ... Pavelsky, T. M. (2025). The Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission (SWOT) Prior Lake Database (PLD): Lake Mask and Operational Auxiliaries. Water Resources Research, 61(3), Article e2023WR036896. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR036896

Zhou, T., Zhang, G., Wang, J., Zhu, Z., Woolway, R. I., Han, X., Xu, F., & Peng, J. (2025). A novel framework for accurate, automated and dynamic global lake mapping based on optical imagery. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 221, 280-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2025.02.008

Ding, M., Wang, J., Song, C., Sheng, Y., Shawn Hutchinson, J. M., Langston, A. L., & Marston, L. (2024). A framework of freshwater and saline lake typology classification through leveraging hydroclimate, spectral, and literature evidence. Journal of Hydrology, 632, Article 130704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.130704

View all publications on Illinois Experts

School of Earth, Society & Environment Department of Earth Science & Environmental Change

3081 Natural History Bldg.

1301 W. Green Street

Urbana, IL 61801

(217) 333-3540

Email: geology@illinois.edu

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