PNNL

Lili Yao is part of the Watershed Hydrology Modeling team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and contributes to the Integrated Multisector Multiscale Modeling (IM₃) project. The IM₃ project uses innovative modeling to explore how human and natural systems interact in response to both short- and long-term influences, such as climate conditions, population changes, and energy or technology transitions. As part of that effort, Yao is constructing a simulation of how climate change and land use affect water cycles in the United States.

Prior to joining PNNL in 2022, Yao completed her PhD in civil engineering and subsequent post-doctoral research at the University of Central Florida. Her research focused on how watershed characteristics and climate can affect the hydrological processes at watershed scales. She also investigated the transport of groundwater contaminants in a Florida watershed. Her work on modeling surface and groundwater flows alongside water quality and climate is a key part of better understanding the water cycle and how it can be affected by climate change and human activities.

• Land surface hydrological processes
• Hydrological modeling
• Hydroclimatic extremes
• Surface-groundwater integrated modeling

• PhD in civil engineering, University of Central Florida, 2021
• MS in groundwater science and engineering, Beijing Normal University, China, 2017
• BS in hydrology and water resources engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, China, 2014

• Associate Editor, Journal of Hydrology, 2023
• Member, American Geophysical Union, 2017–present
• President, International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research, University of Central Florida Student Chapter, 2020-2021

• Preeminent Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Central Florida, 2021-2022
• Trustees Doctoral Fellowship, University of Central Florida, 2017-2021
• Student Travel Grant, American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, 2020

2022

• Yao, L., & Wang, D. (2022). Climatic control on spatial distribution of water storage at the catchment scale: a framework for unifying saturation excess runoff models. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127(10), e2021JD036334. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036334
• Yao, L., & Wang, D. (2022). Hydrological basis of different Budyko equations: emergent outcome of the spatial variability of available water for evaporation. Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR030921. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030921
• Luo, Z., Kong, J., Yao, L., & Luo, Y. (2022). Assessment and application of an alternative formula to describe the hydraulic conductivity over the full moisture range. Hydrological Processes, 36(7), e14639. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14639

2021

• Yao, L., Sankarasubramanian, A., & Wang, D. (2021). Climatic and landscape controls on long-term baseflow. Water Resources Research, 57, e2020WR029284. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR029284
• Gao, Y., Yao, L., Chang, N. B., & Wang, D. (2021). Diagnosis toward predicting mean annual runoff in ungauged basins. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25(2), 945-956. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-945-2021

2020

• Yao, L., Libera, D. A., Kheimi, M., Sankarasubramanian, A., & Wang, D. (2020). The roles of climate forcing and its variability on streamflow at daily, monthly, annual, and long‐term scales. Water Resources Research, 56, e2020WR027111. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027111

2018

• Yao, L., Wang, D., Hooshyar, M., Singh, A., & Sivapalan, M. (2018). Time compression approximation relationship for infiltration in the presence of a shallow water table: Evaluating the role of Péclet number. Water Resources Research, 54, 9384-9397. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023293