Earth Scientist
Earth Scientist

Biography

Donghui Xu is an Earth Scientist focuses on advancing modeling of the hydrological cycles and extremes events from regional to global scales. He develops two-dimensional flooding model, differential river routing model, and land-river and land-ocean coupling schemes in Energy Exascale Earth System Model. Donghui also used integrated framework that combines the process-based model and data-driven approaches to improve the streamflow forecasts and evapotranspiration estimation at large scales.

Research Interests

  • High-fidelity flooding simulation 
  • Inundation dynamics
  • Hydrological cycles
  • Land-river-ocean interactions

Disciplines and Skills

  • Hydrology 
  • Flood modeling
  • Earth System Modeling
  • Hybrid modeling 
  • Evapotranspiration
  • Numerical methods

Education

  • Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2020
  • M.S. in Applied Mathematics, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2018
  • M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2015
  • B.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, 2013

Affiliations and Professional Service

  • Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2020
  • M.S. in Applied Mathematics, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2018
  • M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2015
  • B.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, 2013

Awards and Recognitions

  • 2025 PNNL’s core value: CREATIVITY, PNNL, 2025
  • Dow Doctoral Sustainability Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2017
  • Streeter Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2017
  • Jiangsu Division in Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling - 3rd place, Hohai University, 2011

Publications

2026

  • Hao, D.*, Xu, D., & Bisht, G. (2026). Capturing sub-kilometer Flood inundation dynamics during the California rain-on-snow Events of 2017. Geophysical Research Letters, 53, e2025GL118744. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL118744

2025

  • Bisht, G.*, Xu, D., Johnson, J., Feng, D., Brown, J., Knepley, M., Adams, M., Tan, Z., Kumar, M., Engwirda, D., Hao, D., Wolfe, J., (2025). Development of a River Dynamical Core for E3SM to Simulate Compound Flooding on Exascale-class Heterogeneous Supercomputers. Environmental Modelling & Software, 197, 106804.
  • Xu, D.*, Bisht, G., Engwirda, D., Feng, D., Tan, Z., & Ivanov, V. Y. (2025). Uncertainties in simulating flooding during Hurricane Harvey using 2D shallow water equations. Water Resources Research, 61, e2024WR038032. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR038032
  • Tan, Z.*, Xu, D., Taraphdar, S., Ma, J., Bisht, G., and Leung, L. R.: An efficient hybrid downscaling framework to estimate high-resolution river hydrodynamics, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 3833–3852, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-3833-2025, 2025. 
  • Sinha, E.*, Xu, D., Morris, K.A., Drewniak, B.A. and Bond-Lamberty, B. (2025), Interactions Between Climate Mean and Variability Drive Future Agroecosystem Vulnerability. Glob Change Biol, 31: e70064. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70064 
  • Tran, V. N.*, Xu, D., Van Nguyen, T., Kim, T., & Ivanov, V. Y. (2025). CAMELSH: A Large-Sample Hourly Hydrometeorological Dataset and Attributes at Watershed-Scale for CONUS. Scientific data, 12(1), 1307. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05612-6
  • Liao, C.*, Xu, D., Cooper, M. G., Zhou, T.*, Engwirda, D., Tan, Z., et al. (2025). Evaluation of flow routing on the unstructured Voronoi meshes in Earth system modeling. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 17, e2024MS004737. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024MS004737
  • Zhou, W.*, Zhang, L., Sheshukov, A. Y., Wang, J., Zhu, M., Sargsyan, K., Xu, D., Liu, D., Zhang, T., Mazepa, V., Sokolov, A., Valdayskikh, V., Vasiliev, A., Tran, V. N., Ivanov, V. Y., (2025). A novel framework to project the permafrost fate with explicit quantification of soil property and future climate uncertainties. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 130, e2024JF008168. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JF008168
  • Feng D., Z. Tan, S. Pinel, D. Xu, J. Amaral, A. Fassoni-Andrade, and M. Bonnet, et al. 2025. "Drivers and impacts of sediment deposition in Amazonian floodplains." Nature Communications 16. PNNL-SA-200094. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-57495-1
  • Liao C., D. Xu, M.G. Cooper, T. Zhou, D. Engwirda, Z. Tan, and G. Bisht, et al. 2025. "Evaluation of flow routing on the unstructured Voronoi meshes in earth system modeling." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 17, no. 5:Art. No. e2024MS004737. PNNL-SA-204062. doi:10.1029/2024MS004737
  • Liu Y., H. Huang, S. Wang, T. Zhang, D. Xu, and Y. Chen. 2025. "ELM2.1-XGBfire1.0: Improving wildfire prediction by integrating a machine-learning fire model in a land surface model." Geoscientific Model Development 18, no. 13:4103-4117. PNNL-SA-202005. doi:10.5194/gmd-18-4103-2025
  • Sinha E., D. Xu, K.A. Morris, B. Drewniak, and B. Bond-Lamberty. 2025. "Interactions between climate mean and variability drive future agroecosystem vulnerability." Global Change Biology 31, no. 2:e70064. PNNL-SA-200366. doi:10.1111/gcb.70064
  • Tan Z., D. Xu, S. Taraphdar, J. Ma, G. Bisht, and L. Leung. 2025. "An efficient hybrid downscaling framework to estimate high-resolution river hydrodynamics." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 29, no. 16:3833-3852. PNNL-SA-206447. doi:10.5194/hess-29-3833-2025
  • Tran V.N., D. Xu, T. Nguyen, T. Kim, and V. Ivanov. 2025. "CAMELSH: A Large-Sample Hourly Hydrometeorological Dataset and Attributes at Watershed-Scale for CONUS." Scientific Data 12:Art. No. 1307. PNNL-SA-212227. doi:10.1038/s41597-025-05612-6
  • Tran V.N., T. Kim, D. Xu, H.V. Tran, M. Le, T. Tran, and J. Kim, et al. 2025. "AI Improves the Accuracy, Reliability, and Economic Value of Continental-Scale Flood Predictions." AGU Advances 6, no. 3:Art. No. e2025AV001678. PNNL-SA-195159. doi:10.1029/2025AV001678
  • Xu D., G. Bisht, D. Engwirda, D. Feng, Z. Tan, and V. Ivanov. 2025. "Uncertainties in Simulating Flooding During Hurricane Harvey Using 2D Shallow Water Equations." Water Resources Research 61, no. 1:e2024WR038032. PNNL-SA-198641. doi:10.1029/2024WR038032

2024

  • Feng D., Z. Tan, D. Engwirda, J. Wolfe, D. Xu, C. Liao, and G. Bisht, et al. 2024. "Simulation of Compound Flooding using River-Ocean Two-way Coupled E3SM Ensemble on Variable-resolution Meshes." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 16, no. 6:Art. No, e2023MS004054. PNNL-SA-191225. doi:10.1029/2023MS004054
  • Liu Y., H. Huang, T. Zhang, D. Xu, and Y. Chen. 2024. Improving North American Wildfire Prediction by Integrating a Machine-Learning Fire Model in a Land Surface Model. PNNL-36676. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Improving North American Wildfire Prediction by Integrating a Machine-Learning Fire Model in a Land Surface Model
  • Qiu H., G. Bisht, L. Li, D. Hao, and D. Xu. 2024. "Development of inter-grid-cell lateral unsaturated and saturated flow model in the E3SM Land Model (v2.0)." Geoscientific Model Development 17, no. 1:143-167. PNNL-SA-182385. doi:10.5194/gmd-17-143-2024
  • Xu D., G. Bisht, D. Feng, Z. Tan, L. Li, H. Qiu, and L. Leung. 2024. "Impacts of Sea-level Rise on Coastal Groundwater Table simulated by an Earth System Model with a Land-Ocean Coupling Scheme." Earth's Future 12, no. 8:e2024EF004479. PNNL-SA-194173. doi:10.1029/2024EF004479
  • Xu D., G. Bisht, Z. Tan, C. Liao, T. Zhou, H. Li, and L. Leung. 2024. "Disentangling the hydrological and hydraulic controls on streamflow variability in Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) V2-a case study in the Pantanal region." Geoscientific Model Development 17, no. 3:1197 - 1215. PNNL-SA-189594. doi:10.5194/gmd-17-1197-2024
  • Xu D., G. Bisht, Z. Tan, E. Sinha, A. Di Vittorio, T. Zhou, and V. Ivanov, et al. 2024. "Climate change will reduce North American inland wetland areas and disrupt their seasonal regimes." Nature Communications 15, no. _:Art. No. 2438. PNNL-SA-184173. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45286-z
  • Zhou W., L. Zhang, A.Y. Sheshukov, J. Wang, M. Zhu, K. Sargsyan, and D. Xu, et al. 2024. "Ground Heat Flux Reconstruction Using Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification Machinery and Surrogate Modelling." Earth and Space Science 11, no. 3:Art. No. e2023EA003435. PNNL-SA-195022. doi:10.1029/2023EA003435

2023

  • Feng D., Z. Tan, D. Xu, and L. Leung. 2023. "Understanding the Compound Flood Risk along the Coast of the Contiguous United States." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 27, no. 21:3911-3934. PNNL-SA-181995. doi:10.5194/hess-27-3911-2023
  • Hao D., G. Bisht, H. Wang, D. Xu, H. Huang, Y. Qian, and L. Leung. 2023. "A cleaner snow future mitigates Northern Hemisphere snowpack loss from warming." Nature Communications 14. PNNL-SA-190229. doi:10.1038/s41467-023-41732-6
  • Liao C., T. Zhou, D. Xu, M.G. Cooper, D. Engwirda, H. Li, and L. Leung. 2023. "Topological Relationship-Based Flow Direction Modeling: Mesh-Independent River Networks Representation." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 15, no. 2:Art. No. e2022MS003089. PNNL-SA-171377. doi:10.1029/2022MS003089
  • Liao C., T. Zhou, D. Xu, Z. Tan, G. Bisht, M.G. Cooper, and D. Engwirda, et al. 2023. "Topological relationship-based flow direction modeling: stream burning and depression filling." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 15, no. 11:Art. No. e2022MS003487. PNNL-SA-183275. doi:10.1029/2022MS003487
  • Tran V.N., V. Ivanov, D. Xu, and J. Kim. 2023. "Closing in on Hydrologic Predictive Accuracy: Combining the Strengths of High-Fidelity and Physics-Agnostic Models." Geophysical Research Letters 50, no. 17:Art. No. e2023GL104464. PNNL-SA-185856. doi:10.1029/2023GL104464

2022

  • Feng D., Z. Tan, D. Engwirda, C. Liao, D. Xu, G. Bisht, and T. Zhou, et al. 2022. "Investigating coastal backwater effects and flooding in the coastal zone using a global river transport model on an unstructured mesh." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26, no. 21:5473-5491. PNNL-SA-174859. doi:10.5194/hess-26-5473-2022
  • Li H., Z. Tan, H. Ma, Z. Zhu, G.W. Abeshu, S. Zhu, and S. Cohen, et al. 2022. "A new large-scale suspended sediment model and its application over the United States." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26, no. 3:665-688. PNNL-SA-147911. doi:10.5194/hess-26-665-2022
  • Liao C., T. Zhou, D. Xu, R. Barnes, G. Bisht, H. Li, and Z. Tan, et al. 2022. "Advances in hexagon mesh-based flow direction modeling." Advances in Water Resources 160. PNNL-SA-160344. doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2021.104099
  • Xu D., G. Bisht, K. Sargsyan, C. Liao, and L. Leung. 2022. "Using a surrogate-assisted Bayesian framework to calibrate the runoff-generation scheme in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) v1." Geoscientific Model Development 15, no. 12:5021-5043. PNNL-SA-174759. doi:10.5194/gmd-15-5021-2022
  • Xu D., G. Bisht, T. Zhou, L. Leung, and M. Pan. 2022. "Development of Land-River Two-Way Hydrologic Coupling for Floodplain Inundation in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 14, no. 8:Art. No. e2021MS002772. PNNL-SA-165762. doi:10.1029/2021MS002772