R2.14, Ramphal Building, School for Cross-Faculty Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Overview
Dr Feng Mao is Associate Professor of Global Sustainable Development. His key research interests lie in the intersection of water, ecosystems, society, and technologies, focusing on three main themes: (i) water security and resilience, (ii) hydro-ecosystems under change, and (iii) data technologies and sustainability strategies, such as serious games, citizen science, low-cost sensor networks, visualisation, and data governance.
Research interests
Water security; river and mangrove ecosystems; water resources and disasters
Resilience and sustainability
Data technologies; low-cost sensor networks; visualisation
MRes in Biodiversity and Conservation, University of Leeds (2009)
BSc in Biological Sciences, Zhejiang University (2009)
Career overview
Associate Professor of Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick (2022 - present)
Lecturer in Physical Geography and Environmental Sustainability, Cardiff University (2020-2022)
Visiting Scholar, Stanford University (2020)
Visiting Scholar, Northwestern University (2019)
Research Fellow, University of Birmingham (2015-2020)
Theme Lead for Complex Ecosystems and Climate Change, Institute for Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick
Theme Lead for Water Security in a Changing World, Commonwealth Futures Climate Research Programme, Association of Commonwealth Universities
Founder and Lead, GamEngage, an international network for serious games
Co-Director, Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarships Programme, University of Warwick
Director of Research Support, School for Cross-Faculty Studies, University of Warwick
Co-founder, Resilient Cities in Fragile Contexts Research Network, Cardiff University
Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
Member, American Geophysical Union
Member, European Geosciences Union
Member, International Association of Hydrological Sciences
Peer-reviewed journal papers
Zhang, X., Mao, F., Gong, Z., Hannah, D.M., Cai, Y., Wu, J., 2023. A disaster-damage-based framework for assessing urban resilience to intense rainfall-induced flooding. Urban Climate. 48, 101402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101402
Li, Z., Mao, F., Wu, C., (2022) Can we share models if sharing data is not an option? Patterns 3(11), 100603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100603
Mao, F., Miller J.D., Young, S.L., Krause, S., Hannah, D.M., and HWISE Research Coordination Network (2022) Inequality of household water security follows a Development Kuznets Curve. Nature Communications 13, 4525. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31867-3
Ward, A., Packman, A., Bernal, S., Brekenfeld, N., Drummond, J., Graham, E., Hannah, D., Klaar, M., Krause, S., Kurz, M., Li, A., Lupon, A., Mao, F., Martí, E., Ouellet, V., Royer, T., Stegen, J., and Zarnetske, J. (2022) Advancing river corridor science beyond disciplinary boundaries with an inductive approach to hypothesis generation, Hydrological Processes.
Chen, Y., Ge, Y., Yang, G., Wu, Z., Du, Y., Mao, F., Liu, S., Xu, R., Qu, Z., Xu, B., & Chang, J. (2022). Landscape and Urban Planning Inequalities of urban green space area and ecosystem services along urban center-edge gradients. Landscape and Urban Planning, 217, 104266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104266
Chang, J., Yang, G., Liu, S., Jin, H., Wu, Z., Xu, R., Min, Y., Zheng, K., Xu, B., Luo, W., Mao, F., Ge, Y., & Cheong, K. H. (2022). A Gradient Model for the Spatial Patterns of Cities. Advanced Theory and Simulations, 2100486. https://doi.org/10.1002/adts.202100486
Wu, C., Xu, C., Mao, F., Xu, X., & Zhang, C. (2022). The impact of invisible-spreaders on COVID-19 transmission and work resumption. Plos One, 17(1), e0252994. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252994
Liu, S., Yang, G., Wu, Z., Mao, F., Qu, Z., Ge, Y., and Chang, J. (2021) Studying the distribution patterns, dynamics and influencing factors of city functional components by gradient analysis. Scientific Reports. 11, 17802. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97208-4
Chang, J., Ge, Y., Wu, Z., Du, Y., Pan, K., Yang, G., Ren, Y., Heino, M.P., Mao, F., Cheong, K.H., Qu, Z., Fan, X., Min, Y., Peng, C., and Meyerson, L.A. (2021) Modern cities modelled as "super-cells" rather than multicellular organisms: Implications for industry, goods and services. doi: 10.1002/bies.202100041
Mao, F., Ullah, S., Gorelick, S., Hannah, D.M., and Krause, S. (2021) Increasing nutrient inputs risk an upsurge of global nitrous oxide emission from mangrove ecosystems. One Earth. doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.007
Junqueira, A. M., Mao, F., Mendes, T. S. G., Simões, S. J. C., Balestieri, J. A. P., & Hannah, D. M. (2021). Estimation of river flow using CubeSats remote sensing. Science of The Total Environment, 788, 147762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147762
Karpouzoglou, T., Dewulf, A., Perez, K., Gurung, P., Regmi, S., Isaeva, A., Foggin, M., Bastiaensen, J., Hecken, G.V., Zulkafli, Z., Mao, F., Clark, J., Hannah, D.M., Sagar, P., Buytaert, W., Cieslik, K. (2020) From present to future development pathways in fragile mountain landscapes. Environmental Science and Policy. 114, 606–613. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2020.09.016
Hannah, D.M., Lynch, I., Mao, F., Miller, J., Young, S.L. and Krause, S. (2020) Water and sanitation for all in a pandemic, Nature Sustainability. doi: 10.1038/s41893-020-0593-7
Mao, F., Khamis, K., Clark, J., Krause, S., Buytaert, W., Ochoa-Tocachi, B. F., Hannah, D.M. (2020) Moving beyond the technology: a socio-technical roadmap for low-cost water sensor network applications. Environmental Science and Technology. doi: 1021/acs.est.9b07125
Docherty, J., Mao, F., Buytaert, W., Clark, J., Hannah, D. (2020) A framework for understanding water-related multi-hazards in a sustainable development context. Progress of Physical Geography. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0309133319900926
Mao, F., Khamis K., Krause, S., Clark J., Hannah D.M. (2019) Low-cost environmental sensor networks: recent advances and future directions. Frontiers in Earth Science. doi: doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00221
Dewulf, A., Karpouzoglou, T., Warner, J., Wesselink, A.J., Mao, F., Vos, J., Tamas, P., Groot, A., Heijmans, A., Ahmd, F., Hoang, L., Vij, S., Buytaert, W (2019) The power to define resilience in social-hydrological systems: towards a power-sensitive resilience framework. WIREs Water. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1377
Mao, F., Zhao, X., Ma, P., Chi, S., Richards, K., Clark, J., Hannah, D. M., Krause, S. (2019) Revision of biological indices for aquatic systems: A ridge-regression solution. Ecological Indicators. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105478
Ochoa-Tocachi, B. F., Bardales, J. D., Antiporta, J., Pérez, K., Acosta, L., Mao, F., Zulkafli, Z., Gil-Ríos, J., Angulo, O., Grainger, S., Gammie, G., Bièvre, B. D., and Buytaert, W. (2019) Potential contributions of pre-Inca infiltration infrastructure to Andean water security. Nature Sustainability. doi: 10.1038/s41893-019-0307-1
Mao, F., Zhao, X., Ma, P., Chi, S., Richards, K., Clark, J., Hannah, D. M., Krause, S. (2019) Developing composite indicators for ecological water quality assessment based on network interactions and expert judgment. Environmental Modelling and Software, 115: 51-62. doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.01.011
Mao, F., Richards, K., Toland, M., Shi, Y., Hannah, D. and Krause, S. (2019) rivervis: a tool for visualising river ecosystems. Computers and Geosciences, 123: 59-64. doi: 10.1016/j.cageo.2018.11.007
Regmi, S., Bhusal, J., Gurung, P., Zulkafli, Z., Karpouzoglou, T., Ochoa, B., Buytaert, W. and Mao, F. (2019) Learning to cope with water variability through participatory monitoring: The case study of the Mountainous region, Nepal. Meteorology Hydrology and Water Management. 7. doi:10.26491/mhwm/106021.
Mao, F., Clark, J., Buytaert, W., Krause, S., and Hannah, D. (2018) Water sensor network applications: Time to move beyond the technical? Hydrological Processes, 32:2612–2615. doi:10.1002/hyp.13179
Du, Y., Ge, Y., Ren, Y., Fan, X., Pan, K., Lin, L, Wu, X., Min, Y., Meyerson, L., Heino, M., Chang, S., Liu, X., Mao, F., Yang, G., Peng, C., Qu, Z., Chang, J., and Didham, R. (2018) A global strategy to mitigate the environmental impact of China’s ruminant consumption boom, Nature Communications, 9:4133. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06381-0
Mao, F., Clark, J., Karpouzoglou, T., Dewulf, A., Buytaert, W., and Hannah, D. (2017) A conceptual framework for assessing socio-hydrological resilience under change. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, doi:10.5194/hess-2016-499.
Clark, J., Gurung, P., Chapagain, P. S., Regmi, S., Bhusal, J. K., Karpouzoglou, T., Mao, F. and Dewulf, A. (2017) Water as “Time-Substance”: The Hydrosocialities of Climate Change in Nepal. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, doi: 10.1080/24694452.2017.1329005
Pandeya, B., W. Buytaert, Z. Zulkafli, Karpouzoglou, T., Mao, F., Hannah, D. (2016) A comparative analysis of ecosystem services valuation approaches for application at the local scale and in data scarce regions. Ecosystem Services, 22: 250–259, doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.10.015.
Grainger, S., Mao, F., Buytaert, W. (2016) Environmental data visualisation for non-scientific contexts: Literature review and design framework. Environmental Modelling and Software, 85: 299–318, doi:dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.09.004.
Mao, F. and Richards, K.S. (2012) Irreversible river water quality and the concept of the reference condition. Area, 44: 423–431, doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2012.01124.x.
Book chapters
Xu, L., Mao, F., Famiglietti, J.S., Pomeroy J.W., Pahl-Wostl C. (2021) Understanding cascading effects of resilience in human-water systems: a conceptual framework, in Multisystemic Resilience: Adaptation and Transformation in Contexts of Change. Edited by Dr Michael Ungar. Oxford University Press.
Karpouzoglou, T. and Mao, F. (2018) What lies ahead? The future of the earth and society as an adaptive system, in Climate Changes in the Holocene: Their Impacts and Human Adaptation, edited by Chiotis, E., CRC Press. ISBN: 9780815365938
Software
Mao, F., Shi, Y. and Richards, K.S. (2014) rivervis: River Visualisation Tool. R package. URL http://cran.r-project.org/package=rivervis
Dissertation/Independent Study (Module convenor)
Challenges of Climate Change
I am interested in supervising students and postdoctoral researchers working on topics including, but not limited to: water security; river ecosystems; water resources and disasters; climate resilience and adaptation; environmental and social data science; environmental policy and governance; serious games; citizen science; visualisation. Please get in touch to discuss your project ideas.
