Education

• PhD in Geography, University of Cambridge (2015)
• MPhil in Politics, University of Cambridge (2010)
• 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.

Find more about postgraduate research financial supportLink opens in a new window and postgraduate research opportunitiesLink opens in a new window at Warwick.

I am currently looking for an enthusiastic researcher to improve our understanding of water resilience using secondary dataLink opens in a new window. It is a fully funded PhD positionLink opens in a new window in the Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Programme - TRANSFORMLink opens in a new window.