Dr Yinxue Liu

BSc PhD

Pronouns: She/her
  • Vice-Chancellor Independent Research Fellow

Research groups and centres

ORCiD Researcher ID Google Scholar

Research and expertise

My expertise lies in flood hazard modelling, river hydrogeomorphology, and applying machine learning to improve flood estimates in data-sparse regions and under climate change. I am particularly interested in understanding how climate variability and change influence river flood frequency. Beyond advancing risk quantification, my vision is to uncover and communicate the mechanisms and dominant drivers that shape water and sediment transport in global river systems.

My technical skills include flood inundation modelling (LISFLOOD-FP), machine learning, and high-performance computing.

Current research activity

I am on a two-year funded Vice-Chancellor Independent Research Fellowship (2025-2027). My research project concerns improving design flood estimates for global rivers.

Recently completed research projects

  • The Evolution of Global Flood Hazard & Risk, NERC Large Grant, RA (2022-2025)

Recent publications

Recent publications

  • Liu, Y., Bates, P. D., Neal, J. C., Slater, L., Zhao, J., Ben-Haim, Zvika. (2025). A Bare-earth GoogleDEM to Simulate Flooding in New Delhi, India. Water Resources Research, 61(6), e2024WR038577. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR038577
  • Wortmann M., Slater L., Hawker L., Liu Y., et al. (2025). Global River Topology (GRIT): A bifurcating river hydrography. Water Resources Research, 61(5), e2024WR038308. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR038308
  • Slater, L., Blougouras, G., …, Liu, Y., etc. (2025). Challenges and opportunities of ML and explainable AI in large-sample hydrology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2024.0287
  • Guan Y., Gu X., …, Liu Y. et al. (2025). Excess water availability in northern mid-high latitudes contiguously migrated from ocean under climate change. Science Advances, 11(33), eadv0282.
  • Gebrechorkos, S. H., Leyland, J., …, Liu Y., & Darby, S. E. (2024). Global-scale evaluation of precipitation datasets for hydrological modelling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28(14), 3099-3118. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3099-2024, 2024

All publications:

  • Liu, Y., Bates, P. D., Neal, J. C., Slater, L., Zhao, J., Ben-Haim, Zvika. (2025). A Bare-earth GoogleDEM to Simulate Flooding in New Delhi, India. Water Resources Research, 61(6), e2024WR038577. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR038577
  • Liu, Y., Bates, P. D., Neal, J. C. (2022). Bare-earth DEM Generation from ArcticDEM, and Its Use in Flood Simulation. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 23(1), 375-391, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-375-2023
  • Liu, Y., Bates, P. D., Neal, J. C., & Yamazaki, D. (2021)*. Bare‐Earth DEM Generation in Urban Areas for Flood Inundation Simulation Using Global Digital Elevation Models. Water Resources Research, 57(4). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028516
  • Zhou, D., Liu, Y., Hu, S., Hu, D., Neto, S., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Assessing the hydrological behaviour of large-scale potential green roof retrofitting scenarios in Beijing. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 40, 105-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2017.12.010
  • Wortmann M., Slater L., Hawker L., Liu Y., et al. (2025). Global River Topology (GRIT): A bifurcating river hydrography. Water Resources Research, 61(5), e2024WR038308. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR038308
  • Slater, L., Blougouras, G., …, Liu, Y., etc. (2025). Challenges and opportunities of ML and explainable AI in large-sample hydrology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2024.0287
  • Guan Y., Gu X., …, Liu, Y. et al. (2025). Excess water availability in northern mid-high latitudes contiguously migrated from ocean under climate change. Science Advances, 11(33), eadv0282.
  • Gebrechorkos, S. H., Leyland, J., …, Liu ,Y., & Darby, S. E. (2024). Global-scale evaluation of precipitation datasets for hydrological modelling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28(14), 3099-3118. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3099-2024, 2024
  • Xu, T., Weng, B., Yan, D., Wang, K., Li, X., Bi, W., ... & Liu, Y. (2019). Wetlands of international importance: Status, threats, and future protection. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(10), 1818. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16101818

Profile

I am a Vice-Chancellor’s Independent Research Fellow, specializing in flood hazard modelling, river hydrogeomorphology, and the application of machine learning to improve flood estimates in data-sparse regions and under climate change. My research also explores how climate variability and climate change influence river flood frequency. Beyond improving risk quantification, my vision is to uncover and communicate the mechanisms and dominant drivers that shape water and sediment transport in global river systems.

I completed my Master’s degree in GIS at Capital Normal University, Beijing, which included an exchange programme at Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon. In 2022, I earned my PhD in Physical Geography from the University of Bristol, where I developed new approaches for better utilizing state-of-the-art global DEMs to enhance flood inundation modelling in urban areas.

Following my doctorate, I joined the Evoflood project at the University of Oxford as a Research Associate in Computational Hydrogeomorphology. Since 2025, I have held my current fellowship, continuing to advance innovative methods for global flood risk assessment and climate resilience.

Professional affiliations

  • AGU Member
  • EGU Member
  • BHS Member
  • BSG Member
  • YHS, Hydro90 Member

Awards

  • Wiley Top Downloaded Article (2023)
  • University of Bristol Open Research Prize (shortlisted, 2021)
  • Travel Grants (High Performance and Disruptive Computing in Remote Sensing Schoo-Icelandl; 1st IEEE GRSS Instrumentation and Future Technologies Remote Sensing Summer School-Barcelona)
  • Outstanding Student Award, Capital Normal University, China (2/60)
  • First-class Outstanding Student Award, Anhui University, China (1/60)
  • Second Prize in Anhui Province 5th GIS Skills Competition, China (2014)

External activities

  • ​Convene session at EGU 2025 GM3.3, Interactions between flooding and hydro-geomorphological processes in rivers and deltas
  • Lead session at 1st International conference on Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction 2024, Loughborough; Earth System Dynamics Research Day 2025, Oxford
  • Invited speeches/talks: 
    ‘Leveraging AI to enhance global river floods estimation’, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, 2025
  • Conference talks
    - Global Flood Partnership Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 2025. “Machine-learning Estimated Global River Return Period of Floods”
    - The American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Washington DC, United States, 2024. ‘Global Estimation of River Bankfull Discharge Reveals Distinct Flood Recurrences Across Climate Zones’,
    - Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction, Loughborough, UK, 2024. ‘A Bare-earth GoogleDEM to Simulate Flood Inundation in New Delhi, India’,
    - European Geoscience Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 2024. ‘First Global Estimation of River Bankfull Discharge’.
    - The American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, United States, 2019. ‘Towards Global Bare-earth DEM Generation for Urban Flood Simulation.’
  • WMO Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) – River Discharge (contributor).​
  • I am a visiting scholar at University of Oxford. I serve as a reviewer for Communications Earth & Environment, JGR – Earth Surface, Scientific Reports, Journal of Hydrology.

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and government organizations, including:

  • National: University of Oxford, University of Bristol, University of Edinburgh
  • International: China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), University of Tokyo, Technical University of Munich
  • Government organisations: ECMWF