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Background

Dr Abdou Khouakhi obtained a PhD in coastal hazards and coastal vulnerability. His PhD integrated various satellite and aerial remote sensing data and spatial modelling to assess coastal erosion and flood risk and worked with stakeholders to develop measurable coastal sustainability indicators. He then worked as a Postdoctoral research scholar at the IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa, the USA where he worked on extremes in weather and climate impacts such as extreme sea level/rainfall, temperature, tropical storms and their connection to climate harnessing data science approach and analytics. Before joining Cranfield, Abdou worked also as a research associate at Loughborough University, UK where he contributed to an EPSRC project on developing a real-time monitoring and early warning system for urban floods and water level monitoring, using a bespoke network of IoT wireless water sensors combined with machine learning.

Current activities

Dr Abdou Khouakhi is a Lecturer in Remote sensing at the Cranfield Environment Centre. His reasearch centres on understanding extreme climate hazards and their present and future impacts, focusing on their interconnectedness through systems-based approaches. For instance, I explore how these hazards affect population, soil, agriculture, ecology, and broader systems. My work integrates Earth observation, data science, AI, and climate model data to analyse these impacts.

I welcome discussions with researchers who may wish to collaborate to develop research proposals. I also welcome enquiries from prospective PhD and MSc students.

Teaching summary:

Abdou is an expert in satellite earth observation and geospatial data science, he leads three key modules at the intersection of technology and environment: Applied Earth Observation, Advanced GIS, and Real World Machine Learning. He also leads the Environmental Risks module, focusing on hazard assessment and management.

Beyond traditional coursework, Abdou develops and delivers specialised short courses tailored to professional needs, such as 'Earth Observation Data Science' and 'R for Hydrology.' His teaching portfolio spans a variety of courses within the Environmental programme.

As a mentor, Abdou has supervised a range of MSc theses, recent supervision topics include:

• Landscape-scale remote sensing techniques for conservation site monitoring.

• Estimation of agricultural crop coefficients and evapotranspiration using remote sensing.

• EO-based approaches for generating irrigated area maps to enhance water resources management.

• Investigations into the impacts of extreme weather on crop production.

• High-resolution thermal MWIR for vegetation analysis.

• Flash droughts, including drivers and mitigation strategies.

• InSAR and geospatial analyses for peat surface motion and carbon assessment

• EO for biodiversity monitoring on farmland, focusing on hedgerows

• Advanced SAR techniques for drought detection and monitoring.

• Flash Droughts detection from space

Clients

EPSRC

GCRF

NERC

HEIF

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers
• Books