Background

Z. (Bob) Su  is Professor of Spatial Hydrology and Water Resources Management at the International Institute of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) and Twente University.

He earned a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, a postgraduate diploma and a M.Sc. degree with Distinction in hydrological engineering from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands and a B.Sc. degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Taiyuan University of Technology in China. In the period from 1994 to 1996, he worked as a post-doc researcher at the Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management in the Faculty of Agriculture and Applied Biological Sciences of University of Ghent in Belgium. He was a senior scientist in remote sensing and hydroclimatology at Wageningen University and Research Centre, Alterra Green World Research before he joined ITC in October 2004.

Since 1 April 2005, Professor Bob Su also serves as the Head of the Department of Water Resources at ITC.

Bob Su’s current research focuses on remote sensing and numerical modelling of land surface processes and interactions with the atmosphere, Earth Observation of water cycle and applications in climate and ecosystem studies, and monitoring of food security and water-related disasters.

Bob Su speaks fluently four languages (Chinese, English, German, Dutch) and has the following expertise and special interests:

• Managing and co-ordinating multi-disciplinary complex projects;
• Quantitative water management in large river basins: modelling, remote sensing and in-situ measurements;
• Satellite Earth Observation for continental scale studies in water, climate and environment;
• Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Transfer Schemes (SVATS) development and application; Studying scale problems in hydrology, hydrometeorology and hydroclimatology;
• Expertise in intensive field campaigns for hydrological studies and for developing and verifying remote sensing algorithms;
• Expertise in assessment of hydrological impacts of land use changes in river basins;
• Expertise in catchment hydrological studies and water management;
• Microwave scattering from random media for radar remote sensing;
• Remote sensing of bio- and geophysical parameters, using data from active and passive sensors.

Activities in education

Bob Su lectures in Water resources research from space, Advanced remote sensing and GIS application in water resources, Remote sensing in water management and new remote sensing techniques.

Distinctions / Memberships

Member of AGU, IAHS, IEEE, and EGU. Reviewer for several international journals. Netherlands representative to the intergovernmental ad hoc Group on Earth Observation (GEO), installed at the Earth Observation Summit in July 2003, charged to develop the 10-year implementation plan for integrated global Earth Observation.
Guest professor of the School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences in Beijing since 2001.
Guest Professor of the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2005.

Selected publications

162 in total including:

• Peer reviewed journal papers (33)
• Contribution to Encyclopaedia (1)
• Books/book chapters (44)
• Papers in proceedings (26)
• Technical communications (3)
• Conference presentations/abstracts (48)
• Technical reports (7)

Peer reviewed journal papers (33)

J. Wen, Z. Su, 2004, An analytical algorithm for the determination of vegetation Leaf Area Index from TRMM/TMI data, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 25(6), 1223-1234.

Y. Ma, J.M. Wang, R.H.Huang, G. Wei, M. Menenti, Z. Su, Z.Y. Hu, F. Gao, J. Wen, 2003, Remote sensing parameterization of land surface heat fluxes over arid and semi-arid areas, Advances in Atmospheric Research, 20(4), 530-539.

J. Wen, Z. Su, 2003, A Method for Estimating Relative Soil Moisture with ESA Wind Scatterometer Data, Geophysical Research Letters, 30 (7), 1397, doi:10.1029/ 2002GL016557.

Z. Su, Z.-L. Li, L. Jia, 2003, Estimation of Atmospheric Turbulent Fluxes using ATSR Radiometric Measurements: A Case Study for SGP’97, Journal of Remote Sensing, 6 (Suppl.): 123-131.

Z.-L. Li, L. Jia, Z. Su, Z. Wan, R.H. Zhang, 2003, Towards an operational algorithm for retrieving atmospheric water vapor content over land surfaces from ATSR2 split-window channel data, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24(24), 5095?5117.
Y. Ma, H. Ishikawa, O. Tsukamoto, M. Menenti, Z. Su, J. Wang, T. Yao, T. Koike, T. Yasunari, 2003, Regionalization of Surface Fluxes over Heterogeneous Landscape of Tibetan plateau by Using Satellite Remote Sensing Data, Journal of Meteorological Society of Japan, 81 (2), 277-293.

L. Jia, Z.-L. Li, M. Menenti, Z. Su, W. Verhoef, Z. Wan, 2003, A practical algorithm to infer soil and foliage component temperatures from bi-angular ATSR-2 data, International Journal of remote Sensing, 24 (23), 4739?4760.

J. Wen, Z. Su, Y. Ma, 2003, Determination of Land Surface Temperature and Soil Moisture from TRMM/TMI Remote Sensing Data, Journal of Geophysical Research, 108(D2), 10.1029/2002JD002176.

Z. Su, J. Wen, and L. Wan, 2003, A methodology for the retrieval of land physical parameter and actual evaporation using NOAA/AVHRR data, Journal of Jilin University (Earth Science Edition), 33(sup.), 106-118.

X. Li, J. Wen, and Z. Su, 2003, Reconstructing time series of normalised difference vegetation index over Urumqi River Basin, Xinjiang, China, Journal of Jilin University (Earth Science Edition), 33(sup.), 119-125.

Z. Su, P.A. Troch, 2003, Applications of quantitative remote sensing to hydrology (preface to special issue), Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28(1-3), 1-109.

Z. Su, A. Yacob, Y. He, H. Boogaard, J. Wen, B. Gao, G. Roerink, and K. van Diepen, 2003, Assessing Relative soil moisture with remote sensing data: theory and experimental validation, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28(1-3), 89-101.

J. Wen, Z. Su, 2003, Estimation of soil moisture from ESA Wind-scatterometer data, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28(1-3), 53-61.

G.J. Roerink, M. Menenti, W. Soepboer, Z. Su, 2003, Assessment of climate impact on vegetation dynamics by using remote sensing, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28(1-3), 103-109.

Y. Ma, Z. Su, T. Koike, T. Yao, H. Ishikawa, K. Ueno, M. Menenti, 2003, On measuring and remote sensing surface energy partitioning over the Tibetan plateau from GAME/Tibet to CAMP/Tibet, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28(1-3), 63-74.

L. Jia, Z. Su, B. van den Hurk, M. Menenti, A. Moene, H.A.R. De Bruin, J.J.B.Yrisarry, M. Ibanez, A. Cuesta, 2003, Estimation of sensible heat flux using the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) and ATSR measurements, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 28(1-3), 75-88.

Y. Ma, Z. Su, Z.-L. Li, T. Koike, M. Menenti, 2002, Determination of regional net radiation and soil heat flux over a heterogeneous landscape of the Tibetan Plateau, Hydrological Processes, 16 (15): 2963-2971.

F. Jacob, A. Olioso, X.F. Gu, Z. Su, B. Seguin, 2002, Mapping surface fluxes using airborne visible, near infrared, thermal infrared remote sensing data and a spatialized surface energy balance model, Agronomie, 22, 669 ?680.

Y. Ma, O. Tsukamoto, H. Ishikawa, Z. Su, M. Menenti, J. Wang and J. Wen, 2002, Determination of Regional land surface heat flux densities over heterogeneous landscape of HEIFE integrating satellite remote sensing with field observations, Journal of Meteorological Society of Japan, 80(3), 485-501.

Z. Su, 2002, The Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 6(1), 85-99.

Z. Su, T. Schmugge, W.P. Kustas, W.J. Massman, 2001, An evaluation of two models for estimation of the roughness height for heat transfer between the land surface and the atmosphere, Journal of Applied Meteorology, 40(11), 1933-1951.

M. Menenti, L. Jia, L., Z.-L. Li, V. Djepa, J. Wang, M.P. Stoll, Z. Su, and M. Rast, 2001, Estimation of soil and vegetation temperatures from directional thermal infrared observations: The HEIFE, SGP’97, IMGRASS experiments. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106, 11997-12010.

Li, Z.-L., M.P. Stoll, R.H. Zhang, L. Jia and Z. Su, 2000, On the separate retrieval of soil and vegetation temperatures from ATSR2 data, Science in China, series E, 30, 27-38.

Z. Su, 2000, Remote sensing of land use and vegetation for mesoscale hydrological studies, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 21, 213-233.

Z. Gao, J. Wang, Y. Ma, A. Sun, and Z. Su, 2000, Study on roughness lengths and drag coefficients over the desert underlying surfaces, Plateau Meteorology, 19(1), 17-24.

G.J. Roerink, Z. Su, M. Menenti, 2000, S-SEBI: A simple remote sensing algorithm to estimate the surface energy balance, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 25, 147-157.

Z.Q. Gao, J.M. Wang, Y. Ma, T.J. Choi, H. Lee, J. Asanuma, Z. Su, 2000, Calculation of near-surface layer turbulent transport and analysis of surface thermal equilibrium features in Nagqu of Tibet, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 25, 135-139.

Z.Q. Gao, J.M. Wang, Y. Ma, T.J. Choi, H. Lee, J. Asanuma, Z. Su, 2000, Study on roughness lengths and drag coefficients over Nansha Sea region, Gobi and Tibetan Plateau. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 25, 141-145.

Z. Su, H. Pelgrum, M. Menenti, 1999, Aggregation effects of surface heterogeneity in land surface processes, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 3(4), 549-563.

Z. Su, P.A. Troch and F.P. De Troch , 1997, Remote sensing of bare soil moisture using EMAC/ESAR data, International Journal of Remote sensing, 18(10), 2105-2124.

Z. Su, P.A. Troch and F.P. De Troch, 1997, A method for retrieving soil moisture using active microwave data, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 22(3-4), 235-239.

P.A. Troch, Z. Su and F.P. De Troch, 1996, Remote sensing of surface soil moisture using EMAC/ESAR data, Earth Observation Quarterly, 53, 17-21.

Z. Su, P. Neumann, W. Fett, A. Schumann, G.A. Schultz, 1992, Application of remote sensing and geographic information system in hydrological modelling, EARSeL Advances in Remote Sensing, 1(3), 180-185.

Contribution to Encyclopaedia (1)

Z. Su, 2005, Hydrological application of remote sensing: Surface fluxes and other derived variables- Surface energy balance (Latent and sensible heating, net radiation), Article Hsa068 for ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HYDROLOGICAL SCIENCES (M.G. Anderson, ed.), Wiley (invited contribution, to appear).