Welcome

I am Menaka Revel a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Michigan State University (MSU) working with Dr. Yadu Pokhrel.

Please visit the Multi-scale FEW Systems Modeling Lab at MSU here.

I specialized the intersection of data assimilation, remote sensing, and hydrological modeling. By incorporating satellite measurements like satellite altimetry and surface water extent data into routing models like CaMa-Flood, and Raven, I aim to improve the realism and forecasting ability of large-scale hydrological models.

Before joining MSU, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, where I contributed to the Hydrology Group.

Previously, I served as a Project Researcher in the Global Hydrodynamics Lab in Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo from Oct 2019 to Aug 2023. There, I collaborated on projects that explored freshwater dynamics on a global scale using modeling, remote sensing, and model-data integration.

Please visit Global Hydrodynamics Lab at the University of Tokyo here.

My dedication to open science and data accessibility has been a recurring theme in my work. Through user-centered, web-based platforms, I actively create tools and procedures that facilitate the exchange of data, model configurations, and research outcomes. The goal of my work is to close the gap between large end-user groups and sophisticated hydrological systems. Please visit my GitHub page for the resources for hydrological modellers.

Research Interests

My primary research interests are developing earth system modeling by integrating remote sensing data into models. Previously, I was working on modelling Canadian lake-dominated watersheds and calibrating the models like Raven using remote sensing data such as Landsat, Sentinel, and SWOT. I also have been working on data assimilation into hydrodynamic modeling using satellite altimetry data. I am also involved in developing CaMa-Flood hydrodynamic model for a better representation of global fresh water.

My research activity is summarized in:

Source codes

HydroDA: Data assimilation framework
Emprical Local Patches: Code for preparing empirical local patches
AltiMaP: Code for allocating satellite altimetry to CaMa-Flood
CaMa-DA Package: CaMa-Flood satellite data assimilation package