Sanaz Imen, Ph.D.
Address: 1615 River Reach Drive Apt. 82
Orlando, Florida, Zip code: 32828
E-mail: imen.snz@knights.ucf.edu
SUMMARY
Sanaz Imen received her B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Science and Culture in Iran,
in May 2005, and M.S. in civil engineering-planning and management of water resources from the University
of Tehran in Iran, in September 2007. She received her Ph.D. in civil engineering-water resources from the
University of Central Florida, in May 2015. The spectrum of her research includes: climate change impact on
the quality and quantity of water resources, satellite remote sensing technologies to support drinking water
infrastructure management, flood impact due to land use and land cover changes in mega cities, storm and sea
level rise impact on coastal cities with hydrodynamic-hydrologic watershed modeling, and rule-based
decision-support systems to provide better solutions for drinking water supply under drought and water
pollution impact. She has more than 3 years of consulting experience in environmental and water resources
engineering in Iran, two years research experience with the University of Tehran in Iran, and four years
research experience with projects at the University of Central Florida funded by the U.S. EPA National
Laboratory, the NOAA Florida Sea Grant, and the Global Innovation Initiative in British Council.
EDUCATION
Aug. 2011-May 2015
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering – Water Resources Engineering, University of
Central Florida
Dissertation Title: “Drinking Water Infrastructure Assessment with
Teleconnection Signals, Satellite Data Fusion and Mining”
GPA: 3.889
Advisor: Dr. Ni-Bin Chang
Sept. 2005-Sept. 2007
Master of Science in Civil Engineering – Water Resources Planning and
Management, University of Tehran
Thesis Title: “Development of an Algorithm for Contingency Planning in
Drought Management”
GPA: 3.6
Advisor: Dr. Mohammad Karamouz
Sept. 2000- May 2005
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, University of Science and Culture
GPA: 3.5
AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2008
2011
2012
2013
2013
12th Annual Graduate Student Thesis Competition award for the best thesis in Iran
Elizabeth S. Lampp Trust and Estate Endowed Scholarship, UCF
Yousef A. Yousef Endowed Fellowship Scholarship, UCF
DRMP Scholarship, UCF
Yousef A. Yousef Endowed Fellowship Scholarship, UCF
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AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2014
ASCE Water Resources Scholarship, UCF
2014
Yousef A. Yousef Endowed Fellowship Scholarship, UCF
2015
Yousef A. Yousef Endowed Fellowship Scholarship, UCF
RESEARCH INTERESTS
• • • • • • • • Hydrodynamic – hydrologic watershed modeling for stormwater management
Climate change impact assessment for water resources management
Satellite remote sensing for water quality monitoring
Water resources systems analysis
Flood risk assessment and hydroinformatics
Optimization models for reservoir operation
Decision support system for water resources management
Computational intelligence algorithms for water resources management
RESEARCH ACTIVITY AND WORK EXPERIENCE
Postdoctoral Researcher - Stormwater Management Academy
2015-Present
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering – University of Central Florida
Project: “Water Availability and Water Quality Forecasting Tool with Environmental Change
Reconstruction (Phase I and Phase II)”, funded by the National Risk Management Research laboratory
(NRMRL), US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
Research Activity:
• Developing a rule-based drinking water decision support system featured by remote sensing
and fast learning techniques for Lake Mead.
• The developed decision support system is able to manage a database, process satellite images,
perform image fusion and data mining to produce high spatial and temporal resolution images
in support of nowcasting and forecasting of water quality.
Project: “Flood Impact Assessment in Mega Cities under Urban Sprawl and Climate Change Impact”,
funded by Global Innovation Initiative, British Council (in partnership with University of Exeter in the U.K.
and Tsinghua University in China)
Research Activity:
• Analyzing the change in urban extents, impervious areas, and land cover types using satellite
imagery and artificial intelligence techniques in support of an urban growth model (UGM) for
three mega cities.
• Applying the projected scenarios to model the impacts of urban growth on flooding at the
selected mega cities.
Project: “Coupling Risk and Resilience Assessment for Networked Sustainable Drainage Systems in a
Coastal City under Climate Change Impact,” funded by NOAA Florida Sea Grant
Research Activity:
• Assessing the impacts of future probable climate scenarios of sea-level-rise and precipitation
variability in 2030 to 2050 on sustainable drainage efficiency in Cross Bayou Watershed to
mitigate future flood by considering current infrastructures and possible future infrastructure
(i.e. low impact development)
Project: “Multi-Sensor Fusion of Satellite Remote Sensing Images for Water Leaving Reflectance Data
Fusion under Cloudy Conditions”, funded by National Central University with match from the National
Autonomous University of Nicaragua
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Research Activity:
• Applying Smart Information Reconstruction (SMIR) method to reconstruct the cloud
contamination pixel values via other cloud free pixels information and retrieve water quality
status.
Project: “Complete Water Availability and Water Quality Forecasting Tool with Environmental Change
Reconstruction”, funded by the National Risk Management Research laboratory (NRMRL), US
Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
Research Activity:
• Providing water quality maps for Mattapoisett Harbor, MA, and developing the real-time
quality monitoring decision support system.
Graduate Research Assistant-Stormwater Management Academy
2011-2015
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering – University of Central Florida
Project: “Water Availability and Water Quality Forecasting Tool with Environmental Change
Reconstruction (Phase I and Phase II),” funded by the National Risk Management Research laboratory
(NRMRL), US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
Research Activity:
• Developed an integrated remote sensing and wavelet analysis based algorithm for exploring
linkage between atmospheric/oceanic variables and hydrological variables at local sites in the
U.S. and Central America
• Developed a watershed-scale forecasting model to predict precipitation variability over the
Upper Colorado River Basin
• Monitored the spatiotemporal variation of water quality parameters within Lake Mead on a
real time basis using satellite imagery and integrated data fusion and data mining algorithm
• Developed an integrated remote sensing and artificial neural network/genetic programming
based model to predict water quality at the drinking water intake in Lake Mead
• Prepared reports for the research projects
Environmental Expert
2008-2011
Mahab Ghodss Consulting Engineering Company
• Planned and supervised water quality sampling in the field, verified, and analyzed water
quality datasets
• Developed one-dimensional river water quality model using Qual2k to simulate pollution load
reduction
• Developed watershed loading models to determine the amount of point and non-point sources
contamination
• Proposed structural and non-structural best management practices (BMPs) for pollution
remediation and prioritized them using multi criteria decision method (MCDM)
• Contributed to the preparation of a guideline for evaluating the economic costs of water
pollution
• Developed two-dimensional water quality model for a multi-reservoir system using CEQUAL-W2
• Developed an integrated hydro-ecological model to calculate the minimum environmental
flow
Graduate Research Assistant
2006-2008
Water and Environment Research and Development Office, affiliated with University of Tehran
• Determined scenarios of future changes in hydrologic variables using statistical downscaling
of GCMs outputs
• Developed a catchment-scale rainfall-streamflow modelling to predict reservoir inflow
• Developed an optimization model for a reservoir operation in drought periods using hedging
rules
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PUBLICATIONS
Published Journal Papers
[J1] M. Karamouz ,S. Imen, S. Nazif, “Development of a Demand Driven Hydro-Climatic Model for
Drought Planning”, Journal of Water Resources Management, 26, pp. 329-357, DOI: 10.1007/s11269011-9920-0, 2012
[J2] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, B. Vannah, “Remote Sensing for Monitoring Surface Water Quality Status
and Ecosystem State in Relation to the Nutrient Cycle: A 40-Year Perspective”, Critical Reviews of
Environmental Science and Technology, 45, pp. 101-166, DOI: 10.1080/10643389.2013.829981, 2013
[J3] N.B. Chang, M. Valdez Vasquez, C.F. Chen, S. Imen, L. Mullon, “Global Nonlinear and
Nonstationary Climate Change Effects on Regional Precipitation and Forest Phenology in Panama,
Central America”, Hydrological Processes, 29, pp. 339-355, DOI: 10.1002/hyp.10151, 2014
[J4] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, Y.J. Yang, “Developing the Remote Sensing-Based Early Warning System
for Monitoring TSS Concentrations in Lake Mead”, Journal of Environmental Management, 60, pp. 7389, DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.06.003, 2015
[J5] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, Y.J. Yang, A. Golchubian, “Developing a Mode-Based Drinking Decision
Support System Featured by Remote Sensing and Fast Learning Techniques”, IEEE Systems Journal,
accepted for publication, 2015
[J6] N.B. Chang, K. Bai, S. Imen, C.F. Chen, W. Gao,“ Multi-Sensor Satellite Image
Fusion, Networking, and Cloud Removal for All-Weather Environmental Monitoring”, IEEE Systems
Journal, accepted for publication, 2015
Manuscripts Under Review or in Preparation
[J7] N.B. Chang, S. Imen , K. Bai, Y.J. Yang, “The Impact of Global Unknown Teleconnection Signals
on Terrestrial Precipitation Across North and Central America”, Journal of Climate, in review, 2015
[J8] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, “Multi-signals-based Drought Prediction with both Known and Unknown
Teleconnection Signals”, Journal of Hydrology, in review, 2015
[J9] C. Doña-Monzó, N.B. Chang, J.M. Sánchez-Tomás, J. Delegido-Gómez, A. Camacho-González, V.
Caselles-Miralles, S. Imen, “Multi-temporal Change Detection of Water Level, Temperature, and
Precipitation of Seasonal Lagoons in Central Spain with Remote Sensing”, Journal of Hydrology, in
review, 2015
[J10] S. Imen, L. Mullon, Y.J. Yang, N.B. Chang, “Forecasting Monthly Terrestrial Precipitation of the
Adirondack State Park by Teleconnection Signals”, to be submitted to Journal of Hydrology, in
preparation, 2015
Conference Papers and Presentations
[C1] M. Karamouz, S. Imen, S. Nazif, “Developing Statistical Downscaling Model for Forecasting
Precipitation for Operating the Ahar-Chay River Basin”, Proceeding of the 3rd International Civil
Conference, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, (In Persian), 2007, (Oral Presentation)
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[C2] M. Karamouz, S. Nazif., M. Fallahi, S. Imen, “Assessment of Uncertainty in Flood Forecasting:
Using Downscaled Rainfall Data”, Proceeding of the World Environmental and Water Resources
Congress, Tampa, Florida, pp. 1-12, doi:10.1061/40927(243)7, 2007, (Oral Presentation)
[C3] M. Karamouz, K. Rasouli, S. Nazif, S. Imen, “Developing the Pattern of Forecasting Severity and
Duration of Drought Periods: Case Study”, Proceeding of the 4th International Civil Engineering
Conference, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, (In Persian), 2008, (Oral Presentation)
[C4] M. Karamouz, S. Imen, A. Ahmadi, S. Nazif, “Development of an Algorithm for Contingency
Planning in Dry Period”, Proceeding of the 2008 World Environmental & Water Resources Institute
Congress, Honolulu, Hawaii, ASCE, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.1061/40976(316)603, 2008, (Oral Presentation)
[C5] M. Karamouz, S. Nazif, S. Imen, M. Fallahi, “Evaluation of Uncertainties in Long Lead Prediction
Using Large Scale Climate Signals”, Proceeding of the 2008 world Environmental & Water Resources
Congress, Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 1-8, doi:10.1061/40976(316)570, 2008, (Oral Presentation)
[C6] M. Karamouz, S. Imen, M. Sadeghi, “Impacts of Climate Change on Salinity, Proceeding of the
International Conference on Water, Ecosystems and Sustainable Development in Arid and Semi-Arid
Lands (WATARID), Yazd, Iran, 2009, (Oral Presentation)
[C7] S. Imen , S. Modabberi , M.S. Sadeghi, , M. Tofigh, P. Zojaji, “Development of an Algorithm to
Evaluate and Prioritize Structural and Non-Structural Strategies for Reducing River Pollution Using
Multiple Criteria Decision Making”, Proceeding of 4th International Prospective on Water Resources
and the Environment Conference (IPWE 2011), National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2011,
(Oral Presentation)
[C8] S. Imen, K. Madani, N.B. Chang, “Bringing Environmental Benefits into Caspian Sea
Negotiations for Resources Allocation: Cooperative Game Theory Insights”, Proceedings of the 2012
World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, Albuquerque, New Mexico, pp. 2264-2271,
doi: 10.1061/9780784412312.228, 2012, (Oral Presentation)
[C9] H. Rastgoftar, S. Imen, K. Madani, “Stochastic Fuzzy Assessment for Managing HydroEnvironmental Systems Under Uncertainty and Ambiguity”, Proceeding of the 2012 World
Environmental and Water Resources Congress, Albuquerque, New Mexico, pp. 2413-2421, doi:
10.1061/9780784412312.244, 2012, (Oral Presentation)
[C10] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, “Periodicity Analysis for Teleconnection Signal Propagation between Sea
Surface Temperature and Forest Greenness across North America”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 8869:
Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability VII Symposium at San Diego,
California, USA, August 26-28, 2013, (Oral Presentation)
[C11] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, J. Yang, “Exploring the Effect of Teleconnection Signal Propagation on
Terrestrial Precipitation in North America”, International Conferences on Water and Environment
Research (ICWRER) ICWRER conference, Koblenz, Germany, June 3-7, 2013, (Oral Presentation)
[C12] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, J. Yang, “Monitoring Spatiotemporal Total Organic Carbon
Concentrations in Lake Mead with Integrated Data Fusion and Mining (IDFM) Technique”, 11th
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International Conference on Hydroinformatics, New York, August 17-21, Paper 73, 2014, (Oral
Presentation)
[C13] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, J. Yang, “Precipitation Forecasting with Wavelet-Based Empirical
Orthogonal Function and Artificial Neural Network (WEOF-ANN) Model”, 11th International
Conference on Hydroinformatics, New York, August 17-21, Paper 74, 2014, (Oral Presentation)
[C14] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, L. Mullen, C.F. Chen, M. Valdez, and J. Yang, “Multisensor Analysis of
Teleconnection Signals in Relation to Terrestrial Precipitation and Forest Greenness in North and
Central America”, 11th IEEE Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control, (IEEE Systems, Man,
and Cybernetics Society), Miami, USA, pp. 649 – 654, doi: 10.1109/ICNSC.2014.6819702, April 7-9,
2014, (Oral Presentation)
[C15] L. Mullen, N.B. Chang, S. Imen, J. Yang, “Forecasting Precipitation from Multi-sensor
Remote Sensing Data using Wavelet-Based Artificial Neural Network Models”, 11th IEEE
Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control, (IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society),
Miami, USA, pp. 584-589, April 7-9, 2014, (Oral Presentation)
[C16] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, “Linkages Between Turbidity Levels in Lake Mead and Associated Forest
Fire Events in the Lower Virgin Watershed”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 8869: Remote Sensing and
Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability VII Symposium at San Diego, California, USA, August 1721, 2014, (Oral Presentation)
[C17] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, “Impact of Teleconnection Phenomena and Local Environmental Factors
on Forest Greenness in North and Central America”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 8869: Remote Sensing
and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability VII Symposium at San Diego, California, USA, August
17-21, 2014, (Oral Presentation)
[C18] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, J. Yang, “Spatiotemporal Monitoring of TOC Concentrations in Lake
Mead with a Near Real-Time Multi-Sensor Network”, IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man,
and Cybernetics (SMC), San Diego, CA, USA, pp. 3407-3412, doi:10.1109/SMC.2014.6974455,
October 6-9, 2014, (Oral Presentation)
[C19] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, K. Bai, “Impacts of Global Non-leading Teleconnection Signals on
Terrestrial Precipitation across the United States”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9610, Remote Sensing and
Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability XII, San Diego, CA , United States, doi:
10.1117/12.2185607 , September 4 2015, (Oral Presentation)
[C20] N.B. Chang, S. Imen, “Multi-Sensor Acquisition, Data Fusion, Criteria Mining and Alarm
Triggering for Decision Support in Urban Water Infrastructure Systems”, IEEE International
Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC 2015), Hong Kong, October 9-12, 2015, (Oral
Presentation)
[C21] J. Joyce, S. Imen, N.B. Chang, R. Harji, T. Ruppert, “Analyses for Adaptation of Drainage
Infrastructure in a Coastal Urban Watershed from Impacts of Long-term Precipitation Variability and
Sea Level Rise”, to be presented in the ASCE EWRI Annual Congress, West Palm Beach, FL, USA,
May 22-26, 2016
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[C22] S. Imen, N.B. Chang, “Developing a Cyber-Physical System for Smart and Sustainable Drinking
Water Infrastructure Management”, 2016 IEEE International Conference of Networking, Sensing, and
Control (ICNSC 2016), to be presented in the special session: Hybrid Machine Learning Approach in
Support of Big Data Analytics for Smart Environments, Mexico City, Mexico, April 28-30, 2016,
(Oral Presentation)
[C23] J. Joyce, S. Imen, N.B. Chang, R. Harji, T. Ruppert, “ Sustainable Drainage Infrastructure
Planning in a Coastal Urban Watershed under Long-term Precipitation Variability and Sea Level
Rise”, Submitted to the 7th International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research
(ICWRER 2016), Kyoto TERRSA, Kyoto, Japan, June 5-9, 2016
[C24] S. Imen, J. Joyce, N. B. Chang, R. Harji, T. Ruppert, “Copula Analysis for Risk Assessment of
Extreme Precipitation, Sea Level Rise and Storm Tide in a Coastal Watershed”, Submitted to the 7th
International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research (ICWRER2016), Kyoto
TERRSA, Kyoto, Japan, June 5-9, 2016
Book
Multi-sensor Image Fusion and Data Mining for Environmental Remote Sensing, by Ni-Bin
Chang, Sanaz Imen, and Kaixu Bai, in preparation, to be published by the CRC Press in 2017.
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES AND COMMUNITY SERVICES
• Reviewer
- Journal of Environmental Modeling and Assessment
- Journal of Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment
- International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
- International Journal of Ecological Informatics
- British Journal of Environment and Climate Change
- IEEE Systems Journal
- Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (JARS)
• Guest editor of JARS special section on remote sensing for investigating the coupled biogeophysical
and biogeochemical process of harmful algal blooms
• Organizing committee-Treasurer, 11th IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing, and
Control, Miami, FL, USA, (April 7-9, 2014 )
• Organizing committee, SPIE Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability
Symposium at San Diego, California, USA, (August 7-11, 2016)
TECHNICAL SKILLS
• Programming Languages: Fortran, MATLAB
• Technical Software Packages: MS Office (Excel, Word, Visio, Power Point)
• Professional Geographic Information Systems software Packages: ArcGIS , ILWIS
• Civil Engineering Software Packages: SAP90/2000, ETABS, SAFE.
• Graphic and Drafting: AutoCAD
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• Statistical Model: MINITAB
• Professional Environmental and water recourses planning and management software Packages:
• HEC-5, HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS, IHACRES, SDSM, Qual-2K, Qual-2E, CE-QUAL-W2, LINGO,
PCSWMM5, ICPR4
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
• American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE)
• Iranian Water Resource Association (IWRA)
• Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI)
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