Publications

Selected Publications & Talks

• Liao, C., Darren Engwirda, Donghui Xu, Tian Zhou, Zeli Tan, L. Ruby Leung. An unstructured Voronoi mesh framework for large-scale hydrologic and land surface models. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. [Accepted]

• Liao, C., Donghui Xu, G Cooper, M, Tian Zhou, Darren Engwirda, Gautam Bisht, Hong-yi Li, Lingcheng Li, Dongyu Feng, L Ruby Leung.  Evaluation of flow routing on the unstructured Voronoi meshes in Earth system modeling. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024MS004737.

• Liao, C., Engwirda, D., Cooper, M., Li, M., and Fang, Y.: Discrete Global Grid System-based Flow Routing Datasets in the Amazon and Yukon Basins, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2035-2025, 2025.

• Liao, C. et al. (2023). pyflowline: a mesh-independent river network generator for hydrologic models. Journal of Open Source Software, 8(91), 5446, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.05446

• Liao, C., Zhou, T., Xu, D., Tan, Z., Bisht, G., Cooper, M. G., et al. (2023). Topological relationship-based flow direction modeling: Stream burning and depression filling. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15, e2022MS003487. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003487

• Liao, C., Zhou, T., Xu, D., Cooper, M. G., Engwirda, D., Li, H.-Y., & Leung, L. R. (2023). Topological relationship-based flow direction modeling: Mesh-independent river networks representation. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15, e2022MS003089. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003089

• Liao, C., Tian Zhou, Donghui Xu, Richard Barnes, Gautam Bisht, Hong-Yi Li, Zeli Tan, Teklu Tesfa, Zhuoran Duan, Darren Engwirda, L. Ruby Leung. Advances in hexagon mesh-based flow direction modeling, Advances in Water Resources, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2021.104099

• Liao, C., Tesfa, T., Duan, Z., & Leung, L. R. (2020). Watershed delineation on a hexagonal mesh grid. Environmental Modelling & Software, 104702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104702

Publications using HexWatershed products

• Lingcheng Li, Gautam Bisht, Donghui Xu, Dalei Hao, Liao, C., Dongyu Feng, Zeli Tan, Hongyi Li, Mingjie Shi, Tian Zhou, L. Ruby Leung. Systematic evaluation of atmospheric forcing, surface datasets, and mesh effects on kilometer-scale land surface and river modeling. Journal of Hydrology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.135500

• Feng, D., Tan, Z., Engwirda, D., Wolfe, J. D., Xu, D., Liao, C., Bisht, G., Benedict, J. J., Zhou, T., Deb, M., Li, H.-Y., and Leung, L. R.: Disentangling atmospheric, hydrological, and coupling uncertainties in compound flood modeling within a coupled Earth system model, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 3619–3639, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-3619-2025, 2025.

• Liao, C., Leung, L. R., Fang, Y., Tesfa, T., and Negron-Juarez, R.: Representing lateral groundwater flow from land to river in Earth system models, Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4601–4624, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4601-2025, 2025. 

• Feng, D., Tan, Z., Engwirda, D., Wolfe, J. D., Xu, D., Liao, C., et al. (2024). Simulation of compound flooding using river-ocean two-way coupled E3SM ensemble on variable-resolution meshes. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 16, e2023MS004054. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS004054 

• Feng, D., Tan, Z., Engwirda, D., Liao, C., Xu, D., Bisht, G., Zhou, T., Li, H.-Y., and Leung, L. R.: Investigating coastal backwater effects and flooding in the coastal zone using a global river transport model on an unstructured mesh, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 5473–5491, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-5473-2022, 2022.