Dr. Young Gu Her

Associate Professor – Hydrology & Agricultural Engineering

Dr. Young Gu Her is a hydrologist and agricultural engineer working as an associate professor at the Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, FL. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Civil Engineering at Seoul National University. In 2011, he graduated from Virginia Tech with a Ph.D. degree in Biological Systems Engineering. His Ph.D. study has concentrated on the development of a new grid-based two-dimensional hydrological model capable of explicitly describing watershed process dynamics. Recent research includes (1) evaluating the effectiveness of conservation practices, such as no-till, filter strip, crop rotation, cover crop, and fertilizer management practices, in reducing sediment and nutrient loadings, (2) developing a model to simulate low impact development practices including a green roof, rain garden, cistern, and porous pavement, (3) developing computational techniques for improved efficiency of hydrologic simulation, and (4) assessing climate change impacts on hydrological processes and water resources. He also has been involved in simulating the flood discharge and volume of stormwater for detention basin design and monitoring the hydrological processes of agricultural watersheds, including streamflow, groundwater, and water quality parameters. His current research is focusing on developing a simulation tool capable of providing a holistic view of climate change and sea level rise impacts on South Florida’s agriculture and water resources. His long-term research interests lie in enhancing our ability to manage agricultural crop production and natural resources in sustainable ways by (1) developing unified fine-resolution large-scale (U.F.L.) simulation tools that facilitate integrated hydrological modeling and spatially consistent decision making and (2) creating new scientific knowledge that helps us better understand hydrological processes under projected changes in climate and sea level.

• Research Interests
  • Unified fine-resolution large-scale (UFL) hydrological modeling
  • Climate change and sea-level rise impact assessment and adaptation strategy development
  • Effectiveness assessment and spatial optimization of agricultural conservation (or best management) practices (BMPs) and low impact development (LID or green infrastructure) practices
  • Quantification of uncertainty in hydrological modeling
  • Agricultural flood and drought forecasting and prediction
  • Geospatial analysis of landscape and weather patterns
  • Advanced computing techniques for improved modeling efficiency​

• Education
  • Ph.D. Hydrology, Virginia Tech, 2006-2011
    Department of Biological Systems Engineering (Land and Water Division)
    Dissertation: HYSTAR-Hydrology and Sediment Transport Simulation using Time-Area Method
  • M.S. Agricultural Civil Engineering, Seoul National University, 2000-2002
    Thesis: Application of a GIS-based Soil Loss Estimation System
  • B.S.  Agricultural Civil Engineering, Seoul National University, 1995-2000
    Secondary Major: GSCR-Graduate Certificate Program (Secondary College: Interdiscipinary)
    Concentration: GITC-Geospatial Information Technology Certificate
• Publications
  • Dr. Young Gu Her's Google Scholar
  • Dr. Young Gu Her's ResearchGate

  Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications (from 2015)

  • Her, Y., J. Jeong, J. Arnold, and R. Srinivasan, Implications of conceptual channel representation on SWAT streamflow and sediment modeling, Journal of the American Water Resources Association, Accepted.
  • Her, Y., I. Chaubey, J. Frankenberger, and J. Jeong, Implications of spatial and temporal variation in effects of conservation practices on water management strategy, Agricultural Water Management, In Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.07.004.
  • Wang, R., L. C. Bowing, K. A. Cherkauer, C. Raj, Y. Her, and I. Chaubey, Biophysical and hydrological effects of future climate change including trends in CO2, in the St. Joseph River watershed, Eastern Corn Belt, Agricultural Water Management, In Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.09.017.
  • Cho, J., D., Y. Her, and D. Bosch, Sensitivity of simulated conservation practice effectiveness to representation of field and in-stream processes in the Little River watershed, Environmental Modeling and Assessment, In Press. doi: 10.1007/s10666-016-9530-6.
  • Her, Y., and C. D. Heatwole (2016), Comparing impacts of parameter and spatial data uncertainty for a grid-based distributed watershed model, Journal of Hydroinformatics 18(6), 961-974. doi: 10.2166/hydro.2016.003.
  • Kang, M. S., P. Srivastava, J. H. Song, J. Park, Y. Her, S. M. Kim, and I. Song (2016), Development of a component-based modeling framework for agricultural water-resource management, Water 8(8), 351. doi:10.3390/w8080351.
  • Her, Y., I. Chaubey, and J. Frankenberger (2016), Effect of conservation practices implementation by USDA programs at field and watershed scales, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 71(3), 249-266. doi: 10.2489/jswc.71.3.249.
  • Her, Y., and C. D. Heatwole (2016), HYSTAR sediment model: Distributed two-dimensional simulation of watershed erosion and sediment transport using time-area routing, Journal of the American Water Resources Association 52(2), 376-396. doi: 10.1111/1752-1688.12396.
  • Her, Y., and C. Heatwole (2016), Two-dimensional continuous simulation of spatiotemporally varied hydrological processes using the time-area method, Hydrological Processes 30(5), 751-770. doi: 10.1002/hyp.10644.
  • Her, Y., C. Seong, J. Jeong (2016), Alternative CN averaging methods for unbiased direct runoff depth estimation: Quadratic averaging and exact methods, Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 142(6), doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0001021, 06016004.
  • Her, Y., and I. Chaubey (2015), Impact of the numbers of observations and calibration parameters on equifinality, model performance, and output and parameter uncertainty, Hydrological Processes 29(19), 4220-4237, doi: 10.1002/hyp.10487.
  • Her, Y., C. D. Heatwole, and M. S. Kang (2015), Interpolating SRTM elevation data to a higher resolution to improve hydrologic analysis, Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 51(4): 1072-1087, doi: 10.1111/jawr.12287.
  • Feng, Q., I. Chaubey, Y. Her, R. Cibin, B. Engel, J. Volenec, and X. Wang (2015), Hydrologic/water quality impacts and biomass production potential on marginal land, Environmental Modeling and Software 72, 230-238. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.07.004
  • Her, Y., J. Frankenberger, I. Chaubey, and R. Srinivasan (2015), Threshold effects in HRU definition of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, Transactions of ASABE 58(2): 367-378, doi: 10.13031/trans.58.10805.
  • Seong, C. H., Y. Her, and B. L. Benham (2015), Automatic calibration tool for Hydrologic Simulation Program – FORTRAN using Shuffled Complex Evolution algorithm, Water 7(2), 503-527. doi:10.3390/w7020503.
  • Her, Y., I. Chaubey., and C. Raj (2015), Application of parallel computing methods for improving efficiency of optimization in hydrologic and water quality modeling, Advanced Engineering in Agriculture 31(3), 455-468. doi: 10.13031/aea.31.10905.
  • Her, Y., and S. Hwang (2015), Evaluating applicability of sediment transport capacity equations through sensitivity analysis, Journal of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers 57(6), 79-90. doi: 10.5389/KSAE.2015.57.6.079.
  • Her, Y (2015), Evaluating hydrologic behavior of Hydrology Simulation using Time Area (HYSTAR) model through sensitivity analysis, Journal of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers 57(3), 41-54. doi: 10.5389/KSAE.2015.57.3.041.
  • Cho, J., Y. Her, and D. Bosch (2015), Assessing applicability of SWAT calibrated at multiple spatial scales from field to stream, Journal of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers 57(3), 21-39. doi: 10.5389/KSAE.2015.57.3.021.
• Awards and Honors
  • Outstanding Reviewer for the Natural Resources & Environmental System (NRES) community of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)
  • 2017 IFAS Early Career Scientist Seed Fund Awarded