Fadji Zaouna Maina is an Associate Research Scientist in the Hydrological Sciences Lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She received her Ph.D. in Hydrology in 2016 from the University of Strasbourg (France). Before joining NASA GSFC, Fadji had been working on the development of mathematical models to address water resources issues in California, France and Italy. Fadji uses high-performance computing and remote-sensing methods to understand the impacts of climate extremes and changes in land use and land cover on water resources.
Fadji Zaouna Maina
(ASSOCIATE RESEARCH SCIENTIST)
| Email: | fadjizaouna.maina@nasa.gov |
| Org Code: | 617 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 617 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: | UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE CO |
Brief Bio
Positions/Employment
Associate Research Scientist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Maryland Baltimore County - Greenbelt, MD
December 2021 - Present
Associate Earth Scientist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Universities Space Research Association - Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
August 2020 - November 2021
Postdoctoral Researcher
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Berkeley, California, USA
March 2018 - August 2020
Postdoctoral Researcher
Politecnico di Milano - Milan, Italy
February 2017 - March 2018
Postdoctoral Researcher
Laboratory of Hydrology and Geochemistry of Strasbourg, French National Center for Scientific Research - Strasbourg, France
October 2016 - January 2017
Graduate Research Assistant
French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission - Cadarache, France
October 2013 - September 2016
Education
Ph.D. in Hydrology, University of Strasbourg (France) 2013-2016
M.S. in Environmental Engineering, University of Strasbourg (France) 2011-2013
B.S. in Geological Engineering, University of Fes (Morocco) 2008-2011
Publications
Refereed
2024. "Irrigation-driven groundwater depletion in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin decreases the streamflow in the Bay of Bengal." Communications Earth & Environment 5 (1): 169 [10.1038/s43247-024-01348-0] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "An assessment of gridded precipitation products over High Mountain Asia." Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 52 101675 [10.1016/j.ejrh.2024.101675] [Journal Article/Letter]
2024. "Anthropogenic Influences Alter the Response and Seasonality of Evapotranspiration: A Case Study Over Two High Mountain Asia Basins." Geophysical Research Letters 51 (2): [10.1029/2023gl107182] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "The Role of Atmospheric Rivers on Groundwater: Lessons Learned From an Extreme Wet Year." Water Resources Research 59 (6): [10.1029/2022wr033061] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "Diverging Trends in Rain‐On‐Snow Over High Mountain Asia." Earth's Future 11 (3): [10.1029/2022ef003009] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Irrigation and warming drive the decreases in surface albedo over High Mountain Asia." Scientific Reports 12 (1): 16163 [10.1038/s41598-022-20564-2] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "On the similarity of hillslope hydrologic function: a clustering approach based on groundwater changes." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26 (14): 3805-3823 [10.5194/hess-26-3805-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Projecting end-of-century climate extremes and their impacts on the hydrology of a representative California watershed." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26 (13): 3589-3609 [10.5194/hess-26-3589-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Development and evaluation of ensemble consensus precipitation estimates over High Mountain Asia." Journal of Hydrometeorology [10.1175/jhm-d-21-0196.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Assessing the impacts of hydrodynamic parameter uncertainties on simulated evapotranspiration in a mountainous watershed." Journal of Hydrology 608 127620 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.127620] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "Warming, increase in precipitation, and irrigation enhance greening in High Mountain Asia." Communications Earth & Environment 3 (1): 43 [10.1038/s43247-022-00374-0] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Impact of multiple uncertainties on gravimetric variations across randomly heterogeneous aquifers during pumping." Advances in Water Resources 154 103978 [10.1016/j.advwatres.2021.103978] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Aquifer Depletion in the Arlit Mining Area (Tim Mersoï Basin, North Niger)." Water 13 (12): 1685 [10.3390/w13121685] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "Modeling geogenic and atmospheric nitrogen through the East River Watershed, Colorado Rocky Mountains." PLOS ONE 16 (3): e0247907 [10.1371/journal.pone.0247907] [Journal Article/Letter]
2021. "A mass-conservative predictor-corrector solution to the 1D Richards equation with adaptive time control." Journal of Hydrology 592 125809 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125809] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Sensitivity of meteorological-forcing resolution on hydrologic variables." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 24 (7): 3451-3474 [10.5194/hess-24-3451-2020] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "The Role of Subsurface Flow on Evapotranspiration: A Global Sensitivity Analysis." Water Resources Research 56 (7): [10.1029/2019wr026612] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Determining the impact of a severe dry to wet transition on watershed hydrodynamics in California, USA with an integrated hydrologic model." Journal of Hydrology 580 124358 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124358] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Avert catastrophe now in Africa’s Sahel." Nature 575 (7782): 282-286 [10.1038/d41586-019-03445-z] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Watersheds dynamics following wildfires: Nonlinear feedbacks and implications on hydrologic responses." Hydrological Processes 34 (1): 33-50 [10.1002/hyp.13568] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Benchmarking numerical codes for tracer transport with the aid of laboratory-scale experiments in 2D heterogeneous porous media." Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 212 55-64 [10.1016/j.jconhyd.2017.06.001] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "Uncertainty Quantification and Global Sensitivity Analysis of Subsurface Flow Parameters to Gravimetric Variations During Pumping Tests in Unconfined Aquifers." Water Resources Research 54 (1): 501-518 [10.1002/2017wr021655] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Estimating initial conditions for groundwater flow modeling using an adaptive inverse method." Journal of Hydrology 552 52-61 [10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.06.041] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Ross scheme, Newton–Raphson iterative methods and time-stepping strategies for solving the mixed form of Richards' equation." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 21 (6): 2667-2683 [10.5194/hess-21-2667-2017] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Groundwater flow parameter estimation using refinement and coarsening indicators for adaptive downscaling parameterization." Advances in Water Resources 100 139-152 [10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.12.013] [Journal Article/Letter]
Awards
- NASA GSFC Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Geophysics Peer Award for Scientific Achievement, 2023
- Listed among the 25 Outstanding African Women Scientists by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2022
- NASA GSFC Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Geophysics Peer Award for Scientific Achievement, 2021
- Listed among the African Women of the year 2020 by the New African Women, 2020
- Listed among the 100 most influential Africans, New African Magazine, a bestselling pan-African magazine, 2020
- Forbes 30 Under 30, Class of 2020
- Selected to present my research at the Science Translator Showcase at the California State Capitol, 2020
- Top downloaded paper, 2020, Hydrological Sciences Journal
- Science SLAM finalist at Berkeley Lab, 2019, link to the video
- Rising Star in Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, 2019
- Rising Star in Hydrology, Gordon Research Conference, 2019
- Kepler Award for the University of Strasbourg’ best PhD Thesis in Science and Engineering, 2017
- Recipient of the French government excellence scholarship, 2012-2013
- Recipient of the Moroccan government excellence scholarship, 2008-2011
Talks, Presentations and Posters
Invited
The impacts of climate change and human management on the hydrology of High Mountain Asia
April 2024
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Providing transboundary solutions through innovative products overcoming the challenges of data sharing
September 2023
World Water Week, online & Stockholm, Sweden
Satellite observations reveal the responses of Asian water towers to a changing climate and agricultural activities
2023
Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
The impacts of a changing climate and human activities on the hydrology of High Mountain Asia
2023
Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA
Rain-on-snow events over High Mountain Asia
2022
AGU Fall Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Disentangling the impacts of anthropogenic activities and changing climate on the land surface processes in High Mountain Asia
2022
AGU Fall Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA
On the use of space technology to tackle water scarcity issues
2022
The Africa Aerospace and Defense Exhibition, Pretoria South Africa
On the 21st century techniques to boost the achievement of groundwater related SDG targets
2022
International Conference "Groundwater, key to the Sustainable Development Goals", Paris France
How does California’s new normal shape its hydrology?
2021
Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
Understanding the impacts of wildfires on water supply in California
2020
AGU fall meeting, San Francisco, California, USA
Feedbacks between evapotranspiration and subsurface flow: a global sensitivity analysis
2020
SIAM Uncertainty Quantification 2020, Munich, Germany
How do wildfires impact water supply in California?”,
2020
Midday Science Café, Berkeley, California, USA
Understanding the impacts of a changing climate on water supply in California
2020
Summer Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Understanding the impacts of a changing climate on water supply in California
2020
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylania, USA
Calibrating an integrated hydrologic model using hydraulic heads
2018
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, USA
Adaptive downscaling parameterization for inverse models
2016
CEA Cadarache
Estimation of groundwater recharge by inversion
2016
University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Other
Professional Service
- Editor for HESS, 2023 – present
- Associate Editor for Scientific Report, 2023 – present
- Jury Member of the UNESCO-Al Fozan Prize for the Promotion of Young Scientists in STEM, appointed by the UNESCO Director-General, 2022-present
- NSF Career panelist for grant reviews (2022, 2023)
- NASA ROSES panelist for grant reviews (2020, 2023)
- User Working Group Member of NSIDC, 2021 - present
- Member of AMS hydrology committee, 2021 - present
- Editor for PloS Water, 2021 – present
- Associate editor for frontiers in climate, frontiers in water, and hydrogeology journal, 2021 - present
- Reviewer for NSF Career proposals (2020-present)
- Reviewer for Nature Sustainability, Nature Communications, the Journal of Hydrology, Water Resources Research, Hydrology Earth and System Sciences, Geophysical Research Letter, JAMES, AMBIO, Hydrogeology Journal, Hydrological Sciences, Journal of Hydrometeorology, Communication Earth and Environment, One Earth, and MDPI journals
Professional Societies
American Geophysical Union
2018 - Present
American Meteorological Society
2021 - Present
Special Experience
- Panelist at the high-level ministerial event “Elevating the Climate-Land-Nature-Drought-Nexus, from Climate COP28 to Land COP16” organized by UNCCD IDRA (International Drought Resilience Alliance) at the COP28, 2023, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
- Panelist at UNESCO’s conference, Euro-Africa Water Days, 2023, Montpellier, France
- Led a 9-month mentoring program for Nigerien PhD students and postdocs, 2023-present
- Selected by the magazine Forbes to attend Reality Women, a leadership training for influential and
- inspiring women recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, 2022
- Attended the Forbes 30/50 Women Summit, 2022, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Invited to the Sahelian concertation organized by OCDE Sahel Club, 2021, Niamey, Niger
- Invited to a high-level panel on renewable energies in the Sahel by the United Nations Development
- Programme UNDP Senegal, 2021, online
- Invited to discuss girls’ education with the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, 2020,
- Niamey, Niger
- Attended the National Postdoc Association meeting, 2019, Orlando, Florida, USA
- Participated in the DWR workshop and summit “Planning For Change”, 2019, Tahoe City, California,
- USA