Dr. Hamed Moftakhari – College of Engineering

Associate Professor

Center for Complex Hydrosystems Research, Center for Sustainable Infrastructure, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

1068 Cyber Hall
(205) 348-0239
(205) 348-0783
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Education

Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, Portland State University, 2015
M.S., Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 2010
B.S., Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, 2007

Biography

Dr. Hamed Moftakhari is an assistant professor at the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, in The University of Alabama.

His research interests are in the area of coastal hydrology, and involves multi-hazard risk analysis, management and modeling, and integrated coastal/estuarine hydrodynamic modeling. He explores how the interaction between inland hydrologic processes and coastal ocean processes would affect resources such as food, energy and water in the low-lying coastal regions, and how the response of affected communities would mitigate/intensify the impacts. His research is mainly focused on two categories of processes: i) extreme events with multiple underlying drivers, and ii) minor repetitive events (i.e. nuisance flooding) which their chronic impacts would pose considerable cumulative costs over time. His research sheds light on the projected risk associated with compounding effects of natural hazards due to human activities and sea level rise.

Dr. Moftakhari is an associate editor at Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (ASCE), and an editorial board member of Scientific Reports (Nature). He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award in 2023, National Academies’ Early-Career Research Fellowship in 2020, Cronin Award – Early Achievement from Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation in 2020 and Maseeh Graduate Fellowship in 2012. Dr. Moftakhari is a registered professional engineer in the State of Alabama (No. 40515-E).

Honors and Awards

CAREER award, National Science Foundation (9/2023 – 8/2027)
Early-Career Research Fellowship, National Academies (9/2020 – 8/2022)
Cronin Award – Early Achievement, Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (2021)
Early Career Research Excellence and Innovation award, College of Engineering, The University of Alabama (2023)
Faculty Excellence in Graduate Education award, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, The University of Alabama (2023)
Early-Career Faculty Fellowship, Alabama Water Institute (8/2022 – 8/2025)

Areas of Research

Latest Publications

Boumis, G., Moftakhari, H. R., Moradkhani, H. (2023). Storm surge hazard estimation along the US Gulf Coast: A Bayesian hierarchical approach. Coastal Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2023.104371.
Boumis, G., Moftakhari, H. R., Moradkhani, H. (2023). Coevolution of extreme sea levels and sea-level rise under global warming. Earth’s Future, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003649.
Hamidi, E., Peter, B.G., Muñoz, D. F., Moftakhari, H. R. ,and Moradkhani, H. (2023). Fast flood extent monitoring with SAR change detection using Google Earth Engine. IEEE Trans. on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2023.3240097.
Muñoz, D. F., Abbaszadeh, P., Moftakhari, H. R., & Moradkhani, H. (2022). Accounting for Uncertainties in Compound Flood Hazard Assessment: The Value of Data Assimilation. Coastal Engineering, 171, 104057, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2021.104057.
Muñoz, D. F., Muñoz, P., Moftakhari, H. R., & Moradkhani, H. (2021). From Local to Regional Compound Flood Mapping with Deep Learning and Data Fusion Techniques. Science of the Total Environment, 782, 146927, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146927.