Wenhui Hu

Email: wh339@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-4992
Office: B62 Riley Robb Hall
Advisor: Tammo Steenhuis
Degree Program: PhD (will be awarded by China Agricultural University)
Curriculum Vitae: Curriculum Vitae

Background

I came from China Agricultural University in Beijing, China. This is my third year of PhD study majoring Agricultural Water and Soil Engineering. I came to Cornell University as a visiting fellow supported by Chinese Scholarship Council in August 2011 and plan to stay here for 14 months..

My Current Research Projects and Interests

Modeling surface and subsurface hydrology and Transport of agriculture non-point source pollutants in plain irrigation district of North China with Hydrological Models

My research area is mainly about surface and subsurface hydrology and pollutant transport, and watershed modelling. I am doing the Program of the Ministry of Water Resources of China (Grant No. 200901083), which related with the surface and subsurface hydrology and pollutant transport in intensive cropping areas of North China. After data collection, field survey and distributed hydrologic models (SWAT and AnnAGNPS) construction, I have got some results and three related papers have been published.

At Cornell University I will continue to work on contaminant transport in irrigation districts. My main objectives are: (1). Apply Hydrological Models such as SWAT and AnnAGNPS to the Irrigation Areas in China; Access and compare the models, find out which model is more suitable; (2). Assess the quantity and spatiotemporal distribution of the main agricultural non-point source pollutants in district areas; (3). Find out laws of movement and transformation of agricultural non-point source pollutants.

The SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model and the AnnAGNPS (Annualized Agricultural Nonpoint Source) model are models that are currently in use. The SWAT model is a semi distributed hydrology model developed by the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). It is used to evaluate the effect of human activities on rainfall-runoff processes, sediment transport, and non-point source pollution. The AnnAGNPS model developed by scientists at USDA-ARS and Natural Resources Conservation Service NRCS, is a continuous simulation, daily time step, and physically based model, is designed to aid in the evaluation of watershed response to agricultural management. These models are widely used in the USA, Australia, Hawaii, etc., and recently employed in Southern China.