Group News
Research advances, partnerships and people from the Coupled Ocean Modeling Group.
2026
ARBC supports expansion of water-level forecasting
September 10, 2026 | Regional partnership
The Amite River Basin Commission approved collaboration with LSU, including an effort led by Z. George Xue to extend operational water-level forecasting to parts of the basin with limited real-time river observations. The partnership supports the use of better data and forecasting tools for regional flood-risk reduction.
Read ARBC's announcement on flood-risk reduction and LSU collaboration
EcoCARE receives a $4 million NSF award for coastal wetland research
September 1, 2026 | Research funding
LSU and the University of Rhode Island are collaborating on EcoCARE, a $4 million NSF project connecting coastal modeling, artificial intelligence, wetland ecology and economic valuation. COMG member Xiaochen Zhao leads the LSU effort. The project builds on research including GAm-CHFS and Prediction-to-Map; the award amount covers the full multi-institution project.
Read LSU's EcoCARE award announcement
Advancing Louisiana's high-frequency radar ocean observing network
July 2, 2026 | Collaborative research
LSU reported progress in high-frequency radar testing along Louisiana's coast and plans to extend ocean observations offshore. Z. George Xue is part of the leadership team for the NOAA-supported statewide radar network, which will provide ocean-current observations for coastal science, safety and resilience.
Read LSU's report on Louisiana's ocean observing network
Partnering with Ascension Parish on AI-powered flood forecasting
June 9, 2026 | Community application
Z. George Xue and the team are working with Ascension Parish Government to combine drainage observations, weather forecasts and AI in a local water-level forecasting pilot. LSU's feature includes group member Muhamad Farid Geonova and the development of forecasts for the next 24 hours.
Read LSU's Ascension Parish project feature
Read the June 23 coverage in Baton Rouge Business Report
Coastal science connects digital twins with disaster-loss reduction
May 26, 2026 | Research in context
An LSU feature on coastal science and insurance risk highlights Xue's work on digital twins and AI-driven forecasting alongside research across the College of the Coast & Environment. The article explores how improved preparedness and infrastructure planning could reduce future disaster losses.
Read LSU's feature on coastal science and disaster losses
2025
George Xue discusses the future of coastal monitoring and resilience
December 8, 2025 | Research interview
In LSU Research Insights, Xue discusses emerging opportunities for hybrid numerical-AI forecasts, coastal digital twins and community-focused early warning. The interview looks ahead to the field's next one to five years and the data and forecasting challenges that remain.
Read George Xue's LSU Research Insights interview
Farid Geonova's coupled-model research featured ahead of AGU
December 8, 2025 | Student research
LSU's preview of the AGU Annual Meeting features COMG master's student M. Farid Geonova. His work uses coupled ocean, wave and hydrology modeling to investigate hurricane-driven water levels, waves and compound flooding in Louisiana's coastal wetlands.
Read LSU's AGU student research spotlight
NOAA IOOS highlights the group's AI-enhanced compound flood research
October 2025 | National research coverage
The NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System newsletter highlights COMG's collaboration with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, supported by the Coastal and Ocean Modeling Testbed program. The feature describes the hybrid numerical-AI approach to compound flooding and links to coverage of the research.
Read the October 2025 NOAA IOOS newsletter
AI-enhanced model delivers daily coastal hypoxia forecasts
September 4, 2025 | Research advance
Z. George Xue, Yanda Ou, Supratik Mukhopadhyay and collaborators developed a model combining mechanistic simulations and AI to forecast northern Gulf hypoxia over a 72-hour horizon. LSU's feature explains how the lightweight approach makes daily forecasts more accessible.
Read LSU's feature on AI-enhanced hypoxia forecasting
Prediction-to-Map accelerates compound flood prediction
July 30, 2025 | Research advance
LSU featured the Prediction-to-Map framework developed by Xue, Daoyang Bao and collaborators. By combining numerical-model information, observations and machine learning, the approach rapidly produces spatial flood predictions and supports research toward more useful coastal warnings.
Read LSU's Prediction-to-Map research feature
2024
January
- Welcome new master student Farid joining our group in new Spring 2024!
2023
September
- As a co-PI, Dr. Zhao participates in a newly NSF-funded project to build a shared data storage system, "Tiger Den", for researchers at LSU and other universities across Louisiana. This is covered by local media highlighting its statewide service. Dr. Xue also contributed to the proposal.
The new data storage system will help us to improve our operational forecast system and manage large volume data.
August
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New undergraduate researcher, Kendyll Bullock, joined our group this fall. Welcome! Kendyll is a junior student in CC&E majoring in Coastal Environment Science and she is interested in water movement and carbon sequestration.
- We have a new Ph.D. student, Ziyan Lei, joining our group in Fall 2023. Welcome!! Ziyan's research will focus on marine and coastal sediment dynamics in the Mississippi River Delta Region.
- Our group has two oral presentations in the 14th Annual Louisiana Water Conference (LAWater) held in Baton Rouge (August 2nd-3rd). We introduced our river operational forecast system (https://flood.lsu.edu/ ) and novel coupled ocean-river model for coastal flooding simulations, attracting audiences' interests.
June
- Our group attended the State of the Coast Conference (SOC) held in New Orleans from May 31st - June 2nd. We have six abstracts (4 oral and 2 poster) presented during this largest statewide conference to audiences with diverse backgrounds and interests. Ph.D. student Daoyang's work was highlighted by LSU_CCE.
April
- Dr. Xue talked about coastal modeling to Baton Rouge community leaders as part of an LSU showcase
- Ph.D. student Ogooluwa Adeagbo served as a volunteer mentor as part of the LSU EnvironMentors (EM) program. His high school student protege, Treasure Hawkins from Scotlandville Magnet High School, won the 2nd place award and the Distinguished Project award in the 2023 LSU Discover Undergraduate Research program for the high school category. Congratulations! ! They will go to DC for the EnvironMentors National Science Fair and Award Ceremony in June 2023.
- Dr. Xiaochen Zhao was selected as the 2022 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Emerging Scholars as one of five selected LSU scholars. She said the yearlong group meetings led by the LSU Graduate School tremendously helped the scholars prepare for future careers in higher education. She also attended the SEC Emerging Scholars Program workshop held at the University of Missouri in last September.
March
- Our group host a virtual boat ride and coastal tour for kindergarteners from the LSU Lab School. Students also visited DOCS labs. (03/22/2023)
- Dr. Xue is named the latest Rainmaker (mid-career). Congratulations!
- Dr. Xue and Dr. Zang’s hurricane forecast research was featured on LSU news.
February
- Dr. Xue was interviewed by NPR- Baton Rouge/ New Orleans about the new compound flood model development.
LSU launches new modeling system to better predict flooding after hurricanes
January
- Dr. Zhengchen Zang officially joins group as a research assistant professor. Welcome!
- Dr. Yanda Ou starts his new career journey as a postdoc. Congratulations and Welcome!
2022
December
- New research paper led by Ph.D. student Daoyang Bao was published on Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. This work used a unique coupled computer modeling approach to accurately recreate the coastal flooding that occurred during Hurricane Florence, demonstrating that it is more accurate than traditional modeling approaches.
Coupled computer modeling can help more accurately predict coastal flooding, study demonstrates
October
- Dr. Xue will lead a newly funded project to study the impact of severe weather events on the coastal wetlands and estuaries in Louisiana and Texas. This 3-year grant from NASA will support the collaboration among research teams from LSU, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and East Carolina University.
Dr. Xue's team will deploy a novel coupled modeling approach to gaining a more holistic view of the western portion of the Gulf.
Resistance and Resilience: The Impact of Weather Disturbances on the Louisiana and
Texas Coast
- Yanda successfully defended his dissertation on Oct 10. Congratulation, Dr. Ou!
September
- Dr. Xiaochen Zhao attended the 2022 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Emerging Scholars
Program held at the University of Missouri as one of five selected LSU scholars.
March
- Dongxiao successfully defended his dissertation on March 23rd. Congratulation, Dr.
Yin!
January
- LSU President, Provost, and the Chancellors of the LSU system visited our group on Jan 12th. The university leadership was impressed by the work accomplished at the Coupled Modeling Group!
- Two new Ph.D. students, Yixuan Wang and Ogooluwa Adeagbo, are joining our group in Jan 2022. Welcome!
- Dr. Xiaochen Zhao joins Coupled Ocean Modeling Group as a postdoc researcher. Welcome!
2021
December
The Coupled Ocean Modeling Group is attending AGU 2021 in NOLA. We have six presentations and posters to present
- OS15C-0984: The Hydrodynamic and Biochemical Impacts on the Variability of Bottom Dissolved Oxygen Concentration in the Louisiana-Texas Shelf by Yanda Ou
- B33A-02: Mass Boundary Layer-based Gas Transfer Velocity Parameterization for Air-Sea CO2 Flux Estimation of Coastal Waters by Le Zhang
- B35E-1481: Assess the Performance of WRF-VPRM in the North America Coastal Ocean with Impact from a River-Dominated Shelf System by Pengfei Wang
- H45N-1338: A Numerical Investigation of the Nonlinear Effects between River and Ocean Forcing during a Hurricane-induced Compound Flooding Event by Daoyang Bao
- H45O-1347: A Numerical Investigation of Sediment Dynamics over the Cape Fear River basin during Hurricane Florence by Dongxiao Yin
- H55U-0973: Assessing hydro- and sediment dynamics of hurricane-induced compound flooding
using a dynamically coupled ocean-river modeling suite by Z. George Xue
November
- LSU President, Dr. William Tate IV visited our group as part of his tour of the College of Coastal Environment
October
- Dr. Xue is featured on LSU's Homepage as "Coastal Champion" in October 2021
- One of our research funded by NASA and LA Board of Regents is featured on LSU Research Magazine
The Delta Breathes: Mapping Carbon Along The Muddy Mississippi