Guta W. Abeshu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Water Resources Engineering

Lab Website

https://hydrosystems-intelligence-lab.github.io/

Education

  • Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Houston, 2022
  • MAS, Sustainable Water Resources, ETH Zurich, 2015
  • M.Sc., Water Resources Engineering and Management, Addis Ababa University, 2013
  • B.Sc., Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering, Arba Minch University, 2009

Professional History

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, August 2026–Present
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, 2024–2026
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, 2022–2023
  • Lecturer, Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia, 2009–2011

Research Interests

  • Computational hydrology and large-scale hydrologic modeling
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning for water resources
  • Hydroinformatics and data-driven hydrologic prediction
  • Climate–water–infrastructure interactions
  • Hydrologic extremes, including floods and droughts
  • Reservoir, lake, and river-system modeling
  • Ecohydrology and coupled water–vegetation dynamics
  • Human–Earth systems and sustainable water resources management

Select Publications

Abeshu, G. W., Li, H.-Y., Shi, M., and Leung, L. R. (2025). “Causal relationships of vegetation productivity with root zone water availability and atmospheric dryness at the catchment scale.” Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.

Abeshu, G. W., Li, H.-Y., Shi, M., Brookshire, J., Tang, J., Xu, C., McDowell, N., and Leung, L. R. (2024). “Generalized Relationship Linking Water Balance and Vegetation Productivity across Site-to-Regional Scales.” Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.

Abeshu, G. W., Tian, F., Wild, T., Zhao, M., Turner, S., Chowdhury, A. F. M. K., Vernon, C. R., Hu, H., Zhuang, Y., Hejazi, M., and Li, H.-Y. (2023). “Enhancing the representation of water management in global hydrological models.” Geoscientific Model Development, 16, 5449–5472.

Abeshu, G. W., Li, H.-Y., Zhu, Z., Tan, Z., Leung, L. R., and others (2022). “Median bed-material sediment particle size across rivers in the contiguous United States.” Earth System Science Data, 14, 929–942.

Abeshu, G. W., and Li, H.-Y. (2021). “Horton Index: Conceptual Framework for Exploring Multi-Scale Links Between Catchment Water Balance and Vegetation Dynamics.” Water Resources Research, 57.