Siamak Malakpour Estalaki
PhD Candidate
I am a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Delaware and a member of the Water Intelligence Lab. My research focuses on environmental and water-resources modeling, with an emphasis on hydrologic modeling, water quality, geospatial analysis, and machine learning. I work on agricultural non-point source pollution — including land-cover change analysis, runoff prediction, nutrient-load modeling, and agent-based modeling of conservation-practice adoption. Before Delaware, I earned an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Civil Engineering, with research experience in surface water, groundwater, stormwater management, and river water quality.
Selected publications
Education
- PhD Geography, University of Delaware, 2026 (expected)
- MS Environmental Engineering, University of Tehran, 2010
- BS Civil Engineering, University of Guilan, 2008
Currently working on
- Hybrid Modeling for Fine-Scale Runoff Prediction
Combining physically-based hydrology with machine learning to improve edge-of-field and watershed-scale runoff and risk prediction.
- Agent-Based Modeling for Conservation Practice Adoption
Agent-based models coupled with nutrient-load modeling to simulate how farmers adopt best management practices under different policy and information scenarios.
- Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution Risk Modeling
Geospatial analysis, hydrologic modeling, and machine learning to quantify how land-use and climate change drive non-point source pollution risk.
Past projects
Publications (2)
- A methodological framework for improving the performance of data-driven models
Y. Hu, C. Ghosh, S. Malakpour-Estalaki · Geoscientific Model Development, 16(7), 1925–1936 · 2023
- Generalization of Runoff Risk Prediction
C. M. Ford, Y. Hu, C. Ghosh, L. M. Fry, S. Malakpour-Estalaki, L. Mason · Geophysical Research Letters, e2022GL100667 · 2022


