George Allen
· Associate Professor of Hydrology and Remote SensingVirginia Tech · Geosciences
Active 1916–2026
Academic metrics are sourced from OpenAlex and public funding records; values may differ from Google Scholar.
About
George Allen is an Associate Professor of Hydrology and Remote Sensing at Virginia Tech, based in the Department of Geosciences. His research utilizes satellites to study Earth’s freshwater resources on a global scale. His group applies various remote sensing data, including multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal, radar, and lidar, to understand the movement of water and other materials through rivers, lakes, and wetlands. In addition to remote sensing, he employs field methods, computer models, and sensor data to investigate how these water bodies and their geomorphology are being altered by land use and climate change. His work is driven by a desire to promote the conservation, sustainable management, and understanding of Earth's surface water resources.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Environmental science
- Geology
- Geography
- Ecology
- Meteorology
- Climatology
- Cartography
- Biology
- Physical geography
Selected publications
Global methane budget 2000--2020
ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) · 2025-05-09 · 218 citations
articleOpen accessUnderstanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. CH4 is the second most important human-influenced greenhouse gas in terms of climate forcing after carbon dioxide (CO2), and both emissions and atmospheric concentrations of CH4 have continued to increase since 2007 after a temporary pause. The relative importance of CH4 emissions compared to those of CO2 for temperature change is related to its shorter atmosphe…
A First Look at River Discharge Estimation From SWOT Satellite Observations
Geophysical Research Letters · 2025-05-03 · 36 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite has the potential to transform global hydrologic science by offering simultaneous and synoptic estimates of river discharge and other hydraulic variables. Discharge is estimated from SWOT observations of water surface elevation, width, and slope. A first assessment using just the highest quality SWOT measurements, over the first 15 months (March 2023–July 2024) of the mission evaluated at 65 gauged reaches shows results consistent…
Earth system science data · 2025-06-04 · 31 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract. In recognition of the importance of inland waters, numerous datasets mapping their extents, types, or changes have been created using sources ranging from historical wetland maps to real-time satellite remote sensing. However, differences in definitions and methods have led to spatial and typological inconsistencies among individual data sources, confounding their complementary use and integration. The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD), published in 2004, with its globally seam…
Water Resources Research · 2025-03-01 · 30 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract Lakes are among the most prevalent and predominant water repositories on the Earth's land surface. A primary objective of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission is to monitor surface water elevation, area, and storage change in lakes globally. To meet this objective, prior information on lakes, such as locations and benchmark extents, is required to organize SWOT's KaRIn observations for computing lake storage variation over time. Here, we present the SWOT missi…
Ensemble estimates of global wetland methane emissions over 2000–2020
Biogeosciences · 2025-01-15 · 25 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract. Due to ongoing climate change, methane (CH4) emissions from vegetated wetlands are projected to increase during the 21st century, challenging climate mitigation efforts aimed at limiting global warming. However, despite reports of rising emission trends, a comprehensive evaluation and attribution of recent changes remains limited. Here we assessed global wetland CH4 emissions from 2000–2020 based on an ensemble of 16 process-based wetland models. Our results estimated global average we…
Recent grants
Frequent coauthors
- 107 shared
Tamlin M. Pavelsky
- 59 shared
Peirong Lin
- 48 shared
Ryan Riggs
- 42 shared
Ming Pan
- 42 shared
Cédric H. David
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- 39 shared
Jida Wang
- 33 shared
Dai Yamazaki
The University of Tokyo
- 32 shared
Michael Durand
Labs
Department of GeosciencesPI
Education
- 2017
PhD, MS, Geological Sciences
University of North Carolina
- 2008
BS Geology, Geology
University of California Davis
Similar researchers at Virginia Tech
- Resume-aware match score
- Save to shortlist
- AI-drafted outreach
See your match with George Allen
PhdFit ranks faculty by your research interests, methods, and publications — grounded in their actual work, not templates.
- Free to start
- No credit card
- 30-second signup