Decision analytics for human–water systems
We model how people, infrastructure, and the environment interact, combining behavioral drivers with climate and infrastructure impacts to reveal risk-informed policy pathways.
Water · Systems · Society
Connecting science, decisions, and society for resilient water futures.
The Lin Lab for Intelligent Nexus Systems of Water and Society (LINS Lab) investigates the interactions among the environment, infrastructure, technology, and society to advance sustainable and resilient water systems planning, management, and operation.
Our perspective
Water challenges are inseparable from human decisions.
We study water as a coupled system—where hydrology, infrastructure, institutions, technology, and human behavior continuously interact.
By integrating hydrology, systems modeling, artificial intelligence, and decision analytics, we support decisions under uncertainty and co-create solutions with diverse stakeholders.
How we workResearch thrusts
Water use and data science
We use large, diverse datasets and modern analytics to uncover how decisions, infrastructure, water rights, and policies shape water use across scales and sectors.
Water resources planning and management
We advance systems analytics, efficient decision-support models, and stakeholder-engaged approaches for adaptive and sustainable water management.
Selected work
Human–water systems
Coupled human–water systems for sustainable agricultural water use
Integrated models connect hydrological processes with the decisions of diverse water users to reveal robust pathways for agricultural water sustainability.
Reservoir operations
Thermal and salinity management through multi-objective reservoir operations
A modular, machine-learning-augmented model helps balance water supply, cold-water fisheries, and salinity risks in the Delaware River Basin.
Groundwater
Groundwater management across the crop–hydrology–agent nexus
Behaviorally grounded modeling explores how farmer decisions, policy design, and environmental heterogeneity influence groundwater conservation.