I am working as a Postdoctoral researcher at Institute for Water and Environment (IWU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. My research focuse on artificial intelligence(AI)-based flood prediction in small river basins in Germany, as part of the project KI-HopE-De. Prior to joining the KIT, I worked as a PhD with the team of AidroLab at Delft University of Technology (TUD), the Netherlands. My PhD research focus on AI-based detection and quantification of floating macroplastic litter in rivers.

My official webpage is here.

Research Interests

My primary research interests are in emerging problems related to environment monitoring, smart water management, and artificial intelligence research, including:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Deep learning, and machine learning
  • Unsupervised learning, and semi-supervised learning
  • Self-supervised learning, and contrastive learning
  • Time series forecasting
  • Computer vision (e.g., image classification, object detection, and image segmentation)
  • Transfer learning
  • Explainable AI
• Smart water management
  • Flood forecasting
  • Optimal operation of hydropower reservoirs
  • Multi-objective optimization
  • Genetic Algorithm
  • Hydroinformatics
  • Hydrodynamic simulation
• Environment monitoring
  • Floating macroplastics monitoring
  • Earth observation
  • Remote sensing

Projects

• KI-HopE-De - AI-based flood prediction in small river basins in Germany, funded by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (2025-current)
• AI-based detecting and quantification of floating macroplastic litter in rivers and urban waterways in the Netherlands, funded by TUD and Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (RWS) (2020-2025)
• Optimal reservoir operation in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China, considering power generation, flood control, and navigation demands (The National Key R&D Program of China), funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (2017–2020)

Education

• Delft University of Technology (TUD) (2020-2025)
  • Ph.D., AidroLab, AI for sustainable water management, the Netherlands
  • Focus: Artificial Intelligence and Environment monitoring
  • Supervisor: Dr. Riccardo Taormina, Prof. Zoran Kapelan, and Rinze de Vries
• Huazhong University of Science and Technology (2017-2020)
  • M.Sc., School of Hydropower and Information Engineering, China
  • Focus: Optimized scheduling of hydropower for reservoirs
  • Supervisor: Prof. Jianzhong Zhou, Prof. Dong Yan, and Prof. Hui Qin
• Harbin Engineering University (2013-2017)
  • B.S., College of Shipbuilding Engineering, China
  • Focus: Port & Waterway and Coastal Engineering
  • Supervisor: Sulian Zhou

Contact

• E-mail: Tianlong.Jia@kit.edu, and T.Jia@tudelft.nl
• Office: Room 420.3, Building 10.81, Otto-Ammann-Platz 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

I am always open to collaborations and interesting conversations, and can be best reached by email.