I am working as a Postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Water and Environment (IWU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. My research focuses on artificial intelligence(AI), hydrology, water resources, and water environment.

My official webpage is here.

Research Interests

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

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Deep learning
  • Self-supervised learning, and contrastive learning
  • Vision-Language Model (VLM), and Large Language Model (LLM)
  • Foundation Model
  • Time series forecasting
  • Computer vision
• Hydrology and water resources
  • Flood forecasting in watersheds
  • Urban flood detection
  • Optimal operation of hydropower reservoirs
  • Hydroinformatics
  • Hydrodynamic simulation
• Water environment monitoring
  • Floating macroplastics monitoring
  • Water quality prediction in watersheds
  • Earth observation
  • Remote sensing

Projects

• KI-HopE-De - AI-based flood prediction in small river basins in Germany, funded by German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) (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)

Professional Experience

2025.03–now
Postdoctoral researcher
Information-based Hydrology group, Institute of Water and Environment
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
Host: Dr. Uwe Ehret

Education

2020.12-2025.09
Doctor in Artificial Intelligence and Environment monitoring
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
AidroLab, AI for sustainable water management
Supervisor: Dr. Riccardo Taormina, Prof. Zoran Kapelan, and Rinze de Vries

2017.09-2020.06
Master of Engineering in Optimal Operation of Hydropower Reservoirs
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
Supervisor: Prof. Jianzhong Zhou, Prof. Dong Yan, and Prof. Hui Qin

2013.09-2017.06
Bachelor of Engineering in Port & Waterway and Coastal Engineering
Harbin Engineering University, China

Contact E-mail: Tianlong.Jia@kit.edu 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.