Chuang, Ray Y

Biography

Chuang, Ray Y. Assistant Professor    Office : Room 303, Department of Geogrpahy Email : raychuang@ntu.edu.tw Phone : +886-2-33665833 I received my Ph.D. at the Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University with a major in Geophysics and a minor in mathematics. Before that, I got my M.S. in Geology at Central Washington University. With the passage of my career, I have been working on topics related to surface processes, tectonic geomorphology, active tectonics, and crustal deformation by integrating multiple techniques in geodesy and geoinformatics. Our group currently focuses on three major directions: (1) Monitoring of topographic evolution; (2) Integrating and applications of multiple techniques in geodesy and geoinformatics; (3) Evaluation of natural hazards and applications of hazard mitigation. In the processes of topographic evolution and mountain building, two fundamental factors are deformation/movement associated with tectonic activities (endogenic forces) and erosion/landslides influenced by climate (exogenic forces). For the endogenic forces, we mainly combine high-precision GNSS and InSAR techniques to monitor surface displacement and deformation such as coseismic and postseismic deformation of major earthquakes. We then construct numerical models based on continuum mechanics and inverse theory to study mechanisms of crustal deformation. On the other hand, we use UAV, digital camera, and other terrestrial and satellite geodetic methods to observe topographic changes like large-scale landslides, fluvial channel migration, and mud volcanic eruptions. Since modern geomorphological studies are dynamic monitoring and analyses of processes rather than morphological description, we focus on topographic evolution due to the competition and feedback between tectonics and erosion. Because we are using different techniques in geodesy and geoinformatics, in addition to surface monitoring, we are interested in how to combine multiple data sets, even to integrate techniques like panorama and virtual reality, for other applications. Moreover, surface monitoring data are in the form of time series so we are also interested in how to extract useful information from time series and to develop spatiotemporal analysis based on time series data. For applications of surface monitoring and surface processes, we pay attention to topics related to natural hazards. One topic is inferring the characteristics of hazards such as estimating seismic potential and scenarios and evaluating properties of landslides. Other topics could be associated with hazard mitigation like forecasting earthquake-triggered landslides and social impacts due to natural hazards. Our main study area is Taiwan and other study areas are U.S., Japan, Mainland China and Southeast Asia. International collaborations include several schools in U.S., NASA, USGS, schools in Japan (University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Hokkaido University, and Nagoya University), GFZ, and EOS.  If you are interested in any part of what we are doing, you are welcome to contact me and join our group!

Research Interest

topographic evolution, surface processes, crustal deformation, applications of geodesy and geoinformatics, natural hazards and applications of hazard mitigation, land monitoring