About

Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing and Water Security

Associate Professor

Email: ssadri@upei.ca
National Research Council, Bldg. 28
Rm 526, University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PE
Canada C1A 4P3

Sara Sadri

Education Profile

  • Associate Professional Specialist, Princeton University, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Post-doctoral Fellow, UCLA, Geography
  • Post-doctoral Fellow, Princeton University, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Ph.D., University of Waterloo, Civil Engineering
  • M.Sc., University of Manitoba, Biosystems Engineering
  • B.Sc., University of Tehran, Agricultural and Irrigation Engineering

Research Interests

Students interested in working with me often engage in the following areas:

  • Drought & Water Security: Monitoring and forecasting drought, soil moisture, and water availability using satellite data and hydroclimatic modeling.
  • Food Security & Climate Resilience: Understanding how climate variability affects agriculture, livelihoods, and food systems at regional and global scales.
  • Remote Sensing & Earth Observation: Using satellite observations (e.g., SMAP, SMOS, Landsat) to monitor environmental change and water-cycle dynamics.
  • Environmental Data Science & AI: Applying machine learning, stochastic modeling, and big data analytics to environmental and socio-economic datasets.
  • Decision-Support Tools: Developing tools for irrigation planning, climate risk preparedness, and water resource management for farmers and decision-makers.
  • Socio-Environmental Vulnerability & Resilience: Integrating environmental indicators with socioeconomic data to understand vulnerability and adaptation pathways.
  • Climate Adaptation & Nature-Based Solutions: Designing sustainable infrastructure and ecosystem-based strategies that strengthen resilience and support net-zero transitions.
  • Geospatial Platforms & Google Earth Engine: Building scalable apps and interactive systems for environmental monitoring and decision-making.

Bio

Sara Sadri is the Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing and Water Security and an Associate Professor of Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Prince Edward Island. She is a statistical data scientist and hydrologist with over a decade of experience in global water-cycle variability, satellite observations, and big data analytics.

Her research focuses on drought, soil moisture, and the integration of environmental and socioeconomic data to support food security, climate resilience, and early warning systems. She develops decision-support tools that translate environmental intelligence into actionable insights for farmers, communities, and policymakers. Her work integrates remote sensing, stochastic modelling, artificial intelligence, and geospatial analytics to produce near–real-time drought monitoring systems, soil moisture indices, and farm-scale irrigation forecasts that support climate risk preparedness and sustainable water management.

Prior to joining UPEI, She was a Senior Research Scientist at the Global Institute for Water Security (GIWS) at the University of Saskatchewan, where she led projects developing decision-support tools providing 7–14-day lead-time forecasts of crop water stress using hydro-climatic remote sensing data. She also contributed to national drought and early warning system engineering initiatives in collaboration with the Open Geospatial Consortium and Natural Resources Canada.

During her postdoctoral research at Princeton University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, supported by NASA, she developed a global near-real-time agricultural drought index to enhance early warning, climate resilience, and evidence-based policymaking.

Her interdisciplinary work spans research, policy, and public engagement. She has worked on various initiatives within the United Nations system (WMO and UNU), collaborated with national and international partners on geospatial data interoperability, and has engaged policymakers on drought, climate resilience, and food security issues.

In addition to her scientific work, she has a background in science filmmaking and storytelling, strengthening the communication of environmental challenges and solutions across diverse audiences. She is a Professional Engineer (Ontario), and her contributions to water security and environmental intelligence have been featured in Engineering Dimensions, the magazine of Professional Engineers Ontario.

Selected Publications