Surya Gupta

Bio

Surya Gupta did his PhD in Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. His research focuses on formulating new pedotransfer functions for soil hydraulic properties that include local soil-forming factors such as vegetation and climate information as a surrogate of soil structure. He evaluates several statistical approaches (linear regression, random forest, and XGboost) to build the PTF using R, linking comprehensive sets of covariates with data on soil hydraulic properties

General research areas are soil science, hydrology, and related remote sensing applications. Specially focused on: 1. Global and national digital mapping for soil basic and hydraulic properties (saturated hydraulic conductivity, vG parameters, etc.) 2. Defining the relationship between soil erosion and soil hydraulic properties. 3. Testing different methods to reduce clustering and overfitting in ML algorithms. 4. Developing the PTF (Pedo-Transfer Function) or CoGTF (Covariate-based GeoTransfer Function)

email: surya.gupta@unibas.ch

Education

ETH Zurich | Zurich, Switzerland

Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences | 1 November 2018 - 27 July 2021

Thesis Title: Novel Approaches to georeferenced global mapping of soil hydraulic properties

Indian Institute of Remote sensing (IIRS) | Dehradun, India

M.tech in Remote sensing and GIS | August 2013 - August 2015

Thesis Title: Simulating climate change impact on soil erosion and soil carbon sequestration

Punjab Agricultural University | Ludhiana, India

B.tech in Agricultural Engineering | July 2009 - June 2013

Thesis Title: Multiple well point system (skimming well) for irrigation and drainage in south western Punjab.

Experience

University of Basel, Switzerland | PostDoc | April 2022 - Present

ETH Zurich, Switzerland | PostDoc | November 2021 - March 2022

ETH Zurich, Switzerland | Research Assistant | August 2021 - October 2021

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India | Senior Project Associate | November 2015 - September 2018

Publications

Refereed papers as leading author (13)

Gupta, S. , Zweifel, L., Birkholz, A., Meusburger, K., Leitinger, G., Alewell, C: Mapping Snow Gliding Distances: Bridging Modelled and Field Observations. Manuscript submitted, Cold Regions Science and Technology, 2024

Gupta, S. , Hasler, J.K., Alewell, C: Mining soil data of Switzerland: New maps for soil texture, soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Geoderma Regional, e00747, 2024, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., Alewell, C.: An Advanced Global Soil Erodibility Assessment Including the Effects of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity. Science of the Total Environment, 908, 168249, 2024, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Lehmann, P., Bickel, S., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global maps of potential and climatic plant-available soil water. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems,15(11), e2022MS003277, 2023, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Papritz, A., Lehmann, P., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global Soil Hydraulic Properties dataset based on legacy site observations and robust parameterization. Scientific Data, 9, 444, 2022, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Papritz, A., Lehmann, P., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global Mapping of Soil Water Characteristics Parameters- Fusing Curated Data with Machine Learning and Environmental Covariates. Remote Sensing, 14(8):1947, 2022, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Bonetti, S., Lehmann, P., and Or, D.: Limited role of soil texture in mediating natural vegetation response to rainfall anomalies. Environmental Research Letters, 2022

Gupta, S. , Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., Papritz, A. and Or, D.: Global prediction of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity using random forest in a Covariate-based GeoTransfer Function (CoGTF) framework. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 13, e2020MS002242, 2021, Dataset

Gupta, S., Hengl, T., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: SoilKsatDB: global database of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements for geoscience applications. Earth System Science Data, 13(4), 1593-1612, 2021, Dataset

Gupta S., K. S. Harsha., S.K. Dash, S. Adla., S. Tripathi, R. Sinha, D. Paul and I. S. Sen.: Setting up a CZO in the Heterogeneous Ecosystem of an Agro Rural Terrain (HEART) of the Ganga Basin. EOS, 100, 2019

Gupta, S. and Kumar, S.: Simulating climate change impact on soil erosion using RUSLE model, A case study in a watershed of mid-Himalayan landscape. Journal of Earth System Science, 126(4), 43, 2017

Gupta, S. and Kumar, S.: Simulating climate change Impact on soil carbon sequestration in agro-ecosystem of Mid Himalayan landscape using CENTURY Model. Environ Earth Sci. 76: 394, 2017

Gupta, S. and Singh, J.P.: Multiple well point system for irrigation and drainage in south western Punjab, Journal of Research, 51:175-180, 2014

Refereed papers as co-author (9)

Tobias Karl David Weber, Lutz Weihermüller, Attila Nemes, Michel Bechtold, Aurore Degré, Efstathios Diamantopoulos, Fatichi,S., Filipović,V., Gupta, S.,…….Yonggen Zhang, and Sara Bonetti.: Hydro-pedotransfer functions: A roadmap for future development.Manuscript submitted, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2024.

Bouasria, A., Bouslihim, Y., Gupta, S., Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi, R., Hengl, T.: Testing predictive performance of Machine Learning models under varying sampling design, extent, and training data size: size makes difference, sampling algorithm less. Ecological Informatics, 102294, 2023

Borrelli, P., Alewell, C.,………. Gupta, S., Matthews, F.,…………. Panagos, P.: Towards a better understanding of pathways of multiple concurrent erosion processes on global cropland. International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 2023

Kukal, M., Irmak, S., Dobos, R., Gupta, S.: Atmospheric Dryness Impacts on Crop Yields are Buffered in Soils with Higher Available Water Capacity. Geoderma, 429, 116270, 2023

Li,L., Dai, Y., Shangguan, W., Wei, N., Wei, Z., Gupta, S.: Multistep forecasting of soil moisture using a spatiotemporal deep encoder-decoder networks. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2022

Adla, S., Gupta, S. , Karumanchi S.H., Tripathi, S., Disse,M., Pande,S.: Agricultural advisory diagnostics using a community driven data-based approach: test case in an intensively managed rural landscape in the Ganga River Basin, India. Frontiers in Water (Water and Human Systems), 2022

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B., Gupta, S., Mirus, B., Bickel, S., Lu, N., and Or, D.: Clays are not created equal: how clay mineral type affects soil parameterization. Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), 2021

Sinha, R., Gupta, S. and Nepal, S.: Groundwater dynamics in North Bihar plains. Current Science, 114(12), 2482-2493, 2018

Kumar, S., and Gupta, S.: Geospatial approach in mapping soil erodibility using CartoDEM, A case study in hilly watershed of Lower Himalayan Range. Journal of Earth System Science, 125(7), 1463-1472, 2016

Publications (Book Chapter)

Sinha, R., Kumar, G., Mishra,K and Gupta, S.: The Kosi megafan: Morphology, dynamics and sedimentology. Book Chapter, Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars, Cambridge University Press, 2023

Conferences Abstracts (19)

Gupta, S., Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., and Alewell, C.: Modified global soil erodibility map considering saturated hydraulic conductivity. European Healthy Soils, 2023.

Gupta, S., Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., and Alewell, C.: Modified global soil risk map using soil erosion and saturated hydraulic conductivity maps. Copernicus Meetings, 2023.

Gupta, S., Alewell, C.: Mapping soil properties at high spatial resolution using remote sensing datasets and machine learning approaches. Swiss Geoscience Meeting, 2022.

Lehmann, P., Gupta, S., Or, D., and Carminati, A.: Estimating global scale evapotranspiration using soil-based evaporation characteristic length and root zone depth distribution (No. EGU22-4269). Copernicus Meetings, 2022.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Papritz, A., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global Mapping of Soil Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Combining Legacy Data, Spatial Covariates and Machine Learning. Geological Coffee, a geoscientific dissemination project of the Geological Survey of Brazil, August 3rd, 2021.

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B., Gupta, S., Mirus, B., Bickel, S., Lu, N.,and Or, D.: Clays are not created equal-effects of clay mineral type on soil hydraulic and mechanical properties (No. ISMC2021-99).Copernicus Meetings, 2021.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Papritz, A., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or,D.: Global Mapping of Soil Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Combining Legacy Data, Spatial Covariates and Machine Learning (No.ISMC2021-90). Copernicus Meetings, 2021.

Gupta, S., Papritz, A., Lehmann, P., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.:Global mapping of the soil water characteristics curve using machine-learning, a comprehensive dataset and spatial covariates. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (pp. EGU21-12894), 2021.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Differences in Sensitivity of Natural Vegetation and Rainfed Crops to Soil Texture acrossBiomes and Scales. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2020, pp.B045-08), 2020.

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B. A., Mirus, B. B., Gupta, S., Bickel, S.,Lu, N., and Or, D.: Clays are not created equal: How clay mineral type affects soil parameterization. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2020, pp. H201-02), 2020.

Papritz, A., Lehmann, P.,Gupta, S., Sara, B., and Or, D.: New solution to an old problem: improved parameter estimation of soil hydraulic functions. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (p.5787), 2020.

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B., Mirus, B., Lu, N.,Gupta, S., and Or,D.: Effects of clay type on soil hydraulic and mechanical properties-aglobal perspective. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts(p.8471), 2020.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: On sensitivity of natural vegetation and rainfed crops to soil texture. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (p.5571), 2020.

Gupta, S., Hengl, T., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., Papritz, A. J., and Or, D.: Global Mapping of Soil Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Combining Legacy Data, Spatial Covariates and Ensemble Machine Learning. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (pp. H21A-05). American Geophysical Union, 2019.

Wei, Z., Lehmann, P.,Gupta, S., Bonetti, S., Zhang, Y., and Or, D.: Land surface model response to hierarchical soil hydraulic parameterization updating. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2019, pp. H51U-1809), 2019.

Papritz, A., Lehmann, P.,Gupta, S., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Estimating parameters of soil hydraulic functions by nonlinear programming. In Geophysical Research Abstracts (Vol.21), 2019.

Gupta, S., Bonetti, S., Lehmann, P., Papritz, A., and Or, D.: Using vegetation attributes to represent soil structure effects in pedotransfer functions. In Geophysical Research Abstracts (Vol.21), 2019.

Dash, S. K.,Gupta, S., Sinha, R., and Tripathi, S.: Downscaling of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Data for the Small Agricultural Critical Zone Observatory of the Ganga Basin. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2018, pp. H51W-1646), 2018.

Gupta, S., Tripathi, S., Sinha, R., Karumanchi, S. H., Paul, D., Tripathi,S. N., Sen, I.S., and Dash, S. K.: Setting up a new CZO in the Ganga basin: instrumentation, stakeholder engagement and preliminary observations. In AGU Fall Meeting, 2017.

Surya Gupta

Bio

Surya Gupta did his PhD in Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. His research focuses on formulating new pedotransfer functions for soil hydraulic properties that include local soil-forming factors such as vegetation and climate information as a surrogate of soil structure. He evaluates several statistical approaches (linear regression, random forest, and XGboost) to build the PTF using R, linking comprehensive sets of covariates with data on soil hydraulic properties

General research areas are soil science, hydrology, and related remote sensing applications. Specially focused on: 1. Global and national digital mapping for soil basic and hydraulic properties (saturated hydraulic conductivity, vG parameters, etc.) 2. Defining the relationship between soil erosion and soil hydraulic properties. 3. Testing different methods to reduce clustering and overfitting in ML algorithms. 4. Developing the PTF (Pedo-Transfer Function) or CoGTF (Covariate-based GeoTransfer Function)

email: surya.gupta@unibas.ch

Education

ETH Zurich | Zurich, Switzerland

Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences | 1 November 2018 - 27 July 2021

Thesis Title: Novel Approaches to georeferenced global mapping of soil hydraulic properties

Indian Institute of Remote sensing (IIRS) | Dehradun, India

M.tech in Remote sensing and GIS | August 2013 - August 2015

Thesis Title: Simulating climate change impact on soil erosion and soil carbon sequestration

Punjab Agricultural University | Ludhiana, India

B.tech in Agricultural Engineering | July 2009 - June 2013

Thesis Title: Multiple well point system (skimming well) for irrigation and drainage in south western Punjab.

Experience

University of Basel, Switzerland | PostDoc | April 2022 - Present

ETH Zurich, Switzerland | PostDoc | November 2021 - March 2022

ETH Zurich, Switzerland | Research Assistant | August 2021 - October 2021

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India | Senior Project Associate | November 2015 - September 2018

Publications

Refereed papers as leading author (13)

Gupta, S. , Zweifel, L., Birkholz, A., Meusburger, K., Leitinger, G., Alewell, C: Mapping Snow Gliding Distances: Bridging Modelled and Field Observations. Manuscript submitted, Cold Regions Science and Technology, 2024

Gupta, S. , Hasler, J.K., Alewell, C: Mining soil data of Switzerland: New maps for soil texture, soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Geoderma Regional, e00747, 2024, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., Alewell, C.: An Advanced Global Soil Erodibility Assessment Including the Effects of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity. Science of the Total Environment, 908, 168249, 2024, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Lehmann, P., Bickel, S., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global maps of potential and climatic plant-available soil water. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems,15(11), e2022MS003277, 2023, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Papritz, A., Lehmann, P., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global Soil Hydraulic Properties dataset based on legacy site observations and robust parameterization. Scientific Data, 9, 444, 2022, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Papritz, A., Lehmann, P., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global Mapping of Soil Water Characteristics Parameters- Fusing Curated Data with Machine Learning and Environmental Covariates. Remote Sensing, 14(8):1947, 2022, Dataset

Gupta, S. , Bonetti, S., Lehmann, P., and Or, D.: Limited role of soil texture in mediating natural vegetation response to rainfall anomalies. Environmental Research Letters, 2022

Gupta, S. , Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., Papritz, A. and Or, D.: Global prediction of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity using random forest in a Covariate-based GeoTransfer Function (CoGTF) framework. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 13, e2020MS002242, 2021, Dataset

Gupta, S., Hengl, T., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: SoilKsatDB: global database of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements for geoscience applications. Earth System Science Data, 13(4), 1593-1612, 2021, Dataset

Gupta S., K. S. Harsha., S.K. Dash, S. Adla., S. Tripathi, R. Sinha, D. Paul and I. S. Sen.: Setting up a CZO in the Heterogeneous Ecosystem of an Agro Rural Terrain (HEART) of the Ganga Basin. EOS, 100, 2019

Gupta, S. and Kumar, S.: Simulating climate change impact on soil erosion using RUSLE model, A case study in a watershed of mid-Himalayan landscape. Journal of Earth System Science, 126(4), 43, 2017

Gupta, S. and Kumar, S.: Simulating climate change Impact on soil carbon sequestration in agro-ecosystem of Mid Himalayan landscape using CENTURY Model. Environ Earth Sci. 76: 394, 2017

Gupta, S. and Singh, J.P.: Multiple well point system for irrigation and drainage in south western Punjab, Journal of Research, 51:175-180, 2014

Refereed papers as co-author (9)

Tobias Karl David Weber, Lutz Weihermüller, Attila Nemes, Michel Bechtold, Aurore Degré, Efstathios Diamantopoulos, Fatichi,S., Filipović,V., Gupta, S.,…….Yonggen Zhang, and Sara Bonetti.: Hydro-pedotransfer functions: A roadmap for future development.Manuscript submitted, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2024.

Bouasria, A., Bouslihim, Y., Gupta, S., Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi, R., Hengl, T.: Testing predictive performance of Machine Learning models under varying sampling design, extent, and training data size: size makes difference, sampling algorithm less. Ecological Informatics, 102294, 2023

Borrelli, P., Alewell, C.,………. Gupta, S., Matthews, F.,…………. Panagos, P.: Towards a better understanding of pathways of multiple concurrent erosion processes on global cropland. International Soil and Water Conservation Research, 2023

Kukal, M., Irmak, S., Dobos, R., Gupta, S.: Atmospheric Dryness Impacts on Crop Yields are Buffered in Soils with Higher Available Water Capacity. Geoderma, 429, 116270, 2023

Li,L., Dai, Y., Shangguan, W., Wei, N., Wei, Z., Gupta, S.: Multistep forecasting of soil moisture using a spatiotemporal deep encoder-decoder networks. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2022

Adla, S., Gupta, S. , Karumanchi S.H., Tripathi, S., Disse,M., Pande,S.: Agricultural advisory diagnostics using a community driven data-based approach: test case in an intensively managed rural landscape in the Ganga River Basin, India. Frontiers in Water (Water and Human Systems), 2022

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B., Gupta, S., Mirus, B., Bickel, S., Lu, N., and Or, D.: Clays are not created equal: how clay mineral type affects soil parameterization. Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), 2021

Sinha, R., Gupta, S. and Nepal, S.: Groundwater dynamics in North Bihar plains. Current Science, 114(12), 2482-2493, 2018

Kumar, S., and Gupta, S.: Geospatial approach in mapping soil erodibility using CartoDEM, A case study in hilly watershed of Lower Himalayan Range. Journal of Earth System Science, 125(7), 1463-1472, 2016

Publications (Book Chapter)

Sinha, R., Kumar, G., Mishra,K and Gupta, S.: The Kosi megafan: Morphology, dynamics and sedimentology. Book Chapter, Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars, Cambridge University Press, 2023

Conferences Abstracts (19)

Gupta, S., Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., and Alewell, C.: Modified global soil erodibility map considering saturated hydraulic conductivity. European Healthy Soils, 2023.

Gupta, S., Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., and Alewell, C.: Modified global soil risk map using soil erosion and saturated hydraulic conductivity maps. Copernicus Meetings, 2023.

Gupta, S., Alewell, C.: Mapping soil properties at high spatial resolution using remote sensing datasets and machine learning approaches. Swiss Geoscience Meeting, 2022.

Lehmann, P., Gupta, S., Or, D., and Carminati, A.: Estimating global scale evapotranspiration using soil-based evaporation characteristic length and root zone depth distribution (No. EGU22-4269). Copernicus Meetings, 2022.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Papritz, A., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Global Mapping of Soil Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Combining Legacy Data, Spatial Covariates and Machine Learning. Geological Coffee, a geoscientific dissemination project of the Geological Survey of Brazil, August 3rd, 2021.

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B., Gupta, S., Mirus, B., Bickel, S., Lu, N.,and Or, D.: Clays are not created equal-effects of clay mineral type on soil hydraulic and mechanical properties (No. ISMC2021-99).Copernicus Meetings, 2021.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Papritz, A., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or,D.: Global Mapping of Soil Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Combining Legacy Data, Spatial Covariates and Machine Learning (No.ISMC2021-90). Copernicus Meetings, 2021.

Gupta, S., Papritz, A., Lehmann, P., Hengl, T., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.:Global mapping of the soil water characteristics curve using machine-learning, a comprehensive dataset and spatial covariates. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (pp. EGU21-12894), 2021.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Differences in Sensitivity of Natural Vegetation and Rainfed Crops to Soil Texture acrossBiomes and Scales. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2020, pp.B045-08), 2020.

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B. A., Mirus, B. B., Gupta, S., Bickel, S.,Lu, N., and Or, D.: Clays are not created equal: How clay mineral type affects soil parameterization. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2020, pp. H201-02), 2020.

Papritz, A., Lehmann, P.,Gupta, S., Sara, B., and Or, D.: New solution to an old problem: improved parameter estimation of soil hydraulic functions. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (p.5787), 2020.

Lehmann, P., Leshchinsky, B., Mirus, B., Lu, N.,Gupta, S., and Or,D.: Effects of clay type on soil hydraulic and mechanical properties-aglobal perspective. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts(p.8471), 2020.

Gupta, S., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: On sensitivity of natural vegetation and rainfed crops to soil texture. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (p.5571), 2020.

Gupta, S., Hengl, T., Lehmann, P., Bonetti, S., Papritz, A. J., and Or, D.: Global Mapping of Soil Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity Combining Legacy Data, Spatial Covariates and Ensemble Machine Learning. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (pp. H21A-05). American Geophysical Union, 2019.

Wei, Z., Lehmann, P.,Gupta, S., Bonetti, S., Zhang, Y., and Or, D.: Land surface model response to hierarchical soil hydraulic parameterization updating. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2019, pp. H51U-1809), 2019.

Papritz, A., Lehmann, P.,Gupta, S., Bonetti, S., and Or, D.: Estimating parameters of soil hydraulic functions by nonlinear programming. In Geophysical Research Abstracts (Vol.21), 2019.

Gupta, S., Bonetti, S., Lehmann, P., Papritz, A., and Or, D.: Using vegetation attributes to represent soil structure effects in pedotransfer functions. In Geophysical Research Abstracts (Vol.21), 2019.

Dash, S. K.,Gupta, S., Sinha, R., and Tripathi, S.: Downscaling of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Satellite Data for the Small Agricultural Critical Zone Observatory of the Ganga Basin. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol.2018, pp. H51W-1646), 2018.

Gupta, S., Tripathi, S., Sinha, R., Karumanchi, S. H., Paul, D., Tripathi,S. N., Sen, I.S., and Dash, S. K.: Setting up a new CZO in the Ganga basin: instrumentation, stakeholder engagement and preliminary observations. In AGU Fall Meeting, 2017.