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Cheolhee Yoo

Photo of Cheolhee Yoo

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Carbon Cycle And Ecosystems

Biography

Cheolhee Yoo was born in South Korea. His research interests include remote sensing, urban climatology, urban sustainability, and artificial intelligence. He earned both his Bachelor of Science and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), specializing in urban climate characterization and heat risk assessment using machine learning and remote sensing data. After completing his Ph.D., Cheolhee joined The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a Postdoctoral Fellow and later transitioned to a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics by March 2025. His current research focuses on urban heat risk, urban land use and land cover mapping, and AI-driven geospatial analysis, contributing to climate resilience and sustainable urban development.

Education

  • PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 2022
  • BS in Environmental Science and Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 2017

Professional Experience

  • Research Assistant Professor, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong (2022 - 2025)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong (2022)
  • Research Intern, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), Japan (2019)

Community Service

  • Editorial Board Member, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (IF: 12.7)
  • Editorial Board Member, GIScience & Remote Sensing (IF: 6.7)
  • Session Chair, Workshop on GeoAI and Big Data for Urban, Environment, and Sustainability cum Inauguration Ceremony for Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Geomatics, 2023
  • Invited Speaker, Topics Webinar: EO&GEO Series: GIS in the Management of Sustainable and Smart Cities, March 09, 2023
  • Guest Editor – Remote Sensing, List of Special Issues
  • Thesis Advisor - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) 2023
  • Participant in urban climate summer school hosted by Research Institute of the University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania (21-26 August, 2017, 27-31 August, 2018)

Research Interests

  • Remote sensing & geospatial analysis
  • Urban climatology & heat risk assessment
  • Urban sustainability & resilience
  • Land use/land cover mapping and spatial analysis
  • Machine learning & artificial intelligence in environmental applications

Selected Awards

  • Highly Cited Paper Award, Korean Society of Remote Sensing (2023)
  • Talent Award of Korea, Ministry of Education, South Korea (2020)
  • Administrator’s Award, Korea Meteorological Administration –Competition in Research using Meteorological Satellite (2019)
  • Environment Minister’s Award, Environmental Spatial Information Research Papers Competition (2017)

Selected Publications

  1. Yoo, Cheolhee, Huijuan Xiao, Qing-wei Zhong, and Qihao Weng. "Unequal impacts of urban industrial land expansion on economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions." Communications Earth & Environment 5, no. 1 (2024): 203.
  2. Jia, Siqi, Qihao Weng, Cheolhee Yoo, Huijuan Xiao, and Qingwei Zhong. "Building energy savings by green roofs and cool roofs in current and future climates." npj Urban Sustainability 4, no. 1 (2024): 23.
  3. Lee, Yeonsu, Dongjin Cho, Jungho Im, Cheolhee Yoo, Joonlee Lee, Yoo-Geun Ham, and Myong-In Lee. "Unveiling teleconnection drivers for heatwave prediction in South Korea using explainable artificial intelligence." npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 7, no. 1 (2024): 176.
  4. Lee, Kyungil, Cheolhee Yoo, and Seonyoung Park. "Differences in LCZ composition according to urban planning and impacts on urban thermal environment." Energy and Buildings 314 (2024): 114272.
  5. 5. Jia, Siqi, Yuhong Wang, Tan Chun Liang, Qihao Weng, Cheolhee Yoo, Wu Chen, and Xiaoli Ding. "Multiscale Estimation of the Cooling Effect of Urban Greenspace in Subtropical and Tropical Cities." Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (2024): 128390.
  6. Kang, Eunjin, Dongjin Cho, Siwoo Lee, Jungho Im, Dongwook Lee, and Cheolhee Yoo “An Explainable AI-based Framework for District-level Risk Factor Analysis: A Case Study of Spatiotemporal Cardiovascular Mortality in South Korea.” GIScience & Remote Sensing, (2024) (Under review)
  7. Bae, Dukwon, Dongjin Cho, Jungho Im, Cheolhee Yoo, Yeonsu Lee, and Silo Lee. “Improved hourly all-sky land surface temperature estimation: Incorporating the temporal variability of cloud radiation interactions.” Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, (2024) (Under review)
  8. Jia, Siqi, Qihao Weng, Cheolhee Yoo, and James Voogt “Cooling and Energy-Saving Potentials of Green and Cool Roofs in Global 43 Megacities.” Energy, (2024) (Under review)
  9. Yoo, Cheolhee, Jungho Im, Qihao Weng, Dongjin Cho, Eunjin Kang, and Yeji Shin. "Diurnal urban heat risk assessment using extreme air temperatures and real-time population data in Seoul." Iscience 26, no. 11 (2023): 108123.
  10. Kang, Eunjin, Seonyoung Park, Miae Kim, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, and Chang-Keun Song. "Direct aerosol optical depth retrievals using MODIS reflectance data and machine learning over East Asia." Atmospheric Environment 309 (2023): 119951.
  11. Lee, Siwoo, Cheolhee Yoo†, Jungho Im†, Dongjin Cho, Yeonsu Lee, and Dukwon Bae. "A hybrid machine learning approach to investigate the changing urban thermal environment by dynamic land cover transformation: A case study of Suwon, republic of Korea." International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 122 (2023): 103408. [co- corresponding author]
  12. Choo, Minki, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, Dongjin Cho, Yoojin Kang, Hyunkyung Oh, and Jongsung Lee. "Trend Analysis of Vegetation Changes of Korean Fir (Abies koreana Wilson) in Hallasan and Jirisan Using MODIS Imagery." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing 39, no. 3 (2023): 325-338.
  13. Yoo, Cheolhee, Daehyun Kang, and Seonyoung Park. "Identifying the Impact of Regional Meteorological Parameters on US Crop Yield at Various Spatial Scales Using Remote Sensing Data." Remote Sensing 14, no. 15 (2022): 3508.
  14. Yoo, Cheolhee, Jungho Im, Dongjin Cho, Yeonsu Lee, Dukwon Bae, and Panagiotis Sismanidis. "Downscaling MODIS nighttime land surface temperatures in urban areas using ASTER thermal data through local linear forest." International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 110 (2022): 102827.
  15. Lee, Jaese, Sumin Park, Jungho Im, Cheolhee Yoo, and Eunkyo Seo. "Improved soil moisture estimation: Synergistic use of satellite observations and land surface models over CONUS based on machine learning." Journal of Hydrology 609 (2022): 127749.
  16. Cho, Dongjin, Dukwon Bae, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, Yeonsu Lee, and Siwoo Lee. "All-sky 1 km MODIS land surface temperature reconstruction considering cloud effects based on machine learning." Remote Sensing 14, no. 8 (2022): 1815.
  17. Cho, Dongjin, Cheolhee Yoo, Bokyung Son, Jungho Im, Donghyuck Yoon, and Dong-Hyun Cha. "A novel ensemble learning for post-processing of NWP Model's next-day maximum air temperature forecast in summer using deep learning and statistical approaches." Weather and Climate Extremes 35 (2022): 100410.
  18. Jung, Sihun, Cheolhee Yoo, and Jungho Im. "High-resolution seamless daily sea surface temperature based on satellite data fusion and machine learning over Kuroshio Extension." Remote Sensing 14, no. 3 (2022): 575.
  19. Park, Haemi, Junghee Lee, Cheolhee Yoo, Seongmun Sim, and Jungho Im. "Estimation of Spatially Continuous Near-Surface Relative Humidity Over Japan and South Korea." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 14 (2021): 8614-8626.
  20. Kang, Eunjin, Cheolhee Yoo, Yeji Shin, Dongjin Cho, and Jungho Im. "Comparative Assessment of Linear Regression and Machine Learning for Analyzing the Spatial Distribution of Ground-level NO2 Concentrations: A Case Study for Seoul, Korea." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing, 37(6_1) (2021): 1739-1756.
  21. Lee, Yeonsu, Siwoo Lee, Jungho Im, and Cheolhee Yoo. "Analysis of surface urban heat island and land surface temperature using deep learning based local climate zone classification: A case study of suwon and daegu, korea." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing, 37(5_3) (2021), 1447-1460.
  22. Yoo, Cheolhee, Yeonsu Lee, Dongjin Cho, Jungho Im, and Daehyeon Han. "Improving local climate zone classification using incomplete building data and Sentinel 2 images based on convolutional neural networks." Remote Sensing 12, no. 21 (2020): 3552.
  23. Cho, Dongjin, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, Yeonsu Lee, and Jaese Lee. "Improvement of spatial interpolation accuracy of daily maximum air temperature in urban areas using a stacking ensemble technique." GIScience & Remote Sensing 57, no. 5 (2020): 633-649. [53 citations]
  24. Yoo, Cheolhee, Jungho Im, Dongjin Cho, Naoto Yokoya, Junshi Xia, and Benjamin Bechtel. "Estimation of all-weather 1 km MODIS land surface temperature for humid summer days." Remote Sensing 12, no. 9 (2020): 1398.
  25. Cho, Dongjin, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, and Dong‐Hyun Cha. "Comparative assessment of various machine learning‐based bias correction methods for numerical weather prediction model forecasts of extreme air temperatures in urban areas." Earth and Space Science 7, no. 4 (2020): e2019EA000740. [147 citations]
  26. Park, Seonyoung, Daehyun Kang, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, and Myong-In Lee. "Recent ENSO influence on East African drought during rainy seasons through the synergistic use of satellite and reanalysis data." ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 162 (2020): 17-26.
  27. Shin, Minso, Yoojin Kang, Seohui Park, Jungho Im, Cheolhee Yoo, and Lindi J. Quackenbush. "Estimating ground-level particulate matter concentrations using satellite-based data: A review." GIScience & Remote Sensing 57, no. 2 (2020): 174-189. [83 citations]
  28. Lee, Juhyun, Cheolhee Yoo, Jungho Im, Yeji Shin, and Dongjin Cho. "Multi-task Learning Based Tropical Cyclone Intensity Monitoring and Forecasting through Fusion of Geostationary Satellite Data and Numerical Forecasting Model Output." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing 36, no. 5_3 (2020): 1037-1051.
  29. Yoo, Cheolhee, Jungho Im, Sumin Park, and Dongjin Cho. "Spatial downscaling of MODIS land surface temperature: Recent research trends, challenges, and future directions." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing 36, no. 4 (2020): 609-626.
  30. Yoo, Cheolhee, Daehyeon Han, Jungho Im, and Benjamin Bechtel. "Comparison between convolutional neural networks and random forest for local climate zone classification in mega urban areas using Landsat images." ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 157 (2019): 155-170. [210 citations]
  31. Park, Sumin, Haemi Park, Jungho Im, Cheolhee Yoo, Jinyoung Rhee, Byungdoo Lee, and ChunGeun Kwon. "Delineation of high resolution climate regions over the Korean Peninsula using machine learning approaches." PLoS One 14, no. 10 (2019): e0223362.
  32. Yoo, Cheolhee, Seonyoung Park, Yeji Kim, and Dongjin Cho. "Analysis of thermal environment by urban expansion using KOMPSAT and Landsat 8: Sejong City." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing 35, no. 6_4 (2019): 1403-1415.
  33. Park, Seonyoung, Jungho Im, Seohui Park, Cheolhee Yoo, Hyangsun Han, and Jinyoung Rhee. "Classification and mapping of paddy rice by combining Landsat and SAR time series data." Remote Sensing 10, no. 3 (2018): 447. [158 citations]
  34. Yoo, Cheolhee, Jungho Im, Seonyoung Park, and Lindi J. Quackenbush. "Estimation of daily maximum and minimum air temperatures in urban landscapes using MODIS time series satellite data." ISPRS journal of photogrammetry and remote sensing 137 (2018): 149-162. [150 citations]
  35. Yoo, Cheolhee, Jungho Im, Seonyoung Park, and Dongjin Cho. "Thermal characteristics of Daegu using land cover data and satellite-derived surface temperature downscaled based on machine learning." Korean Journal of Remote Sensing 33, no. 6_2 (2017): 1101-1118.