A Professor at Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a Ph.D. supervisor, and the Deputy Director of the Water Resources Research Center, Qinling Research Institute. His research focuses on soil erosion and ecohydrology, with a particular emphasis on remote sensing applications in environmental monitoring and assessment. He currently serves as a committee member of the Ecological Remote Sensing Monitoring and Evaluation Committee under the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. To date, he has led more than ten national and provincial research projects, including grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, special initiatives under the Ministry of Science and Technology, public-interest projects of the Ministry of Water Resources, and key water resources and soil conservation programs in Shaanxi Province. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles as first or corresponding author, including 20 SCI-indexed papers, and 16 in top-tier international journals. Among them, three articles published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Catena, and Atmospheric Research are recognized as Highly Cited Papers. He has also co-authored three academic monographs. His research contributes to advancing the understanding of soil erosion mechanisms, ecohydrological processes, and remote sensing-based approaches for ecological and water resource management.

2010-2013 PhD of Science, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2007-2010 Master of Science, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources

2003-2007 Bachelor's degree, College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University

2018-2019 Visiting Scholar, Land and Water, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia.

2023-present Professor, College of Soil and Water Conservation Science and Engineering (Institute of soil and water conservation), Northwest A&F University/ Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources

2016-2022 Associate Professor, College of Soil and Water Conservation Science and Engineering (Institute of soil and water conservation), Northwest A&F University/ Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources

 2013-2015 Assistant Researcher, College of Soil and Water Conservation Science and Engineering (Institute of soil and water conservation), Northwest A&F University/ Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources

1.      Zeng W Y, Tian Y S, Zhai J, Sun Wenyi*, Sun Y, Li R, Yang Q K，2025. Soil erosion resilience under climate extremes: Disentangling the impacts of vegetation restoration and rainfall intensification across China[J]. Ecological Indicators, 178.

2.      Jia H, Tian B Q, Song X Y, Sun Wenyi*, Mu X M，2025. Hydrological shifts from vegetation restoration in semi-arid regions: insights from the typical watersheds of the Yellow River[J]. Ecological Indicators, 178.

3.      Jia Hao, Tian B Q, Song X Y, Sun Wenyi*, Mu X M, 2025. Post-conversion vegetation restoration: PRE and VPD dominated the NDVI changes on the Loess Plateau[J]. Journal of Environmental Management, 394.

4.      Zeng W Y, Zhang Q Q, Yu Z C, Sun Wenyi*, 2025. Erosion Evolution in the Source Regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers From a Climate-Ecology-Hydrology Zoning Perspective[J]. European Journal of Soil Science, 76(2).

5.      Xiaoyan Song, Peijun Xie, Wenyi Sun*, Xingmin Mu, Peng Gao, 2024. The greening of vegetation on the Loess Plateau has resulted in a northward shift of the vegetation greenness line. Global and Planetary Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2024.104440.

6.      Wenying Zeng, Xiaotong Ding, Wenyi Sun*, Xingmin Mu, 2023. Improvement of Satellite-based rainfall product CHIRPS in estimating rainfall erosivity on the Loess Plateau. Land Degradation & Development. DOI:10.1002/idr.4790.

7.      Wenyi Sun, Xiaotong Ding, Jingbo Su, Xingmin Mu, Yongqiang Zhang, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, 2022. Land use and cover changes on the Loess Plateau: A comparison of six global or national land use and cover datasets. Land Use Policy, 119: 106165.

8.      Wenyi Sun, Xiaoyan Song, Yongqiang Zhang*, Francis Chiew, David Post, 2020. Coal Mining Impacts on Baseflow Detected Using Paired Catchments. Water Resources Research, 56(2): e2019WR025770. DOI:10.1029/2019wr025770.

9.      Xiaoyan Song^#, Wenyi Sun^#, Yongqiang Zhang*, Songbai Song, Jiuyi Li, Yanjun Gao. 2020. Using hydrological modelling and data-driven approaches to quantify mining activities impacts on centennial streamflow. Journal of Hydrology, 03, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124764.

10.  Wenyi Sun, Xingmin Mu*, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, Jiuyi Li, Yongqiang Zhang*, Francis Chiew. 2019. Landscape patches influencing hillslope erosion processes and flow hydrodynamics, Geoderma, 353, 391-400.

11.  Wenyi Sun, Xingmin Mu*, Yongqiang Zhang, Jiuyi Li, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, Chiew Francis, 2019. Identifying terraces in the hilly and gully regions of the Loess Plateau in China. Land Degradation & Development. DOI:10.1002/idr.3405.

12.  Xiaonan Yang, Wenyi Sun*, Pengfei Li, Xinming Mu, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, 2018. Reduced sediment transport in the Chinese Loess Plateau due to climate change and human activities. Science of the total environment, 642:591-600.

13.  Wenyi Sun, Xingmin Mu*, Xiaoyan Song, Dan Wu, Aifang Cheng, Bing Qiu, 2016. Changes in extreme temperature and precipitation events in the Loess Plateau (China) during 1960–2013 under global warming. Atmospheric Research. 168:33–48.

14.  Wenyi Sun, Xiaoyan Song，Xingmin Mu*, Peng Gao, Fei wang, Guangju Zhao, 2015. Spatiotemporal vegetation cover variations associated with climate change and ecological restoration in the Loess Plateau. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 209:87–99.

15.  Xiaoyan Song, Songbai Song, Wenyi Sun*, Xingmin Mu, 2015. Recent changes in extreme precipitation and drought over the Songhua River Basin, China, during 1960–2013. Atmospheric Research, 157:137-152.

16.  Wenyi Sun, Quanqin Shao, Jiyuan Liu, Jun Zhai, 2014. Assessing the effects of land use and topography on soil erosion on the Loess Plateau in China. Catena, 121:151–163.

17.  Xiaonan Yang, Wenyi Sun*, Xinming Mu, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, 2020. Runoff affected by climate and anthropogenic changes in a large semi-arid river basin. Hydrological Processes. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13702.

18.  Xiaonan Yang, Wenyi Sun*, Pengfei Li, Xinming Mu, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, 2019. Integrating agricultural land, water yield and soil conservation trade-offs into spatial land use planning. Ecological Indicators, 104:219-228.

19.  Wenyi Sun, Yuansheng Tian, Xingmin Mu*, Jun Zhai, Peng Gao and Guangju Zhao, 2017.  Loess Landslide Inventory Map Based on GF-1 Satellite Imagery. Remote sensing, 9:314.

20.  Wenyi Sun, Hanhua Zhu, Shengli Guo*, 2015. Soil organic carbon as a function of land use and topography on the Loess Plateau of China. Ecological Engineering, 83:249–257.

21.  Wenyi Sun, Quanqin Shao*, Jiyuan Liu, 2013. Soil erosion and its response to the changes of precipitation and vegetation cover on the Loess Plateau. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 23:1091-1106.

22.  Jia Hao, Xidong Wang, Wenyi Sun*, Xingmin Mu, Peng Gao, Guangju Zhao, and Zixuan Li. 2022. Estimation of soil erosion and evaluation of soil and water conservation benefit in terraces under extreme precipitation, Water, 11: 1675.

Assessment of regional soil erosion, Ecohydrological processes, and Remote sensing monitoring.

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) General Program: Mechanisms of Hillslope Gully Development under Multiple Erosion Drivers and Their Impacts on River Sediment Flux in the Yellow River Source Region (2026-2029), RMB 490,000, Principal Investigator 2. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) General Program: Mechanisms of vegetation patch pattern regulation under the goal of water conservation and soil erosion control (2022-2025), RMB 560,000, Principal Investigator 3. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)  Youth Program: Hyperspectral characteristics and extraction algorithm of biological soil crusts in the water-wind erosion crisscross region of the Loess Plateau (2016-2018), RMB 261,600, Principal Investigator 4. National Key Research and Development Program of China: Impacts and mechanisms of climate change and ecological evolution on hydro-sediment processes in the Yellow River source region (2022-2025), RMB 600,000, Topic Leader 5. National Key Research and Development Program of China: Mechanisms and trend prediction of water and sediment variations in the Yellow River Basin (2016-2020), RMB 550,000, Topic Leader 6. "Western Young Scholar" Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Construction of information platform for soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau based on digital twin technology (2022-2024), RMB 400,000, Principal Investigator 7. "Western Light" Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Investigation and assessment of erosion disasters in the Yanhe River Basin of the Loess Plateau under extreme rainfall conditions (2014-2015), RMB 100,000, Principal Investigator 8. Shaanxi Provincial Department of Water Resources Project: Survey and assessment of soil and water conservation background in Shaanxi Province (2018), RMB 1,615,900, Principal Investigator 9. Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Water Conservation Project: Analysis and evaluation of historical data on soil and water loss in Shaanxi Province and compilation of soil and water conservation reports (2020), RMB 334,000, Principal Investigator 10. Public Welfare Industry Special Project of Ministry of Water Resources: Technologies and countermeasures for soil and water conservation measures against disastrous rainstorms in the Loess Plateau (2015-2017), RMB 500,000, Project Leader 11. Fundamental Special Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology: Investigation of the ecosystem and environmental changes in the Loess Plateau (2016-2019), RMB 573,900, Topic Leader 12. Basic Research Fund of Northwest A&F University: Research on information extraction technology of landslides in the Loess Plateau based on high-resolution satellite images (2015-2016), RMB 90,000, Principal Investigator.