She specializes in the coastal studies, surface and subsurface water resources particularly in arid and semiarid environment and natural hazards (e.g., global climate change, sea level rise, and flash flood risk). She received her PhD in 2002 from the School of Geography, University of Southampton, United Kingdom and joined the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University in 2003, where she is presently an adjunct professor. She is currently involved in the reconstruction of the Paleohydrological map of the Great Sahara using numerous remote sensing techniques and satellite data such as SRTM and SAR imagery radar data, and the analysis of high resolution imagery for environmental change detection in Dubai.