Visiting Fellow

Ph.D. and M.Phil. from the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and M.Sc. in Physicsfrom GBPant University of Agriculture and Technology.The doctoral work involved computer-based ecosystem modelling. He has more than 25 years of experience by way of research and consulting in interdisciplinary studies covering environment, ecological-economics and disaster management. He has worked as scientist at senior levels in the National Informatics Centre New Delhi (Planning Commission, Govt. of India); the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology& Natural History(under Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Govt. of India);and the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology (supported by Govt. of Gujarat).As a senior consultant, he has been associated with the preparation of the National Disaster Management Plan for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Govt. of India and in carrying out major disaster management related studies for the UNDP, India office. He was the lead consultant for several Hazard, Risk, Vulnerability Assessment studies in Gujarat, such as for the cyclone risk mitigation project. He was a leading member of several Technical Working Groups of the Gujarat Ecology Commission, Govt. of Gujarat that prepared Gujarat State Environmental Action Programs and other technical reports covering studies on land degradation, wetlands, coastal environment and biodiversity.He has also been part of multi-disciplinary teams carrying out studies on ecological economics linking ecological systems, dynamics of resource use and economic activity. After the Kutch earthquake of 2001, he headed the pilot project for rural data networking in the Kutch District supported by the UNDP covering twenty village clusters.Since 2003, he has worked as an independent consultant with government and non-government agencies within and outside Gujarat. He has carried out several studies in about ten Indian states.He is the founding director of Centre for Environment and Social Concerns, Ahmedabad (a non-profit organization) that carries out research and documentation work on ecology, environmental economics and social aspects of environmental management.He has participated in major workshops and conferences within and outside India. He has many peer-reviewed publications in reputed international journals.The areas of interest include:

• Disaster risk reduction: a) Planningb) Hazard, Vulnerability, Capacity and Risk Assessment (HVCRA) and c) Metrics for vulnerability and resilience
• Natural Resource Management and Institutional Arrangements
• Ecological Economics, Environmental Management, Planning and Policy
• Global Climate Change: a) Response strategies b) Ecosystem models c) Adaptation and resilience
• Statistical and Quantitative Analysis:a) Computer-basedsystem dynamic modelling, particularly in ecology and ecological-economics b) Quantitative studies on ecosystem services
• Supporting and promoting Free/Libre (as in freedom/ liberty) and Open Source (source code is openly shared)Software (FOSS) in all domains and across platforms.