From the Back Cover
This, conference proceeding, book contains invited articles and contributory papers from the 2nd International Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development, organized by Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, on June 24-25, 2021. It includes contributions from researchers and practitioners working in the area of disaster mitigation and risk reduction for sustainable communities. The articles cover the topics such as on tools and techniques of hazard identifications, risk assessment, engineering innovations for hazard mitigation, and safe design of structures to the vulnerable systems. The content caters to research scholars, students, industry professionals, data analytics companies, re-insurance companies, government bodies and policymakers, who work in the field of hazard modeling and disaster management.
Indrajit Pal is an assistant professor in the Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, and Management (DPMM) Academic programme in Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and has more than 19 years of experience in research, teaching, training, advocacy, consultancy primarily focused on disaster risk governance, incident command system, hazard and risk assessment, CBDRM, public health risk, disaster resilience, and DRR Education. Dr Pal served as faculty member at Centre for Disaster Management at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, India. Dr Indrajit is member of Board of Directors for the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI), Japan, and also visiting professor--Disaster Risk Management at Philippines School of Business Administration (PSBA, Manila). Dr Pal authored a number of peer-reviewed journal papers, conference paper, and books (Springer, Elsevier and SAGE). Some of his ongoing research includes Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development Education in Asia (ProSPER.Net), Risk Characterisation in Asian Delta communities in "Living Deltas" UKRI project.
Sreevalsa Kolathayar pursued M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and served as International Research Staff at UPC BarcelonaTech, Spain. He is presently assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka, India. Dr Sreevalsa has authored five books and over 70 research papers. He is associate editor of International Journal of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Editorial Board member of two International Journals. His research interests include Ground Motion Attenuation and Seismic Hazard Assessment, Local Site effects and Liquefaction Susceptibility, Pseudo-dynamic approach for Seismic Loading, Disaster Risk Reduction, Geogrids and Geocells, and Water geotechnics. He is currently the secretary of Indian chapter of International Association for Coastal Reservoir Research (IACRR) and executive committee member of Indian Society of Earthquake Technology. In 2017, The New Indian Express honoured Dr Sreevalsa with South India's Most Inspiring Young Teachers Award. He is the recipient of ISET DK Paul Research Award from Indian Society of Earthquake Technology, IIT Roorkee, in 2018. He has received Marie Curie Action Fellowship from European Union and Professional Recognition Award from Coastal Reservoir Center University of Wollongong, Australia. He is in the roster of two technical committees of ASCE Geo-Institute. He received "IEI Young Engineers Award" by The Institution of Engineers (India), in recognition of his contributions in the field of civil engineering.
Sheikh Tawhidul Islam has been working in areas of environment, disaster management and climate change for the last two decades. He combines science and social science tools/methods such as geospatial techniques in combination with different qualitativemethods to critically examine the man-nature interface so that policy gaps could be identified, evidence-based effective programs could be designed and monitoring of the activity-results are improved. Wide-range of field experiences, national and international contributions, partnership experience with government and international agencies are the major pillars upon which Dr Islam's professional strength, integrity, and skills are relied. Dr Islam received hid PhD from Durham University, United Kingdom (2002-2006) where he applied satellite remote sensing techniques in forest resources assessment in Bangladesh. He has published more than 50 peer reviewed articles in academic journals and wrote 60-above reports for international and national agencies. He co-edited a book titled 'Geography in Bangladesh: Concepts Methods and Applications', published by Routledge imprint of Taylor and Francis in 2019. Please see Geography in Bangladesh: Concepts, Methods and Applications - 1st Edit(routledge.com). Currently he is the Professor and Director, Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh.
Anirban Mukhopadhyay is a geospatial Modeler. After completing two master's degrees in Marine Science (Calcutta University) and Remote Sensing and GIS (Indian Institute of Remote Sensing), he achieved his doctoral degree from Jadavpur University. After working on different multinational environmental projects with Jadavpur University, International Growth Centre, The World Bank, Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), University of Manitoba, Canada. He has joined as an Affiliated faculty and senior Researcher at the Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, and Management (DPMM), Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Dr. Mukhopadhyay has numerous publications on remote sensing and GIS as well as environmental and hydrological modeling.
Iftekhar Ahmed is an associate professor in Construction Management and Disaster Resilience, School of Architecture and Built Environment, and former programme convenor of the Master of Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development, University of Newcastle, Australia. His teaching focuses on policy and social dimensions of disaster risk reduction, disaster resilience and management in the built environment and UN sustainable development goals. He conducts extensive research on disaster resilience, climate change adaptation, participatory development, and urbanisation in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Ahmed has written several books, professional reports, and many peer-reviewed publications. Recently, he was the lead author of the book "Disaster Resilience in South Asia" (Routledge UK, 2020). Dr Ahmed completed his Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes University, UK, Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, and Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. In the past, he worked asa project manager at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Thailand, and as a shelter specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh, and taught at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Dr Ahmed serves widely as a consultant and technical advisor for international development and humanitarian agencies.
