Editors

About the Editor

Bharat Dahiya is Director of Research Centre for Sustainable Development and Innovation at the School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. He is an Extraordinary Professor at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, and a Distinguished Professor at Urban Youth Academy, Seoul, Republic of Korea. He is also a Founding Board Member of the World Smart Cities Economic Development Commission––under the World Business Angels Investment Forum, USA.

Bharat is a highly experienced professional in the field of sustainable urbanization, having held leadership roles in international organizations and academic institutions. He has advised ministers, mayors, and governments with strategic guidance, policy development, and technical support and worked with prominent international organizations. An award-winning urbanist, Bharat combines cutting-edge research, policy analysis and development practice aimed at examining and tackling socio-economic, environmental and governance issues in the global urban context of sustainable development as defined by the New Urban Agenda, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement on climate change, and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Working with the World Bank, UN-HABITAT, Asian Development Bank, UNDP, United Nations University, and Metropolis (World Association of the Major Metropolises), he has initiated, led and/or contributed to international development projects and programmes on sustainable urban development and urban innovations around the world. For example, he led the preparation of the first-ever Citywide Pro-poor Ger-area Upgrading Strategy and Investment Plan for Ulaanbaatar, capital city of Mongolia. 

Throughout his career, Bharat has been involved in the preparation and dissemination of cutting-edge knowledge products. At the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC, USA, Bharat conducted the first-ever systematic review of the Bank’s investments for improving urban liveability, published as a co-authored book, Urban Environment and Infrastructure: Toward Livable Cities (2004). At UN-HABITAT, he led, conceptualized, and coordinated the preparation of United Nations’ inaugural report on The State of Asian Cities 2010/11 (2010). He was the lead author of Partnering for Sustainable Development: Guidelines for Multi–stakeholder Partnerships to Implement the 2030 Agenda in Asia and the Pacific (UNU-IAS and UN-ESCAP, 2018), and that of Metropolis' first-ever Asian Metropolitan Report (Metropolis, 2021).

He has co-edited four academic anthologies, New Urban Agenda for Asia-Pacific: Governance for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities (Springer Nature, 2020), Practising Cultural Geographies: Essays in Honour of Rana PB Singh(Springer Nature, 2022), Disaster Resilience and Human Settlements: Emerging Perspectives in the Anthropocene (Springer Nature, 2023), and City Responses to Disruptions in 2020: From Lockdowns to Aftermath (Springer Nature, 2024).

Bharat advises several professional, academic, private sector, and non-profit organisations around the world. Since 2019, he has been a Member of the International Advisory Board for the UN-HABITAT’s World Cities Report (Nairobi, Kenya). He is also a Member of the Advisory Group for Future Earth Urban Knowledge–Action Network. He has held academic positions in Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, and Thailand. Since January 2014, he has been the Series Editor for the SCOPUS-indexed Springer Nature book series, Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. 

In 1997, he was elected a Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society – Cambridge’s oldest scientific society. In the same year, the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust admitted him to the status of Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society.

Bharat has served on the editorial boards of the ‘Geographies of the Anthropocene’ book series, and several journals: Cities; Environment and Urbanization ASIA; Journal of Urban Culture Research; ICON: Journal of Archaeology and Culture; National Geographical Journal of India; Jindal Journal of Public Policy; and Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment.

Reuters, Inter Press Service, SciDev.Net, Nishi-Nippon, The Korean Economic Daily, China Daily, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Bangkok Post, The Nation, UB Post, The Sunday Times, and Urban Gateway have quoted his work.

Bharat holds a PhD in Urban Governance, Planning and Environment from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He read for his M.A. in Geography from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Master of Planning from School of Planning and Architecture, both based in New Delhi, India.

For his professional contributions to sustainable urban development in Mongolia, the Government of Mongolia awarded Bharat with a Certificate of Honour, and the Municipal Government of Ulaanbaatar decorated him with a Medal of Honour. The Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade conferred a Global Sustainability Award 2021 on Bharat.