Urban Drought

Dr. Bhaswati Ray is a faculty member at Sivanath Sastri College (affiliated with the University of Calcutta), Kolkata, India. She is also a guest faculty member in the Post-Graduate Department of Geography, Vivekananda College for Women, Kolkata. An ardent researcher with immense field experience, her research area encompasses environmental issues and resource management, risk and vulnerability assessment, hazard perception, disaster preparedness, and resilience building. Her papers at national and international conferences have been on diverse topics including environmental hazard perception and risk management, resource management, and sustainable practices for enhanced resilience. She is the sole author of a reference book, with more than 10 publications including academic papers and book chapters to her credit. The hazards of water contamination and water scarcity implications, policy adaptations, governance issues, and sustainable adaptations for water management in both rural and urban areas have been her major contributions.Rajib Shaw is a professor of Keio University in its Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) in Japan. Earlier, he was the Executive Director of IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk)-a decade-long research program co-sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).He is the Chair of the UN ISDR's Science Technology Advisory Group(STAG) at the global level, as well as the Co-chair of UN ISDR's Asia Science Technology Academic Advisory Group (ASTAAG). In IRDR, he currently, serves as the Science Committee member. He is also the Senior Fellow of Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Japan, and the Chairperson of SEEDS Asia, a Japanese NGO. Previously, he was a Professor in the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies of Kyoto University, Japan. His expertise includes community-based disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, urban risk management, and disaster and environmental education. He has published more than 40 books and over 300 academic papers and book chapters.