Somesh Sharma

Somesh is a member of the Urban Sustainability and Climate Change Resilience Department at IHS, and he is involved in teaching, research, advisory and designing tailor-made training programs. He is in charge of the 3-months postgraduate diploma course on ‘Urban Management: Good Governance in Complex Contemporary Cities’, course coordinator for the short course Urban Management Tools on Climate Change (UMTCC), research workshop coordinator for the UESC group, and coordinator for the mass open online course (MOOC) ‘Financing Infrastructure in African Cities (FIAC)’ available at Coursera e-earning platform. In the past, Somesh has worked with the Planning and Marketing Research Services, Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), and German International Services (GIZ-IS). Somesh has two master’s degrees (Master in Urban Planning and Master in Urban Management and Development) and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.

At IHS, his main thematic areas of focus are public finance, inclusive smart cities, nature-based solutions for sustainable development planning, and sustainable urban transport. He specializes in designing and conducting tailor-made training programs for government decision making and developing (in-campus and online) higher education programs. Somesh has worked on several capacity building and advisory assignments. Some of his key projects include – training on Green City Action Planning (GCAP) Melaka, Malaysia (IMT-GT); Sustainability Benefits Assessment Methodology (the World Bank); Integrating Climate Change with City Development Strategies (UN-Habitat); developing M&E Framework for Climate Change Adaptation Measures (LoCAL, UNCDF); Linking Eastern and African Networks on Climate Change (EM); Strengthening Higher Education in Urban Sustainability and Transitions Towards internationalization of Academic Institutions and Networks (EM); UNFCCC-II; NATCOM-II; National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP); Gujarat Forestry Development Project-II (GFDP-II); and the Sixth Central Pay Commission of India.

Somesh has also worked on designing several decision support systems for urban management and governance. He has developed a framework for Sustainability Benefits Assessment in Urban Transport Project Appraisal (SBA), Travel Demand Forecasting Model, Transport Emission Estimation Model, Integrated Model for Low-carbon Sustainable Transport Scenario Planning, and web-based decision support system for Climate Change and Variability Assessment. In addition to environment and climate change, he has working experience in performance measurement and management information systems. Somesh also has wide expertise using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (RS and GIS) in developmental studies (such as climate change impact assessment, vulnerability assessment, national and local level policymaking, land-use planning and sustainable development planning).