Prashanti Sharma

As a human-environment geographer, Prashanti specializes in remote sensing and spatial modeling techniques. By integrating data from diverse sources, including satellite imagery and survey data, her research focuses on the immediate and long-term impacts of disasters with the goal of providing better information for societal actions. She has a master’s in Geoinformatics from India and is currently pursuing a PhD in Geography from University of Arizona. For her doctoral work, Prashanti is leveraging her remote sensing skills to map historical floods in India with deep learning techniques. She is further using this information to understand the impact of such extreme events on the socio-economic outcome of the nation’s vulnerable groups.

Prior to joining her PhD programme, Prashanti worked as consultant research associate International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) to carry-out geospatial modeling for land change and biodiversity conservation in the Himalayan region. She worked as a part of the Reducing Emission for Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Himalaya project. During this work, she conducted interviews and focus group discussions and worked alongside economists and social-scientists to understand drivers of land-change in remote landscapes of eastern Himalayas. She has conducted trainings on use of geospatial tools and models for capacity building of stakeholders in government and non-government organizations in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Apart from research work, Prashanti loves to venture outdoors in nature and visit national parks.