Dr Bhopal Pandeya worked at ODI as a Research Fellow on climate adaptation at the Global Risks and Resilience (GRR) team. He has more than 15 years of interdisciplinary research experience in water and ecosystem services, climate adaptation and disaster risk resilience. Bhopal’s research focuses on the nexus between natural disasters, climate change and conflicts in weak governance contexts. He works at the science-policy interfaces and co-creates solutions for creating a just and sustainable future.
Prior to joining ODI, he was an Independent Research Fellow at Imperial College London, where he conducted challenge-led and policy-oriented research on water security, ecosystem services and disaster risk resilience. He led research projects funded by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme, focusing on water services, climate adaptation and flood risk resilience in the Himalayas. At Imperial, he also conducted research on how affordable technologies and citizen science approach can improve disaster risk resilience in poor, remote and fragile environments. More recently, Bhopal contributed to an ongoing UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund Urban Disaster Risk Hub Project on how to expand the Tomorrow’s Cities Hub’s innovative approaches in new prospective cities of low-and-middle-income countries.
Bhopal has extensively collaborated with natural and social scientists, public/private organisations, non-governmental organisations and people on the ground. He has co-produced evidence-based knowledge to promote ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions initiatives, social justice, and equitable development. He regularly publishes his research outcomes in various interdisciplinary scientific journals and outreach publications.
Bhopal graduated with an MPhil degree in Environment, Society and Development at the University of Cambridge, and he holds a PhD in Environmental Geography at King’s College London. Currently, he is a visiting researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy within Imperial College London.
