An award-winning Urbanist, Dr. Bharat Dahiya combines academic research, policy analysis and development practice aimed at examining and tackling current social, economic, environmental and governance issues in the Asian urban context and at multiple geographical scales.

By academic training, Bharat is a Social Scientist and Urban & Regional Planner. He holds a PhD in Urban Governance from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He completed his M.A. in Geography from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Master of Planning from School of Planning and Architecture, both based in New Delhi.

Since early-1990s, Bharat’s research and professional work has focused on sustainable urbanization, strategic urban planning and development, urban environment and infrastructure, and urban resilience. During this work the World Bank (Washington DC), UN-Habitat (Fukuoka and Bangkok), the Asian Development Bank and UNDP (Ulaanbaatar), he initiated, led and contributed to technical assistance and operational projects on sustainable urban development in a number of countries in Northeast, Southeast and South Asia, and the Middle East. He led the Knowledge Generation and Management Program at the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Fukuoka). In one of his latest assignments, he led the preparation of ADB’s 10-year ‘Ulaanbaatar Urban Services & Ger Areas Development Investment Program’ (US $316 million).

At UN-Habitat, Bharat conceptualized and coordinated the United Nations’ inaugural report on The State of Asian Cities 2010/11. Hailed as a “benchmark report”, it reviewed the demographic, economic, poverty, environment and governance dimensions of contemporary Asian cities and on-going urbanization. At the World Bank (Washington DC), he conducted the first-ever systematic review of the Bank’s investments for improving urban liveability that was published as a co-authored book, Urban Environment and Infrastructure: Toward Livable Cities. He has written in international peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, in addition to preparing policy, strategy and project papers for the World Bank and United Nations.

At present, Bharat is based at Chulalongkorn University, Social Research Institute (CUSRI), Bangkok. In recent years, he has held several academic positions: Visiting Professor at the School of Government and Public Policy (Indonesia), Visiting Research Fellow at Curtin University (Australia), and Adjunct Faculty at the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand).

Bharat is Series Editor for the Springer book series, Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. He is on the Editorial Board of Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, and the International Board of Editors of National Geographical Journal of India. He peer-reviews for ISI/Scopus journals, such as Cities, Land Use Policy, Environment, Development and Sustainability, and Pacific Affairs. He has been a ‘collaborating scholar’ for the Asia’s Urban and Peri-Urban Growth: Governance, Policy, and Disaster Management Project of the East-West Center (Hawai’i). He is also a member of Future Earth Urban Platform.

For his contributions to sustainable urban development in Mongolia, the Municipal Government of Ulaanbaatar decorated Bharat with a Medal of Honour, and the Government of Mongolia awarded him with a Certificate of Honour.

Reuters, Inter Press Service and SciDev.Net have quoted Bharat’s work. In January 2015 and June 2016, his academic profile ranked in the world’s top 0.5% on global website, Academia.edu.