Ashali Bhandari

Ashali is a Senior Urban Planner leading the Future Cities programme at Transitions Research. Her work focuses on generating anticipatory knowledge and implementing urban experiments that reimagine the trajectory of growth for mid-sized cities in India. In the past, she has pursued her interest in the intersectionality of climate change, women’s access to urban spaces and informal livelihoods through her work in cities in India and Bangladesh. She also has experience in data driven climate action, participatory planning, greenfield site planning and affordable housing.

She has a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Middlebury College.

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Power and Politics: Reframing Urban Nature-based Solutions from the Bottom-Up
Nature in South Asian cities is highly contested: cities must incorporate community visions, indigenous knowledge and local uses of nature in cities to achieve climate and development goals.
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Behaviour change and climate action
Policymakers must recognise behavior change as an important tool to inform climate policies and communication, and enable individual climate action.
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Too hot to deliver
Platform companies, governments, and regulatory bodies must work together to effectively address heat stress for vulnerable communities like delivery workers in Indian cities.
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The City as a Laboratory - Urban Living Labs for Resilience Planning
Transitions Research hosted our first dialogue in our series Talking About Transitions on Urban Living Labs. This blog highlights some of the key takeaways from our event held in July 2022
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Climate Adaptation in Resilient Cities: Explorations in South Asia
Transitions Research and Forum for the Future organised a workshop at the Global Gobeshona Conference in March 2022 to explore how scenarios of different climate adaptation strategies could transpire.
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How can Indian cities achieve net-zero emissions?
India’s rapid urbanisation, limited governance capacities and lack of climate-friendly policies hinder its path to carbon neutrality. Here’s how this can change
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A city on a marsh: Why Indian coastal cities need to design and build with nature
Recent construction and urban expansion in Panaji have exacerbated the city’s risk to floods. On World Water Day, this commentary stresses on the importance of living within the ecosystem and promoting nature-based solutions in urban development.
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Reimagining Post COVID Cities: A Gendered Approach
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in new visions for post-COVID cities. These imaginaries have prioritized sustainable development and new ways of work. However, this discourse is devoid of ways to make cities better places to live for women.
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Feminist Perspectives on Space, Safety and Surveillance: improving a Woman’s Right to the City
Cities must transition to a rights-based approach addressing social norms and challenges in the built environment to create safe and inclusive public spaces for women.