Harini Nagendra
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Urban Ecology and Sustainability
- Forest Conservation
- Land Change Science
- Collective Action and Commons Research
- Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation
Biography
Harini Nagendra is Director of Research Centre at the University, and leads the University’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability.
Nagendra is known for her research spanning over 30 years on forest conservation, and urban sustainability, with several seminal publications in both areas of work. Her interdisciplinary work on forests combines remote sensing, biodiversity studies and institutional analysis, and is recognised for elucidating the link between pattern and process in the human-dominated landscapes of South Asia.
Her work on urban ecology and sustainability highlights the importance of urban ecosystems in contributing critical ecosystem services and impacting urban resilience and human well-being, especially of marginalised communities — an important global gap, especially for the Global South.
For her interdisciplinary research and practice, she has received many awards including the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize from the US National Academy of Sciences, the 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award, and the 2017 Clarivate Web of Science award. She is an elected member of The World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, and the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. She has written over 200 academic papers, including recent publications in Nature, Nature Sustainability, and Science, and is on Stanford University’s list of the top 2% cited scientists in the world.
In addition to academic writing, she is deeply interested in public communication of academic research. She has written a number of popular books including Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future; Cities and Canopies: Trees of Indian Cities; and Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities (the last two co-authored with Seema Mundoli).
She is a well-known public speaker and writer on issues of urban sustainability in India, with a monthly column The Green Goblin in the Deccan Herald newspaper, and anchors the University’s annual climate “festival of life” series. She also writes the acclaimed Bangalore Detectives Club series, a set of historical mysteries set in 1920s Bangalore — the first book in the series was shortlisted for the Anthony, Agatha, Historical Dagger and Left Coast Crime awards, and was on the New York Times 100 notable books of 2022 list.
Harini has been a Lead Author on the IPCC AR5 reports, and a past Science Committee member of DIVERSITAS and the Global Land Programme. She engages with international science and policy through her involvement as a Steering Committee member of the Future Earth Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society, and the Future Earth Urban Knowledge Advisory Network. She is on the Advisory Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s Climate-KIC and the WRI Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities, as well as co-editor-in-chief of the journal Global Environmental Change.
Certificate Courses
Rights of Nature: A new paradigm for ecological justice in India?
Explore the paradigm in the Indian context for the protection and conservation of our ecosystems
Introduction to Mapping and Geographical Information Systems using Quantum GIS
A 5 day course for development, conservation and education practitioners.
Introduction to Remote Sensing using Quantum GIS
Certificate course for Practitioners, teachers, early career researchers and PhD scholars working in the field of development, conservation, sustainability, public health and related sectors.
Exploring Sustainability in the Indian Context
An online and interdisciplinary course with many instructors that offers an introduction to sustainability within the context of development in India.
Reports
Environmental Impacts of Proposed Flyover on Sankey Road
Harini Nagendra, Seema Mundoli, Vijay Nishanth (2023)
Articles
Good Luck or Bad Omen: Attitudes Towards the Slender Loris in the City of Bengaluru, India
Harini Nagendra, Kaberi Kar Gupta, Varsha Bhaskaran (2023)Fifteen Years of Fragmentation and Land Cover Change in India’s Ten Largest Cities – A Google Earth Engine Analysis
Harini Nagendra, Preeti Rao, Shivani Agarwal (2023)‘Songs of the lake’: Understanding cultural expressions of nature through dwindling folk-songs and mythologies in Bengaluru
Harini Nagendra (2023)Unpacking dynamics of diverse nested resource systems through a diagnostic approach
Harini Nagendra (2023)Rethinking inclusivity and justice agendas in restoration of urban ecological commons: A case study of Bangalore lakes
Harini Nagendra (2022)
Books
Chasing Soppu
Dhruthi Somesh, Harini Nagendra, Ranjini Murali, Rohit Rao, Seema Mundoli (2022)
Chapter in a Books
Resilience and conservation of urban commons: Lessons from three community-restored lakes in Bengaluru
Dechamma C S, Harini Nagendra (2022)A new imagination for waste and water in India’s peri-urban interface
Seema Mundoli, Dechamma C S, Harini Nagendra (2021)
Publications
Books
- H. Nagendra & S. Mundoli (2023). Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities. Penguin India, Delhi. https://www.penguin.co.in/book/shades-of-blue/
- H. Nagendra & S. Mundoli (2019). Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities. Penguin India, Delhi. https://www.penguin.co.in/book/cities-and-canopies/
- H. Nagendra (2016). Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future. Oxford University Press, Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199465927.001.0001
- H. Nagendra & J. Southworth (Eds.) (2010). Reforesting Landscapes: Pattern and Process. Springer Landscape Series, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978 – 1‑4020 – 9656‑3
Selected Conference Keynote Lectures
- Urban Sustainability: A Global South Perspective. The McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative Research Symposium, McGill University/online, November 9, 2020.
- Landscape ecology in a changing climate: Science, society, action. Opening plenary, International Association of Landscape Ecology 2019, Milan, July 1, 2019.
- Resilience and sustainability. Closing keynote panel at Resilience 2017, Stockholm, August 23, 2017.
- Sustainability in an urbanizing world: The role of people. Keynote at Global Land Project Open Science Meeting 2016, Beijing, October 24, 2016.
- Urbanization: a new frontier for conservation. Keynote at Conservation Asia 2016, Singapore, July 1, 2016.
Selected Journal Articles
- H. Unnikrishnan & H. Nagendra (2021). Building climate resilient
cities in the global South: assessing city adaptation plans in India. The Round Table, 110, 575 – 586. https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2021.1985268 - X. Bai, H. Nagendra, P. Shi & H. Liu (2020). Cities: Build networks and share plans to emerge stronger from COVID-19. Nature, 584, 517 – 520. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020 – 02459‑2
- H. Nagendra (2020). Ecologically smart cities. One Earth Voices, 2, 117. https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2015/07/26/ecologically-smart-cities-keeping-urban-ecosystems-centre-stage-in-indias-smart-cities-programme/
- H. Nagendra (2018). The global south is rich in sustainability lessons. Nature, 557, 485 – 488. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018 – 05210‑0
- H. Nagendra, X. Bai, E.S. Brondizio & S. Lwasa (2018). The urban south and the predicament of global sustainability. Nature Sustainability, 1, 341 – 349. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018‑0101‑5
- R. DeFries & H. Nagendra (2017). Ecosystem management as a wicked problem. Science, 356, 265 – 270. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aal1950
Podcasts
- Nagendra, H. Sustainable cities, environmental activism and more with Dr. Harini Nagendra. The Swaddle. https://www.theswaddle.com/sustainable-cities-environmental-activism-and-more-with-dr-harini-nagendra
- Nagendra, H. & Mundoli, S. (2023, September 28). Water in the age of climate change, with Harini Nagendra and Seema Mundoli. Forbes India. https://www.forbesindia.com/audio/from-the-bookshelves/water-in-the-age-of-climate-change-with-harini-nagendra-and-seema-mundoli/88587