D. Purwar MSc (Deepshikha)

Research Interests: Humanitarian Aid, interested in Urban resilience, disaster risk reduction, critical infrastructure services, cascading effects, spatial planning.

As a researcher and professional, I gained experience working with NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority- India) while implementing a national project on Urban Disaster preparedness in major cities of north India. Further being part of the global humanitarian agency Oxfam, I  have led and managed the humanitarian responses in India, where I supported response operations, stakeholder relations, and strategic programming and partnership management. My involvement with disaster emergencies developed my interest in understanding the intricacies of the urban system and brought me to the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, to pursue higher education in urban planning such as urban poverty, infrastructure, climate change, disaster risk reduction and spatial planning. As a PhD candidate, my research aims to study the cascading effects of critical infrastructure failure due to natural hazards and test interactive learning processes on how cascading effects can be managed at the community level in Medellin City, Colombia. This work allows me to develop action research regularly so that I can stay close to the experiences and processes taking place in my fields of study.