Soumita Banerjee

I earned my Ph.D. in Science (Geography: Disaster Management) from the esteemed Department of Geography at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. As a committed researcher specializing in Disaster Management and urban environmental geography, I explore the causes and socio-cultural ramifications of urban environmental challenges. Specifically, I delve into these issues at both state and national levels. My research spans various facets of urban infrastructure such as urban drainage, waste management, and community involvement. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, I aim to contribute to the progress of urban environmental research within the context of disaster management studies and policies addressing climate change-induced floods. Currently, I am more inclined towards the cultural/indigenous knowledge regarding disaster management.

• Annual member of Just Transition Knowledge Network (JETNET)
• Life Member of Young Geographer Working Group (YGWG)-Asian Geographical Association (AGA)
• AGU (American Geophysical Union)- Berkner fellow till 2026

• 1. DAAD-IGCS Winter School 2022 on “Sustainable Waste Management for a Circular Economy”, from 21 Feb. 2022 - 4 Mar. 2022 (Virtual- Fellowship Received)
• 2. ERASMUS MUNDAS (EM+) fellowship for guest researcher in “Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania (for three months of research), 2021[ Due to Covid-19 Regulation, travel was not possible from India]
• 3. DAAD-IGCS Summer School 2020 on “Sustainable Smart Cities: Focus on Urban Mobility, 2020” From October 05 until October 16, 2020 (Virtual- Fellowship Received)
• 4. DAAD-IGCS Summer School 2018 on “Coastal and River Hazards & Management Strategies” at RWTH Aachen University, Germany from 13 to 26th July 2018 (Fellowship and Travel Grants Received)

• 1. (ongoing) Climate Crises and Public Health Challenges—With a Focus on South and Southeast Asia," to be published by Springer Nature in the Disaster Risk Reduction book series. Editors: Dr. Pritam Ghosh, Dr. Soumita Banerjee, Dr. Ranit Chatterjee, Dr.Rajib Shaw.
• 2. “Climate Change, Community Response and Resilience: Insight for Socio- Ecological Sustainability" Elsevier June 2023 Edition: 1st Publisher: Elsevier Editor: Uday Chatterjee, Rajib Shaw, Martiwi Setiawati, Soumita Banerjee ISBN: 978044318707

• 1. Journal of Planning Education and Research (Sage)
• 2. Global Social Welfare (Springer)
• 3. Asian Journal of Advanced Research and Reports
• 4. Archives of Current Research International

• 1. Presented a paper titled ‘From edges to Core: Gauging the presence of Indigenous Knowledge in India's Flood Governance’ in Two-day International Seminar on Population, Society and Policy Making in Contemporary Analysis of Migrant Integration at Serampore Girls’ College, Hoogly dated on 3-4 December,2025.
• 2. E-Poster Presentation on “Community- The maker turned destroyer in forming urban flood resilience: A case study of Burdwan town, West Bengal” in the Fall meeting,2023 by American Geophysical Union (AGU).
• 3. Oral presentation on ‘Current Trends, Challenges and Future Scope in Urban Microclimatic Research: Exploring Indian Cities’ (as Presenter) organized by International Benevolent Research Foundation (IBRF), West Bengal, Institute of Scholars, and Academicians (InScA), Kolkata Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU), and New Delhi International Multidisciplinary Research Colloquium on 28-29th April 2023.
• 4. Oral presentation on ‘Perishing of River Banka, Burdwan Town: How are the locals responsible?’ ICSSR-ERC Sponsored a two-day national seminar on self-reliance, sustainable development, and environment organized by the Department of Geography, Serampore Girls’ College on 25th-26th March 2022.
• 5. Oral Presentation “Statistical Analysis of Last 120 Years Rainfall of the District of Bardhhaman, West Bengal” at the International Conference on “Sustainable Water Resources Management under Changed Climate” being organized by the School of Water Resources Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal (India) in Collaboration with Department of Geography, Women’s’ College Calcutta and NIT Durgapur from 13th March-15th March 2020.
• 6. Presented paper ‘Analysis of the rainfall pattern and associated disasters since 1980 in the District of North24 Parganas, West Bengal’ in the International Seminar ‘Man and Environment: Issues and Challenges’ at Subarnarekha Mahavidyalaya on 13th and 14th March 2019.
• 7. Presented Paper ‘Statistical Analysis of Rainfall as a Component of Climatic Variability of the District of Purba Bardhhaman, West Bengal’ in XIV International Geographical Union (IGU-INDIA) International Conference, 6-8 March 2020, Burdwan University.
• 8. Oral presentation on ‘Multi-Decadal Analysis of Urban Land Teleconnections towards Sustainability with special reference to Bardhhaman Town’ and worked as rapporteur in the international conference ‘Society and Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Approach, conducted by the Department of Geography, Vivekananda College Kolkata and the eastern geographical society, Odisha on January 12-13, 2019.
• 9. Presented Paper on “Geography of Disaster Management and its Changing Approach” at a national seminar organized by Bongio Bhugol Mancha on 24th-25th February 2018.

• 1. Resource person for an extension lecture ‘Changing Concept of Time-Space in Geography in the 21st Century’ organized by the Department of Geography of Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Vivekananda Vidyabhavan , West Bengal State University, 14th May,2025.
• 2.Consecutive two sessions on “Group Activity: Identifying Local Flood Risks & Stakeholder Mapping” organized by Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, One Week Training Program for Human Resource, Capacity Enhancement & Faculty Development Program on "Tackling Urban Flood : Exploring Synergies between Geospatial Tools & Community Based Approaches, in collaboration with National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs Government of India, New Delhi, on 18th March,2025.
• 3. “Role of Communities in Urban Flood Management: Best Practices” – rest of the details are same as Point 2, on 17th March,2025.
• 4.Resource Person for ‘Early Warning System’-Certificate Course on Disaster Risk Reduction Management being organized by St. Xavier's University, Kolkata in collaboration with Keio University, Japan on 31st January,2024.
• 5.Resource Person for ‘Urban Resilience’-Certificate Course on Disaster Risk Reduction Management being organized by St. Xavier's University, Kolkata in collaboration with Keio University, Japan on 29th January,2024.
• 6.UGC sponsored Refresher Course on “Disaster Management”, to be held during December 04 to 17, 2024, under the auspicious of the UGC – Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre (UGC- MMTTC), Jadavpur University, on ‘Urban Flood Management’
• 7.‘Traditional and community-held knowledge of flood mitigation, response and coping mechanisms on 27th September,2024 on virtual platform of ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property)
• 8.“Flood: Theory and mapping” as a part of master Class Learning series organized by St. Xavier’s College, Burdwan on World Water Day, March 2023.
• 9.“Fundamentals of Geography” organized by Vivekananda College, Thakurpukur, Kolkata on December 22, 2022.
• 10. “Role of National Service Scheme (NSS) in achieving Sustainable Development Goals in India” National Level Virtual Symposium on Environmental Protection & Social Welfare from the Perspectives of National Service Scheme (NSS) on 24 September 2022 over Google Meet.

• 1. NPTEL-AICTE Course on Urban governance and Development Management (UGDM),July-Oct,24
• 2. Short Term Course on Climate Justice and Climate Policy (Hybrid Mode) held during 05.02.2025 to 07.02.2025 organized by Center for Just Transition Research Centre, IIT Kanpur.
• 3. One month course on Green Infrastructure - Effective measures to manage urban flooding and water supply School of Water and Waste, CSE-AAETI, 02 Feb-29thFebruary 2020.
• 4. 14 days International Conference cum Workshop on ‘Quantitative and Qualitative Tools and Aspects of social Science (4-18th May 2020) organized by IARA (Indian Academic Research Association)
• 5. Online Course on Integrated Sustainable Disaster Management (ISDM), organized from 30.06.2020 to15.09.2020 Kazi Nazrul University.
• 6. Capacity Building Programme on “Issues and Challenges of Urban Sector in India” for early career researchers during July 8-13, 2019, New Delhi by the National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi.
• 7. Fellow Programme on ‘Research Methodology’(FPRM) by IBRF (International Benevolent Research Foundation, February 2018.
• 8. Qualified ‘Green Revolution Global Programme’ (2018-19) by UNFCCC.

• Research Paper in Journals:
• 1. ‘Resilience to future floods through flood memory approach: an example from West Bengal, India’ in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (ISSN 2212-4209), Volume 112, 1 October 2024, 104788, by Dr. Sujay Bandyopadhyay, Soumita Banerjee, Sunanda Banerjee on 28 August 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104788)
• 2. Coping with urban flooding: A community portrayal of Bardhhaman Town, West Bengal, India by Soumita Banerjee and Dr. Gupinath Bhandari in the journal Regional Science, Policy, and Practice (ISSN:17577802) 8 March 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rspp.2024.100020)
• 3. ‘Assessment of Solid Waste Management Practices: Study of Burdwan Town, West Bengal’ by Soumita Banerjee and Dr. Gupinath Bhandari in Geo-Journal (ISSN:0343-2521), (2024) (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-024-11029-2)
• 4. Exhibition Review:’ “Tracing the everyday Sensory Heritage of Kolkata Streets”- ‘Sohorer Songbedon” by Soumita Banerjee and Dr. Kunaljeet Roy, Page:1-12, Curator: The Museum Journal (Online ISSN:2151-6952; Print ISSN:0011-3069) DOI: 10.1111/cura.1258
• 5. Aspects of Urban Flooding: A State of Art of Review by Soumita Banerjee and Dr. Gupinath Bhandari in METSZET Journal (ISSN: 2061-2710) Volume 8 Issue 8, 2023 Page no. 200-216 (DOI: 10.27896/METSZET8.8/21)
• 6. “Geography of Disaster Management and its Changing Approaches” by Soumita Banerjee Aug 8, 2018, in Annals of Art, Culture & Humanities (E-ISSN2455-5843, ISSN-L2455-5843) (UGC Approved Journal-according to old list)
• 7. “Urban Flooding Scenario in the City of Kolkata” by Soumita Banerjee in the issue of May 2018, International Journal of Knowledge Concepts (ISSN: 2454-2415)
• 8. “Urban Expansion of the City of Kolkata Since Last 25 Years” in March 2018 by Soumita Banerjee in the International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews. E- ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138 (UGC Approved Journal No: 43602(19)
• Chapter in Books:
• 1. Study on Urban Growth in Bardhhaman Municipality, Purba Bardhhaman District, West Bengal: A Metric-Based Analysis by Soumita Banerjee, Dr. Gupinath Bhandari, and Dr. Ratnadeep Ray in an edited book by Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 by M. I. Hassan et al. (eds.), Social Morphology, Human Welfare, and Sustainability (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96760-4_10)
• 2. (Accepted on 31st May,2025) Integrating Traditional Wisdom: Strengthening Flood Resilience in India by Dr. Soumita Banerjee, Dr. Uday Chatterjee in Encyclopedia of Disaster Management (Major Reference Works (MRW) Collection publishing program known as Springer Reference (Springer Meteor).
• 3. (Accepted) ‘River health’ (HTGeo0052) by Dr. Soumita Banerjee and Dr. Debajit Datta for Handbook of Tropical Geomorphology. (Wiley)
• Article in Scientific Magazines:
• 1. India’s urban floods: Why we need to look at nature-based solutions by Soumita Banerjee and Dr. Priyank Pravin Patel in the segment Natural Disaster: Down To Earth in September 2022(https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/natural-disasters/india-s-urban-floods-why-we-need-to-look-at-nature-based-solutions-85013)
• 2. Bridging the Gap Between Sustainability and Disaster Management’- meeting report published in E O S - A G U ( A m e r i c a n G e
• P h y s i c a l U n i
• N ) by Soumita Banerjee and Sujay Bandyopadhyay 17 December 2018 on IGCS Summer School 2018 on Coastal and River Hazards & Management Strategies; Aachen, Germany, 14–25 July 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EO110987)
• Article in Non-Refereed Journal:
• 1. The Curious Case of Sundarban Embankment Breaching in Indian Sundarbans: Present Status and the Way Forward by Soumita Banerjee and Debajit Datta in Akhanda Sundarbans Katha-I in the combined volume of July-December,2022, edited by Nazrul Islam Mandal.