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Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar

CEPT University, Department of Planning, Visiting Faculty

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Dr. Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar is risk and resilience professional in India. He has over 15 years of experience in developing risk reduction strategies, climate change analysis, hazard modeling, institutional analysis, adaptation & mitigation plans for governments, INGOs, bi-lateral and multi-lateral agencies. His interest and recent efforts are targeted towards bridging the gap between technology and society to enable informed decision making in a changing environment. He has been the team leader and project manager for some of the pioneering urban risk resilience efforts in India including implementation of end to end early warning systems for urban floods, establishment of urban health and climate resilience center, development of urban disease surveillance system, mainstreaming of urban service monitoring systems, conduct of urban risk analysis and preparation of city resilience strategies.

His work has been published as peer reviewed journal articles, technical reports and has been presented at various international and national forums. Several of his work has been commended in the form of grants and awards. His recent work on development and implementation of Urban Health Services Monitoring System has been recognized as an intervention to watch, by the U.N Secretary General’s global pulse initiative
Supervisors: Qihao Weng, Alfred Stein, Weiske Bijker, and C B Shah

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Papers by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar

Urban heat island monitoring and analysis using a non-parametric model: A case study of Indianapolis

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2009

International Journal of Remote Sensing

International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2011

Asian Cities Climate Resilience Flood-induced economic loss and damage to the textile industry in Surat City, India

Image Mining within Meteosat Data: A Case of Modeling Forest Fire

This document describes work undertaken as part of a programme of study at

Analysis of urban heat islands by using multi-sensor and multi-temporal remote sensing images

Probabilistic mapping of urban flood risk: Application to extreme events in Surat, India

Tale of two cities : Developing city resilience strategies under climate change scenarios for Indore and Surat , India

This article discusses the methodology adapted in designing city resilience concepts under changi... more This article discusses the methodology adapted in designing city resilience concepts under changing climate scenarios for two cities in India, namely, Indore and Surat. This initiative was undertaken in the second phase (2009-2010) of Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) programme (www.acccrn.org). The process of resilience planning has demonstrated how local organizations have used new climate and urbanization information to identify vulnerabilities and capacities to develop integrated resilience plans. Local engagement in the development of the City Resilience Strategies resulted in a much greater understanding of the climate change issues and resilience processes among local and national partners. The strategy provides an overarching framework informed by visioning exercise, hazard risk assessment, vulnerability analysis, sector studies and pilot projects to demonstrate effectiveness of resilience options. Risk assessment was conducted to get a better understan...

Image Mining within Meteosat Data : A Case of Modeling Forest Fire by

Remote Sensing Images are being collected nowadays every 15 minutes from satellites such as Meteo... more Remote Sensing Images are being collected nowadays every 15 minutes from satellites such as Meteosat, covering large areas of land. These repositories of images can be used for a range of different purposes. For the human mind, it may be hard to consider each image individually, analyze it as well as their relationships with the previous images of varying time steps. In order to address that issue, this research attempts to develop a simple, time efficient and effective generic model to facilitate the process of pattern discovery from series of remote sensing imageries. The data used for the study were of Meteosat Second Generation. The focus of this study is on development of a model for monitoring and analyzing forest fires in space and time. As a case, a diurnal cycle of fire, which took place in Portugal, on 28th of July, 2004 was taken and analyzed. Kernel convolution method was used to characterize the hearth of the fire in space. The patterns of these fire objects in space we...

Climate Resilient Smart Cities: Opportunities for Innovative Solutions in India

The Urban Book Series

Flood modeling can make a difference: Disaster risk-reduction and resilience-building in urban areas

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions

Surat, India is a coastal city with a population of approximately 4.5 million people that ... more Surat, India is a coastal city with a population of approximately 4.5 million people that lies on the banks of the river Tapi and is located 100 km downstream from the Ukai dam. Given Surat's geographic location the city is repeatedly exposed to flooding caused by large emergency dam releases into the Tapi river combined with high tide water levels. Flood events of this type occur twice a decade, but their frequency and magnitude may increase due to the urbanization, encroachment in flood plain and climate change. A first step towards strengthening resilience in Surat requires a robust method for mapping flood exposure at fine spatial resolution. Here, in this study we have developed such a method for Surat using a reduced-complexity hydrodynamic model to simulate flooding, but is easily transferable to other urban locations. Our method features three distinct phases that involve: (1) modelling dam release discharge from the Ukai dam arriving at Surat, (2) modellin...

Flood-induced Loss and Damage to Textile Industry in Surat City, India

Environment and Urbanization ASIA

Addressing flooding in the city of Surat beyond its boundaries

by Lalit Kumar Dashora and Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar

This paper describes the flood risks faced by Surat, one of India's most successful and also most... more This paper describes the flood risks faced by Surat, one of India's most successful and also most flood-prone cities. The city is located on the Tapi River and faces flood risks not only from heavy precipitation in and around the city but also from heavy precipitation upstream and from high tides downstream. Reducing the risks from upstream depends on better water management in a water catchment area and dam reservoir located far outside the city authority's jurisdiction and in another state. The paper also reviews measures being taken to reduce flood risks – and how climate change is likely to affect such risks. It suggests that part of the city's response needs to be a greater ability to live with floods while minimizing the costs they usually bring in terms of loss of life, damage to homes and disruption to businesses. KEYWORDS climate change / early warning / flood risks / livelihoods / slums / urban infrastructure

Identification and analysis of urban surface temperature patterns in Greater Athens, Greece, using MODIS imagery

Remote Sensing of Environment, 2011

Application of Association Rule Mining for Exploring the Relationship between Urban Land Surface Temperature and Biophysical/Social Parameters

Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 2009

Spatio‐temporal modelling and analysis of urban heat islands by using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery

International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2009

Modeling Urban Heat Islands and Their Relationship With Impervious Surface and Vegetation Abundance by Using ASTER Images

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar and Q. Weng

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2000

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Land Surface Temperatures and Urban Heat Islands in Metropolitan Indianapolis Using MODIS Data

This paper developed a space-time modeling approach for monitoring of land surface temperatures a... more This paper developed a space-time modeling approach for monitoring of land surface temperatures and urban heat islands using the Moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) data. The modeling included the characterization of the phenomenon in space, as well as the analysis of the pattern over time. Furthermore, the relationship between the day time and night time land surface temperatures were investigated

Image Mining within Meteosat Data: A Case of Modeling Forest Fire

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar and Wietske Bijker

Addressing flooding in the city of Surat beyond its boundaries

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar and G K Bhat

Environment and Urbanization, 2013

ABSTRACT

(2015) Bahinipati, C. S., U. Rajasekar, Akash Acharya, and Mehul Patel, “Flood induced economic loss and damage to textile industry in Surat city, India” ACCRN Working Paper Series 26, IIED, London, U.K.

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, Akash Acharya, and Taru Mehul

Urban heat island monitoring and analysis using a non-parametric model: A case study of Indianapolis

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2009

International Journal of Remote Sensing

International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2011

Asian Cities Climate Resilience Flood-induced economic loss and damage to the textile industry in Surat City, India

Image Mining within Meteosat Data: A Case of Modeling Forest Fire

This document describes work undertaken as part of a programme of study at

Analysis of urban heat islands by using multi-sensor and multi-temporal remote sensing images

Probabilistic mapping of urban flood risk: Application to extreme events in Surat, India

Tale of two cities : Developing city resilience strategies under climate change scenarios for Indore and Surat , India

This article discusses the methodology adapted in designing city resilience concepts under changi... more This article discusses the methodology adapted in designing city resilience concepts under changing climate scenarios for two cities in India, namely, Indore and Surat. This initiative was undertaken in the second phase (2009-2010) of Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) programme (www.acccrn.org). The process of resilience planning has demonstrated how local organizations have used new climate and urbanization information to identify vulnerabilities and capacities to develop integrated resilience plans. Local engagement in the development of the City Resilience Strategies resulted in a much greater understanding of the climate change issues and resilience processes among local and national partners. The strategy provides an overarching framework informed by visioning exercise, hazard risk assessment, vulnerability analysis, sector studies and pilot projects to demonstrate effectiveness of resilience options. Risk assessment was conducted to get a better understan...

Image Mining within Meteosat Data : A Case of Modeling Forest Fire by

Remote Sensing Images are being collected nowadays every 15 minutes from satellites such as Meteo... more Remote Sensing Images are being collected nowadays every 15 minutes from satellites such as Meteosat, covering large areas of land. These repositories of images can be used for a range of different purposes. For the human mind, it may be hard to consider each image individually, analyze it as well as their relationships with the previous images of varying time steps. In order to address that issue, this research attempts to develop a simple, time efficient and effective generic model to facilitate the process of pattern discovery from series of remote sensing imageries. The data used for the study were of Meteosat Second Generation. The focus of this study is on development of a model for monitoring and analyzing forest fires in space and time. As a case, a diurnal cycle of fire, which took place in Portugal, on 28th of July, 2004 was taken and analyzed. Kernel convolution method was used to characterize the hearth of the fire in space. The patterns of these fire objects in space we...

Climate Resilient Smart Cities: Opportunities for Innovative Solutions in India

The Urban Book Series

Flood modeling can make a difference: Disaster risk-reduction and resilience-building in urban areas

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions

Surat, India is a coastal city with a population of approximately 4.5 million people that ... more Surat, India is a coastal city with a population of approximately 4.5 million people that lies on the banks of the river Tapi and is located 100 km downstream from the Ukai dam. Given Surat's geographic location the city is repeatedly exposed to flooding caused by large emergency dam releases into the Tapi river combined with high tide water levels. Flood events of this type occur twice a decade, but their frequency and magnitude may increase due to the urbanization, encroachment in flood plain and climate change. A first step towards strengthening resilience in Surat requires a robust method for mapping flood exposure at fine spatial resolution. Here, in this study we have developed such a method for Surat using a reduced-complexity hydrodynamic model to simulate flooding, but is easily transferable to other urban locations. Our method features three distinct phases that involve: (1) modelling dam release discharge from the Ukai dam arriving at Surat, (2) modellin...

Flood-induced Loss and Damage to Textile Industry in Surat City, India

Environment and Urbanization ASIA

Addressing flooding in the city of Surat beyond its boundaries

by Lalit Kumar Dashora and Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar

This paper describes the flood risks faced by Surat, one of India's most successful and also most... more This paper describes the flood risks faced by Surat, one of India's most successful and also most flood-prone cities. The city is located on the Tapi River and faces flood risks not only from heavy precipitation in and around the city but also from heavy precipitation upstream and from high tides downstream. Reducing the risks from upstream depends on better water management in a water catchment area and dam reservoir located far outside the city authority's jurisdiction and in another state. The paper also reviews measures being taken to reduce flood risks – and how climate change is likely to affect such risks. It suggests that part of the city's response needs to be a greater ability to live with floods while minimizing the costs they usually bring in terms of loss of life, damage to homes and disruption to businesses. KEYWORDS climate change / early warning / flood risks / livelihoods / slums / urban infrastructure

Identification and analysis of urban surface temperature patterns in Greater Athens, Greece, using MODIS imagery

Remote Sensing of Environment, 2011

Application of Association Rule Mining for Exploring the Relationship between Urban Land Surface Temperature and Biophysical/Social Parameters

Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 2009

Spatio‐temporal modelling and analysis of urban heat islands by using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery

International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2009

Modeling Urban Heat Islands and Their Relationship With Impervious Surface and Vegetation Abundance by Using ASTER Images

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar and Q. Weng

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2000

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Land Surface Temperatures and Urban Heat Islands in Metropolitan Indianapolis Using MODIS Data

This paper developed a space-time modeling approach for monitoring of land surface temperatures a... more This paper developed a space-time modeling approach for monitoring of land surface temperatures and urban heat islands using the Moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) data. The modeling included the characterization of the phenomenon in space, as well as the analysis of the pattern over time. Furthermore, the relationship between the day time and night time land surface temperatures were investigated

Image Mining within Meteosat Data: A Case of Modeling Forest Fire

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar and Wietske Bijker

Addressing flooding in the city of Surat beyond its boundaries

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar and G K Bhat

Environment and Urbanization, 2013

ABSTRACT

(2015) Bahinipati, C. S., U. Rajasekar, Akash Acharya, and Mehul Patel, “Flood induced economic loss and damage to textile industry in Surat city, India” ACCRN Working Paper Series 26, IIED, London, U.K.

by Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, Akash Acharya, and Taru Mehul