Good day, Adnan Ahmad. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yeah, we can.

Could you briefly introduce your professional journey in academia?

Uh, hello. Uh, I am Adnan Ahmad. Actually I completed my PhD in Art System and Science and Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering in from IIT Guwahati and I did M tech in remote sensing from Builder Institute of Technology, Mesra and Btech form. Stress. Gyanwar University in Electronics and Communication.

I'm working as a assistant on planning supervisor in Urban Development and housing department government of BR Thank you.

Thank you for sharing that, Professor. Your role as a planning supervisor in the Urban Development and Housing Department suggests experience in disaster management and sociological perspectives related to urban planning. Let's proceed to explore your expertise further. Can you briefly explain the role of sociological perspectives in urban disaster risk reduction and how they can influence planning decisions?

Actually I work as an assistant on planning supervisor in Urban Development and housing department. So that ensure all the monitoring and administrative work. So it basically deals with all administrative work and.

Well, as far as this concern, that social, social concern, uh, it's deals with very ground grassroot level.

People, so it encouraged me to.

Deal with several problems which the grassroot level people are dealing with in order to use the geospatial technology in through my expertise to make it.

For every make it easy for everyone and managing and mitigation of crisis like water resource crisis.

Sometimes the people feel in my reason. Thank you.

Thank you for your response, Professor. It sounds like you are integrating geospatial technology in a grassroots approach to address water resource crises and other challenges. This is a valuable perspective when it comes to disaster management and sustainable urban planning. Could you elaborate on how geospatial technologies can be specifically used to identify and mitigate urban disasters like floods or water shortages?

Umm for using the geospatial technology we generally rely on the remotely sensitive satellite data sets, so which is in optical remote sensing. So in my PSDAI had the experience and expertise in the.

Optical remote sensing, which generally deals with.

Visible infrared and infrared region and thermal infrared reasons. So basically through the remote sensing satellite data sets.

We can easily have the different uh.

Time different temporal resolution is like on and before the on and before the disaster events. We can easily have those datasets and we can have this change detection, detection techniques to analyze and access the vulnerability and providing the access and to others like.

For mitigation purpose we can use the satellite datasets.

And uh, yeah, thank you.

Thank you for sharing your insights, Professor. Your detailed explanation of using optical remote sensing and change detection techniques for disaster vulnerability assessment demonstrates a solid understanding of geospatial technologies in disaster management. Now, focusing briefly on sociology—how would you incorporate community engagement or participatory approaches into urban disaster management planning to ensure the needs of grassroots populations are effectively addressed?

For the sociology perspectives, though my expertise is in order to sociology, but I can give you a short or we can have elaborate on this topic through my experience which I.

Which I have under this job as a urban planner. So basically it is like knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing means we have to make the grassroot level people's knowledgeable about how how to do and what to do during this disaster. Hazard. So hazard basically we deals with the hazard and when it's.

Uh, deals with the people and, uh, loss of property and, uh, others, umm, and other things which, which which can be minimized or mitigate through the knowledge. Like when earthquake happen, what we have to do And when the floods comes, there is early warning system through the real time series data, remote sensing data, we can have the early forecasting of these. Flood and sometimes we have this.

Earthquake also so making the people so shall I the social peoples and knowledgeable and sharing knowledge, the perspective of the disaster and others I can really helpful in mitigating or minimizing the vulnerability and risk.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. You've articulated an important aspect of disaster management—empowering grassroots communities through knowledge sharing and awareness. Using early warning systems and real-time remote sensing data to educate populations can significantly reduce vulnerabilities and risks during disasters. Let’s now touch briefly on your teaching abilities. How would you explain complex concepts like disaster governance or sociological theories on inequality to an undergraduate audience in a classroom setting?

So in the classroom setting, I generally believe that it should be bridging the theoretical and the practical knowledge. So basically if the students have the real world scenarios or real world examples and the projects hands on project on those disaster and the and the how to remote sensing can we use in this scenario? Like I have the expertise in remote sensing, I can't. Give the.

Insights about the knowledge and the to the students. So bridging those practical knowledge and the theoretical knowledge with the application based teaching can generally improve the quality of the teaching and also.

Make the pure students interesting. Interested in the subject, Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Your emphasis on bridging theoretical concepts with practical applications and using real-world scenarios to engage students demonstrates a pedagogical approach that aligns with fostering critical thinking and interest in disaster management and sociological studies. Providing hands-on projects would undoubtedly enhance their learning experience. Let’s now shift focus slightly. In guiding student projects and research, how would you ensure students develop both academic rigor and practical applicability in their work?

So basically I belongs to the interdisciplinary department so.

It is like knowledge sharing, so the projects and the research and the teaching can go parallelly. I can't believe I believe that these are parallel things which enhance the and level level of the teaching and it's also enhanced in the knowledge of the students when they are working on the projects. So making them understands how it is valuable to have research.

Uh, why just, uh, have the practical applicability of the real world scenario, So making them to understand, uh, how these, uh, these remote sensing and other, uh, GIS application can be used for real world scenarios. So they make it, make them interesting and I think they're leveraging between the both. My knowledge and they're also the communication, open communication, a short discussion.

Valuable with the time. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. You’ve clearly articulated the importance of fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and leveraging open communication to guide students effectively. Your approach to integrating research-driven, real-world applications into teaching underscores your commitment to their academic growth and practical skill development. Now, let’s briefly touch on your research publications. Could you share how your published work connects to disaster management or sociological studies and what contributions it makes to these fields?

I start with my peer reviewed journals which I published in the M Tech.

Is generally deals with the impact of climate variability on lightning activity, which is ground based and space based center, which is basically a climate variability on the lightning activity with and you know Southern Oscillations, how it impactful, how the lightning is impact lightning is a hazard.

And my study reason was in was there is rachi rachi reasons in Jharkhand. So it is very vulnerable to the lightning activity. So I study in my Amtek and with I extended.

So, uh, in my PSDI you need to work with the hyperspectral datasets. So it basically deals with the lithological and geological mapping of the of the reasons using the hyperspectral and I also extended those.

How do you think?

Professor, your research contributions, specifically the analysis of climate variability's impact on lightning activity and your work with hyperspectral datasets for geological mapping, demonstrate a strong interdisciplinary foundation. Both areas hold significant relevance to disaster management and environmental analysis. How do you think your research on lightning activity and hyperspectral mapping can be applied practically to improve disaster preparedness or mitigation strategies in vulnerable regions?

Yeah, but the lightning activity lighting is one of the hazard. So where the lightning activity is mores the ground to.

Ground lightning activities most so we can have the we can map those reasons and venerable reasons where the this density higher density of the lightning so we can educate their people how, how and can be used as a mitigation as far as I my PSD is concerned with the geological and ethological mapping, so.

It make makes me.

Much expertise in the optical remote sensing like invisible reasons and the thermal reasons so those.

To detect the different kind of hazard, it can be used to to have the before and after events of the flood, earthquake and others things like while while using this. Optical remote sensing.

Electromagnetic spectrum reasons visible and the thermal region can be used for different kind of.

We can easily map the venerable reasons and we can minimize also using the different tools and and to socialize the people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. You've provided a clear understanding of how your research and expertise in optical remote sensing and geological mapping can help in identifying vulnerable regions and educating communities for effective disaster mitigation. Your focus on practical applications highlights the importance of integrating scientific precision with community outreach. Let’s now turn to your experience in consultancy or industry projects. Can you share any example where you applied your expertise in disaster management or sociological perspectives to solve real-world challenges?

Uh, to solving the real world challenges, I have the one of the peer reviewed journals in my Amtech. Also, I have this I work with the sky map global and.

Company in which they have developed the vegetation indices, automatic vegetation indices so they can easily map the.

Vegetation indices just clicking on the reasons so it gives the how?

This vegetation is impacted during this different seasons apart from this.

I have the peer reviewed journals in ISPRS, Remote Sensing and others reported journals which generally deals with the lithological mapping and I can use these expertise to.

Enhance the.

Disaster management and mitigations.

I believe. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Your experience with automating vegetation indices and your peer-reviewed publications, such as in ISPRS, demonstrate a strong ability to integrate cutting-edge technology into disaster management solutions. Automating vegetation monitoring and utilizing lithological mapping for vulnerability assessments are impactful contributions to the field. Let’s now briefly explore student evaluation responsibilities. How would you design fair assessment criteria to evaluate students’ understanding of disaster management concepts in both theory and practical applications?

As far as today's concern, I believe that we we can have the monthly quizzes and test.

And some general projects.

Projects Handling the projects is mainly very much important and.

To the practical examples we can set with the remote, we can use the remote sensing data sets to have the practicals and their real life problem, I can give their real real life scenario.

Test to make them how they how their strengths will you how their their strengths can use those advanced techniques in their life in their projects. So.

No, it can be easy to access.

Their interest. Also the users and the test on the regular basis can can be used. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Your approach to combining monthly assessments, project-based learning, and practical examples using remote sensing datasets reflects a comprehensive evaluation strategy. Offering real-life scenarios to students not only measures their grasp of concepts but also builds their ability to apply advanced techniques effectively. Let me now confirm your role alignment. You’ve highlighted expertise across disaster management, sociological awareness, academia, and research. To finalize, could you briefly summarize how your academic and professional background prepares you to contribute effectively as a Disaster Management/Sociology Professor?

Yeah, my academic background if you see from the from my bachelors in technology in electronic communication and engineering to the interdisciplinary branch like remote sensing and I continue with our system science and engineering which we are, I have in the expertise in the system dynamics. So make me very much in very much interdisciplinary academic. Expertise. So as far as the center of the system management and mitigation.

It is interdisciplinary and research kind of center. So these different interdisciplinary subjects make me very much make me very much valuable in to share my knowledge and my expertise to these disaster mitigation, though I'm not from the social background, but.

The remote sensing and the GIS Geo informatics can be used.

Uh, for, uh, accessing the different kind of, uh, disasters, uh, using, using the satellite data sets, uh, which has the range of long.

Special special areas can be mapped to the satellite imagery so it can use can be used for the great greater exchange to disaster mitigation. Also for the social perspective, we can have this performer to we can do performer like. Plan such things like socializing with the people and with my.

With my right current job assistant on planning supervisor I I have some kind of expertise with the social socialism, though I don't have the social.

Sociology background but these expertise makes me very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. It was insightful to learn about your interdisciplinary expertise and practical applications in disaster management and sociology-related challenges. If everything is clear, would you like to conclude the interview at this point?

Yeah, sure.

To confirm, Professor—are you explicitly requesting to end the interview? If so, please state clearly that you would like to conclude.

Yeah, you can. You can conclude.