Ashwani

About me:

I do regional-level integrative ecological planning in Southern California, and am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, California State University, Northridge, where I teach courses on international development, sustainability planning, urban theory and environmental planning. My PhD dissertation, prepared at the School of Policy, Planning and Development in the University of Southern California, is titled Getting Humans Back Into Nature: A Scale-Hierarchic Ecosystem Approach to Integrative Ecological Planning. My research interests range from habitat conservation planning to disaster planning, with a center around the notions of urban ecology and an ecosystem approach to planning. I originally trained as an architect, in India, where my focus was on vernacular architecture and in nature-friendly approaches to the built environment and to disaster planning—both in pre-disaster mitigation and in post-disaster recovery. I then shifted to the design and delivery of large-scale shelter programs, with a particular interest in institutional analysis as part of my Master’s degree from MIT. I have worked in regional planning in Southern California for about ten years, developing an ecosystem-based approach to urban ecology, with a particular interest in green infrastructure, impervious surface management, heat island mitigation, urban forestry, and landscape management in an integrative approach to regional planning. http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth vasishth@csun.edu