Educating Urban Practitioners in a time of Climate Crisis

Educating Urban Practitioners in a time of Climate Crisis: An Innovative Vision for Higher Education in India

The interaction of urbanisation, climate change and biodiversity loss is generating multiple interlocking crises in urban and rural areas that changes the way that policymakers, planners and practitioners respond. How are these manifested in contemporary India?

This session takes place in the context of the UN theme for World Habitat Day and Urban October 2025, Urban Crisis Response, addressing it through the lens of higher education and research in India. It will explore the nature and understanding of this challenge and how it can be addressed through the effective development of curriculum and pedagogy in the education of a new generation of urban practitioners and ‘system integrators’ who can respond strategically, with principles of sustainability, inclusion and equality at the forefront.

Aromar Revi

Vice-Chancellor of the IIHS (Institution Deemed to be) University and the founding Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)

Image credit: Satish Krishnamurthy