Ashoka University

Ashoka University Co-hosts NASA’s South Asia Regional Initiative (SARI) Meeting

Dive into the insightful discussions and findings from NASA’s South Asia Regional Initiative Meeting at Ashoka University

Ashoka University co-hosted NASA’s South Asia Regional Initiative (SARI) meeting from April 9-11, 2024. The South Asia Regional Initiative leads research on land use land cover change in South Asian countries. This particular meeting synthesised the programme’s research on Trees Outside Forests (TOF) as a policy tool for climate change mitigation.

*Ashoka University’s Dean of Research, Prof Gautam Menon, and Dr. Krishna Prasad Vadrevu, Remote Sensing Scientist, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.*

*Session Chair Forrest Fleischman, Associate Professor at University of Minnesota, speaks to panellists about enhancing social justice and ecological outcomes from TOF.*

Krishna Prasad Vadrevu, Remote Sensing Scientist at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Program Lead of the SARI initiative, summarised the history of the SARI programme. David Skole, of Michigan State University and Principal Investigator of the meta-analyses that formed the backbone of this meeting, opened the meeting. The meeting consisted of four thematic sessions, which were followed by breakout sessions where meta-analysis on each theme was presented and discussion between scholars working on the issue helped provide more insights into the state of knowledge in that domain.

The first thematic session was chaired by Forrest Fleischman, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, and was aimed at incorporating the latest research on improving biophysical and social justice outcomes of TOF. Ecologists, such as Mahesh Sankaran from the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), and sociologists, such as Sudha Vasan from Delhi University, shared their perspectives in this session.

The second thematic session was chaired by Randy Wynne and Valerie Thomas from Virginia Tech University. The session focused on identifying the latest remote sensing tools for quantifying TOF. It included talks from leading academics such as Josh Gray, Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, as well as government officials such as Sunil Chandra, Deputy Director General at the Forest Survey of India.

The third thematic session, chaired by Ruth DeFries from Columbia University, aimed to understand the drivers of Nature-based Solutions (NbS). NbS encompasses strategies such as tree planting and avoided deforestation to balance the carbon budget. Carbon sequestered and avoided carbon emissions through such strategies may be traded on the carbon market.

*Prof Ruth DeFries from Columbia University and Ruchika Singh, Executive Director at the World Resources Institute, at the third thematic session on Nature-based Solutions (NbS).*

*Prof David Skole, Michigan State University, opens the meeting.*

The fourth and final session, chaired by David Skole, focused on integrating NbS with carbon markets. He also conducted a workshop for students at Ashoka University.

Students from Ashoka University presented posters representing their work on remote sensing at a poster reception.

Dr. Krishna Prasad Vadrevu, Remote Sensing Scientist at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, talks to UG student Aakanksha Agarwal about her work on using interferometric SAR for mapping building damage.

*Dr. Aditya Singh, Associate Professor at the University of Florida, speaks to UG student Anannya Sharma about her work on using hyperspectral imagery.*

Ashoka University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof Somak Raychaudhury, encouraged future collaborations between NASA and Ashoka University in his remarks during the closing session.