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Aromar Revi

IIHS University, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, TARU Leading Edge

ORCID iD 0000-0002-7712-9262
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About

Aromar Revi is the first Vice-Chancellor of the IIHS University and the founding Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), India’s leading interdisciplinary knowledge institution and distinct University, focused on the equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian cities, towns and villages. He is a polymath, local-to-global practice and thought leader, educator and institution builder with over 40 years of interdisciplinary problem solving experience. He is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and the Law and Management schools of the University of Delhi.

He is one of the world’s leading climate scientists, urban sustainability and disaster risk reduction professionals, has deep governance, institutional development, management and implementation experience, across public, private, academic and civil society institutions. He is a globally-ranked scholar across multiple fields (urban, infrastructure, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development), has lectured and taught at 100 of the world’s leading universities and think tanks across six continents; with over 80,000 participants in MOOCs that he helped design and deliver.

Aromar has over 40 years led 250 major practice, consulting and research assignments in India and abroad and helped structure, design and review development investments of over $ 15 billion. He has travelled extensively to over 65 countries; worked on 5 of the world’s 10 largest cities; across urban and rural areas in all of India’s 28 states and in 5 Union Territories, and on multiple international projects across over a dozen countries.

Aromar is an globally-ranked scholar across multiple interdisciplinary fields that intersect with his policy, practice and research work: climate adaptation (#1), disaster risk reduction (#1), urban (#2), infrastructure (#3), and sustainable development (#7). His work has been cited 56,000 times.

He is a global expert on implementing Sustainable Development; Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), where he led a successful global campaign for an urban Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 11) as part of the UN’s 2030 development agenda.

Aromar is a member of key international Commissions on Water, Climate change, Finance, Health, Sustainable Development and Cities. He was a Commissioner and Lead Expert of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water that presented its report to the UN Global Conference on Water 2023. He is a Commissioner of the Global Commission on the Urban SDG Finance that is defining how cities can obtain more and better financing to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. He was a Commissioner of the Lancet Pathfinders Commission that identified global, regional and local pathways to a healthy, low carbon future.

He is a member of the UCLG-Ubuntu and policy Advisor to the UCLG Presidency. UCLG is the global voice and advocate of local and regional governments. He was a member of UN-Habitat’ Stakeholder Advisory Group (STAG) tasked with global stakeholder engagement (2019-21). Aromar was also a member of the Managing Board of Cities Alliance the global partnership for sustainable cities and urban poverty reduction (2016-19).

Aromar is a member of the Steering Committee of the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities, that has over 430 member universities from 86 countries, the International Advisory Board of the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town, the External Advisory Board of the India China Institute (ICI) at the New School University, the Advisory Board of the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Centre for Cities.

Aromar’ policy, practice and research work lie at the interface of four themes: sustainable development and sustainability science; sustainable urbanisation and the emerging discipline of ‘urban science’; climate action and climate science; and disaster risk reduction and risk science - that he has helped define internationally.

He has led 250 major implementation, consulting and research assignments in India and across the world, in over a dozen areas: sustainable cities and urban development (41), infrastructure and services (34), disaster risk reduction (33), rural development (27), climate change (24), sustainable development (16), development strategy & international cooperation (15), technology (13), governance and public policy (12), education (13), economics & finance (11), health systems (9) and social transformation (2).

Aromar has lectured and taught at over 100 leading universities across all six continents, over the last 40 years, across multiple areas of his research and policy competence. Over 80,000 people from 160 countries have registered for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) curated and anchored by Aromar.

Employment

  • IIHS University Vice-Chancellor
    2025 - Present
  • Indian Institute for Human Settlements Director
    2009 - Present
  • TARU Leading Edge Director
    1990 - 2009
  • Development Alternatives Chief
    1984 - 1990

Education

Education history is unavailable.

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (193)