Badal Pokharel

Dr. Badal Pokharel is a Research Associate at the Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) within the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Faculty of Engineering. She holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UNSW (2023) and an M.Sc. in Engineering Geology from Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal (2018), where she was the university topper.

Her research focuses on the assessment of natural and human-induced disasters, particularly earthquake-triggered landslides and climate change-induced floods, using advanced geospatial approaches. Dr. Pokharel has extensive expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), and implementing geospatial systems for geohazards, agriculture, climate change, land administration, and geomorphology projects. Her methodological expertise integrates machine learning techniques with traditional geospatial methods, showing particular focus on the Himalayan region, especially Nepal.

Dr. Pokharel's publications demonstrate strong expertise in landslide susceptibility mapping, earthquake-triggered landslides, and geospatial analysis of natural disasters. Her recent work includes innovative approaches using random forest methods, Persistent Scatterer Interferometry, and slope-unit-based assessments for disaster risk management, with a geographical focus on Central Nepal and the Himalayan region.

• Early Career Academic Social Impact Award 2023, UNSW Early Career Network (ECAN), Sydney Australia
• Best Talent Award, 2021 Young Generation Forum/Young Professional Forum hosted by the Korean Academy of Scientists and Engineers in Australasia
• University topper for Master of Science in Engineering Geology, Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, 2018

Dr. Pokharel has secured multiple research grants including UNSW Seed funding (AUD 25000), Global Partnership Project Grant from Virginia Tech University (AUD 7200), HPC-Europa3 Transnational Access Programme research grant (AUD 3630), and PhD Research Support Grant from UNSW (AUD 3000). She is passionate about interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research that contributes towards disaster risk reduction and management, bridging engineering, geoscience, and data science to develop practical solutions for natural disaster prediction and management.