By Shashikant Nishant Sharma
Over the past few years, the body of research led by Shashikant Nishant Sharma and collaborators has carved a distinct intellectual pathway in the field of urban development, sustainable infrastructure, and environmental planning. Their work threads together themes of transit-oriented development, green infrastructure, solid waste management, and emerging construction technologies — each piece contributing to a larger vision of livable, equitable, and resilient cities.
The journey begins with an evidence-based investigation into Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). In A Systematic Literature Review of Transit-Oriented Development to Assess Its Role in Economic Development of City (Sharma & Dehalwar, 2025), the authors synthesize global and regional studies to position TOD as a powerful catalyst for urban economic growth. Building upon this conceptual foundation, their empirical work Assessing the Transit-Oriented Development and Travel Behavior of the Residents in Developing Countries: A Case of Delhi, India (Sharma & Dehalwar, 2025) reveals how strategic urban transit policies influence commuter choices, reduce reliance on private vehicles, and reshape city life.
Parallel to the TOD research, the team engages with the built environment’s role in sustainability. Role of Green Buildings in Creating Sustainable Neighbourhoods (Sharma et al., 2025) positions eco-friendly construction not as a luxury but as a necessity, linking architectural choices to long-term community well-being. This theme expands into work on prefabricated building systems and innovative materials — from Self-healing Concrete / Biocrete to Life Cycle Assessments of recycled materials in road construction — demonstrating a commitment to life-cycle thinking in infrastructure design.
The researchers also recognize that sustainable cities must manage waste streams responsibly. In Emerging Techniques of Solid Waste Management for Sustainable and Safe Living Environment and Challenges of Environmental Health in Waste Management for Peri-urban Areas (both 2024), Sharma and colleagues propose technologically viable, socially inclusive solutions to the mounting urban waste crisis. These publications situate waste management as a cornerstone of environmental health, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions.
Transportation remains another recurring focus, with works such as Assessing Bus Users Satisfaction Using Discrete Choice Models: A Case of Bhopal (Lodhi, Jaiswal & Sharma, 2024) highlighting how public perception drives the adoption of sustainable mobility options. The linkage between transport accessibility, land use planning, and urban growth patterns is further illustrated in Urban Growth Prediction using CA-ANN Model and Spatial Analysis for Planning Policy in Indore City, India (Kumar, Vyas, Sharma & Dehalwar, 2025).
Beyond technical and policy domains, Sharma’s scholarship also touches on political and educational dimensions of planning. His brief commentary Council of Planning for Promoting Planning Education and Planning Professionals (Sharma & Dehalwar, 2023) calls for stronger institutional frameworks to nurture future urban planners. Even socio-political issues, such as gender representation in politics, are addressed in Politics in the Name of Women’s Reservation (Dehalwar & Sharma, 2024), reflecting the authors’ recognition that social equity is inseparable from urban development.
Taken together, these publications present more than isolated research outputs — they tell a story of integrated urban sustainability. The collective work blends quantitative modelling, policy critique, technological innovation, and socio-political analysis to address the complex realities of cities in the Global South.
By continually shifting between the macro lens of city-wide policy and the micro lens of materials, technologies, and user behavior, Sharma and his collaborators are not just documenting urban change — they are actively shaping the discourse on what the cities of the future should be.
References
Sharma, S. N., & Dehalwar, K. (2025). A Systematic Literature Review of Transit-Oriented Development to Assess Its Role in Economic Development of City. Transportation in Developing Economies, 11(2), 23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40890-025-00245-1
Sharma, S. N., & Dehalwar, K. (2025). Assessing the Transit-Oriented Development and Travel Behavior of the Residents in Developing Countries: A Case of Delhi, India. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 151(3), 05025018. https://doi.org/10.1061/JUPDDM.UPENG-5468
Sharma, S. N., Singh, S., Kumar, G., Pandey, A. K., & Dehalwar, K. (2025). Role of Green Buildings in Creating Sustainable Neighbourhoods. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1519(1), 012018. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1519/1/012018
Lodhi, A. S., Jaiswal, A., & Sharma, S. N. (2024). Assessing bus users satisfaction using discrete choice models: A case of Bhopal. Innovative Infrastructure Solutions, 9(11), 437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-024-01652-w
Sharma, S. N., Kumar, A., & Dehalwar, K. (2024). The Precursors of Transit-oriented Development. Economic and Political Weekly, 59(14), 16–20. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.10939448
Sharma, S. N., Singh, D., & Dehalwar, K. (2024). Surrogate Safety Analysis- Leveraging Advanced Technologies for Safer Roads. Suranaree Journal of Science and Technology, 31(4), 010320(1-14). https://doi.org/10.55766/sujst-2024-04-e03837
Kumar, G., Vyas, S., Sharma, S. N., & Dehalwar, K. (2025). Urban growth prediction using CA-ANN model and spatial analysis for planning policy in Indore city, India. GeoJournal, 90(3), 139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-025-11393-7
Sharma, S. N., Dehalwar, K., & Singh, J. (2024). Emerging Techniques of Solid Waste Management for Sustainable and Safe Living Environment. In M. Nasr & A. Negm (Eds.), Solid Waste Management (pp. 29–51). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60684-7_3
Kumar, G., Vyas, S., Sharma, S. N., & Dehalwar, K. (2024). Challenges of Environmental Health in Waste Management for Peri-urban Areas. In M. Nasr & A. Negm (Eds.), Solid Waste Management (pp. 149–168). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60684-7_9
Ram Suhawan Patel, Sonia Taneja, Jagdish Singh, & Shashikant Nishant Sharma. (2024). Modelling of surface run-off using SWMM and GIS for efficient stormwater management. Current Science, 126(4), 243–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.18520/cs/v126/i4/463-469
Sharma, S. N., & Dehalwar, K. (2023). Council of Planning for Promoting Planning Education and Planning Professionals. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 43(4), 748–749. Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231204568
Sharma, S. N., Prajapati, R., Jaiswal, A., & Dehalwar, K. (2024). A Comparative Study of the Applications and Prospects of Self-healing Concrete / Biocrete and Self-Sensing Concrete. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1326(1), 012090. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1326/1/012090
Sharma, S. N., Lodhi, A. S., Dehalwar, K., & Jaiswal, A. (2024). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Recycled & Secondary Materials in the Construction of Roads. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1326(1), 012102. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1326/1/012102
Dehalwar, K., & Sharma, S. N. (2024). Politics in the Name of Women’s Reservation. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2455328X241262562. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X241262562
