Dr Urmila Jha Thakur is an associate professor in School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool. She has an MBA in Environmental Management and a PhD in Environmental Planning and Assessment from Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool. Urmila is also Trustee at Community Forest Land Trust and The Mersey Forest. Since 2023, she has been serving as editor-in-chief for Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal.

Urmila’s research interest is primarily on planning and management of environmental sustainability and in exploring ways for making policies, plans, programmes and project developments more environmentally sustainable. She has worked on Environmental Assessment (EA) both at project and strategic level (EIA & SEA). Using the lens of Impact Assessment (IA) her research and teaching has explored topical issues such as health, climate change, heritage, green infrastructure and learning.

She has published widely in the field of Impact Assessment and her most recent work is co-editing the Elgar Encyclopedia of Impact Assessment. Urmila has also been involved in providing training on sustainability and Impact Assessment to institutes and organisations including The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, India.