Ram Avtar

Faculty of Environmental Earth Science　Integrated Environmental Science　Conservation on Natural EnvironmentsAssociate Professor
Last Updated :2025/11/06

■Researcher basic information

Degree

  • Ph D, University of Tokyo

Profile Information

  • I am working as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Japan and Director of the Global Land Programme (GLP) Japan Nodal Office. I actively contribute to study land systems and co-design solutions for global sustainability as a part of GLP programme. I have worked at United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) as a Research Fellow for four years (2012-2016). I hold a master’s degree in Environmental Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and a doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan. I have developed methods for mapping natural resources using multi-sensor remote sensing techniques and scenario analysis for sustainable management of these resources. Currently, I am working on the synergistic use of remote sensing and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) techniques to monitor the environment more precisely to solve environmental issues from a global to local scale. I am interested in conducting research in the field of applications of Geospatial techniques and machine learning algorithms to monitor terrestrial ecosystems and climate change interface. The ultimate goal of my research is to use transdisciplinary research methods to promote research on vulnerability, resilience and sustainability.


    ​I have worked as a Lead Author in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) expert group on Deliverable 3(c). I am a recipient of the prestigious Green Talents Award by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany. I have published numerous publications in several international peer-reviewed journal articles (150+), two books of international repute, and presented my work at various international and national conferences. I led various research projects as a Principal Investigator (PI) as well as a team member such as Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN-GCR), Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI), Belmont Forum, Hirose grant, Kurata grant, Kajima grant etc.

Researchmap personal page

Home Page URL

Researcher number

  • 90648057

ORCID ID

J-Global ID

Educational Organization

■Career

Career

  • Hokkaido University, Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Japan
  • United Nations University, (UNU-IAS) Tokyo, Japan, Research Fellow

■Research activity information

Awards

  • Apr. 2023, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany, Global Young Academy (GYA) Award-2023　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
  • Feb. 2023, Hokkaido University, Japan, Hokkaido University President Award-2022　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Papers

Other Activities and Achievements

Books and other publications

Research Themes

  • Connectivity of human and nature in the Himalaya: Comparison among three W-E regions
    Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research
    05 Apr. 2021 - 31 Mar. 2025
    渡邉 悌二, 古川 不可知, 韓 志昊, 渡辺 和之, 相馬 拓也, アバタル ラム
    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), Hokkaido University, 21H04371
  • インド・ウッタラカンド州における大規模なバイオガス導入が森林再生にもたらす効果
    科学研究費助成事業
    01 Apr. 2021 - 31 Mar. 2024
    アバタル ラム
    This research aims to monitor the impact of large-scale biogas intervention on forest regeneration in Uttrakhand area of India. This intervention introduces biogas digesters and replaces fuelwood in 60 villages as part of a low-carbon farming initiative. The study's overarching goal is to examine the consequences of large-scale biogas interventions on forest regeneration and carbon storage in the forest surrounding villages that have adopted biogas technology as their primary source of fuel with comparable villages in the region that had not. We have processed multi-sensor remote sensing data and satellite data, clearly showing a changing forest cover pattern in the study area. Planet satellite-based vegetation data shows an increase of about 2 percent of forest cover in the areas near the villages with biogas intervention. However, it needs ground validation. We are planning to start collecting ground truth data to see the change in forest biomass based on the forest inventory data. High-resolution Planet data shows some vegetation recovery/regeneration in the study area. We are also going to conduct a questionnaire survey to identify the factors of forest recovery and how the people's socio-economic status affects the recovery of the forest in the study area. The questionnaire survey will be useful to get qualitative information about forest status and changes in people’s lifestyle after biogas intervention.
    日本学術振興会, 基盤研究(C), 北海道大学, 21K05664
  • Creating permafrost map applicable for evaluating local ecosystem services
    Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research
    01 Apr. 2017 - 31 Mar. 2021
    Ishikawa Mamoru
    Permafrost plays an important roles for sustaining local ecosystem service since it produces water rich soils, allowing forest growth and river discharges even under the arid climatic conditions. We created high resolutive permafrost maps over Mongolia, and reconstructed transition of spring water since 1960s. The permafrost distribution was modelled with transient heat conduction and statistical-stochastic ways. The past and present states of spring activities were investigated by government maps published in 1960s, satellite images, and field surveys.
    Validation with deep ground temperature at multiple points showed good agreement between modelled distribution and the observations. However, they disagreed over the southern limit permafrost with ground temperature close to 0 degree. These regions overlap well with the regions experiencing significant degradation of spring water. Further researches i.e., model improvement, increasing the number of field evidences are required.
    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Hokkaido University, 17H01849