Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)

Nawshin Tabassum

Assistant Professor
Specialization

Transportation Planning and Disaster Management

Academic Biography

I am working as an assistant professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology since November 2021. I competed my Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning degree from BUET in February 2017 (1st class 1st) and then joined as a lecturer in May 2017. Since then, I have been conducting theory and sessional classes on urban planning, theory and practice of planning, rural planning, transportation planning, environmental planning etc. at undergraduate level. I have received the prestigious prime minister gold medal award 2017 for my excellent result from the Faculty of Architecture and Planning. My department also nominated me to join JENESYS 2017: Sectoral connectivity and I represented my country in Japan. I completed my Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2021. I have been involved in research projects in transportation planning and climate change. My career focus is to conduct research and encourage my students and other young researchers to produce quality research on such issues of transportation planning so that together we can facilitate safe, affordable, sustainable, and accessible transport facilities for all.

Contact
Educational Information
  • Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2021
  • Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning (BURP), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 2017
Research Accounts
Consultancies
  • Research Associate in “Support in Development/ revision/ customization of relevant SDG localization tools and Capacity Development (CD) materials, ToT on the tools for localizing SDGs”” project. 2022
  • Research Associate in “Climate, Gender & Vulnerability Pre-Assessment (CGVPA) of the NAP and NDC Support Programme” project under “National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contributions Support Programme”. 2021
  • Research Associate in “Identifying the needs of LGIs on SDG Localization and Addressing Climate Change” under “Improved Coordination of International Climate Finance (ICICF) Project”. 2021
  • Resource Person, Training on Geographic Information System (GIS) and AutoCAD organized by Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET in collaboration with Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC). 2021
  • Resource Person, Training on Interactions between Land Use and Transportation organized by Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET in collaboration with Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA). 2020
  • Resource Person, Training Workshop on “Foundation Course on Social Science Research Methodology”, organized by Center for Regional Development Studies (CRDS) and Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET, 2017
Research Interests
  • Transportation Planning
  • Climate Change
All Publications
Farzana Faiza Farha, Farabi Sarker Shanto, Fyrooz Anika Khan, Maria Mehrin, Asif Khan, Nawshin Tabassum, Paromita Nakshi
Exploring the changes in travel behavior between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dhaka
Elsevier, Transport Policy, 2024
Publication Type: Journal Article
, Publication Link
The COVID-19 outbreak created immense disruptions in our daily lives. Travel is one of the major areas severely impacted by the pandemic. Bangladesh experienced two waves of COVID-19 between March 2020 and July 2021. Although several studies focused on significant changes in the travel behavior of urban road users before and during the pandemic, hardly any research examined the differences between the two waves. Hence, it was important to study the differences in travel behavior between the two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how the effects of travel restrictions, health concerns, and the severity of the pandemic on people's travel decisions change over time. This study intends to investigate the changes in travel behavior between the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dhaka and the factors that influence these changes. Data were collected through online questionnaire surveys using the Google form. Voluntary response and convenience sampling techniques were used to collect responses from 447 people in Dhaka. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were conducted to analyze the data. In addition, two multinomial logistic models were developed to identify the factors behind the changes in travel behavior. This study reveals that work and shopping trips increased, whereas work-from-home and online shopping somewhat decreased during the second pandemic wave compared to the first pandemic wave. Most non-car owners who reduced their use of public transportation during the first pandemic increased their use during the second wave. There was no significant increase in the use of active transport modes for work and shopping trips in Dhaka. The perceived risk of COVID-19 infection was relatively lower during the second wave, influencing the respondents to travel more frequently for work and shopping purposes. Ensuring more adaptive public transportation, flexibility to work from home, and creating supportive infrastructures for active transport modes might help to provide a safe, affordable, and efficient transportation system for all during the future waves of the pandemic and other unprecedented events.
T Zaman, Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan, Neelopal Adri, Nawshin Tabassum
Use of Technology in the Rural Households of Bangladesh having Migrant Members
-, 13th World Congress of the RSAI, Virtual Conference, Moroccan Section of the Regional Science Association International., 2021
Publication Type: Conference Paper
, Publication Link
Farzana Faiza Farha, RJ Biva, M Mehrin, MA Ali, Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan, Nawshin Tabassum, Paromita Shome
Livelihood Resilience and Coping Strategies of Selected Rural Households in Bangladesh During the Covid-19 pandemic
-, 13th World Congress of the RSAI, Virtual Conference, Moroccan Section of the Regional Science Association International, 2021
Publication Type: Conference Paper
, Publication Link
Niaz Mahmud Zafri, Ishrar Sameen, Anurima Jahangir, Nawshin Tabassum, Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan
A multi-criteria decision-making approach for quantification of accessibility to market facilities in rural areas: an application in Bangladesh
Springer, GeoJournal, 2021
Publication Type: Journal Article
, Publication Link
The available approaches for measuring accessibility are rigid and complex in nature, and mostly impractical for decision-makers as they require a large number of data, logistics support, and technical knowledge. Therefore, this study seeks to propose a flexible and practical approach for quantifying and ranking the accessibility to market facilities in rural areas. A three-stage multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is proposed to fulfill the objective. The first stage involves the identification of factors that influence the accessibility to rural market facilities. The next stage involves the use of the Constant-Sum Paired-Comparison Method (CSPCM) to determine the priority of each identified factor. The third stage adopts the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to quantify and rank the accessibility to market facilities of rural areas. To illustrate a real-world application, accessibility to market facilities in ten sub-districts of Bangladesh have been quantified and ranked by using this proposed approach. Results of this application support the claim that MCDM approach is a practical, flexible, and reliable approach that would better assist the policy-makers to identify poor accessible rural areas.
Kashfia Tabassum, Md. Lazim Munim Est, Rashada Sultana, Safakat Siddika, Niaz Mahmud Zafri, Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan, Anindya Kishore Debnath, Nawshin Tabassum
Redesigning Intersections for Enhancing Pedestrian Safety: A Study of Three Accident-Prone Intersections of Dhaka
BIP, International Conference on Urban and Regional Planning, 2019
Publication Type: Conference Paper
, Publication Link
About 60% of the trips are made on foot in Dhaka city but the pedestrians are the most vulnerable group among the road users. It is identified that more than 48% of reported road accidents and 72% of reported fatalities were pedestrians in Dhaka Metropolitan City. Among them, a large percentage of pedestrian crashes occurred in the intersection area. This study attempted to analyse the existing scenario of three accident-prone intersections of Dhaka city- Sonargaon-Panthapath, Jatrabari, and Shapla Chattar and redesign the intersections to ensure pedestrian safety. For the study, geographic elements were analysed and traffic studies were conducted for both vehicles and pedestrians of the intersections. Each of the legs of the intersections was incorporated in the study to know about the actual existing traffic scenario and problems of the intersections. After that, opinions of the stakeholders were collected regarding the redesign of the intersection. It was found that the geographical condition of the intersections was very poor. Sidewalks and roadways were mainly occupied by illegal hawkers, illegal parking, ticket counters. Besides, the roundabouts and central islands were not well-designed to control the vehicular and pedestrian traffic. So, these three intersections were redesigned by considering their land use, traffic flow, surroundings and the available standards. Overall pedestrian safety is expected to improve at those intersections if the proposed design is implemented.
Nawshin Tabassum, Mohammad Shakil Akther, M. R. Jeme
A Study on the Satisfaction Level of Women Public Bus Users in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Transportation Research Board (TRB), 6th International Conference on Women’s Issues in Transportation (WIiT 2019), 2019
Publication Type: Conference Paper
, Publication Link
F Tasnim, D Afroze, R Tahsin, Y Zaman, Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan, AK Debnath, Nawshin Tabassum
A Study on Increasing Pedestrian Safety at Bangla Motor Intersection.
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET, Nagar Shoilee, 2019
Publication Type: Journal Article
, Publication Link
T Tarannum, Nawshin Tabassum, TA Majumder, AM Riyadh, Ishrat Islam, Afsana Haque, N Sharmeen
A Temporal Study on Hatirjheel- Begunbari Project Area from Spatial and Socio-Economic Prospects.
Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET, Nagar Shoilee, 2017
Publication Type: Journal Article
, Publication Link