Mohammad Sofi Ullah :: Faculty Profile

Biography

Professor Md. Sofi Ullah, MPhil Md. Sofi Ullah, MPhil, is a distinguished professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Dhaka, with over 25 years of experience in teaching, research, and consultancy. His academic and professional journey has been deeply rooted in geospatial science, climate change, disaster management, and environmental sustainability. Throughout his career, he has contributed ...

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Professor Md. Sofi Ullah, MPhil

Md. Sofi Ullah, MPhil, is a distinguished professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Dhaka, with over 25 years of experience in teaching, research, and consultancy. His academic and professional journey has been deeply rooted in geospatial science, climate change, disaster management, and environmental sustainability. Throughout his career, he has contributed significantly to advancing the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) in diverse environmental and developmental contexts. To date, about 25 of his scientific articles have been published in nationally and internationally renowned journals.

Born in Dagonbhuiyan, Feni, Bangladesh, in 1967, Prof. Ullah pursued his education at the University of Dhaka, earning his B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc., and M.Phil. in Geography. His research focuses on climate change adaptation, water security, land degradation, and disaster risk reduction, particularly in Bangladesh’s vulnerable regions. He is recognised as a pioneer in landslide vulnerability modelling in Bangladesh. Prof. Ullah has also been actively involved in numerous government and international projects, providing expertise in GIS-based spatial analysis, hydrological modelling, and environmental planning.

Prof. Ullah is a leader in GIS training. He has designed and conducted numerous training programs on GIS, Remote Sensing, and Google Earth Engine (GEE), helping professionals and researchers develop advanced spatial analysis skills. Under his leadership, the Department of Geography and Environment has organised about 20 Fundamentals of GIS trainings, 10 professional training programs, and around 15 Remote Sensing trainings, through which nearly 1,250 participants have been trained. In his personal capacity, he has trained an additional 1,500 individuals in the field of geoinformatics. His strong affiliations with organisations such as USAID, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI), the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), BRAC University, and Caritas Bangladesh further reflect his influence and expertise.

Beyond academia, Prof. Ullah has made notable contributions to national policy initiatives, serving as a GIS expert and consultant for various government agencies and private sector projects. His extensive publication record includes high-impact research articles and book chapters on landslide susceptibility mapping, wetland degradation, and climate resilience modelling. Under his supervision, numerous researchers have completed PhD, MPhil, and M.S. theses. He also serves as the Chairman of the Foundation for Geointelligence Policy Support (FGPS), a think tank dedicated to supporting the government in advancing the GEOINT sector as a whole.

With a deep commitment to education, research, and applied geospatial technologies, Md. Sofi Ullah continues to be a driving force in promoting environmental sustainability and spatial data-driven decision-making in Bangladesh and beyond.

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Degree Name	Group/Major Subject	Board/Institute	Country	Passing Year
M.Phil.	Geography and Environment	University of Dhaka	Bangladesh	2000
Masters	Department of Geography and Environment	University of Dhaka	Bangladesh	1988
Bachelor	Department of Geography and Environment	University of Dhaka	Bangladesh	1987
H.S.C	Mujib College, Basurhat, Companygonj, Noakhali	Cumilla	Bangladesh	1984
S.S.C	Dudmukha High School, Feni	Cumilla	Bangladesh	1982

Title	Organization	Location	From Date	To Date
Curriculum Expert Resource Person	Bangladesh Technical Education Board	Bangladesh Technical Education Board, Dhaka	Jan 2021	Present
GIS Trainer	Action Against Hunger, Bangladesh	Cox's Bazar	Dec 2020	Dec 2020
Professor	University of Dhaka	Department of Geography and Environment	Oct 2020	Present
GIS Trainer	UNICEF	UNICEF	Oct 2019	Oct 2019
Expert Member, Committee to Formulate Rules to Appoint Geospatial Officers and Staffs in a new GIS Division	Land Record and Survey Department (DLRS)	Dhaka	Jul 2019
GIS Expert as External Member	DESCO	DESCO Electricity Line Automation Process	Aug 2018	Present
Project Lead	Dhaka University	Geospatial Research under an MoU between HKI (Helen Keller International) and GIS Lab, Department of Geography and Environment	Feb 2018	Apr 2019
FOCAL point	BGISP	BBS	Jan 2018	Present
Course Coordinator	Dhaka University	Training Courses on GIS and Remote Sensing, Department of Geography and Environment	Jul 2015	Present
GIS and Remote Sensing Lab In-charge	Dhaka University	Department of Geography and Environment	Jan 2011	Present
Student Advisor	Dhaka University	Department of Geography and Environment	Jan 2010	Jan 2016
Assistant Professor	Dhaka University	Department of Geography and Environment	May 2003	Dec 2009
Assistant Proctor	Dhaka University	Faculty of Science	Jan 2002	Feb 2009
Lecturer	Dhaka University	Department of Geography and Environment	Jul 1999	May 2003

Research Interest

Subject	Description	Research Interest (Goal, Target Indicator)
Climate Change and Water Security in Bangladesh	Land degradation and sustainable development modeling
GIS and Remote Sensing	Tools and Techniques for Spatial data capturing, editing, storing, managing, analyzing and modeling.
Disater Management	Flood Hazard and Risk Analysis, Fire Hazard and Risk Analysis, Landslides Susceptibility Analysis, Flash Flood Modeling, etc.
Climate Change and Water Resource Management	World Water Resouce Scenario, Water Scarcity, and Stress, Water Uses, Water Demand, and Supply, Water Politics, Surface Water Change Delineation, and Future Prediction Water Security in Bangladesh: Sustainable Development and Adaptation Process

Project/Research Supervision

Level of Study	Title	Supervisor	Co-Supervisor(s)	Name of Student(s)	Area of Research	Current Completion
M.Phil	Environmental Quality of Savar Pourasava	Supervisor		Tahera Sultana	Environment	2019

Project/Research Work

Subject	Project Name	Source of Fund	From Date	To Date	Collaboration
Hydrological Modeling	Hydrological Modeling of Riverbank Erosion of the Jamuna River of Bangladesh: Future Predictions and Livelihood Impacts	UGC	28-04-2025
Water Security	Modeling Climate-Induced Water Security Dynamics in Rajshahi District, Bangladesh: An Integrated Approach	DRTMC	01-01-2025	30-06-2025
Landslide	Landslide Modeling and Early Warning System	Caritas	01-01-2024	30-06-2024
Water Security	Assessing the impacts of climate change on present status and future scenario of water security in the barind area of Bangladesh	UGC	25-09-2022	26-09-2023
Land Use Zoning	Landuse Zoning for Caritas, Mamysingh	Caritas	15-06-2018	15-08-2018	GIS Lab, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka
Landslide Modeling	Geospatial Research for Landslides and Flash Flood Modeling in Bandarban District of CHT: Bangladesh Under MoU between GIS lab, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka and Helen Keller International	USAID	20-02-2018	30-04-2019	GIS Lab, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka

Invited Talk

SL	Invited Talk
1	A three hours talk at CID head office on "Crime Hot Spot Analysis"

SL	Collaboration & Membership Name	Type	Membership Year	Expire Year
No Collaboration & Membership is found

Book Section
1	K .M. Nafee, Mohammad Sofi Ullah, Md. Shakib Al Fahad, Munira Nusrat, Md. Khayrul Islam Tuhin and Sadman Ahmed "Geospatial Techniques for Mapping, Monitoring, and Modeling Erosion of Jamuna River in the Shahjadpur Upazila of Sirajganj District, Bangladesh to Support Risk Management." Remotely Sensed Rivers in the Age of Anthropocene. Subodh Chandra Pal, Uday Chatterjee, Martiwi Diah Setiawati, Dipankar Ruidas Springer Nature, 2025 261-283 . View More
2	Md. Sofi Ullah "Geospatial Modeling of Potential Landslide Hazard Estimation for Better Management in the Bandarban District of Bangladesh." Landslide: Susceptibility, Risk Assessment and Sustainability Application of Geostatistical and Geospatial Modeling. Springer, Cham, 2024 669–693 . View More
3	K. M. Nafee, Md. Shakib Al Fahad, Md. Khayrul Islam Tuhin, Md. Sakhawat Hossen and Md. Sofi Ullah "Mapping of Landslide Susceptibility Using State-of-the-Art Method and Geospatial Techniques in the Rangamati District in the Chattogram Hill Tracts Region of Bangladesh." Landslide: Susceptibility, Risk Assessment and Sustainability Application of Geostatistical and Geospatial Modeling. Springer, Cham, 2024 103–152 . View More
4	Indrajit Pal, Afshana Parven, Mohammad Sofi Ullah and Khan Ferdousour Rahman "An Analysis of Small-Scale Fisheries Management Status by Focusing on Degrading Fisheries Resources in the Sundarbans." Sundarbans Mangrove Systems A Geo-Informatics Approach. Anirban Mukhopadhyay, Debashis Mitra and Sugata Hazra 2021 . View More
5	Md. Sofi Ullah "Vegetation Change Detection by Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): A Study of the Chittagong Hill Tracts." Environment and Sustainable Development in Bangladesh: Geographical Perspectives,. Khatun, H. et al, (edited) Dhaka: 2018 181-196 .
6	Md. Sofi Ullah,, Md. Faruk Hossain and Zahidul Islam "Renewable Freshwater Scarcity and Global Sustainable Issues." Environment and Sustainable Development in Bangladesh: Geographical Perspectives. Khatun, H. et al, edited Dhaka: 2018 .
7	Amanat Ullah Khan, A H M Atiullah Khan and Md. Sofi Ullah "Location Decision-making of Industrial Entrepreneurs in Chittagong City." Recent Urban Studies, Bangladesh. Nazrul Islam (Edited) Dhaka: Urban Studies Programme, Department of Geography, University of Dhaka, 1998 .
8	আমানত উল্লাহ খান and মহাম্মদ সফি উল্যাহ "শিল্পের অবস্থান তত্ত্ব ও বাংলাদেশী উদ্যোক্তাদের শিল্পের অবস্থান সিদ্ধান্ত প্রক্রিয়া: একটি সমীক্ষা." নগরায়ণে বাংলাদেশ: নির্বাচিত ভৌগোলিক প্রবন্ধ সংকলন. নজরুল ইসলাম এবং আবদুল বাকী সম্পাদিত Dhaka: পরিচালক, নগরায়ন চর্চা কার্যক্রম, ভূগোল বিভাগ, ঢাকা বিশ^বিদ্যালয়, 1996 .

Journal Article
1	Md. Sofi Ullah and Asib Ahmed : Present status and future scenario of water security in the Barind area of Bangladesh, Ecology Journal , vol.7 , no.1 Ecological Society of Bangladesh , pp.15-26 , 2025 . View More
2	Md. Sofi Ullah, Md. Khayrul Islam Tuhin, Tarulata Shapla and Kazi Farha Farzana Suhi : Geospatial Assessment of Wetland Changes in the Fringe Area of Dhaka City: Past, Present and Future Scenarios, The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences (impact factor:0.1) , vol.12 , no.2 Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. , pp.97-117 , 2023 . View More
3	Abdullah Ar Reyad and Mohammad Sofi Ullah : Spatial inequality in Bangladesh: A geospatial analysis, International Journal of Basic and Applied Science (impact factor:.415) , vol.11 , no.3 Institute of Computer Science (IOCScience) , pp.95-106 , 2022 .
4	Mohammad Sofi Ullah : MAPPING LANDSLIDE AND SIMULATING SPATIAL STATISTICS: A CASE OF BANDARBAN DISTRICT OF THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS, Oriental Geographer , vol.61 , no.1&2 Bangladesh Geographical Society, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka , pp.67-88 , 2022 . View More
5	Mohammad Sofi Ullah : Geospatial Modeling of Landslide Vulnerability and Simulating Spatial Correlation with Associated Factors in Bandarban District, The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences , vol.8 , no.2 Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Dhaka , pp.51-66 , 2021 . View More
6	Md. Sofi Ullah, Tarulata Shapla, Md. Amran Hossain and Md. Hasibul Hasan : Delineating Agricultural Landuse Change using Geospatial Techniques and Markov Model in the Tarakanda Upazila of Mymensingh, Bangladesh and Future Prediction, The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences , vol.8 , no.01 The Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Dhaka , pp.19-31 , 2019 . View More
7	Md. Sofi Ullah and Muhammad Esmat Enan : Landuse and Land Cover Change in Dhaka Metropolitan Area During 1991-2022, Oriental Geographer , vol.60 , no.1 & 2 , pp.01-18 , 2019 .
8	Md. Sofi Ullah : Water Bodies Delineation and Change Detection Using GIS and Remote Sensing with Multitemporal Landsat Imagery: A Case Study of Tanguar Haor, Oriental Geographer , vol.59 , no.1 & 2 , pp.69-82 , 2018 .
9	Md. Sofi Ullah, Anamik Ani Khan and Md. Amran Hossain : Spatiotemporal Variability of Rainfall in Bangladesh Using Thiessen Polygon and Spline Interpolation, Oriental Geographer , vol.58 , no.2 , pp.91-111 , 2017 .
10	Md. Sofi Ullah, Mausumi Ara and Anamik Ani Khan : Change Detection of Vegetation Coverage in Birand Tract, Rajshahi: Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Erdas Imagine’s DeltaCue, Bangladesh Journal of Geoinformatics (BJGI) , vol.1 , pp.73-80 , 2014 .
11	Asif Ishtiaque and Md. Sofi Ullah : The Influence of Factors of Migration on the Migration Status of Rural-Urban Migrants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Human Geographies- Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography , vol.7 , no.2 , pp.45-52 , 2013 . View More
12	Md. Sofi Ullah and Gopal Chandra Ghosh : Water Quality Aspects of Dhaka City’s Peripherial Rivers: A Case Study on Tongi Canal and Balu River, Society and Change , vol.V , no.01 , 2011 .
13	Md. Sofi Ullah : রিকশা মেরামতকারীদের রাজনৈতিক অর্থনীতি এবং সামাজিক পরিবেশ: ঢাকা মহানগরীর অপ্রাতিষ্ঠানিক খাতের চিত্র (Rickshaw Repairer's Political Economy and Social Environment: Image of Dhaka City's Informal Sector), ভূগোল ও পরিবেশ র্জানাল (Journal of Geography and Environment) , vol.7 , 2011 .
14	Rejuan Hossain Bhuiyan, Md. Sofi Ullah and Md. Kamal Hossain : Quality of Surface Water at the Savar and its Adjacent Areas, Society & Change , vol.II , no.2 , 2008 .
15	Md. Sofi Ullah : Economic Characteristics of Hawkers in the Urban Economy: Some Evidence from Dhaka City, Society & Change , vol.1 , no.2 , 2007 .
16	Kazi Md. Fazlul Haq, Md. Sofi Ullah and Abdullah Al Masud : Super-Centers as a Retail Market in Dhaka City: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis, Society & Change , vol.1 , no.4 , pp.37-51 , 2007 .
17	কাজী মোঃ ফজলুল হক, মোহাম্মদ সফি উল্যাহ and মোঃ কামাল হোসেন : পটুয়াখালীর মির্জাগঞ্জের ঘূর্ণিঝড় সংঘটন ও ঘূর্ণিঝড় সিডর-এর ক্ষয়ক্ষতি-মূল্যায়ন (Cyclone Formation in Mirzaganj, Patuakhali and damage assessment of Cyclone Sidr), ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় পত্রিকা (Dhaka University Journal) , vol.88 , pp.65-78 , 2007 .
18	মোহাম্মদ সফি উল্যাহ : ঢাকা অপ্রাতিষ্ঠানিক কর্মকাণ্ড: প্রসঙ্গ হকার ও তাদের অর্থনৈতিক বৈশিষ্ট্য (Dhaka Informal Activities: Hawkers and Their Economic Characteristics), ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় পত্রিকা (Dhaka University Journal) , vol.65 , 1999 .
19	Md. Sofi Ullah : Socio-Economic Aspects of Hawkers and Their Activities in Dhaka City, Oriental Geographer , vol.40 , no.1&2 , 1996 .
20	আমানত উল্লাহ খান and মহাম্মদ সফি উল্যাহ : শিল্পের অবস্থান তত্ত্ব ও বাংলাদেশী উদ্যোক্তাদের শিল্পর অবস্থান সিদ্ধাস্ত প্রক্রিয়া: একটি সমীক্ষা (Industrial Location Theory and the Industrial Location Decision Process of Bangladeshi Entrepreneurs: An Analysis), ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় পত্রিকা (Dhaka University Journal) , vol.46 , pp.155-168 , 1993 .

Award Type	Title	Year	Country	Description
No award information is found

Name & designation Mohammad Sofi Ullah Professor

Department Department of Geography & Environment Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Email sofiullah.geoenv@du.ac.bd

Phone 01552-424523