Reimagining walkability, one neighbourhood at a time

MSCA Fellow of the Month

Next in our monthly spotlight series is Megha Tyagi, an MSCA postdoctoral fellow at Aalto University in Finland. She is on a mission to revolutionise urban planning in India by addressing an issue long overlooked in decision-making: the experiences and needs of young residents.

Her project, DigiPACK, explores the potential of a digital participatory tool to study children's mobility and environmental experiences in Delhi. The tool turns their insights into evidence that can help urban planners design more inclusive neighbourhoods and enhance walkability.

Seeing cities through different eyes

Walking is the most common mode of transport, but it remains a challenge in many Indian cities due to poor pedestrian infrastructure, fragmented urban governance and mismatched transport funding priorities. Although children navigate streets daily, they rarely have the chance to influence how their cities are planned and designed because collecting their perspectives often requires resources that planners may lack.

Megha intends to fill that gap by using the SoftGIS methodology, an internet-based public participation geographic information system (PPGIS), to map and compare children's mobility patterns and interactions with the environment in Delhi.

By engaging children from various age groups across 3 distinct neighbourhood types and analysing how age, gender, and socio-economic background shape their experiences, her project aims to help young residents become active contributors to urban planning and to operationalise the pedestrian networks proposed in the latest Draft Delhi Master Plan 2047, which was approved on 12 August 2026.

A career built on movement

Megha's current work builds on over a decade of academic and consultancy experience in developing and managing inclusive and sustainable urban development and transport planning projects across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

After earning her PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Technische Universität Berlin in Germany, she worked as an international transport consultant at Cities Forum. She then moved to Finland to join the DigiPACK project.

Strengthening global connections

Alongside her research, Megha is a regular voice at international conferences and events, including the World Planning Schools Congress and Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress, where she presents her findings to researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers to address challenges and make cities more inclusive and sustainable. She is also dedicated to sharing knowledge with future generations by delivering lectures and talks at universities.

Megha is also a member of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) Finland Chapter and actively participates in its activities. In early 2026, she delivered a lightning talk at the Chapter's first in-person meeting in Turku and contributed ideas to new initiatives aimed at enhancing member engagement.

She values the sense of community developed through networking and encourages fellow MCAA members to become more involved.

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