Dr. · Earth Sciences

Shekhar Sharan Goyal

Research Scientist · Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ

Leipzig, Germany

Research profile

Environmental systems science across agriculture, food trade, nutrients and water.

I develop spatial and network-based models to quantify how agriculture, food trade and water-resource use redistribute nutrient pollution and sustainability risks across regions.

Research fingerprint

Core topics across my work

The recurring themes connecting my research on agricultural sustainability, environmental risk and water systems.

Agricultural nitrogenPhosphorus pollutionNutrient budgetsNitrogen-use efficiencyFood-system sustainabilityCrop-trade networksEnvironmental footprintsPlanetary boundariesEcohydrologyWater qualityBlue-water stressStream temperatureClimate adaptationGeospatial modellingRemote sensingAI-ready benchmarks

Core research areas

Four connected research directions

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01

Nutrient pollution & management

Agricultural nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, nutrient budgets, nitrogen-use efficiency, surplus indicators and environmental thresholds.

02

Food systems, trade & boundaries

Crop-trade networks, environmental footprints, food-system sustainability and planetary-boundary-relevant assessment.

03

Ecohydrology & water systems

Water-quality modelling, blue-water stress, stream-temperature dynamics, hydrological forecasting and climate adaptation.

04

Geospatial & AI-ready data

Remote-sensing-informed datasets, spatial models, reproducible workflows and environmental sustainability benchmarks for AI evaluation.

Selected research output

Recent publications

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2026

Rising Disparity in Sustainable Nitrogen Management Across Indian Croplands

Shekhar S. Goyal, Rohini Kumar, Udit Bhatia & Wim de Vries · Communications Sustainability

Accepted
Article

Research network

Collaborations & research connections

An interactive view based on co-authored publications and manuscripts, conference work, and active research-team relationships listed in my current academic CV.

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Connected research across themes

Click a node to see the relationship and shared research area. Publication collaborators and team/mentoring links are deliberately shown with different edge styles.

Research collaborationTeam / mentoring
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Visual research

Research through figures

Selected figures retained from the original website. Click any figure to inspect it at full size.

Spatial evolution of nitrogen surplus across Indian districts
Long-term nitrogen surplusDistrict-scale patterns across India.
Interstate crop trade and nutrient surplus maps
Trade-linked pollutionSpatial production patterns and interstate crop-trade connections.
Environmental benefits of crop restructuring
Crop restructuringCross-benefits for nitrogen, water, climate, returns and cereal substitution.
Nitrogen budget uncertainty framework
Uncertainty frameworkMulti-model accounting of agricultural nitrogen budgets and uncertainty.
Gray water footprint and nutrient trade
Environmental loadingTrade-linked nutrient surpluses translated into water-quality pressure.
Crop restructuring trade network changes
Network reconfigurationHow crop restructuring reshapes production and interstate trade flows.

Funded leadership

Current projects

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Principal Investigator · 2026

UNLOCK · AI Sustainability Benchmarking

Helmholtz-funded project developing AI-ready environmental sustainability benchmarking datasets from Helmholtz data assets.

Acquired funding · €108,508
Co-Principal Investigator · 2026–2027

OCPC · Bilateral Collaboration

Co-supervision of a PhD project on multi-pollutant, spatially explicit water-quality modelling from historical evolution to future scenarios.

Co-Principal Investigator · 2026–2028

In4Nile · Nile River Basin

Co-supervision of a PhD project developing multi-pollutant, spatially explicit water-quality information across the Nile basin.

Data & tools

Open, interactive and reusable research

Open data explorer →
Interactive map

Indian district nitrogen surplus

Explore annual district patterns and click individual districts to inspect nitrogen-surplus trajectories from 1966 to 2017.

Dataset

District-scale nitrogen budgets

Supporting CSV and GeoJSON files from the original website remain available for transparent reuse and exploration.

Dataset

ENMI Europe dataset

Long-term environmental nitrogen management indicators across Europe, developed with collaborators at UFZ and Wageningen.

Activities & engagement

Science beyond papers

Activities & media →
Conference leadership

EGU Session Convenership

Convener at EGU 2025 and 2026 on infrastructure resilience, interdependent risks and extreme-weather impacts on networked systems.

Scientific service

Peer review

Reviewer for Nature Sustainability, Scientific Reports, Earth’s Future, and Communications Earth & Environment.