Sheetal Patil is an interdisciplinary researcher who works at the intersection of the natural and social sciences, with particular emphasis on ecosystem services, climate change adaptation, well-being, and food–agriculture systems. She brings a systems thinking lens rooted in real-world sustainability issues.

For over two decades, she has led interdisciplinary research initiatives in diverse contexts, working across natural and social sciences, and in collaboration with public sector and civil society actors. Her research focuses on navigating complex changes in landscapes, environment, and demography, and examining their impact on the sustainability and well-being of marginalised communities, particularly in semi-urban areas. She has been exploring the food–water–health nexus, environmental health, economic feasibility and social justice, seeking to reshape and support systemic transformative changes in research and development grounded in equity and resilience.

She contributes to the IIHS Long-Term Urban Ecological Observatory through research and practice that involves the integration of food–water–ecology dimensions, linking urbanisation, sustainable development, urban agriculture and food systems, and urban nature-based solutions. She is also involved in research and practice projects that explore various aspects of agriculture and food systems resilience through the pathways of local adaptation to environmental and climate change.

Earlier, Sheetal worked as a Research Associate and Senior Research Associate at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) for 11 years, and later as a resource person and faculty member at Azim Premji University for 10 years.

She co-authored the book, Agrarian Change and Urbanization in Southern India: City and the Peasant, in 2019, which unpacks the agro-ecological impacts of urbanisation and examines the persistence and invisibility of small farms in Indian agriculture.