Shalini Vajjhala studies the social impacts of large-scale physical and economic phenomena. Her work focuses on development and environmental projects with a public participation component, such as population resettlement stemming from dam or highway construction, as well as how siting major facilities, such as electric power lines, affects and is influenced by local communities. Her interests are interdisciplinary and policy-focused and lie at the interface between large-scale technical projects and grassroots decision making and communication. As a result, her research brings together the fields of development planning, risk communication, spatial analysis, natural resource management, and judgment and decision making. Shalini has also worked extensively on adapting and integrating participatory mapping methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to engage citizen participation.