People
He is Professor with special responsibilities in Urban Resilience at University of Southern Denmark, with mandate to form and coordinate a research group on urban resilience, a key research area within SDU Civil and Architectural Engineering.
Nicola holds a M.Arch. in architecture from University IUAV of Venice (sustainable urban development), a M.Phil. in sustainability from Technical University of Catalunya (sustainable urban development evaluation) and a Ph.D. in sustainability from Technical University of Catalunya (urban resilience transition). Nicola worked as researcher and lecturer at University IUAV of Venice (Department of Urbanism), Technical University of Denmark (Department of Civil Engineering), Technical University of Catalunya (UNESCO Chair on Sustainability), and University of Bradford (Centre for Sustainable Environments).
He has over 20 years of international experience in research, capacity-building, education on sustainable development, resilience, climate change, circular economy and innovation focusing on cities and regions. He has coordinated/participated in over 70 research, education and urban development projects worldwide, including 13 EU funded, in several countries including Colombia, Philippines, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil.
He authored over 100 scientific publications, delivered over 100 speeches/presentations in 20 countries worldwide, and co-organized over 25 international conferences and official side events at UN’s conferences. He has been serving as expert for numerous private and public organizations, including local-authorities, European Commission and United Nations programs and agencies, including UN-Habitat and UNFCCC.
Nicola is co-founder of Recycling Cities International Network RECNET, Executive Director of RESURBE International Program on Urban Resilience and Editor in Chief of the Resilient Cities book series published by Springer.
nto@iti.sdu.dk | +45 93 50 74 70
Assistant Professor in Urban Resilience is holding a Double degree PhD (University Iuav of Venice and University of Copenhagen) in Architecture, City and Design with a thesis titled “DESIGN for COASTALSCAPE. The spatial dimension of land-sea planning”. He is researching on “coastal systems to face complex social, economic, climate challenges and extreme events”. Graduated in Science of Architecture at the Politecnico of Milan, he moved to Venice at University Iuav of Venice to follow the European Master “Planning and policies for cities, environment and landscape”.
He accomplished an Erasmus exchange at UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) at the Department of Geography. During the university studies, he accomplished a internship at the Government of Flanders at the Regional Planning Research Department in Brussels. Since May 2015 he has been collaborating as a researcher at Planning Climate Change LAB of the University Iuav of Venice as a scientific support on EU projects regarding climate change and Maritime Spatial Planning. Since 2019, he is a senior non-key expert for the EU International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) for Asia & Australasia. Since July 2020, he is collaborating at the University of Southern Denmark at the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience (SDU.Resilience) Research Group.
alinn@iti.sdu.dk | +45 93 50 77 19
PhD student working on “Planning for urban resilience: a multi-risk approach for floods and droughts”, UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark. Background in regional and urban planning at the Polytechnic University of Turin. Two years of experience as a Research Assistant working on climate change policies, part of the Urban Resilience Intensive Training organizing committee, and assistant lecturer in Sustainable Urban Development and Urban Design and Planning (Design Studio 3) bachelor’s courses at SDU – Civil and Architectural Engineering.
mpiz@iti.sdu.dk | +45 51 70 12 81
Patrizia Gragnani is a sustainability and climate policy researcher with a PhD in Sustainability Management from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. Her research focuses on urban climate action, multilevel climate governance, and the integration of cities in national climate policies. She currently works as a Post-Doc at the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark, where she works on research projects in collaboration with international organizations including UNDP, UN-Habitat, the African Development Bank, and GCoM.
She holds an MBA from Sungkyunkwan Graduate School of Business and degrees in economics and management from the University of Pisa. Alongside her research activities, she has teaching experience in sustainable development, the SDGs, and climate change. She has contributed to peer-reviewed publications, UN technical reports, and policy briefs, and regularly supports international conferences and high-level events, including multiple UNFCCC COPs. Her professional experience combines academic research, policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, and applied project management in international and multicultural contexts.
With a background in landscape architecture and urban planning, he is particularly interested in understanding how urban landscapes can be built and transformed to be livable, healthy and inclusive that benefits both human and nature in a time of climate and biodiversity crises.
The main topics researched are 15-min City through the integration of green infrastructure and active mobility (walking and cycling) that can contribute to healthier lifestyles, human-nature connectedness and urban biodiversity. Nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate adaptation, and their implications to climate hazards. Participatory planning methods and tools that involve the public in urban planning and governance, e.g. Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS). He holds a PhD in Landscape Architecture and Planning from the University of Copenhagen (2024, “From able to invited: Integrating green spaces and active mobility planning for urban green travel environments”). Lastly, he contributes to courses in relation to climate, sustainability and the built environment, and he is working in the research project MAINCODE.