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
She is an urban designer and researcher, with a PhD in Urban design from Polytechnic of Milan, Italy and a master’s degree in Sustainable Architecture from Lund University, Sweden. Throughout her career, Masoumeh has worked in academia and practice. Previously, she was a researcher at Nature-based solutions for cities of the Global South project at Polytechnic of Milan and an assistant professor of architecture and urban design at the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the University of Guilan in Iran (2019–2022). She has collaborated with UN-Habitat on various projects. Her main areas of interest are resilient cities, urban nature-based solutions, and water-smart cities, as well as inclusive cities with an emphasis on gender-sensitive design. She is the (co-)author of a number of journal articles and book chapters, as well as policy documents and urban planning guidelines, including the National Urban Policy and Smart City Strategy (UN-Habitat, 2022) and Guidelines for Improving the Multi-Hazard Resilience of Health Facilities in Iran (UN-Habitat, 2019). In addition to her professional activities, Masoumeh isz also an advocate for early career scientists and has participated in various initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion in the field.
mami@iti.sdu.dk | +45 93533254
LinkedIn
SDU research link
He is a Capacity Development Specialist, with over 10 years of experience in international organizations. Strong background in Disaster Risk Reduction, Environmental and Disaster Management, Risk-Informed Sustainable Development, Capacity Development, Community Action Planning, Urban resilience, Risk Sensitive Land Use Planning, Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Disaster Risk Governance, Mainstreaming DRR/CCA into Development, and Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction.
He holds extensive experience in conducting applied research, capacity needs assessment; conducting survey, stakeholder engagement, partnership building, project design and delivery, writing DRM assessment reports and guidelines, developing capacity development products such as trainings, webinars, exposure visits, and other knowledge management activities.
He worked closely with large stakeholders and partners from Asia and the Pacific region who are working or have worked in DRR, CCA and sustainable development, including national governments, local governments, line ministries, NGOs and CSOs, development partners, regional organizations, and UN agencies.
He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management from Kyoto University, Japan;
a master's degree in Disaster Management from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
and a bachelor's degree in economics from M.S. University, Baroda, India.
sup@iti.sdu.dk | +45 93533186
LinkedIn
SDU research link
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
She is researching on ‘Capacity Building for Operationalizing Urban Resilience Transition’. The research project aims to increase the capacities of city officials in small and medium size urban coastal areas in Sub-Saharan Africa by investigating current programmes and training methodologies for capacity building (UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Action Planning Tool - CityRAP) and evaluate its impact for operationalization of urban resilience transition.
She holds a Msc. in Landscape Architecture from the University of University of Copenhagen and Msc. Eng. in Landscape Architecture from Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences.
She worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Southern Denmark co-organizing, co-developing and delivering Urban Resilience Intensive Trainings. Previously, at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) as a Research Assistant she was involved in research on multi-benefit coastal protection in Denmark, in collaboration with Smith Innovation.
Kawi@iti.sdu.dk | +4591884449
Industrial PhD researcher working on ‘Circular transition of affordable Housing – Generating environmental, economic and social co-benefits by design’. Posesses a bachelor degree in Architecture and Environment, California Polytechnic University, a master’s degree of architecture from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark, and 25+ years of practical experience as an architect in architecture, engineering , construction and professional clients’ organisations in Denmark. Previous work includes working as an associate professor and lecturer in architecture programs at the School of Architecture in Aarhus, Denmark, Denmark’s International Study Program and Council on International Educational Exchange, as well as several other Danish and international institutions. Assistant lecturer in Sustainable Development and Built Environment.
Vgl@iti.sdu.dk | +4526280289
SDU research link
She holds a double Master’s degree in Planning and Policies for Cities and the Environment from University Iuav of Venice and in Town and Regional Planning from Tongji University of Shanghai. Previous work experience as a junior architect for one year, as a research intern with a focus on coastal planning and supporting a capacity building initiative, and as a teaching assistant in a course on Urban Design and Planning at a bachelor level at SDU – Civil and Architectural Engineering.
clat@iti.sdu.dk | +39 389 911 01 08