Instructors
Prof. Ing. Emanuela Abis
Professor of Landscape and Town Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Cagliari (Italy)
Emanuela Abis has received the degree in architectural Engineering in 1976 at Cagliari University. She worked as a researcher in the field of Urban Planning at the Engineering Faculty of Cagliari since 1983. In 2004 she was named Professor of Landscape and Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture.
Her main research interests include environmental and landscape planning at regional level and urban planning at local level with focus on processes of urban and environmental requalification. She has worked on these issues in cooperation with public, local and regional authorities.
Actually her research topics include landscape conservation, sustainable settlements and energy efficiency in national and international research programs. She has organised international conferences and workshops dealing with landscape protection and currently is member of the Council of the Doctorate school of Civil Engineering and Architecture.
Professor of Engineering Geology at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cagliari (Italy)
Giovanni BARROCU is Professor of Engineering Geology at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cagliari since 1980. He has carried out an intensive research activity as responsible for the Italian party in a number of bilateral and multilateral projects for groundwater applied studies in fractured and porous media. From 1993 to 2002 he has been member of the Italian Committee of IAEG, the International Association of Engineering and Environmental Geology and between 1993 and 2003 coordinator of the PhD course in Land Engineering, University of Cagliari. Since 2003 he now is chairman of the International Association of Hydrogeologists commission on “Coastal aquifer dynamics and coastal zone management” and an expert of the UNESCO-IHP MED-MAP project on the “Management of Mediterranean Coastal Aquifers, Groundwater and Land”.
Prof. Dr. Christina von Haaren
Professor for Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation at Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Department of Environmental Planning, section Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation (Germany)
After graduation (Diploma) in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Hannover Technical University 1978, C. v. Haaren completed an internship at a garden design company and tree nursery (Greenleaf Nursery, Warsaw Indiana /US) on a scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Organisation. From1979 to 1995 she gathered practical experience working for a German consultant company for environmental planning with projects all over Germany. Since 1995 until 2004 she was a founding associate of the environmental consultant office ARUM.
Her academic career began in 1986 at the University of Hannover, Institute of Environmental Planning and Nature Conservation as an assistant. In 1987 she finished her PhD with a dissertation about: “Historical aspects of the development of landscape in the water catchment area of volcanic lakes in Western Germany and consequences for nature conservation planning” (summa cum laude). 1994 and 1995 she was Guest-Professor for Landscape Planning at the University of Kassel and in 1998 she accepted the appointment as head of the Institute and regular Professor for Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation at Hannover University, Department of Environmental Planning, section Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation. In 2002 and 2007 C.v.Haaren spent her sabbaticals as visiting scholar at the University of the West of England, Bristol and at Cornell University USA Dept. of Agricultural Economics. Her research interests lie in the fields of methodologies and applications of landscape planning. Recently she worked on projects about supporting planning by IT and ways how to engage land users in environmentally sound practices.
C.v. Haaren has worked in different scientific societies and as a counsellor for the federal government (e.g. 2000-2002 scientific advisory Board Ministry of Traffic, Building and Spatial Planning; 2002-2004 Collegiate of German Research Foundation; Regular Member of the German Academy of Spatial Research; 2001-2008: Member and Vice Chair of The German Advisory Council on the Environment).
Professor of Applied Geophysics at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Cagliari (Italy)
Gaetano Ranieri is presently Full Professor of Applied Geophysics at the Faculty of Architecture- University of Cagliari (Italy), Director of the Doctorate school of Civil Engineering and Architecture and Member of Administrative Council of the University of Cagliari. He has been Director of the School on Soil and Environment Protection (1988-1990), Co-ordinator of the PhD course on Environmental Engineering (1988-1998) and Head of the Department of Georesources and Land at Politecnico of Turin (1991-1995). He is currently a member of the Scientific Council of Italian Geophysical Group, Consultant of Italian Ministry of Industries for the geothermal research and President of the Mining and Quarrying Council of the Regional Government of Sardinia. As a member of the Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society (EEGS) he organised the first European section meeting in Turin. His main research topics include gravity, seismic and geoelectrical thermic and electromagnetic applications to civil, mining and environmental works. In particular he has applied geophysical methods to soil remediation, waste disposal, pollution studies, monumental structures and archaeology researches on which he published about 200 papers. Prof. Ranieri is also a member of the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) since 1978 and of the Committee of Near Surface Geophysics Council.
Alexander and Victoria Wiley Research Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA (USA)
Carl Steinitz, who has held the position of professor of landscape architecture and planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design since 1973, was named the first Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning in 1986.
In 1967 Steinitz received the Ph.D. degree in city and regional planning, with a major in urban design, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds the M.Arch. degree from M.I.T. and a B.Arch. from Cornell University. He began his affiliation with the Harvard Graduate School of Design as a research associate in the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis in 1966.
Professor Steinitz has devoted much of his academic and professional career to improving methods by which planners and designers analyze information about large land areas and make decisions about conservation and development. His teaching encompasses such courses as Theories and Methods of Landscape Planning and Visual Landscape Analysis and Management. His applied research focuses on highly valued landscapes that are undergoing substantial pressures for change. Professor Steinitz has directed studies the Gunnison region of Colorado; the Monadnock region of New Hampshire; The Snyderville Basin, Utah; Monroe County, Pennsylvania; the region of Camp Pendleton, California, the western Galilee in Israel; the Gartenreich Worlitz in Germany; the West Lake in Hangzhou, China; and the Upper San Pedro River Basin in Sonora and Arizona; Coiba National Park in Panama, and the regions of La Paz and Loreto in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
In 1984, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) presented Professor Steinitz with the Outstanding Educator Award for his “extraordinary contribution to environmental design education” and for his “pioneering exploration in the use of computer technology in landscape planning, especially in the areas of resource management and visual impact assessment.” In 1996 he received the annual “Outstanding Practitioner Award” from the International Society of Landscape Ecology (USA). In 2002, he was honored as one of Harvard University’s outstanding teachers. Professor Steinitz is principal author of “Alternative Futures for Changing Landscapes”, Island Press, 2003.
Dr. Juan Carlos Vargas Moreno
Assisting Director, MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative and Visiting Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (USA)
Dr. Vargas-Moreno is a MIT Postdoctoral Fellow leading and managing researcher on MUSIC’s Everglades Climate Change project. He is also a Lecturer at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Dr. Vargas-Moreno holds a diploma in Architecture from University of Costa Rica and both Masters and Doctoral degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he studied Landscape Planning and Ecology under Prof. Carl Steinitz. He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Doctoral Fellows Program in Sustainability Science where he conducted research for the Science Environmental Planning Group under the supervision of Prof. William Clark.
Mr. Vargas-Moreno’s prior research was focus in the development rapid and participatory stakeholder-based appraisal methods employing geospatial information systems and technologies. His scholarly interest expands on the areas of environmental and development planning in highly contested and rapidly changing landscapes.
Mr. Vargas-Moreno serves as international moderator for the Open Forum on Participatory Geographic Information Systems and Technologies. He served as Lecturer and Visiting Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design Department of Landscape Architecture, and Visiting Professor at the Environmental Management and Tourism Planning Postgraduate Program of the University of Costa Rica. His teaching is primary concentrated in the theories and methods of regional landscape planning, visual assessment and Geographic Information Systems. Mr. Vargas Moreno has served as member for both Harvard and MIT transdisciplinary research teams in several international locations, and works as a private consultant on environmental regional landscape, and visual landscape assessment.
Researcher in the fields of landscape, architectural and civil engineering history
Tess Canfield has taught in the MPhil program in Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh (UK) and several times at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has been a consultant on several Alternative Futures studies with Carl Steinitz. Tess Canfield is a registered Landscape Architect in the State of Georgia, USA , and has been Chairperson of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. She is a Member of the Landscape Institute (UK) and of the Society of Archivists (UK).
Assistant and PhD Candidate at the Department of Land Engineering at Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy and at the Institute of Environmental Planning at Leibniz Universität Hannover (Italy and Germany)
Claudia Palmas wrote the diploma thesis about the comparison between Italian and German planning systems for a sustainable implementation of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) in Italy and Germany. Her research interests are centred on the integration of energy efficiency criteria based on distributed renewable micro generation in the planning of new settlements.
Assistant and PhD Candidate at the Institute of Environmental Planning at Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany)
Daniela Kempa holds a diploma degree in landscape planning and has extensive proficiency in Geographic Information Systems. Her research interests involve/encompass landscape plannig and visualisation, biodiversity aspects and prospects for GIS-supported conservation consultancy. Thus her dissertation project deals with terms of acceptance of GIS-supported conservation consultancy for farm management planning. At the Institute for Environmental Planning Daniela Kempa teaches theoretical and practical application of proprietary and free GI-Systems. Former employments included research assistance at the University of Goettingen in the field of landscape planning, multifunctionality of landscape and forest functions, GIS and data management.
Lecturer and PhD-Candidate at the Institute of Environmental Planning at Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany)
Christian Albert’s research interests include landscape planning, sustainability science, social learning, and participation, and his dissertation project focuses on theories, methods, tools, and effectiveness of participatory scenario processes for supporting transitions towards sustainable landscape development.
Christian Albert teaches at Leuphana University, Lueneburg, and Leibniz University, Hannover. At the latter institution, he also worked as a research associate in a project on the potential impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform on a rural region in northern Germany. Earlier, Christian served as a teaching fellow in a course on environmental science and public policy at Harvard University. He holds a Master in Design Studies degree in Landscape Planning and Ecology from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and received a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning after studying at Leibniz University and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.