European Urban Resilience Forum

A big THANK YOU to all participants of the 2019 European Urban Resilience Forum!

Check out the best impressions from the day

Since 2013 the Open European Day - now European Urban Resilience Forum - is a European initiative driven by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and the European Environment Agency. It offers a unique exchange platform where city representatives and stakeholders from various local and regional institutions come together to discuss strategies and actions for adapting to climate change and building urban resilience.
 
In 2019, all those seeking to shape a climate-resilient future for our cities and regions were once again invited to take part. The Forum kept its informative, open and interactive character and ‘Powerpoint-free’ format. Participants were encouraged to share experiences and points of view on diverse topics, tackling existing challenges in local urban adaptation, while exploring potential solutions and opportunities for future collaboration.

Find out more

Report 2019

Report 2018

Meet the #EURESFO19 Speakers

Alenka Loose

City Energy Manager, Ljubljana Mayor's Office

Alenka Loose
City Energy Manager, Ljubljana Mayor's Office

Alenka Loose has diploma of Engineering and a long history of working energy and environmental protection. She was a research assistant at the Jozef Stefan Institute as part of the Department of Reactor Physics. Later Alenka worked as an expert and assistant director at the Agency for Radioactive Waste Management. Since 2000 she has been employed by the City of Ljubljana (COL) as part of the Environmental Protection Department, where she currently serves as City Energy Manager.

Hear her speak in Session 3B

Linda Romanovksa

Policy Expert - Adaptation and Cliamte Change, Fresh Thoughts Consulting

Linda Romanovksa
Policy Expert - Adaptation and Cliamte Change, Fresh Thoughts Consulting

Working in the field of climate change adaptation since 2011, Linda has been focusing on topics of adaptation planning and strategy development, urban resilience, the resilience of critical infrastructure and social aspects of climate change on the European, national and local governance levels. As an expert, Linda works on background studies, policy analyses and recommendations, strategy development, project evaluations, stakeholder consultations, communication as well as knowledge management and development of guidance and capacity building activities on adaptation to climate change.

Hear her speak in Session 1C

Peter B. Meyer

President and Chief Economist, The E.P. Systems Group, Inc.

Peter B. Meyer
President and Chief Economist, The E.P. Systems Group, Inc.

Dr. Meyer is President and Chief Economist of The E.P. Systems Group, Inc., a firm that has done work on contaminated land risk management and regeneration and on renewable energy and energy efficiency finance. He is Professor Emeritus of Urban Policy and Economics and Director Emeritus of the Center for Environmental Policy and Management at the University of Louisville, and was previously Director of the Local Economic Development Assistance Center at The Pennsylvania State University. He currently also serves as an elected member of his municipal council, enhancing his understanding of the limits of the feasible.

Meet him in Session 1C

Majana Heidenreich

Research Associate and Chair of Meteorology, TU Dresden

Majana Heidenreich
Research Associate and Chair of Meteorology, TU Dresden

Majana Heidenreich is a research associate at the Chair of Meteorology at the Technical University of Dresden. She has many years of experience in research on regional climate and climate change. Another focus of her work is adaptation to climate change. As part of the EU project LIFE LOCAL ADAPT, together with other partners, Majana supports small and medium-sized municipalities in adapting to the effects of climate change.

Hear her speak in Session 2B

Oleksandr Sushchenko

Research Associate, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

Oleksandr Sushchenko
Research Associate, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

Research Associate at UFZ and Associate Professor at Kyiv National Economic University (Ukraine). Also, heading the Center for Blended Value Studies, based at KNEU. Co-author of the KAS Policy Papers for establishing the sustainable and green financial system in Ukraine.

Meet him in Session 1C

Magnus Rothman

Project Manager, strategic green space, Stockholm, Sweden

Magnus Rothman
Project Manager, strategic green space, Stockholm, Sweden

Magnus Rothman is a green space project manager at the City of Stockholm, with an interest in the social and technical components of urban greenery. He is especially devoted to analyze and bridge the gap between man-made and nature-based solutions, focusing on utilizing multifunctional ecosystem services while sustaining biodiversity in metropolitan settings: A professional area for 25 years, mostly carried out in interdisciplinary urban planning projects. Magnus has worked with numerous municipalities and agencies, both around his native Sweden as well as internationally, and is often engaged as an appreciated guest speaker. His creed: “Without greenery, no resilience!”

Meet him in Session 1A

Susana Kankaanpää

Climate Expert - Urban Adaptation to Climate Change, City of Helsinki

Susana KankaanpÄÄ
Climate Expert - Urban Adaptation to Climate Change, City of Helsinki

Susanna Kankaanpää is an Environmental planner in the Urban Environment Division of Helsinki City. Her main tasks involve planning, coordinating and monitoring climate change adaptation in the city. Susanna has been working with adaptation issues for over 17 years, first as a researcher in the Finnish Environment Institute and then as a climate expert in the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY. She has also worked with European colleagues in developing indicators and social vulnerability assessment and has been involved in many EU and national climate projects. She holds a MSc of Agriculture and Forestry (Environmental economics and land use planning).

Hear her speak in Session 3C

Zuzana Hudekova

Environmental Expert, Municipality of Bratislava-Karlova Ves

Zuzana Hudekova
Environmental Expert, Municipality of Bratislava-Karlova Ves

Zuzana Hudekova graduated in the specialization on landscape architecture, and finished the PhD study in urban planning and architecture. Zuzana Hudekova has more than twenty years of experience implementing projects in the environmental field, landscaping, adaptation to climate change, urban and spatial planning. She participated in the preparation of the Slovak National Adaptation strategy, providing consultancy for the Slovak Governmental Office and the Ministry of Transport and Construction in the field of the adaptation to climate change. She is responsible for the implementation of the projects in the field of climate resilience and nature-based solutions in urban environment.

Hear her speak in Session 3C

Marcos Quijal

Researcher, Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) and the Global Health Institute Barcelona (ISGlobal)

Marcos Quijal
Researcher, Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) and the Global Health Institute Barcelona (ISGlobal)

In the past months Marcos Quijal has been working as a researcher of the Climate-fit.city project in the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB) and the Global Health Institute Barcelona (ISGlobal). His current research focuses on the study of the non-linear association between temperature and mortality. Marcos is developing distributed lag non-linear models to assess the socioeconomic inequalities in adaptation to extreme temperatures and bayesian models to study the temperature-mortality association at small area level.

Hear him speak in Session 3B

Alberto Maria Rigon

European Advisor - Municipality of Vicenza - Environment Department

Alberto Maria Rigon
European Advisor - Municipality of Vicenza - Environment Department

European Advisor for the Municipality of Vicenza. Consultant for international non-profit organizations and local authorities. He has a consolidated experience in managing project funded by European Union, UN Agencies, World Bank, Global Environment Facility, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Ministry of the Interior. He has participated in numerous programs, in both urban and rural contexts, in designing and delivering climate change adaptation, development initiatives and social integration in a perspective of increasing resilience of the communities. Currently he is supporting the Municipality of Vicenza in the implementation of Central Veneto Cities for Adaptation to CC in a multi-level regional perspective and the European Partnership for Innovative Cities within an Urban Resilience Outlook projects. He has a Master in International Cooperation from the University of Padua.

Hear him speak in Session 2C

Christiane Lütgert

Team Leader - City Renewal & Planning Department

Christiane LUEtgert
Team Leader - City Renewal & Planning Department

Christiane Lütgert studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich, and has been working in the planning department  for the city council of Halle (Saale) since 1996. Her responsibilities include conceptual design and implementation of urban renewal project. She is currently leading development of the “corporate engagement and neighborhood concept” for Freiimfelde, a socially disadvantaged quarter of the city, together with the artist group “freiraumgalerie”, as well as managing the project  “Green urban islands in Freiimfelde”, as part of the federal research study “Green Urban Labs”.

Hear her speak in Session 1B

Margaretha Breil

Senior Researcher on urban sustainability and climate change adaptation, CMCC

Margaretha Breil
Senior Researcher on urban sustainability and climate change adaptation, CMCC

CMCC is a network of Italian climate change research.  It supports, inter alia, the EEA with scientific advice on climate change and adaptation. Within CMCC, Margaretha focuses on the assessment and design of urban sustainable adaptation policies. Supporting the EEA, she coordinates scientific input activities with regards to urban adaptation, including the redaction of the recent EEA report on urban adaptation (2016), work on NBS and on social issues of climate change adaptation in cities, and the organization of the European Urban Resilience Forum (former Open European Day) at the Resilient Cities conference. Since 2019, she is coordinating the INTERREG Italy-Croatia Project ADRIADAPT – a Resilience Information platform for cities in the Adriatic area.

Johannes Langemeyer

Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

Johannes Langemeyer
Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

Johannes holds a doctorate degree in Sustainability Science from the Stockholm University (Stockholm Resilience Centre) and in Environmental Science and Technology from ICTA UAB. He is a transdisciplinary researcher focused on urban social-ecological systems and their complexities, such as the pluralism of values people hold in relation to green spaces. His research aims at better understanding the relationship between urban green infrastructure and human health and well-being. His current research examines the distribution of social effects related to urban green infrastructure and innovative nature-based solutions for urban challenges, and addresses participatory approaches and bottom-up initiatives for urban green regeneration.

Hear him speak in Session 1B

Joanna Kiernicka-Allavena

Coordinator for Climate Resilience, Wroclaw, Poland

Joanna Kiernicka-Allavena
Coordinator for Climate Resilience, Wroclaw, Poland

Former UNFCCC national expert and UNEP/MEDPOL liaison, involved in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.Initiator and coordinator of various projects, programmes and strategies in the field of sustainable development, mostly focusing on low carbon transition, adaptation to climate change and cities resilience. Coordinator of the Urban Adaptation Plan for the City of Wroclaw, local Coordinator of the Grow Green project - Green Cities for Climate and Water Resilience, Sustainable Economic Growth, Healthy Citizens and Environments / funded under Horizon2020: Demonstrating innovative nature-based solutions in cities. Liaison to international organisations and networks in the field of climate, energy and nature.

Meet her in Session 2A

Veronica Rebollo

Project Assistant - Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI Europe

Veronica Rebollo
Project Assistant - Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI Europe

Veronica joined the Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience team at ICLEI-Europe in September 2017, and is currently involved in projects and activities on urban adaptation, resilience and biodiversity, having participated in HORIZON2020 projects such as RESIN, Smart Mature Resilience and the EU Pollinators Initiative. With a background in biology and transdiciplinary and international training, she has explored different branches of the environmental conservation sector, ranging from academia to education. She is specialized in biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, with a focus on healthy human-nature interactions and sustainable and just urban development.

Stephanie Haury

Federal Insitute for Research on Bulding, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR)

Stephanie Haury
Federal Insitute for Research on Bulding, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR)

Stephanie Haury studied Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Karlsruhe and Barcelona. She has planning practice in Architectural Offices in Amsterdam (NL) and teaching and research practice in urban design at the University of Siegen. Since 2009 Stephanie has worked as a researcher at the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) in Bonn. She also worked as a project manager for several projects in the research programme Experimental Housing and Urban Development (ExWoSt) and the programme Social City (Soziale Stadt). Her area of expertise covers green spaces, interim uses, strategic planning processes and social urban development. Currently she is in charge of the green and white paper process “Green Spaces in the City” and the ExWoSt research field “Green urban Labs”. She does also research about co-productive processes in urban development, the consolidation of “city makers” and social welfare.

Meet her in Session 1B

Jonathan Moxon

Flood Risk Manager - Highways & Transport, Leeds City Council

Jonathan Moxon
Flood Risk Manager - Highways & Transport, Leeds City Council

I have over 14 years of experience working within Flood and Coastal Risk Management for the Environment Agency and Leeds City Council. I am now the Flood Risk Manager at Leeds City Council the 2nd largest metropolitan district in the country and 3rd largest city. As a Lead Local Flood Authority our teams manage flood risk and the wider impacts of climate change through infrastructure projects, managing assets, technical and planning advice, as well as responding to and investigating flood incidents. I work closely with colleagues across the UK and Europe to ensure we are do all we can to be the best city in the UK.

Hear him speak in Session 3A

Piero Pelizzaro

Chief of Resilience Office, Milan Municipality

Piero Pelizzaro
Chief of Resilience Office, Milan Municipality

Piero Pelizzaro is Acclimatise Associate Italy and responsible for the International Cooperation Unit and member of the Working Group Local Authorities for Kyoto at Kyoto Club No Profit, since April 2010. Senior Expert on Adaptation Policy to Climate Change and further specialization in Energy Scenario and Climate Change Impact Models through his past working experience at Stockholm Environment Institute – Tallinn Office.  In past years he collaborated with EU MP, Umberto Guidoni and at the moment his writing for different magazines and web-portals on climate change issues. He is leading projects supported by the European Commission. At the moment is leading the LIFE+ project BlueAP Bologna Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City (Senior Expert), LIFE+ RECOIL Recovered waste cooking oil for combined heat and power production (Technical Director), MED ZeroCO2 Small communities for big changing (Junior Expert).

Her him speak in Session 1B

Jorg Pieneman

Senior advisor Climate adaptation, Department of Water, Rotterdam

Jorg Pieneman
Senior advisor Climate adaptation, Department of Water, RotterDam

Jorg Pieneman is senior advisor climate adaptation and urban watermanagement and one of the program leaders for the Rotterdam climate adaptation strategy 2: “Rotterdams WeerWoord”. The plan’s goal is to take the next step in preparing the city for climate hazards like heavy rainfall, heat and drought; in close collaboration with inhabitants, companies, social housing corporations, waterboards and more. He is, as a theme coordinator, also involved in  many projects on excess rain like the implementation of a 3D hydraulic model of the city for watermanagement in case of an extreme rainfall event or flood.

Hear him speak in Session 2C

Reinhard Limbach

Deputy Mayor, Bonn

Reinhard Limbach
Deputy Mayor, Bonn

Reinhard Limbach has been working in the real estate sector since 1983. He became a certified real estate manager in 1987 and founded his real estate company in 1994. Reinhard  has been member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 1984 and City Councilor of Bonn since the year 2005. In July 2014, he was elected Deputy Mayor of Bonn. His thematic work focusses on planning, economy, finance and municipal facility management.

Isobel Fletcher

Senior Project Manager, Horizon Nua

Isobel Fletcher
Senior Project Manager, Horizon Nua

Isobel Fletcher, Senior Project Manager with Horizon Nua empowering the creation of viable, valued social enterprises across Europe. Isobel holds a Master’s in Business Studies from University College Dublin and has used her expertise to work with individuals, communities, social and commercial organisations and local authorities across a diverse range of programmes.  A former advisor to the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in Ireland, Isobel is passionate about supporting bottom up collaborative approaches to sustainable enterprises.  Isobel is currently delivering a series of financing and business model workshops for Nature-based Solutions to local authorities throughout Europe.

Hear her speak in Session 3A

Sjoerd de Vreng

Policy Advisor Urban Water and Climate Adaptation, Municipality Nijmegen

Sjoerd de Vreng
Policy Advisor Urban Water and Climate Adaptation, Municipality Nijmegen

Since 2016, Sjoerd works for the Municipality of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) as a Policy advisor for Urban water and climate adaptation. Trained as a biologist specialised in ecosystem-based water management he has interest in using ecosystem services to increase the resilience of cities to climate change . One of the projects he currently takes part in is a project to increase the amount of green in the gardens of the citizens of Nijmegen  with the aim of limiting flood risk due to heavy rain events, reducing heat stress and increasing social liveability. In his daily work he advises the alderman and board of the city and develops policies on climate adaption and urban water on a local and regional level.

Hear him speak in Session 3C

Katarzyna Szymczak-Pomianowska

Director of the Sustainable Development Department, Municipality of Wroclaw

Katarzyna Szymczak-Pomianowska
Director of the Sustainable Development Department, Municipality of Wroclaw

Director of the so-called Green Department, responsible for the implementation of policies and projects aimed at an effective adaptation of the city to climate change, including the development of easily accessible green and blue areas. For several years involved in the dialogue with residents as part of the Wroclaw Participatory Budget and public consultations, currently active supporter of stakeholder engagement and co-design of policies and measures, leading to a green, healthy and happy city, offering citizens well-being and a high quality of life. As a woman - a privately and professionally active lover of nature, cycling the city she lives in.

Doris Schnepf

CEO, Green4Cities

Doris Schnepf
CEO, Green4Cities

Doris SCHNEPF (F) is co-founder and CEO of G4C and co-founder and COO of Greenpass. She initiated and coordinated numerous nationally and internationally applied research projects related to technical and design aspects of Nature based Solutions and Sustainable Development. She has a profound experience in this field and also co-founded several SME companies in Austria (SERI, Hydrip) and Chile (Arche Noah Ltd). She holds a master as a landscape architect (MSc) and is lecturer at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Institute of Soil-Bioengineering and Landscape Construction (IBLB).

Hear her speak in Session 2A

Maria Telhado

Head of Environment & Energy Division, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa

Maria Telhado
Head of Environment  & Energy Division, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa

Since October 2018, Maria Telhado has served as Head of Environment and Energy Division from the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Department of the Lisbon City Hall. She was Head of Prevention and Public Awareness Division from SMPC/CML between 2016-2011, Advisor of Lisbon City Council (CML) in the Civil Protection area (SMPC), since 1990 and until 2018, with participations in projects related with: Urban Resilience Assessment (Scorecards and Dashboards), Multi-Risk Assessment (natural disasters), Early Warning System/Public Alert, Climate Change, Reduction Risk Disaster, Prevention and Preparedness, Emergency Planning, Information and Public Awareness, GIS/disaster risk/hazard maps. Maria has a Degree in Geography and Regional Planning (FCSH/UN 1989); Master’s degree in GIS (IST/UL 1998) and Post-Graduate Training for Teaching Geography at Secondary School (FCSH/UN 1991). Author of relevant methodologies related with Climate Change, Early Warning System, Hazard and Risk Maps and Urbana Resilience.

Hear her speak in Session 1C

Marjorie Breyton

Project Manager - Sustainability Department, Unipolsai

Marjorie Breyton
Project Manager - Sustainability Department, Unipolsai

Since 2016, Marjorie Breyton works in the sustainability department of Gruppo Unipol and is the project manager of the EU-funded project Life DERRIS (DisastEr Risk Reduction InSurance). DERRIS is a project that aims to build a public-private partnership aims to increase the capacity of SMEs to assess and manage the risks related to climate disasters.

Hear her speak in Session 1C

Duarte d´Araújo Mata

Head of Cabinet of the Deputy Mayor for Environment, Green Structure, Climate and Energy, Municipality of Lisboa

Duarte d´AraUjo Mata
Head of Cabinet of the Deputy Mayor for Environment, Green Structure, Climate and Energy, Municipality of Lisboa

Landscape architect since 2000, he worked for years on several landscape plans and projects. In Lisbon Municipality since 2007, he´s directly related with public policy for green infrastructure including NBS (nature based solutions) for climate adaptation. In addition to his role as head of cabinet of the Deputy Mayor for Environment, Green Infrastructure, Climate and Energy since 2015, Duarte deals with climate plans and targets for the municipality and in this capacity deals with the European Green Capital Applications, awarded to Lisbon for 2020 as well as with recently approved LIFE LUNGS for climate adaptation in green infrastructure.

Hear him speak in Session 1A

John Stevens

Flood Risk Officer, Bristol City Council

John Stevens
Flood Risk Officer, Bristol City Council

John Stevens (BSc Geological Sciences, FdSC River and Coastal Engineering) has worked with the Lead Local Flood Authority, Flood Risk Management Team, in Bristol since 2011. He has had involvement in producing the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy for the region and works on completing the actions within it to help manage the city’s predicted future flood risk. A particular focus of which has been on the elements of enabling sustainable development, flood emergency preparations, community engagement and flood mitigation schemes. These aspects have provided experience for partaking in the H2020 RESCCUE project to further enhance city resilience against a changing climate.

Hear him speak in Session 1C

Eleanor Chapman

Officer, Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI Europe

Eleanor ChapmaN
Officer, Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI Europe

Eleanor Chapman joined ICLEI’s Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience team in 2017 after seven years as a practicing architect. In her current role she supports local government staff to develop and implement strategies to prepare for the effects of a changing climate. Eleanor has also pursued a concern for socially and environmentally just urban development, through involvement in civil society organisation Architects for Peace for over ten years. 

Hear her speak in Session 1B

Humberto Delgado Rosa

Director for Natural Captial, DG Environment - European Commission

Humberto Delgado Rosa
Director for Natural Captial, DG Environment - European Commission

Humberto Delgado Rosa is the Director for Natural Capital, DG Environment, European Commission. Previously he was Director for Mainstreaming Adaptation and Low Carbon Technology in DG Climate Action. He is experienced in European and international environmental policy, particularly in biodiversity and climate change issues. He served as Secretary of State for the Environment of the Portuguese Government from March 2005 to June 2011. Between 1995 and 2002 he was an advisor for environmental matters to the Prime-Minister of Portugal. He holds a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. H. Delgado Rosa was born in Lisbon in 1960.

Giorgia Rambelli

Coordinator Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat

Giorgia Rambelli
Coordinator Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat

Giorgia is currently the Head of the Coordination Unit of the International Urban Cooperation (IUC) programme, which enables cities to link up and share solutions to urban development challenges. She is additionally part of the European Covenant of Mayors Office, and works with the Secretariat of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy in particular on fostering global coherence within the initiative, while respecting Regional specificities and priorities.

She is involved in the development and implementation of several European projects. Giorgia drafted positioning documents on climate and energy policy, as well as provided expert contributions to Opinions for institutions such as the Committee of the Regions, and the European Economic and Social Committee.

Meet her in Session 2C

Catarina Freitas

Head of Environment, Innovation, Climate and Sustainability Department - Almada City Council

Catarina Freitas
Head of Environment, Innovation, Climate and Sustainability Department - Almada City Council

Catarina Freitas is a Chemical Engineer and has a MSc. in Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Lisbon, with PhD studies in environmental sciences and technology, from the Technical University of Lisbon and the University of St. Andrews, UK. She has been Head Officer for Energy and Environmental issues at the Municipality of Almada since 1997. At the present she is the Head of Department for Environment, Innovation, Climate and Sustainability of Almada City Council, as well as the Executive Member of the Board of AGENEAL, the Local Energy Management Agency of Almada. Prior to working in the City Council of Almada and AGENEAL, she was a researcher at the Engineering Institute of the Technical University of Lisbon (1992-1996), where she developed national and EU-funded projects, in partnership with several European Universities and R&D centres. Among other important activities, she is now coordinating the development and implementation of the Local Strategy for Climate Change and the Local Agenda 21 of Almada, and in that framework, she is responsible for the technical and financial management of several European projects and partnerships.  Author and co-author of several presentations and papers on municipal energy and environmental management, energy efficiency, climate change and urban sustainable mobility.

Hear her speak in Session 2C

Daniel Morchain

Resilience & Climate Change Adaptation Associate - IISD

Daniel Morchain
Resilience & Climate Change Adaptation Associate - IISD

Daniel supports the design and implementation of initiatives that address adaptation to climate change impacts in the context of development. He  leads the National Adaptation Planning (NAP) processes in Colombia and Peru. Prior to joining IISD, Daniel was a senior adviser in Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience at Oxfam. One of his key roles there was as co-investigator for CARIAA’s Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project.

Hear him speak in Session 1B

 

 

Michelle Preen

Senior Manager - Communications, ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center

Michelle Preen
Senior Manager - Communications, ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center

Michelle has close to 20 years’ experience in the field of environmental communications and behaviour change, many of these working with and within local government. Coupled with this, she holds an MSc in Environmental Science and a Public Relations Certificate, together with various other communications qualifications. Michelle is passionate about turning complex subjects and concepts linked to sustainability into accessible, action-oriented information. She works across the organisation, supporting local and subnational governments on their journey to sustainability and resilience. Michelle plays a leading role in managing the exciting new global partnership initiative, CitiesWithNature.

Lorenzo Bono

Project Coordinator, Ambiente Italia

Lorenzo Bono
Project Coordinator, Ambiente Italia

Lorenzo Bono – Project manager and coordinator of the “Resources and landscape management, Adapation and Resilience” area of Ambiente Italia, a leader company operating in Italy and Europe in research and consulting for sustainability. He has a long-term experience on urban sustainability planning and analysis, selection of Indicators for environmental reporting and monitoring and assessment of environmental effects in plans and projects. In the last years he has  developed  a specific focus on urban adaptation to climate change, having worked on this subject in five different EU funded projects:  BLUE AP - Bologna Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City (Life+, 2012-2015); MASTER ADAPT - MAinSTreaming. Experiences at Regional and local level for adaptation to climate change (LIFE, 2016-2020); METRO ADAPT: enhancing climate change adaptation strategies and measures in the Metropolitan City of Milan (LIFE, 2018-2021);  CLEVER Cities - Co-designing Locally tailored Ecological solutions for Value added, socially inclusivE Regeneration in Cities (HORIZON 2020, 2018-2023).

Hear him speak in Session 2B

Gabriela Michalek

Researcher at Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

Gabriela Michalek
Researcher at Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

Gabriela completed her PhD in the field of environmental economics in 2015 in Germany.  During her doctoral studies she was enrolled in the Visiting Student Researcher Program at UC Berkeley, US. Currently, Gabriela holds a post-doc position at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, where she works at the interface of environmental economics, psychology and sociology. As part of the EU PLACARD project, she is exploring the potential of narratives/  frames (and other behavioural  measures) to trigger certain thought patterns and behaviours in relation to climate adaptation and disaster preparedness measures.

Hear her speak in Session 3B

Maria Gruner

Regulatory Agent Consultant, Municipality of Coswig

Maria Gruner
Regulatory Agent Consultant, Municipality of Coswig

Maria Gruner is a young administrative assistant in the local administration in Coswig. Her tasks include the crime prevention and the detection and punishment of violations of public law. She also gained experience in other areas of public administration in general. Regarding to the adaptation of the climate change, she particularly worked on a project for lifting houses as a potential alternative to common measures of flood prevention. She also works in disaster management.

Hear her speak in Session 2B

Eric Schellekens

Business Director - Climate Adapatation and Business, Arcadis

Eric Schellekens
Business Director - Climate Adapatation and Business, Arcadis

Eric Schellekens, graduated as ecologist, is Business Director Climate Adaptation at ARCADIS. Over the past years he has led the development of The Resilience Pathway, ‘optioneering’ and capacity building; a decision support tool and methodologies to catalyse city and area transformations, including climate change adaptation, of several policy sectors. A methodology which uses financial engineering to identify bankable breakthrough projects. Adaptive stakeholder management is a definite need to speed-up climate adaptation. Eric works with the Water Program team and the Resilient Cities team to develop and apply tools and to engage both the private and public sector to integrate climate change adaptation into their businesses. He cooperates with world leading companies, frontrunner knowledge institutes and national and local authorities.

Hear him speak in Session 1C

Aleksandra Kazmierczak

Urban Climate Change Adapatation Expert, European Environemnt Agency

Aleksandra Kazmierczak
Urban Climate Change Adapatation Expert, European Environemnt Agency

Aleksandra is working at the European Environment Agency, specialising in urban and social aspects of adaptation. She was previously a researcher and has worked on urban climate change adaptation since 2009. One of her main interests is understanding the vulnerability of people living in cities to climate impacts and enhancing their capacity to adapt.

Hear her speak in Session 1B

Matthew Bach

Officer - Governance & Social Innovation, ICLEI Europe

Matthew Bach
Officer - Governance & Social Innovation, ICLEI Europe

Matthew joined ICLEI Europe as an experienced knowledge broker in 2017. He has been working on a broad range of topics from nature-based solutions to cultural heritage, and is currently the scientific coordinator for UrbanA, Urban arenas for sustainable and just cities, a new Horizon2020 project. Prior to ICLEI, Matthew worked globally in academia, the energy sector and international organizations. He holds degrees from Freiburg and Cambridge universities.

Meet him in Session 1A

Bernadett Kiss

Research Associate - Sustainable Urban Development, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University

Bernadett Kiss
Research Associate - Sustainable Urban Development, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University

With a background in environmental policy and management, business economics and humanities, Bernadett engages in a combination of research, education and outreach in the field of sustainable urban development as a researcher at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University, Sweden. Most specifically, in the past six years she has been working closely together with city councils in the fields of urban sustainability, governance, policy and innovation in the built environment – with special focus on energy efficient and nature-based urban innovations.

Hear her speak in Session 1A

Virginia Murray

Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England

Virginia Murray
Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England

Virginia is a medical doctor working on knowledge, partnerships, capacity development and implementation of the 2015 UN Landmark agreements, and in particular, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, and other UN and WHO agreements. She is currently  co-chair of the recently developed WHO Thematic Platform Health and Disaster Risk Management Research Group, member of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) scientific committee and on the Advisory Board of European Commission PLAtform for Climate Adaptation and Risk reDuction (PLACARD). She is a Visiting Professor at several universities including University College London (2013), and has published widely.

Meet her in Session 3B

Stefania Manca

Climate Adaption Partnership Coordinator - Urban Agenda for the EU, Genoa Municipality

Stefania Manca
Climate Adaption Partnership Coordinator - Urban Agenda for the EU, Genoa Municipality

Degree in Natural Science at University of Genoa, Master in Geographic Information System and Master in Smart City - Planning and Territorial Development. Employed at the Municipality of Genoa since 2011, from 2013 European Projects Office responsible and from late 2018 in charge to develop the City Resilience Strategy - “Genova Resiliente” connected to the International Agendas and Initiatives. Previously private actor strongly involved in Urban and Environmental planning, ICT tools and services deployed at Local and Regional level. Fields of Interest are sustainable economic development, Resilience at 360°, Climate Adaptation, Environment Territorial Planning, ICT.

Olaf Lier

Head of Regulatory Agency, Municipality of Coswig

Olaf Lier
Head of Regulatory Agency, Municipality of Coswig

Olaf Lier has been working in the local administration Coswig for 30 years now. He is the head of the Department of Regulatory Affairs. This area includes the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Registry Office, the Market, the Road Administration, the Fire Department and the City Police. His duties include maintenance of waters and management of the municipally forest. Due to the variety and multitude of tasks, the tasks are handled flexibly and usually complex. Olaf Lier has recognized that climate change is placing new demands on the local authorities, which, if not addressed beforehand, must be solved by the fire brigade and the police.

Hear him speak in Session 2B

Lina Liakou

Managing Director for Europe and the Middle East, 100 Resilient Cities

Lina Liakou
Managing Director for Europe and the Middle East, 100 Resilient Cities

Lina Liakou is Managing Director for Europe and the Middle East overseeing the “100 Resilient Cities” partnership with the 21 cities across the region in developing their resilience thinking through long term City Resilience Strategies and actionable initiatives.  Before joining 100RC, Lina was Deputy Mayor and Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Thessaloniki, Greece. In this role, she led the development of the city’s Resilience Strategy in 2017. As a Deputy Mayor, Lina Liakou initiated collaborations with the European Commission, the EIB and the World Bank. Lina Liakou is an architect and urban designer.

Mikael Schultz

CEO, Vejle Spildevand

Mikael Schultz
CEO, Vejle Spildevand

Mikael Schultz is CEO of a water company, dealing with wastewater treatment, climate change and resilience. Mikael har over 30 years’ experience in environmental protection, working for the government and private sector. Mikael holds an MSc in Civil Engineering.

Hear him speak in Session 1B

Eleni Myrivili

Deputy Mayor - Urban Nature, Resilience and Adaptation, Athens

Eleni Myrivili
Deputy Mayor - Urban Nature, Resilience and Adaptation, Athens

Eleni Myrivili has come to the position of Athens’ Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature, Climate Adaptation and Resilience and Chief Resilience Officer after she has held elected leadership positions for several years in the Greek Green Party’s Executive Leadership Committee. She got her PhD from Columbia University (N.Y., N.Y.) in socio-cultural anthropology. She is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Cultural Technology and Communications, University of the Aegean, in Greece. Interested in the knowledge-society relationship, she has always been active in projects that go beyond the walls of the academy: designing multimedia museum exhibitions/applications, curating events/festivals, participating in civil society organizations. She has been an active member of environmental CSOs (IWAF, Friends of the Earth, Slow Food), and written/hosted a public television documentary series on sustainability.

Hear her speak in Session 1C

Clara Grimes

Officer - Communications and Member Relations, ICLEI Europe

CLARA GRIMES
Officer - Communications and Member Relations, ICLEI EUROPE

Clara Grimes is a communications officer at ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability. As part of her work on ICLEI’s communications and member relations team, which manages the organization’s relationships with its member cities, she develops and leads communication strategies for local governments and international projects in the fields of nature-based solutions, resilience and climate change adaptation.

Hear her speak in Session 3A

Alice Reil

Coordinator for Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity, ICLEI Europe

Alice Reil
Coordinator for Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity, ICLEI Europe

As Coordinator for Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity at ICLEI Europe, Alice promotes urban green infrastructure as means to develop cities sustainably. She also supports cities in Europe and globally in putting nature-based solutions into practice in projects such as Connecting Nature, CLEVER Cities, NATURVATION and ENABLE. Alice represents ICLEI Europe at the EU Urban Agenda Partnership for Sustainable Land Use and Nature-based Solutions (since 2018) and DG ENV’s Working Group on Green Infrastructure (since 2016). Her practical and research work to date has been on the links between urban societies and their environment, focusing on green infrastructure, climate change adaptation and water.

Her her speak in Sessions 1A and 2A

Sylvia Berndorfer

Expert - Climate Protection and Adaptation Measures, Executive Office Vienna

Sylvia Berndorfer
Expert - Climate Protection and Adaptation Measures, Executive Office Vienna

Ms Sylvia Berndorfer is working in the Executive Office for the Co-ordination of Climate Protection Measures, which coordinates and promotes the implementation of Vienna’s climate protection programme (KliP). KliP Vienna contains measures for climate protection as well as for climate adaption. In the field of “Mobility” Sylvia Berndorfer is responsible for promoting environmentally friendly sorts of transportation. Additionally she coordinates the climate adaption process. This includes the administration of working groups, which elaborate possible necessary measures in the fields of health, energy supply, water supply, urban planning, traffic, city vegetation as well as agriculture and forestry.

Hear her speak in Session 3B

Bernhard Scharf

Chief Technical Officer, Green4Cities and Greenpass

Bernhard Scharf
Chief Technical Officer, Green4Cities and Greenpass

Bernhard SCHARF (M) is Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and co-founder of Green4Cities and Greenpass. He is an internationally recognised scientist in the field of urban climate resilience and asked speaker at international congresses, conferences and events. He has been working as environmental consultant since his graduation as landscape architect (MSc) in 2001 and works part-time as a senior scientist in the field of Urban Green Infrastructure at the University of Life Sciences and Natural Resources (BOKU). He has access to relevant international scientific networks and some of his developments have been already been awarded (e.g. DrainGardens with the Energy Globe Water Austria 2016) and successfully introduced to the market.

Hear him speak in Session 2A

Paolo Bertoldi

Senior Expert, Joint Research Center

Paolo Bertoldi
Senior Expert, Joint Research Center

Paolo Bertoldi has gained a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985 at the University of Padova (Italy). He has been working with the European Commission since 1986 and in 2015 he has been nominated Senior Expert. From 1986 to 1993 he was working in the EU nuclear fusion project, the Joint Undertaking Torus (JET) in the UK. For 1993 until April 2001, he was Administrator with the European Commission, DG Energy and Transport (DG TREN, Brussels Belgium), in charge of EU regulatory and voluntary programmes for energy efficiency in end-use equipment, buildings and industry. He was also in charge of voluntary agreements with industry and tertiary sectors and the GreenLight programme. Since May 2001, he is at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy), in charge of research activities on energy efficiency policy analysis, the efficient use of electricity (in particular ICT) and innovative policy instruments for energy efficiency (e.g. white certificates, financing mechanisms, ESCO, EPC, emission trading) and the Covenant of Mayors. He also manages the Covenant of Mayors research activities at the JRC. He has published over 100 articles on energy efficiency in scientific journals and conference proceedings, as well as over 100 reports. He has been a Contributing Author for IPCC Assessment Report 4, Lead Author for IPCC Assessment Report 5 and the Special Report on 1.5 C and recently he has been nominated Lead Author for IPCC Assessment Report 6. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the peer reviewed journal Energy Efficiency.

Hear him speak in Session 2C

Emma Halliday

Programme Manager, Greenspace Scotland

Emma Halliday
Programme Manager, Greenspace Scotland

Emma is a Programme Manager at greenspace Scotland, working with Glasgow City Council on the Horizon 2020 Connecting Nature, managing Tesco Bags of Help funding and supporting the development of local Food Growing Strategies in Scotland. Previously she was Exhibition Director at Architecture and Design Scotland. Trained as an architect, Emma has been involved with many projects, festivals and exhibitions that promote the value of architecture, design and place-making. Emma was Programme Director at The Lighthouse and directed Scotland’s Six Cities Design Festival’s public programme in 2007. Also active in her neighbourhood, she lead the development of Hayburn Park and is working to make the area cycle friendly.

Hear her speak in Session 2A

Tonet Font Ferrer

Deputy Mayor Advisor, Social Innovation, City of Barcelona

Tonet Font Ferrer
Deputy Mayor Advisor, Social Innovation, City of Barcelona

Antonio Font Ferrer is an architect and urban planner, teaching at ETSAB and URL. He is a member of Arquitectos de Cabecera and has extensive experience in social movements. Since 2001, his work has been devoted to social housing, urban regeneration and local development; working on communitarian approaches and innovative models to empower vulnerable communities and neighbourhoods. Formerly responsible for Barcelona's Neighbourhoods Plan, he is now in charge of Social Innovation as Deputy Mayor advisor, where his responsibilities include the projects "High Complexity Estates" and emergency prefab shelters units "APROP".  He was co-author of Barcelona's Climate Plan, leading the Climate Justice Strategy.

Hear him speak in Session 1B

Bernd Decker

Senior Project Advisor, EASME/LIFE Programme

Bernd Decker
Senior Project Advisor, EASME/LIFE Programme

Bernd coordinates the sub-programme climate action of LIFE and specialises particularly on urban adaptation and mitigation strategies within the sub-programme. Before joining EASME, Bernd managed urban transport projects at Rupprecht Consult and worked on urban environmental management programmes at UNHABITAT.

Hear him speak in Session 2A

Ib Jespresgaard

Center Manager - Videnscenter for Integration, Vejle, Denmark

Ib Jespresgaard
Center Manager - Videnscenter for Integration, Vejle, Denmark

Ib Jespersgaard has an MA in History of Ideas and Ethnography from Aarhus University as well as qualifications in Adult Education and General Management. He has over 30 years experience in educating and training bilingual children, young people and adults, and more recently has worked as a project manager and expert evaluator for the EU in Brussels. From this experience, he has developed solid knowledge of development projects, cross-departmental cooperation, and skills in leadership and project assessment, which he brings to his role as head of the Municipality of Vejle’s research and knowledge centre VIFIN.

Hear him speak in Session 1B

Matija Vuger

Section Head - Regional and International Projects, Zagreb Office of Strategic Planning

Matija Vuger
Section Head - Regional and International Projects, Zagreb Office of Strategic Planning

 

Hear him speak in Session 3A

Teresa Ribeiro

Landscape architect, Municipality of Cascais

Teresa Ribeiro
Landscape architect, Municipality of Cascais

She graduated in 1989, started her professional career at Nature Conservation Institut/Natural Park of Sintra-Cascais, where she developed urban planning tasks concerning nature and landscape conservation. In 1996 she joined the City council of Cascais, where she was head of division for green urban areas, and later as the Environmental Department Director. Between 20016 and 2016 she developed several landscape architecture projects for green leisure areas and pedestrian accessibility. Since 2016, she is working with Cascais Ambiente where she develops projects  and programs of Urban Agriculture, and green leisure areas, and she is proGIreg’s project manager, leading the follower city team.

Meet her in Session 2A

Efren Feliu

Climate Change Manager, Tecnalia

Efren Feliu
Climate Change Manager, Tecnalia

Holds a Building Engineering Degree as well as different postgraduates including spatial planning and territorial development. Has a relevant professional background in consultancy and capacity development for public administrations and utilities, specially focused in the fields of local sustainability, spatial planning, climate adaptation and resilience. Worked in Central America for over 4 years and is involved in international and European initiatives for more than 18 years. He is currently Climate Change Manager at the Energy and Environment Division of Tecnalia, coordinating applied research projects for the development of Decision Support Systems in the fields of sustainable spatial development, nature-based solutions, regional-urban resilience and sectoral climate change adaptation. Has a long trajectory using climate projections data in climate proofing analysis. Is actively involved in ISO Working Groups for the norms under development related to Climate Adaptation Framework (ISO 14090 and 14092) as well as Climate and risks Analysis (ISO 14091), being also member of the Covenant of Mayors Practitioners Group (advisory board).

Georgios Soultis

Deputy Mayor - Head of Infastructure and Civil Protection, Municipality of Larissa

Georgios Soultis
Deputy Mayor - Head of Infastructure and Civil Protection, Municipality of Larissa

Mr Georgios Soultis is an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer, Professor at the University of Applied Sciences of Thessaly. He was first elected councilor in 2006, then in 2011 and since 2014 is he the Deputy Mayor. He is responsible of Infrastructure, Civil Protection and EU programs.

Hear him speak in Session 3B

Elena Visnar-Malinovska

Head of Adaptation Unit - DG Clima, European Commission

Elena Visnar-Malinovska
Head of Adaptation Unit - DG Clima, European Commission

Elena Višnar Malinovská is currently a Head of the climate adaptation unit in DG Climate Action of the European Commission. She has worked for 13 years in the European Commission in different positions. As a policy officer in the Secretariat General, she dealt with environment, energy, mobility and climate policies (2005-2010, 2014-2016). In the Cabinet of Commissioner responsible for environment (2010-2014), she spearheaded the review of the air quality legislation as well as oversaw the infringements policy in the environment field. During the Slovak Presidency (2016), she acted as a spokesperson. She holds a law degree from the Comenius and Thyrnaviens universities ("JUDr.")  in Slovakia and diplomas from European studies (SciencePo in Paris, College of Europe in Poland). An enthusiast cyclist (female winner of VéloMai competition in the Commission in 2019), runner, mother of three hockey players and a scout leader.

Edgars Augustins

Energy Manager, Municipality of Saldus, Latvia

Edgars Augustins
Energy Manager, Municipality of Saldus, Latvia

Since 2016 Edgars works in Municipality of Saldus, (Latvia) as Energy Manager. Has established energy management system according to ISO 50001 and developed several energy efficiency project in public buildings, public street lightning, renewable energy sources. Additionally works as project manager in RENESCO (energy service company), responsible for energy audits and project management in the multi apartment buildings dealing with the implementation of energy efficiency measures and the installation of energy efficiency technologies. Key qualifications are related to management of renovation projects (including deep retrofit), implementation of energy services (ESCO) including awareness rising and consultancy.

Hear him speak in Session 2C

Holger Robrecht

Deputy Regional Director - Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat

Holger Robrecht
Deputy Regional Director - Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience, ICLEI European Secretariat

Holger joined ICLEI in 1997. He holds a Diploma in spatial planning and is member of ICLEI’s Board of Directors, and leads ICLEI´s Sustainable Resources, Climate & Resilience team. Holger holds more than 25 years of experience in local environmental and sustainability management and planning, project development and co-ordination, team supervision as well as guidance and training. He developed, supervised and coordinated international and European projects including on urban resilience, climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and green infrastructures through various research projects and engaged with studies such as the European Environment Agency’s report on ‘Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe 2016’ and the ‘EKLIPSE Impact Evaluation Framework’. Holger has been member of several international and EU Expert Groups, incl. Working Group on Green Infrastructure (since 2014), the EU Adaptation Steering Group (2010-2013), and international and European standardisation bodies (ISO TC 268 ‘Sustainable Development of Communities’ (since 2012), CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Sector Forum Smart & Sustainable Cities and Communities (since 2015). Before joining ICLEI, Holger led the Research department Soil Contamination, Soil Protection and Land-use management at the University of Dortmund, Institute for Environmental Research (1990-97).

Terje Laskemoen

Head of Department for Nature and pollution, Agency for Urban Environment

Terje Laskemoen
Head of Department for Nature and pollution, Agency for Urban Environment

Biologist, PhD. Eight years’ experience as researcher in evolutionary biology/behavioural ecology, 40+ scientific publications I peer-reviewed journals. Presently heading the Department for Nature and Pollution at the Agency for Urban Environment, City of Oslo. The department's areas of responsibilities include biodiversity, wildlife management, water management, noise and local air quality. The department is also responsible for the enforcement of legislation in several laws and regulations relating to nature and pollution on behalf of the City of Oslo

Meet him in Session 2A

Svenja Schuchmann

Project Manager with Climate Alliance

Svenja Schuchmann
Project Manager with Climate Alliance

Since 2013 Svenja Schuchmann has been working with the city network Climate Alliance. Urban adaptation to climate change is a focus of her work. In SEAP_Alps (Interreg Alpine Space, 2012-2016) Svenja dealt with the integration of municipal climate mitigation and adaptation to climate change with a particular emphasis on the Alpine.  In the EU project TURAS - Transitioning towards urban resilience and sustainability (7th Framework Programme; 2014 – 2016) she coordinated Local Authority and Public Institution Exploitation Events.  In Connecting Nature (Horizon 2020) she is currently Coordinator of CONNECTING Policy Lab & Expo Events sharing experience on planning, financing and implementing nature -based solutions in cities. In Climate Alliance Adaptation Working Group she contributes to the organisation and moderation of thematic sessions. Within the EU- Covenant of Mayors initiative, which is co-lead by Climate Alliance, Svenja is Coordinator of the Covenant National Approach in Germany and contributor to Capacity Building on adaptation to climate change. Svenja Schuchmann holds a master’s degree in ‘Governance and Public Policy’ from the Technical University of Darmstadt and a bachelor degree in ‘Intercultural Studies’.

Hear her speak in Session 3A

Maria Nikolaidou

EU Programs & Initatives Officer - Operational Planning, Municipality of Larissa

Maria Nikolaidou
EU Programs & Initatives Officer - Operational Planning, Municipality of Larissa

Mrs Maria Nikolaidou is an Engineer of Spatial Planning and Regional Development, MSc (Cultural Tourism). She is working in the Department of Strategy and Operational Planning,  Office for EU Programs & Initiatives, City Networks in managing EU programs.

Hear her speak in Session 3B

Helen Hinds

Head of Resilience Planning, Newcastle City Council

Helen Hinds
Head of Resilience Planning, Newcastle City Council

Helen lives in the beautiful North East of England and has worked in the field of Resilience since 1996. She has worked at both a local, regional and national level.  Helen left the profession for two years to work in the British Civil Service as a Partnership Manager where she managed the relationship between the central department and nine regional offices in England. Helen enjoys working with a variety of colleagues and her career is marked by a successful collaborative working style.  A skill she draws on daily in her role as the Head of Resilience Planning in Newcastle.

Meet her in Session 1A

Bettina Fischer

Project Manager, Department of Energy and Climate Protection - Stryia

Bettina Fischer
Project Manager, Department of Energy and Climate Protection - Stryia

Bettina Fischer is a geographer and has studied Global Studies too. She works in the department of energy and domestic architecture as an employee in the climate protection coordination. She supports the implementation of climate protection and adaption measures. Bettina is also responsible for the implementation of the EU-funded Project LIFE LOCAL ADAPT in Styria where small and medium sized communities are getting support to integrate climate change adaptation into their administration work. Communities, for example are getting individual action plans to implement specific measures of climate change adaptation in the communities.

Hear her speak in Session 2B

Vasileios Latinos

Officer, Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI Europe

Vasileios Latinos
Officer, Sustainable Resources, Climate and Resilience, ICLEI Europe

Vasileios Latinos is responsible for implementing projects and services in the topical areas of climate change adaptation, urban resilience and green infrastructure, as well as supporting the strategic and programmatic development of ICLEI Europe in this field. Vasileios has extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, co-creation, capacity building, climate assessment methodologies and urban resilience planning and monitoring. He is also involved in standardization activities at EU and ISO level.

Marcia Toledo

Senior Policy Advisor, The Nature Conservancy

Marcia Toledo
Senior Policy Advisor, The Nature Conservancy

Marcia is currently a Senior Policy Advisor at The Nature Conservancy responsible for establishing partnerships with governments, multilateral agencies, NGOs, city networks and other organizations in Europe to advance nature-based solutions for climate, water security and urban priorities. Marcia has 20+ years of international work experience in environmental project management, policy development and implementation of diplomacy strategies. She counts with a multidisciplinary background and expertise in biodiversity conservation, forestry management, monitoring & evaluation, and design of policy processes and assistance. She holds a Master Degree of Environmental Management and a Master Degree of Forestry from Duke University from the United States of America, as well as a Master Degree in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Germany. She is based in Berlin.

Hear her speak in Session 3A

María Jesus Muñoz

Climate Change Technician, Bilbao, Spain

MALAKE MuNoz
Climate change technician, Bilbao, Spain

María Jesus Muñoz is PhD in Biological Sciences by the University of the Basque Country and has more than 10 years of experience in the field of Climate Change. Initially, she began working in the field of mitigation by calculating GHG emissions and developing mitigation policies. Subsequently, she specialised in adaptation to climate change, developing projects mainly at municipal level.

Hear her speak in Session 2C

Barbara Kulmer

Town Councillor: Energy, Mobility and Environment, Municipality of Weiz

Barbara Kulmer
Town Councillor: Energy, Mobility and Environment, Municipality of Weiz

Barbara Kulmer has been working for the Municipality of Weiz since 1991. In the beginning the main focus was to implement and organise the waste management of the city. Then the focus changed more and more to project management in the fields of environment, energy and mobility. As a coordinator of international and national projects she works together with NGOs, other municipalities, representatives of different countries, administrations, different companies and universities. She has a long term experience on urban sustainability as she has been co-operating for more than 25 years with the international agency of climate alliance specialising in measures for climate adaptation strategies.

Hear her speak in Session 2B

Andrea Carosi

Project Manager, EU Cooperation and Municipality of Urbino

Andrea Carosi
Project Manager, EU Cooperation and Municipality of Urbino

Andrea Carosi is a city and environmental planner and aims to support local and regional authorities in their efforts to achieve sustainable and climate-friendly development. With almost ten years of work experience, he has covered a diverse set of topics related to sustainable development, natural hazards and climate change adaptation. Working on several EU projects with small-medium municipalities, regional development agencies and research institutes, he is able to identify climate adaptation needs and to develop sector-specific adaptation strategies. He further is particularly interested in innovative approaches to multi-level governance and action plans implementation.

Hear him speak in Session 2B

Valeria Stacchini

Project Manager, City of Bologna

Valeria Stacchini
Project Manager, City of Bologna

Since 2006 Mrs. Stacchini has been based in the Service Research, Innovation and European project management of the Metropolitan City of Bologna, where she participated in studies and research on territorial development, territorial marketing, eco-industrial parks, energy efficiency in SMEs and retail sector, circular economy, innovative procurement, nature-based solutions, urban agriculture, developing planning and programming tools. Mrs. Stacchini works on different inter-regional cooperation and research projects, funded by Interreg Europe, Interreg Med, Interreg Central Europe, Urbact, Horizon2020, IUC.

Meet her in Session 3A

Birgit Georgi

Independent Expert, Strong Cities in a Changing Climate

Birgit Georgi
Independent expert, Strong Cities in a Changing Climate

Birgit Georgi is an independent expert and aims to enable cities and smaller municipalities to develop and implement adaptation action and to exchange the knowledge across Europe. She builds on her long-term experience on urban sustainability in Europe and has a specific focus on urban adaptation to climate change. Having worked on this subject over 9 years at the European Environment Agency, she published several landmark reports, such as “Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe” (2012 and 2016), “Financing urban adaptation to climate change” (2017) and the interactive map book urban vulnerability (2015/2019). Birgit is one of the initiators and organisers of the annual European Urban Resilience Forum (former Open European Day at Resilient Cities) since its start in 2013.

Hear her speak in Session 2B

Stefanie Lindenberg

Coordinator - European Investment Bank, NCFF

Stefanie Lindenberg
Coordinator - European Investment Bank, NCFF

Stefanie is a Coordinator for the Natural Capital Finance Facility (NCFF) which aims to provide finance to projects investing into biodiversity and nature-based adaptation with the European Investment Bank (EIB). Before being appointed to coordinate work on the NCFF, Stefanie was part of the EIB’s Climate, Environment and Social team where she mainly worked on climate-related issues, the Bank’s climate lending standards and the Climate Strategy in particular. Stefanie has also gained experience with the European Commission’s Directorate for Environment, the environment team of a private consultancy company and the city network ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. Stefanie holds a Master in Political Science from the London School of Economics

Hear her speak in Session 1C

Jonathan Müller

Architect, Helix Pflanzen

Jonathan MUEller
Architect, Helix Pflanzen

B.A. in Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences Konstanz, M.A. in Architecture at Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, Employee in various architectural offices in the Stuttgart region, currently working for 'Helix Pflanzen GmbH' as Head Architect, planning and implementing functional NBS in urban environments with a clear focus on vertical green walls and gardens, active member of the Horizon 2020 project 'Connecting Nature'

Hear him speak in Session 2A

Prof. Reimund Schwarze

Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

Prof. Reimund Schwarze
Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

Head of the research group on ‘climate change and extreme events’ at UFZ and Professor for Environmental Economics at the University of Frankfurt/Oder, Prof. Reimund Schwarze coordinated the EU FP 7 project ‘Cost of Natural Hazards’ and is an executive board member of the German Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction (DKKV). He was lead author of the chapter "Urban resilience finance and economics" in the 2nd Assessment Report "Climate Change in Cities" (ARC3.2) of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN).

Meet him in Session 1C

Marc Velasco

RESCCUE Project Manager, SUEZ

Marc Velasco
RESCCUE Project Manager, SuEz

Marc Velasco (MSc in Civil Engineering) has 10 years of experience in water-related projects, particularly modelling floods, sewer networks and water resources. He has been involved in several H2020 and FP7 projects related to climate change, water and resilience and has experience on climate change impact studies, statistical analysis of climate modelling data, implementation of adaptation and mitigation measures and urban resilience. He has also experience with projects related to the telemetering of water distribution networks, linking the commercial, asset management and metering systems of the SUEZ group companies. He is project manager of H2020-RESCCUE, a multi-sectoral approach to urban resilience that is coordinated by Aquatec.

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Open European Day 2018