Hisako Koura is a professor and the Chair of the Environmental Design Department at Kobe Design University. Koura is also a certificated planner; she practiced primarily as an urban planner for the Planning Department of Osaka City Government (1985-1992), before starting her academic career at Osaka University. She received her PhD from Osaka University in 1996 and worked as an associate professor at the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University from 1997 to 2015. Her major research fields are urban design and planning, and she is continually seeking stronger cooperation between academic research and practice. Most recently she has become increasingly interested in cultural landscapes. She is a member of several national and local governmental committees such as the Japan World Heritage Committee’s Agency of Cultural Affairs. Since moving to Kobe Design University, she has supported Kobe’s governmental planning practices.

Shlomit Zonenstein is a senior city planner at the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, city planning division. In her current position, she leads the city’s strategy, policy and municipal forum for city renewal. This role focuses on local neighborhoods while improving the public space, creating sustainable transportation, increasing the quality of life and empowering existing communities. Her previous roles in the private and public sector have involved the development and conservation of historical areas, including world heritage landmarks, in the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In addition, Shlomit is a member of the Jewish-Arab city planners forum. She is a licensed architect and a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.

Hiromune Mitsuhashi is an ecologist and chief curator at the Museum of Nature and Human Activities in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He is also a specialist in landscape ecology and aquatic conservation. His work involves citizen-driven freshwater habitat restoration, as well as endangered species distribution modeling using historic natural history data collection from museums. His research focuses on linking nature restoration planning and practices and includes citizen science programs. As a member of the public committee, he has collaborated with the national and local government on many nature restoration projects, primarily for the Civil Engineering Department of Hyogo Prefecture Government and the Union of Kansai Governments. Since 2014, he has served as the chair of the Collaborative Wetland Restoration Project by Japan River Restoration Network (2017-2019, Best Award by The River Foundation JAPAN), an action research project whose mission is to restore nature and network community through appropriate implementation practices and educational programs.

Dr. Galia Hanoch Roe, landscape architect, is the Director of the Tel -Aviv Metropolitan Area branch of the Society of the Protection of Nature (SPNI). Galia is a graduate of Rutger University’s Landscape Architecture program, and a graduate of Yale University and CUNY Graduate School with a doctorate in music. As the director of the Tel -Aviv metropolitan branch of the SPNI, Galia leads several activities focused on nature preservation, community and sustainability. She helps to provide sustainability education to thousands of students, from pre-K to high school, and works with hundreds of youth programs centered around nature, preservation and community engagement across 14 municipalities of the region. Galia has also led numerous campaigns for nature preservation and strives to work with the government and local municipalities for a better and more sustainable quality of life within cities.

Sophie Parker is a Senior Scientist in the Los Angeles office of The Nature Conservancy. She has over 20 years of experience in ecology and conservation science, and has provided scientific leadership to Conservancy projects in southern California since 2008. Dr. Parker leads the Conservancy’s California Renewable Energy science team in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts and provides science guidance for the organization’s stormwater capture and habitat enhancement work in Los Angeles. In addition, she is forging new methodologies for the planning and implementation of urban conservation through the Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) project. Dr. Parker received her Ph.D. from the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara; her research there focused on nitrogen cycling in California grasslands. One of Dr. Parker’s long-term career goals is to better integrate the fields of soil science and ecosystem ecology into conservation practice.

Kat Superfisky is a designer, educator, and urban ecologist who devotes her days, nights and dreams to transforming urban areas into more inhabitable places. After obtaining a Master of Science in Conservation Ecology and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan in 2013, Kat moved across the country for the Los Angeles River. Kat sees LA—and its river—as the perfect laboratory to explore how to rebuild urban areas into more symbiotic cities. In LA, Kat has worked on large-scale planning efforts as the Urban Ecologist at Studio-MLA, and has founded and now serves as the Executive Director of Grown in LA. Kat currently teaches at California State Polytechnic University Pomona’s School of Environmental Design, serves on the Board of Directors for California ReLeaf, and is a Science Advisor for the City of LA Biodiversity Index and The Nature Conservancy and Natural History Museum's Biodiversity Assessment in Los Angeles.

Dushko Bogunovich is an architect, urban designer, town planner and academic, residing in Auckland, New Zealand. He is an adjunct professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at The University of Auckland. Before that he was the inaugural Dean of the Faculty of the built Environment of the Ba Isago University in Botswana. Dushko studied at the universities of Sarajevo; Belgrade; Cyprus; Pennsylvania; and California/Berkeley. He is a life member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), a member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA), and of the Urban Design Forum (UDF) of NZ. He was twice a Fulbright scholar and has won many urban design competition awards. He has worked with UNDP, UNEP and UN-Habitat; and was visiting scholar at universities of Oxford, Bologna, Genoa and Milan.

Mas DojirI is currently the Assistant General Manager at LA Sanitation & Environment (LASAN) and is LASAN’s Chief Scientist. He received his BA in Biology from UC Santa Barbara, his master’s degree in Marine Biology from California State University, Long Beach, and his PhD from Boston University in Marine Biology. Mas also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Mas serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, the current Vice-Chair of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission’s Technical Advisory Committee, a member of the USC Sea Grant Advisory Council, and served as the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board of Commissioners for the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Mas is also the chair of the Environmental Biology subcommittee of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists and was instrumental to the team that created a national Board Certification for Environment Scientists.

Dennis Scott is a registered NZILA Landscape Architect Fellow, and a designer, planner, researcher, strategist, policy maker, educator and ruralist. He has half a century of practical observation, documentation, application and project delivery experience, encompassing all NZ national, regional, and local landscape scales and typologies; across all sectors of the public and private domain. Dennis is currently the Director of DJScott Associates Ltd, Landscape Architects (Auckland, NZ) and a lecturer at Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, NZ, specializing in landscape planning, assessment and management.

Pedro Camarena is a landscape architect and professor of design, based in Mexico City. Camarena studied Landscape Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, 1998) and holds a Master in Sustainable Development from the University of Lanús / FLACAM, Argentina (2009). He is a cofounder of LAAP Workshop, which focuses on landscape architecture and urban intervention proposals at the territorial scale. Camarena is a professor of the Design Workshop at the Academic Unit of Landscape Architecture, UNAM, a visiting professor at the Universidad Marista of Merida’s graduate program in Landscape Architecture, and a program consultant for the Campus Ecological Control Program of UNAM and for the Ecological Reserve at Pedregal de San Angel. Previously, Camarena served as the president of the Landscape Architects Society of Mexico (SAPM 2013-2015), the organizer of the 1st Latin American Biennial of Landscape Architecture, the Landscape Chief of Parque Ecológico Lago de Texcoco, and the Chief of Special Projects of REPSA, where he led the transformation of traditional campus gardens into “xero-gardens.” He specializes in ecological restoration, green infrastructure, and mobility and has participated in national and international conferences and has published a number of works on these topics.

Juan Camilo González is an advisor to the mayor of Bogota and a manager of North City, a large-scale urban development project. He holds an MBA from Stanford University, and studied industrial engineering at Los Andes University. Mr. González started his career in the financial sector with businesses including, Grupo Colpatria (market risk analysis), Citibank (business intelligence) and Merrill Lynch (investment banking). He then joined Linzor Capital, a private equity fund, managing more than $500 million in assets. At Linzor Capital, he participated in the financial, publishing and energy sectors. Before joining the Bogota’s administration, Mr. González started Epica, a real estate advisory company, where he structured development projects that earned for over $100 million in revenue. He sits in the board of Data Traffic and Rancho Victoria - a 5,000 hectares forestry project started by Mr. González in 2007.

Silke Cram, PhD, is a research member at the Institute of Geography and a professor in the Earth Science and Biology Graduate Program at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. A key focus of her work is on soil degradation due to anthropogenic activities and the evaluation of soil conservation practices. Her recent projects include research on urban soils and their role in the sustainability of cities. She currently leads the Ecological Reserve “Pedregal de San Ángel,” which is administered by UNAM, and is one of the few ecological reserves in the city. She has also helped to define the strategy for conservation and sustainable use of Mexico City’s biodiversity.

Natalia Acero is the Regional Manager of Water and Cities for Conservation International. Natalia holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineer and Chemical Engineer from Andes University in Colombia, and a master’s degree in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Management from King's College in London, UK. Natalia has focused her research on understanding the multiple benefits that freshwater ecosystem services brings to people. She has worked for the past 8 years in places such as Colombia, Cambodia, Madagascar, Liberia and the Amazon Region. Her current work, all of which proceeds implementation, includes finding nature-based solutions for water supply and regulation issues, and carrying out a freshwater ecosystems service strategy to support sustainable development and environmental protection goals in three Latin American mega cities of Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Bogotá.

Hussain Indorewala is a teacher, urban researcher and activist. He teaches planning theory, housing and humanities at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture (KRVIA) in Mumbai. His research has focused on urban politics and ideology, planning epistemology, urban history, and urban political economy. He writes frequently in the popular press on urban development, planning and policy. He has been active in various social movements in Mumbai for housing rights, labour rights, sustainable mobility, environmental justice and participatory planning. He works closely with community groups through the Collective for Spatial Alternatives (CSA), an action, research and advocacy collective. He is also the co-convener of the citizen's group, Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST, a citizen's forum for public transport.

Diego Bermudez obtained his MLA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded with the Narendra Juneja Medal. Bermudez has developed an innovative landscape architecture practice, Bermudez Arquitectos, where he is now the head of landscape architecture, urban design, master planning, flood protection infrastructure and water management systems. Projects include, climate change adaptation infrastructure for the Boston neighborhood of Cartagena, Colombia and three new tropical campuses for Minuto de Dios University. He teaches an undergraduate landscape architecture studio at Universidad de Los Andes, where he examines the future urban growth of Colombian cities in conflict with surrounding ecosystems.

Geetanjoy Sahu is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Science, Technology & Society, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. He earlier served as Post-Doctoral Associate at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED) in Bengaluru. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bengaluru and a MPhil from the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in Hyderabad. His research and teaching interests broadly include environmental policy and governance, analysis of judicial behavior on environmental litigation and politics of interaction between state and forest-rights groups over forest resource management. He is the author of the book titled, Environmental Jurisprudence and the Indian Supreme Court: Litigation, Interpretation and Implementation, published by Orient BlackSwan Pvt. Ltd, 2014.

Liliana Giraldo Arias is an architect from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning, Design and Policy from Politecnico di Milano, a master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University and a certificate in Urban and Rural Studies for Developing Countries from Université Catholique de Louvain. She was the dean of the School of Habitat Sciences at Universidad de La Salle in Bogota from 2005-2018 and vice-dean of the Architecture School at Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano from 2000-2005. She was director of Suburban and Rural Planning, and director of Urban Environment at the Bogota mayor’s office in the City Planning Department during the 1990s. She has served as Board Councilor for Colombian architecture schools at the National State Council for Architects Registration, and vice-president of the Board of Directors at the National Society of Colombian Architecture. She is a territorial planner consultant, specializing in rural and regional development, and she is the current coordinator of the Modern POT (Territorial Ordinance Plan) program at the National Planning Department.

Dr. Julian Bolleter is the Acting Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the University of Western Australia. His role at the AUDRC includes teaching a master’s program in urban design and conducting urban design related research and design projects. Julian is an experienced landscape architect and urban designer and has worked in design offices in Australia, the USA, the UK and the Middle East. He has completed a PhD concerning Dubai’s urban development and has commercially published five books- ‘Made in Australia: The future of Australian cities’ (with Richard Weller), ‘Take me to the River: A history of Perth’s foreshore,’ ‘Scavenging the Suburbs: Auditing Perth for 1 million infill dwellings,’ ‘The Ghost Cities of Australia: A survey of new city development proposals and their lessons for Australia’s 21st century development’ and ‘Desert Paradises: surveying the landscapes of Dubai’s urban model.’

Wen Rou is an urban planner and master’s candidate based in Chengdu, China. Rou is engaged in environmental planning and related fields and has participated in urban and rural planning research at all levels. Her work has earned the award of National and Provincial Excellent Planning and Design and includes the Comprehensive Urban Plan of Chengdu City (2011-2020), concept planning of Chengdu Venous Industrial Parks, planning for major public service facilities in the new urban area of Eastern Chengdu, and layout planning for Chengdu Medical and Health Resources (2017-2035).

Joe Fontaine is an ecologist based at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. His background is in studying the impacts of disturbance and management, spanning a range of ecosystems and informing on-ground actions. His current work includes fire management research in threatened woodland systems in the Perth region, trying to better understand the interactive effects of changing climate, fire frequencies, and weed invasion. Other collaborative work has investigated the values of front gardens for native wildlife, social attitudes towards planting local indigenous plants, and woodland restoration techniques. Joe received his PhD in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University before heading down under and becoming a plant enthusiast.

Gao Fei is the Deputy Chief Engineer of the Chengdu Institute of Planning and Design, the Director of the Ecological Research Office, a professor-level senior engineer, and a master’s candidate in Chengdu, China. She primarily conducts research on urban ecological planning and municipal infrastructure planning. Gao Fei has been engaged in planning for more than ten years and has presided over several major municipal ecological programs and research topics, including: the Ecological Protection of Chengdu, the Chengdu Ecological Guarding, Chengdu’s Sponge City planning, the Building a Beautiful Livable Public Park City (Chengdu), Chengdu’s Planning for Ecological Green Space, the Ventilated Corridor Construction (Chengdu), and the Regional Ecological Corridor System in Eastern Chengdu. Several of these projects have earned her the award of National and Provincial Excellent Planning and Design.

Roberto Rüsche graduated with a degree in architecture and urbanism from the University of São Paulo in 2009, and he completed an exchange program at Universität Stuttgart in Germany in 2007-2008. In 2015, he received his master’s degree in architecture and urbanism from the University of São Paulo, where he focused on landscape as an aesthetic experience of nature. He is currently writing his doctorate in architecture and urbanism on the relationship between the sensitive perception of landscape and the metropolis, verifying its interpretations and meanings. Since 2014, he has worked in urban and regional planning at the São Paulo State Government (Emplasa), and frequently handles projects related to green open spaces and biodiversity in the metropolis of São Paulo.

Kyle Shelton is the director of strategic partnerships at Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, where he leads research on urban development, transportation and placemaking, as well as on urban and metropolitan governance. Shelton has a Ph.D. in American History from The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on how the intersections of transportation, urban development and policy shape the built and natural environments of cities in the past and today. He is the author of Power Moves: Transportation, Politics and Development in Houston.

Rodrigo Victor is a forest engineer who has worked in the São Paulo State Environment Department since 1996. He has served as the Executive Coordinator of the São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve, Director General of the São Paulo State Forest Institute, Regional Director for Protected Areas Management at the São Paulo State Forest Foundation, among others. His main areas of interest are land planning for ecosystem conservation and sustainable use, protected areas establishment and management, urban and peri-urban ecosystems planning and management, social-environmental projects coordination, and ecosystem services assessment for human well-being. He has led several interdisciplinary projects and teams, and has participated in UNESCO and SCOPE working groups for urban environment management and research. He is currently a technical assistant at the São Paulo State Forest Foundation.

Jaime González is the inaugural Houston Urban Conservation Programs Manager for The Nature Conservancy in Texas (TNC). His work prioritizes building partnerships, designing and managing projects, and assisting communities and other organizations to help make Houston a more resilient, biologically diverse, physically cooler, healthier, and better-connected city using nature-based solutions. Mr. González also serves on board of the Coastal Prairie Partnership and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Jaime has won numerous awards for his work, including a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Houston’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Elizabeth Hull Abernathy Award from the Garden Club of America for environmental education of youth, and the Alban-Heiser Award from the Houston Zoo for conservation of Texas wildlife. Mr. González earned a M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction-Science Education, and a B.S. in Biology, both from the University of Houston, and a Certificate in Environmental Communication from Duke University.

Roderick Simpson is an architect and urban designer and was recently appointed as the inaugural Environment Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission that is responsible for the strategic planning of the entire metropolitan region of Sydney. Until 2016, he was director of the Urban Design and Urbanism programs at the University of Sydney. His work has focused on sustainability since the early 1990s, and more recently, resilience. His current priority is to shift planning’s narrow focus on transport and productivity to give equal importance to ‘blue and green infrastructure’ as the starting point and the basis for an ‘adaptive urban management’ system. Mr. Simpson is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, is a Member of the Australian Institute of Architects, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and the Planning Institute of Australia and a Trustee of Sydney Living Museums.

Muhammad Daud is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Jakarta Governor’s Delivery Unit. The unit aligns resources to accelerate the delivery of local priority programs and reports directly to the Governor of Jakarta. At the unit, Daud oversees priority programs on transit-oriented development, the integration of public transportation, the provision of affordable housing and the improvement of green open spaces. Prior to joining the Governor’s Delivery Unit, Daud worked as the Assistant to the Deputy Chief at the Office of the President - Republic of Indonesia, where he oversaw national issues on open governance, transportation and infrastructure. He also worked as a program manager for an internationally-acclaimed national complaint handling system. Daud received his Master of Urban Planning from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service, with a scholarship from the Ministry of Finance; and he earned his Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Indonesia.

Dieter Hochuli heads the Integrative Ecology research group at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on how biodiversity responds to the unique pressures of urban ecosystems, identifying how conservation and restoration strategies can better support nature in cities. He adopts interdisciplinary approaches to blend fundamental ecology with current projects- examining the ecology of iconic birds, insects and spiders and their interactions with the environment. His recent work also examines how human activities in cities affect ecosystem health, and conversely how human wellbeing is affected by nature in cities. In addition to publishing over 80 papers on urban ecology, he coedited the Natural History of Sydney (2010) and coauthored the Urban Ecology Blueprint for New South Wales (2018).

Hendricus Andy Simarmata is a professional urban planner who has 18 years of experience in research, consulting, and advocacy in the field of sustainable urban development. For the last ten years, he has focused his work on integrating climate resilience into urban planning, especially through vulnerability and risk assessment, coastal ecosystem resilience, low carbon cities, and urban adaptation. Mr. Simarmata earned his DPhil (Ph.D.) with magna cum laude in Development Studies from the University of Bonn, one of the leading research universities in Germany, in 2016. Mr. Simarmata is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Research Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Graduate School of Strategic and Global Studies at the Universitas Indonesia, and has been serving as Secretary General of Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planners since 2016.

Liav Shalem is a landscape architect and an ecologist. Liav received his B.A. in landscape architecture from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and his M.A. in environmental studies from Tel Aviv University. He believes that combining both of the disciplines of landscape architecture and ecology, enables both the construction of a natural biological system and the design of an optimal and sustainable landscape. Liav works as an ecological consultant to the Tel Aviv municipality, and as the ecologist at Ganei Yahushua Company, which manages the largest metropolitan park in Israel. Liav specializes in the conservation and restoration of wetlands and coastal ecosystems, such as winter pools (vernal pools), wetlands and streams, sandy habitats and red loam soil. His projects take place in the city of Tel Aviv and nearby open green areas, and employ his unique spatial model which involves the community in the rehabilitation process.