A research lab at ICTA-UAB
Research Line Co-leader
Francesc is Asst. Professor at the Geography and Sociology Departments of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium, where he leads an interdisciplinary research line on urban ecology. He is also an associate senior researcher with BCNUEJ, where he co-leads the research line “Urban Climate Risk, Infrastructure, and Justice”. He obtained a PhD in Environmental Science and Technology (2016) awarded with Excellent Cum Laude and the Special Prize for Doctoral Studies from UAB (Autonomous University of Barcelona). His PhD thesis examined the concepts of ecosystem services and green infrastructure in the urban context, developing a pioneering framework to assess (mis)matches between (urban) ecosystem service provision and demand.
Since then, his research has been motivated to understand the role of urban nature towards more just, (climate) resilient, healthy and sustainable cities, combining geospatial and advanced quantitative and qualitative data analyses, including participatory methods. He has participated in several EU-funded research projects (URBES, OpenNESS, Naturvation, GreenLULUs, etc.) with multiple roles and responsibilities. Since 2022, he is the co-PI of the European project “Coolschools”, a partnership of 16 organizations including universities, local governments, SMEs and international NGOs examining the role of climate nature-based solutions in school environments.
Keywords
- Urban Ecosystem Services
- Green Infrastructure
- Nature-based Solutions
- Spatial Analysis
- Landscape and Urban Planning
- Social-Ecological System
- Urban Resilience
Affiliated Projects
Selected Publications
- Mapping the intangible: Using geolocated social media data to examine landscape aesthetics (Land Use Policy, 2018)
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When we cannot have it all: Ecosystem services trade-offs in the context of spatial planning (Ecosyst. Serv., 2017)
- Greening cities – To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities (Habitat Int., 2017)
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Assessing the Potential of Regulating Ecosystem Services as Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Areas, in: Kabisch, N., Korn, H., Stadler, J., Bonn, A. (Eds.), Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: Linkages between Science, Policy and Practice. (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2017)
- Mapping ecosystem service capacity, flow and demand for landscape and urban planning: A case study in the Barcelona metropolitan region (Land Use Policy, 2016)
- Mismatches between ecosystem services supply and demand in urban areas: A quantitative assessment in five European cities (Ecological Indicators, 2015)
- Contribution of Ecosystem Services to Air Quality and Climate Change Mitigation Policies: The Case of Urban Forests in Barcelona, Spain (Ambio, 2014)
- Key insights for the future of urban ecosystem services research (Ecology and Society, 2016)
- The urban political ecology of ecosystem services: The case of Barcelona (Ecological Economics, 2016)