Parsa Arbab is Assistant Professor at the University of Tehran, School of Urban Planning, where he received his Ph.D. degree in Urban Planning in 2015. His leading research and teaching interests focus on PEP (People, Environment, and Place), aiming at liveliness in urban and regional planning and development. He has also collaborated as a visiting scientist with the PGM Department at the ITC Faculty of the University of Twente in 2020 and worked as a scientific supervisor of the Tehran Urban Research and Planning Center (TURPC) and the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture at the Tehran Municipality in recent years.

Nataša Atanasova is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana (UL FGG) and Head of the Department of Environmental Civil Engineering. Her broad interests include environmental modelling (various techniques) of aquatic ecosystems, (waste)water treatment and management, development of reuse-oriented water systems and design and implementation of nature-based solutions for circular cities. She has led projects focused on development of water reuse systems in hotel facilities, urban neighborhoods and cities. Currently she is involved as a PI of the UL group in the H2020 EdiCitNet project and as a co-chair of the COST Action Circular Cities, both dealing with implementation of nature based solutions for circular management of resources (water-food-energy) in cities.

Dr. Sahar Attia is an Emeritus Professor of architecture and urban design at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. She has been the Head of the Department of Architecture in the same institution from 2013-2017. She has 40 years of experience practicing urban planning, urban design, and architecture in the academic and professional fields. Aside from her teaching and research work at Cairo University, Dr. Sahar is the founder of the Associated Consultants, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm, with a special focus on sustainable communities. Her research interests include urban development, urban regeneration, sustainable urbanism, and upgrading informal areas. She has a wide diversified national and international network: She is currently a member in the Stakeholders Advisory Group Enterprise (SAGE) UN-Habitat, the co-chair of the University Network Initiative -UN-Habitat, a board member in Ecocity Builders-USA, and the co-director of the Social Habitat work Programme in the UIA. in January 2021, she has been appointed a member the Egyptian Parliament, she is also the vice director of the Working Group on Science and Technology in the IUP. She is the co-editor of four books published by Springer, and she contributes as a member of the board of editors in several international journals.

Ione’s academical background is in Environmental Sciences and Public Health. During her PhD at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), she worked in the EU funded project called Physical Activity through Sustainable Transport Approaches (PASTA). She coordinated the data collection in Barcelona, the tracking add-on study (sub-study to track participants with Moves app) in the seven PASTA cities, and the final questionnaire design. As an academical result, she published three papers as leading author focused on health effects of transport and related exposures like air pollution and physical activity in European cities. In her Postdoctoral position at the Urban Health Collaborative (Drexel University), she worked in the Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL) looking the effects of physical urban features in health and environmental outcomes in Latin American cities. She is also part of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) working as a contributing author in the Architecture, Urban Planning, and Design Element of the upcoming Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3.3).

Zuhal Eltayeb Awad currently works as Associate professor and director of Building and Road Research Institute-university of Khartoum. She obtained Ph.D. in Architecture from University of Khartoum- Faculty of Engineering and Architecture-Sudan in 2003. Zuhal does research in urban sustainability, neighborhood planning, open spaces and low-cost housing. Her current project is about development of the built environment in neighborhoods. She teaches under- graduate students and supervises post -graduate students in research relating to Architecture, Physical Planning and Housing. She has many memberships in international and local professional associations and societies e.g. the International Society of City and Regional Planners and Research and Academia Partner Constituent Group (PCG)-UN Habitat. She participated in many international conferences on urban sustainability e.g. Sustainable development of the built environment conference (1) and (2) ,and 6th International Conference on Sustainable Development. Zuhal published some articles in international and local journals concerning opportunities and challenges for sustainability in old neighborhoods, evaluating neighborhoods developed open spaces and sustainability evaluation for low-cost housing projects in Sudan.

Associate Professor of Environmental Impact Assessment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA), Politecnico di Milano. Teacher of Environmental Impact Assessment for the Ms courses and the basics of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at Bachelor courses. Full list of significant publications at http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1065-9469 Research activity: She has been involved with the issue of the environmental management since 1996 when she started her PhD research. She is currently involved in various research projects, from the source apportionment of pollutant loads, to development of methods to support decisions for the management and planning of environmental resources. Main research activities are the analysis, monitoring and modelling of environmental and territorial data relating to different matrices. Scenario analysis and modelling of pollution phenomena to support the assessment of impacts and intervention alternatives / land use. Environmental risk assessment and forecasting, habitat modelling of sensitive species, identification of polluting sources, multi-criteria analysis to support the planning and management of environmental resources.

Nadja Becker M.A., researcher at IZES gGmbH, Department of Infrastructure & Municipal Development, in Saarbruecken (Germany) since 2013. National and international research projects in the fields of trans-sectoral urban planning, climate protection, circular economy and sustainable urban development. Master of Arts in Sustainability Economics and Management at Oldenburg University, Germany and Bachelor of Arts in Tourism Management at Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Semesters abroad in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Cape Town, South Africa. Key qualifications in sustainability economics, sustainable (urban) development, ecological economics, regional value added, economic valuation of ecosystem services, closed-loop economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation.

French PHD student at Sorbonne university working on ecosystem services obtained on a model of green roofs and photovoltaic panels. Master’s degree in plants, environment and ecological engineering from Strasbourg's university.

Dolorès Bertrais is PhD candidate and Teaching and Research Assistant at The Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Institute (GEDT) at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). Her research focuses on urban production in South East Asia. From 2017 to 2019, she has been expert junior in urban planning for the Atelier Parisien d'Urbanisme (APUR), in the frame of a decentralized cooperation between the Municipality of Phnom Penh and Paris City. She analyses new urban project in Phnom Penh City trying to understand why, how and who are the actors contribute to change natural landscapes in Phnom Penh.

Early career in social and community development, including homeless, Aboriginal and immigrant support. Later career in conservation and sustainability. Led community relations for Parks Canada. Wrote Parks Canada’s first sustainable development strategy. Coordinated Canada’s Biosphere Reserves for over 20 years. Member of UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserves Advisory Committee. Created Biosphere Eco-City (BEC) model. Led Ottawa BEC for 10 years. Current Chair of Biosphere Eco-Cities Canada (operating in five cities).

Iemke Bisschops is a senior consultant at LeAF BV in Wageningen, the Netherlands - an independent research and consultancy organisation for appropriate management of wastewater and organic residues, with a focus on the recovery and reuse of water, energy, nutrients and other valuable resources. She has over 20 years of experience in the execution and management of projects in the Netherlands and abroad, related to domestic and industrial wastewaters, manure, agro-industrial residues and domestic organic wastes. Resource recovery from source-separated wastewaters and food waste has her special interest.

Andreas Blum is a sociologist and senior researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER). His research addresses societal developments and trends in sustainable construction and urban development, with a focus on social issues of resource consumption for the built environment. He is involved in the implementation and support of quantitative and qualitative surveying projects on different thematic issues. A recent project is the implementation of a nation-wide representative online survey of German cities and communities on building land and infill development capacities (https://www.ioer.de/en/projects/building-land-survey-2020). He was also substantially involved in a qualitative expert survey on the contribution of local environmental initiatives to an urban sustainability transition as a part of the EU-HORIZON-funded Project "Accelerating and Rescaling Transitions to Sustainability" (ARTS; http://acceleratingtransitions.eu/).