The UNESCO Chair is composed by a multidisciplinary group of experts from companies and academic environment.

Marco Bezzi

is an environmental engineer: when the Environment is not only the research interest but also the best playground for his favourite activities such as Windsurfing and Mountain climbing. After his PhD in the Analysis of Natural Hazard in Mountain Areas, Marco Bezzi is dealing with teaching activity in Water Resources Management and Irrigation system and he is lecturer in the course “Practical Stage in Environmental Context” at the University of Trento for the UNESCO Chair. His academic activity is integrated with the free-lance activity at national and international level facilitating the match-point between the theoretical and the applied engineering.

Marco Ciolli

is associate professor in Forestry and Silviculture at the University of Trento, he teaches Applied Ecology, Field sampling and Spatial Ecological Modelling, Geographic Information Systems. He has taught and organized courses and International Summer Schools in South Africa, Rwanda, Tanzania and is involved in many national and international research projects. He loves forests, nature and biodiversity and is particularly fond of Tropical Ecosystems both marine and terrestrial. He uses and supports Free and Open Source software in research and education since 1995 and is member of OSGEO.

Corrado Diamantini

is currently collaborating at the MUDAR project. Recently retired, he was Full Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at DICAM, where he held the positions of Head of the School in Engineering for the Environment and the Territory and Deputy Director of the School in Local Development. Decades of research and planning experience in Africa, mainly carried out in the context of the university and development cooperation activities, include the scientific coordination of the drafting of the District Plan of Caia, Mozambique and of the Towns Plans of Caia and Sena, Mozambique. And again, the collaboration on the Project for the improvement of accesses to rural areas in Madagascar and the Project for the regeneration of Tabriquet-Nord in Rabat. He was also involved in drafting the Addis Ababa Master Plan, as a permanent member of the Addis Ababa Master Plan Project Office.

Sara Favargiotti

is Associate Professor of Landscape and Architecture Design at the DICAM, University of Trento. She is specialized in landscape urbanism and ecological design with a specific focus on emerging infrastructures and their influence on cities, landscapes, and territories. Since 2018 she is a member of the Directive Board of IASLA. She is currently P.I. of the HelpFood4.0 project (EIT Food-KIC, 2022), the Caritro project Il Sistema dei Forti Trentini come patrimonio UNESCO (2022-2024) and coordinator of the Trentino hub in the Branding4Resilience research project (PRIN 2017, Young Line, 2020-2023).

Davide Geneletti

is Associate Professor of Spatial Planning at the University of Trento. Specialised in impact assessment of projects, plans and policies; ecosystem services and urban green infrastructures; multicriteria analysis. Formerly Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Sustainability Science Program and Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment. He has consulted for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-HABITAT, and the European Commission.

Marco Ragazzi

is currently full professor in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering in the Univerity of Trento. He graduated in Sanitary Engineering, Technical University of Milan, Italy (with honours). Noseda Award winner as 1988 best graduated in Hydraulic Engineering in the Technical University of Milan. He achieved a doctorate in Environmental Sanitary Engineering. Ambrogino d’Oro Award (Municipality of Milan, 2006) for the contribution to the solution of the wastewater emergency of the city. Research activity mostly concerning a) waste treatment plants optimisation to reduce human exposure to pollutants, b) air and water quality management in anthropized areas. Co-author of more than 150 scientific documents in the Scopus database.

Marco Toffolon

is Associate Professor of Hydraulics at the University of Trento, where he teaches Environmental Fluid Mechanics and serves as head of the study program in Environmental Engineering and deputy director for International Relations at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering. His research interests cover different aspects of environmental fluid mechanics: physical limnology, sediment transport and morphodynamics, tidal hydrodynamics, eco-hydraulics, ecogeomorphology, and some topics in fluid dynamics of biological systems. His main expertise is in mathematical modelling of environmental systems. He is currently coordinating an Erasmus Mundus Design Measure in “Engineering for Environmental Sustainability and International Cooperation”.

Marco Tubino

is Professor of Hydraulics and member of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento. He graduated in Chemical Engineering at the University of Genoa and achieved a doctorate in Hydrodynamics at the University of Padua. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Head of the Department. Since its foundation in 2008, he has been member of the Steering Committee and of the Scientific Board of the Centre for International Cooperation of Trento, of which he became president in 2020. He is presently the President of the Conference of the Italian Schools of Engineering (CopI). His research interests are river morphodynamics, environmental hydraulics and environmental impact assessment. Marco isthe senior leader of the GIAMT research group.

Alfonso Vitti

is Associate Professor in Geodesy and Geomatics at the University of Trento. Active in exploiting data from Earth observation satellite missions for environmental applications and for retrieval of geometrical and physical quantities for modelling and monitoring of environment. He is interested in analytical and methodological aspects of Geomatics and likes field activities as well. His expertise comprises development and teaching Geographic Information Systems and he has a long experience in global positioning satellite systems (GNSS), commonly at hand of colleagues, students and of the same experts of the UNESCO Chair.

Guido Zolezzi

is a member of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering. Environment and people: Guido Zolezzi particularly enjoys interacting with and understanding both of them, and this is a continuous source of motivation for his research and educational activities. Guido is presently the Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Engineering for Human and Sustainable Development at the University of Trento, and the Director the SMART Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate (http://www.riverscience.it). He is enrolled as assistant professor in Hydraulics and is the reference person for the University of Trento at CUCS, the National University Network for Development Cooperation. His research interests are river morphodynamics, environmental hydraulics, eco-hydraulics in natural and regulated streams and water resources management in the developing world. Guido’s research is most within the GIAMT research group (http://www.unitn.it/en/giamt).

Massimo Zortea

is a member of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering. Massimo Zortea is a lawyer, specialized in Environmental Law (http://www.zorteasandri.it), experienced of International Cooperation, particularly environmental. He has carried out missions in around 50 Countries. He holds the courses Methodologies of International Cooperation and Planning Development with Environmental Mainstreaming. He collaborates with several environmental education and training institutions (TuttoAmbiente, IPSOA-WKI, Ecoopera, IAL FVG, Ecipa BZ). He’s a member of some research groups. He’s also committed for over twenty years in NGOs’ world, where he has assumed directive charges at national and international levels. In 2010 he was awarded with the Quietly Brilliant Award by HTC and World Vision Italy (“for having interpreted in his social commitment the HTC’s philosophy of making great things with humility”).

Ada Castellucci

is currently a PhD student at the School of Social Science of the University of Trento within the PhD Programme of SUSTEEM (Sustainability: Economics, Environment, Management and Society). Her research focuses on Hospital Solid Waste Management in low-income Countries. She mainly works in Mozambique in collaboration with two Italian NGOs CAM (Consortium of Associations with Mozambique) and Progettomondo. The aim of the projects she is involved in (mainly financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation) is to improve the waste management systems in urban hospitals.

Marta Crivellaro

is currently a PhD student at C3A, Centre Agriculture Food Environment of the University of Trento. Her research focuses on hydro-morphodynamics and related ecosystem services of near natural river corridors and wetlands and their value in the Anthropocene. She conducts part of her research in the Vjosa basin, one of the last free flowing rivers of Europe, in the framework of an international cooperation project led by VIS, CELIM and CESVI. The aim of the project is to contribute to the sustainable development of the Albanian natural capital, by strengthening the capacity of local institutions in the management of natural protected areas.

Nicola D’Alberton

is currently a Research Fellow at C3A, Centre Agriculture Food and Environment of the University of Trento. His research is focused on a mountain area of Lebanon in the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, in the framework of a cooperation project led by Istituto Oikos NGO. The aim of the project is to introduce a new precision irrigation technology that could lead to significant water savings thus increasing the farmers adaptation to climate change. Nicola is responsible for the development of suitable tools and indicators to monitor and assess the performances of the novel option for the sustainable use of the water resource.

Susanna Ottaviani

is currently a Research Fellow at the DICAM – Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento. She graduated with a master’s thesis in hydraulics on the drainage system of Macuti, an informal neighborhood in Beira, Mozambique. Susanna has just concluded her second three-month internship experience in Beira with the NGO CAM – Consórcio Associações com Mozambique. Now she is furthering her studies by working on an international cooperation project concerning urban planning and the drainage system in Macuti.


Livia Serrao

Is currently a Research Fellow (Post-Doc) at DICAM of the University of Trento. Her research interests are mainly related to the mutual interaction between water resources and human communities. She has been working in surface-water field during her Ph.D. research, investigating river-floodplain dynamics and their interaction with traditional agricultural practices in tropical regions (Alto Huallaga, Peru). More recently, she has been involved in an international cooperation project concerning water-supply and sustainable drainage systems in urban informal settlements (Beira, Mozambique).