Vanessa Assumma

Profile
V.A. is an urban planner specializing in Appraisal and Evaluation, with a focus on supporting transformations of cities, territories, and landscapes. She is currently Associate Professor in Economic Appraisal and Project Evaluation (CEAR-03/C) at the Department of Architecture, University of Bologna.

Education

• PhD in Urban and Regional Development (33rd cycle, 2021), Politecnico di Torino – dissertation “Assessing the Resilience of Socio-Ecological Systems to Shape Scenarios of Territorial Transformation”, excellent cum laude.

• MSc in Territorial, Urban, and Landscape-Environmental Planning (2016), Politecnico di Torino, 105/110 with web reporting

• BSc in Territorial, Urban, Landscape and Environmental Planning (2013), Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, 110/110 cum laude.

Academic and Research Experience

•  National Scientific Qualification (ASN) 2023 – Area 08/A3 (Infrastructure and Transport Systems, Appraisal and Evaluation), Full Professor level (Since 2026).

• Associate Professor in RE Appraisal and Project Evaluation, University of Bologna (Since 2025)

• National Scientific Qualification (ASN) 2023 – Area 08/A3 (Infrastructure and Transport Systems, Appraisal and Evaluation), Associate Professor level (From 2023 to 2026)

• Senior Researcher in RE Appraisal and Project Evaluation, University of Bologna (from 2022 to 2025).

• Licensed Architect (2021), University of Catania.

• Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant (2018–2022), Politecnico di Torino – research on models and procedures for dynamic evaluation of territorial systems.

• Visiting Researcher at:

  • Centro de Mathematica and Centro de Território, Ambiente e Construção (Universidade do Minho, Portugal, 2018–2019)

  • Information Systems, Supply Chain Management & Decision Support Department (NEOMA Business School, France, 2022)

Awards

• Edoardo Mollica Award – Young Researcher of the Year (Environment, Energy, Landscape section), New Metropolitan Perspectives 2018.

• Outstanding Presentation Award, Creative Decisions Foundation – ISAHP 2020.

Current Research Activities

• Economic evaluation of urban plans.

• Development of evaluation models for urban and territorial planning.

• Involved in the following European projects:

  • BEQUEST (Erasmus+ BIP - Blended Intensive Programme, A.Y. 2026-2027)

  • AQUAGREEN (European Urban Initiative), 2024 – ongoing

  • RescueME (Horizon Europe), ongoing

  • ET4Digital (Erasmus+), ongoing

  • SPOT – Sustainable Spatial Planning of Tourism Destinations (2019-1-PL01-KA203-064946)

  • ResCult – Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage: a Supporting Decision Tool for the Safeguarding of Cultural Assets (Horizon Europe) (ECHO/SUB/2016/742499/PREV12)

Publications
Author of several peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science.