Funda Atun

Dr. Funda Atun is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Spatial Planning in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Geoinformation and Earth Observation at the University of Twente. She is an urban planner with research interests in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions and societal resilience. Dr. Atun is currently coordinating the ‘Promoting disaster preparedness and resilience by co-developing stakeholder support tools for managing the systemic risk of compounding disasters’ (PARATUS, 2022-2026) Horizon Europe Project together with Prof. Dr. Cees van Westen. The project aims to provide stakeholders in disaster risk management with tools to account for cross-sectoral impacts and the dynamic nature of compounding disasters. The team develops an open-source platform for dynamic risk assessment and evaluating multi-hazard impact chains, risk reduction measures, and disaster response scenarios. Dr. Atun has a vast experience in EU-funded projects. She was WP and case study coordinator in ‘European Disasters in Urban Centres: A Culture Expert Network (EDUCEN, HORIZON 2020, in 2015-2017)’, assistant coordinator in ‘Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (KNOW4DRR, FP7, in 2013-2015)’, one of the researchers in ‘Enhancing European resilience and response to threats and crisis situations (DRIVER+, FP7, in 2018)’, ’Building Resilient Urban Communities (BREUCOM, Erasmus+, in 2019-2020)’ and ‘Enhancing resilience of communities and territories facing natural and Na-tech hazards (ENSURE, FP7, in 2008-2011)’ projects. She is also leading a research project together with Dr. Javier Martinez about the role of children as active agents in the planning of climate-adaptive cities.