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David Satterthwaite

Senior Fellow at International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

About me

Prof David Satterthwaite is a Senior Fellow, Human Settlements Group, at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Visiting Professor at the Development Planning Unit, University College London. He was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize in 2004 and was part of the IPCC team honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. David specializes in poverty reduction and environmental problems in urban areas. In addition, he works in climate change adaptation, including contributions to the IPCC’s Third and Fourth Assessments and as one of the coordinating lead authors for the chapter on adaptation of urban areas in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment. His latest book, Cities in a Finite Planet, published by Routledge, was produced with IPCC colleagues on how cities can address development issues, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation. He has undertaken research on current and potential role of urban poor federations to address their needs and develop partnerships with government agencies, and research on why the scale and depth of urban poverty is underestimated and misrepresented by most governments and international agencies. His research work has also been on urban risk in cities in Africa with particular attention to those most at risk – undertaken with a consortium of several African and British research institutions. He has written and edited various books on urban issues, including Squatter Citizen (with Jorge E. Hardoy), The Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Cities, Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World (with Jorge E. Hardoy and Diana Mitlin) and Empowering Squatter Citizen (with Diana Mitlin), which are published by Earthscan, London. He is also editor of Adapting Cities to Climate Change (with Jane Bicknell and David Dodman) published by Earthscan in April 2009 and co-author (with Diana Mitlin) of Urban Poverty in the Global South: Scale and Nature (2012) and Reducing Urban Poverty (2014), published by Routledge.