Stefano SORIANI

Stefano Soriani is Professor of Economic and Political Geography, Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. He studied at the Universities of Venice (Ca’ Foscari) and Rotterdam (EUR).

Before moving to the Department of Economics in 2013, he worked for 17 years in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Venice University. He has a multi-disciplinary background, particularly at the interaction between applied economics and geography, and environmental studies.

Soriani’s main areas of expertise are in economic geography and environmental governance. In particular, Prof Soriani made research on the following topics: 1) Port-cities evolution and change: urban waterfront redevelopment, re-utilisation of redundant areas and urban marketing; 2) globalisation and the changing role of Mediterranean ports: major drivers of change, policy-responses, territorial dynamics; 3) port-industrial activities and environmental governance in coastal areas. 4) cooperation and competition in the North Adriatic Port system; 5) cruising and the evolution of port-cities in the Mediterranean; 6) Integrated Coastal Zone Management: social and economic implications of no-statutory plans and initiatives; 7) climate change, environmental policies and resilience in urban areas, with particular reference to coastal cities.

Prof. Soriani is member of Ateneo Veneto, the oldest cultural institution in Venice. He has a proven record in collaboration with national and international research centers: COSES Venice, on port and maritime transport themes; Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei, Venice, on issues related with environmental policy and management in coastal areas; Consorzio Venezia Ricerche, Venice, on the territorial issues related with the problem of environmental reclamation in port and industrial areas; European Comparative Urban Research (EURICUR, Rotterdam), on port-cities’ evolution and urban marketing themes; Consorzio Ricerche Laguna (CoRiLa), on the evolution of the economic activities in the Lagoon of Venice; Consorzio Thetis Venezia, on the implementation, at the European level, of Integrated Coastal Zone Management’s approaches and tools; Confindustria Venezia and Camera di Commercio di Venezia on the metropolitan development of Venice region; RETE (Association for the collaboration between ports and cities) on various topics related with port-city relationships; Plan Bleu, Marseille, and UNESCO, on Integrated Coastal Zone Management and coastal resilient cities.

He has authored and co-authored a hundred of publications in books and academic journals.

Prof. Soriani has been visiting scholars in Southampton (Department of Geography, University of Southampton, 1999) and Toronto (Department of Geography, York University, 1997). He has collaborated with the Italian Minister of the Environment, Venice International University, the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, the Municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin in the Sino-Italian Training Program of Sustainable Development, giving lectures and seminars at Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin on sustainability issues in urban management (2007 and 2008).

He gave lectures and seminars in various Universities, in Italy and abroad (Liverpool, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Cairo, Toronto, Southampton, Montreal, Seoul, Tianjin).

He’s been Member of the Steering Committee of the Association of Italian Geographers for several years; he has served as Secretary of the Marine Commission of IGU (International Geographical Union); he has been the trustee of Società geografica Italiana (Veneto Region); he has been member of the Board of professional education institutions in the field of port and maritime activities.

At Ca’ Foscari, he has a long record of teaching activity: Environmental Economics and Policy, Laurea Triennale (Bachelor) in Environmental Sciences; Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Laurea Magistrale (Master’s programme) in Environmental Sciences; Economic and Political Geography, Laurea Triennale (Bachelor) in East Asia and Mediterranean Studies; Economic and Political Geography, Laurea Magistrale (Master’s Programme) in International Relations; Geography of Economic Development, Laurea Magistrale (master’s programme) in International Economics; Geography of Transports, Laurea Triennale (Bachelor)  in Economics and Management; Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Ca’ Foscari Harvard Summer School Program.

He has supervised in recent years PhD and master thesis in the following fields of research: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and marine protected areas; transport clusters and regional development in North East Italy; the effectiveness of no-statutory ICZM initiative and plans in some selected European cases; climate change adaptation and the Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic.

He is member of the Teaching Committee of the PhD Programme in Polar Sciences.