Making Sense of Planning and Development for the Post-Pandemic Cities

Professor Kh Md Nahiduzzaman is a Nordic-trained Canadian urban planner with a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, and an M.Phil. in Geography from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway. Before joining the School of Architecture, Planning and Design (SAP+D) at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Morocco, he was a faculty member at the Faculty of Applied Science in the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan, Canada. He has also taught at the Department of City and Regional Planning in King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia, and the Department of Urban Planning and the Environment in the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Currently, Prof. Nahiduzzaman is responsible for co-coordinating the PhD program and the TOP (Territorial Observatory Performance) Lab at SAP+D, UM6P. His research focuses on urban resilience, urban transformational planning, human-centered smart cities, digital twins, and indigenous knowledge in climate risk and vulnerability assessment and policies. A recognized expert in these fields, he collaborates on research projects with governments, industrial partners, and communities worldwide, including Canada, Italy, Spain, Romania, France, Germany, Czech Republic, USA, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, China, Kazakhstan, and Bangladesh.

Prof. Nahiduzzaman has secured over $5 million in research grants from prestigious national and international funding agencies. He has (co-)authored more than 100 scientific manuscripts in highly regarded journals, books, and proceedings. His contributions to non-structural flood mitigation, floodplain mapping, and land use planning strategies in BC have had significant impact on provincial policies.

He serves as Executive and Book Review Editor of the Journal of Urban Management (Elsevier), Editor-in-Chief of the City Development: Issues and Best Practices (ICCCASU) journal, and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Urban Planning and Development (ASCE). He actively participates in various national and international scientific committees and think tanks, such as the ICCCASU (International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization), ICCSA (International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications), the African Smart City Forum, the Casablanca Smart City Conference, and International Conference of the Arab Society for Computation in Architecture, Art and Design (ASCAAD).

Prof. Nahiduzzaman serves as a co-chair of the "Smart and Connected Cities" track in the US-Africa Frontiers program, which will take place on February 18-20, 2025, in Kigali, Rwanda. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Department of Regional Development, Public Sector Administration and Law at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic.