Carlos Smaniotto Costa (PhD) is a Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner graduated at the University of Hanover, Germany. He is professor of Urban Ecology and Landscape Design at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon (Portugal), and member and project leader of Lusófona¿s R&D Unit CeiED Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development, where he is coordinating national and international founded research and practice-oriented projects. His research activities deal with issues of sustainable urban development, strategies for the integration of open spaces and nature conservation in the urban context, research methods and participatory processes along urban and landscape design and urban sociology ¿ the relationship between built and social life in cities.Smaniotto edited several international books and has publications in professional journals in Portuguese, English, German and Italian.