Carla Gonçalves bridges coastal landscape research and climate action, translating science into policy and local practice.
Carla Gonçalves is a Portuguese landscape architect who graduated from the University of Porto (2008). She also holds a master’s degree in Regional and Urban Planning from the University of Aveiro (2013), where she developed her thesis on implementing the European Landscape Convention in Portuguese municipal spatial plans. Between 2015 and 2022, she assisted different courses in the Landscape Architecture first degree and master’s related to landscape policies, planning and management, which she combined with planning practice across scales.
She concluded her PhD in Spatial Planning in May 2025 at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, and the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment (CITTA), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Grant UI/BD/151233/2021), approved unanimously by the jury and distinguished with Cum Laude. She remains affiliated with CITTA as an Integrated Researcher. Her research, titled Towards Coastal Landscape Governance: Insights across time and space from Northern Portugal (https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/167646), explored the contribution of coastal landscape governance for safeguarding and enhancing the coastal socio-ecological system. Her scientific areas of activity focus on coastal landscape governance, landscape character assessment, landscape cultural identity, landscape planning and management, green infrastructure, and landscape policies.
Building on her research, since March 2025, she has been appointed Executive Director of the Climate Centre of Póvoa de Varzim (Centro do Clima da Póvoa de Varzim), where she leads efforts to transfer scientific and technical knowledge into public policies and local action on climate adaptation and mitigation.
Carla Gonçalves has also been following the implementation of the European Landscape Convention with great enthusiasm, which has inspired her to collaborate with different NGOs, landscape initiatives, and other organisations in Europe and in Latin America. Between 2018 and 2021, she served as a Board Member and Treasurer of CIVILSCAPE, the international network of civil society organisations and local and regional authorities dedicated to landscape protection and management in Europe. Until 2020, she was also part of the Executive Council of the Landscape Observatory at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto.
- More information at: carla-goncalves.com