LORIEN NESBITT
Senior Advisor
lorien@ecoplan.ca | CV
Lorien Nesbitt is a Senior Advisor and has been with EcoPlan since 2012. Through her position as Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia she also serves as Academic Liaison supporting EcoPlan’s research and publications. She has expertise in urban forestry, natural resource management, land use and climate change planning, local knowledge integration, and monitoring and evaluation, and is privileged to work with a wide range of communities and organizations across Canada and internationally, helping local people achieve their environmental and sustainability goals. Her work focuses on creating more liveable and equitable urban environments.
Lorien’s current research focuses on urban forestry and socio-ecological interactions in urban environments, with an emphasis on environmental justice, human health, well-being, and climate change. She employs mixed method approaches, as appropriate to the research project, and has both quantitative and qualitative methodological expertise. She is currently examining four interrelated topics (1) the relationship between greenness exposure and public health in urban environments, with a focus on adaptation to climate change-induced heat stress; 2) urban forest governance systems that promote resilience and equity; 3) smart technologies and their applications in urban forestry; and 4) environmental justice in multicultural cities. In the realm of environmental justice, her current research is particularly concerned with understanding the nature and dynamics of green gentrification, i.e., the physical or psychological displacement of residents due to local greening activities.