Dr Elisa Palazzo

Dr Elisa Palazzo is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney with extensive international experience across academia and professional practice. She holds a PhD in Urban Design, Regional and Environmental Planning, in which she examined the role of landscape architecture in shaping resilient and environmentally responsive cities.

Dr Palazzo has taught widely across Europe, Asia, and Australia, including at the Universities of Pisa and Florence and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her teaching and research span landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental planning.

Her research advances regenerative, adaptive, and transdisciplinary approaches to environmental change, with a particular focus on water-sensitive urbanism and sponge city strategies to enhance flood resilience across urban and rural systems. She is actively engaged in projects that bridge cultural landscape values with climate adaptation, including the cultural landscape mapping of the Hunter Valley (NSW) toward national heritage listing. She has also contributed to the Mount Lofty Ranges cultural landscape heritage bid in South Australia.

Dr Palazzo is Co-Convenor of the Australia ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes and Cultural Routes and co-author of the Burra Charter Practice Note on Cultural Landscapes. She is also an expert member of the ICOMOS/IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes.

A registered landscape architect, architect, and urbanist, Dr Palazzo brings over 20 years of professional experience delivering large-scale, award-winning projects internationally. She has collaborated with leading design practices such as Turenscape, L&A, and THUPDI in China, and has led regeneration projects across Europe, the Middle East, China, and Australia. As International Expert and Scientific Coordinator for the UNESCO Bethlehem Area Conservation and Management Plan, she contributed to the successful World Heritage nominations of two sites in Palestine (2012 and 2014), including a significant viticultural landscape.

Career Highlights

• Research Funding

  • Chief Investigator, Category 3 competitive grant (Myer Foundation), AUD 0.94M (2018–2020)
  • Lead CI, Category 2 and 3 grants totalling AUD 246,000 (2015–2025)
  • Scientific Coordinator, UNDP/UNESCO BACMP grant, USD 0.5M (2006–2010)

• Academic Leadership and Service

  • Co-Chair, Australia ICOMOS National Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes and Cultural Routes
  • Expert Member, ICOMOS/IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes
  • Editor, Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio)

• Research Impact and Engagement

  • Regular keynote speaker and invited contributor to national and international forums on landscape resilience
  • Contributor to public discourse through lectures, media appearances, and interviews

• Awards and Recognition

  • National Banksia Sustainability Award (2020)
  • International Place Leadership Award (2019, with Place Agency)
  • Peter Joseph Lenné Prize (Berlin, 1999)

• Professional Practice

  • Principal Architect/Design Director for 38 implemented projects and strategic plans
  • Recipient of 29 design awards (including 11 first prizes)
  • Work exhibited internationally since 1999 across Europe (Italy, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Serbia)