Dr. Johannes Flacke holds a Diploma degree in Geography (1994) from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. He received his PhD in Geosciences at the Ruhr-University Bochum in 2002 with a dissertation on information systems promoting sustainable land use based on spatial indicators. Before joining ITC at the University of Twente as Assistant Professor Spatial Planning and Decision Support Systems in 2007 he worked as a postdoc researcher at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, TU Dortmund University.

Dr. Johannes Flacke has over 20 years of theoretical and practical experience in urban and regional planning in the global north and south and the development and use of geo-information and planning support systems. Fields of application have been urban land use planning, informal settlements, health and environmental inequalities, sustainable land management, climate change adaptation, hazard and risk management, and poverty alleviation and targeting. His research focuses on the transformation of urban areas into sustainable and resilient places for all. Main research interests are currently informed spatial decision making for urban planning in the global south, climate change adaptation planning at the local level, the application of collaborative spatial decision support systems in urban planning and micro-level modelling of urban dynamics.