Ricardo Jorge e Silva Bento

Ricardo Jorge e Silva Bento is an Assistant Professor of Spatial Planning at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. He leads the Territorial Transitions & Wellbeing (T2WELL) research group and coordinates the UTAD Territorial Studies Group (GETER-UTAD). His work focuses on Urban and Regional Planning, Spatial Analysis using GIS, and Transport/Mobility strategies, with particular emphasis on the Douro Region. He has extensive experience in municipal master plans, environmental assessments, and land-use policy.

• Education: Civil Engineering (BSc), Urban Engineering (MSc), Engineering Sciences (PhD)

Research Interests include low-density territorial analysis, sustainable tourism development, pandemic impact modeling, and geospatial technologies. He has pioneered methodologies for evaluating tourism dynamics in rural areas and applied spatial autocorrelation models to study disease spread.

His recent publications (2021–2023) analyze post-pandemic tourism recovery, sustainable mobility in industries, and spatial planning for low-density regions. He has coordinated projects like DOUROTUR (tourism innovation) and GEOARPAD (cultural heritage valorization).

Notable contributions include drone-based environmental monitoring systems and EcoCampus sustainability frameworks. His work integrates technical spatial analysis with policy implementation, addressing both urban and rural development challenges.