René van der Velde (1966) is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Forestry at Delft University of Technology. His work focuses on the role of urban forestry and green infrastructure in the realisation of sustainable neighbourhoods, cities and urban regions. He is the initiator of the Urban Climate Arboreta project, on the relationship between tree architecture(s) and heat stress mitigation, the Atlas of Tree City Holland project, which maps the cultural-historical, socio-spatial and physical-ecological dimensions of the urban forest in lowland cities, and with European partners the Biocity of the Future project, where the concept of Forest Urbanism plays a central role. He is also currently project leader of the i-Tree 2.0-NL project, which aims to better quantify the cooling performance and growth curves of street trees in CfB climate zone cities. He teaches on these topics at Bachelor, Master and PhD level and advises government, industry and social partners on urban forestry and green infrastructure.