Dr. Carissa Champlin is Assistant Professor of Geo-Transdisciplinarity and Experiential Urban Futuring at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She holds an MSc in Urban Planning from TU Berlin (2008). After spending several years in Berlin as a freelance consultant and lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, she completed her PhD in the collaborative design of planning support systems at the University of Twente (2019). Before joining ITC in 2024, she worked at TU Delft as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering and as tenure tracker in the Climate Action Programme following here postdoc in the Resilience Lab at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.
Dr. Champlin has spent 20 years working across various fields of urbanism at the intersection of human-centered design, spatial planning and civil engineering. A game co-design and inclusive digital planning technology expert, her research engages systemic design, urban planning and model building to facilitate collective action towards resilient and climate adaptive cities and regions. Carissa is co-editor of Reporting the Delta: An exploration of climate, space, and society through archival documentaries (TUDelft Open & Nai010, 2025) and serves on the scientific advisory boards of Games for Cities and the 4TU. Center for Resilience Engineering.
Expertise
Social Sciences
- Planning Practice
- Urban Resilience
- Co-Design
- Engineering
- Justice
- Spatial Planning
- Gentrification
Computer Science
- Participatory Design
Organisations
Publications
2026
2025
2024
2023
Research profiles
Affiliated study programs
Courses academic year 2025/2026
Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.
Current projects
URRRRRban
Urban Resilience through Responsive, Relational, Representative and Responsible Policymaking - Enabling Methods for Change
Cities must develop cohesive strategies to adapt to challenges that ask for resilience like climate change, digitalization, and social inequality. The URRRRRban project explores how Key Enabling Methodologies (KEMs) can foster resilient, equitable and just urban policies. Collaborating with 4 municipalities, 18 scientific experts from 5 universities and 4 universities of applied science, 16 societal partners and 23 complementary experts, we will redesign KEMs across five policy cases:
- Energy transition in Amsterdam Zuid Oost
- Healthy, safe and attractive living environments in Enschede
- Smart data use to shape urbanisation in Amersfoort
- Redevelopment and sustainability in vulnerable neighbourhoods in Rotterdam
- Building inclusive and resilient communities for AI and digital transition in Amsterdam.
By improving methodologies, providing reflection tools and developing a learning environment, we provide policy professionals with tools and ways of working to engage societal partners and citizens in shaping resilient urban policies, ensuring that cities, their inhabitants and their environment are better prepared for the future.
PRO BONO
Building Regional Capacity for Citizen Science
Game Changers
Solving Climate Change Challenges
To combat climate change challenges, universities need to deliver game-changers who play a
crucial role in building sustainable solutions. Game-changers are empathetic, open-minded people
that think out-of-the-box, can improvise, get people aligned, and can solve complex challenges.
Scientific knowledge and empathy are not enough to generate societal change; students also need
to become proficient in communication skills, while being provocative, inspirational, creative and
self-aware. Where working on sustainability challenges related to climate change is not new at ITC,
teaching such an attitude towards solving challenges is in its infancy. In this Comenius Senior Fellow project led by Dr. Janneke Ettema we develop an evidence-informed toolbox, consisting of three interrelated
toolsets that support students to acquire the game-changer’s attitude essential for solving complex
climate challenges.
Speeltuin 053
Game Arcade for Climate-Resilient Homes and Neighborhoods
The Speeltuin 053 project aims to facilitate co-creation processes between urban planners, policy makers, knowledge experts, and most importantly, residents in the design and adoption of local flood resilience measures and district heat networks. The outcomes of this project will advance participatory frameworks for sharing expert knowledge that are open to input and contestation by residents means of serious gaming and engaging digital platforms.
News on utwente.nl
Kees Study: Can board games make us more climate resilient? - Stories
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