Dr Ian Mell

Biography

Ian joined the University of Manchester in 2017 from the University of Liverpool where he worked in was a Lecturer in Environmental Planning (2012-2017) in the Department of Geography & Planning. 

Ian is one of the UK’s leading academic researchers working on Green Infrastructure planning, urban greening, and landscape policy examining the relationship between policy/practice in the discussion, development and evaluation of urban greening. This provides scope to evaluate the changing landscape of planning policy and its impacts upon the delivery of sustainable or meaningful places. 

Ian's work focusses on issues of Green Infrastructure financing, the role of perceptions in sustainable cities, and the influence of various actors on the decision-making process for environmental management. Part of this process is developing a better understanding of how rhetoric and delivery differ in the planning and management of cities. 

Ian has received funding from NERC, the Valuing Nature project, RTPI, Defra/Natural England and the Newton Fund to support. He has also worked with UN Habitat and the Landscape Research Group.    

Ian has degrees from Northumbria University (BSc), University of Sussex (MSc), and Newcastle University (PhD), and experience of teaching in the UK, China, India and Europe. He has also worked in practice in Local Government and with consultants in the UK, Europe and internationally. This enable him to bring together National/Local Government and practical policy-making/delivery experiences into the teaching and research environment through a practical understanding of how policy is formed, how decision-making occurs, and how implementation is delivered. 

Outside of academia Ian has experience of green infrastructure practice working with Community Forests in North-East England (2005-2008), and as a Green Infrastructure Development Officer in East Cambridgeshire (2009-2011) where he coordinated the delivery of the £1 million Ely Country Park Project. He was also a strategic partner in the production of the 2nd Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy (Cambridgeshire Horizons, 2011), and a lead author of the Liverpool Green & Open Space Review (2015-16). 

Qualifications

Humanities New Acaedemic Programme (HNAP) Teaching Portfolio (2018)

PG Certificate in Certification of Professional Service (CPS), University of Liverpool (2015)

PhD Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Newcastle (2010)

MSc Social Research Methods (Human Geography), Univerrsity of Sussex (2003)

BSc Geography & Environmental Management, Northumbria University (2001)

Memberships of committees and professional bodies

Higher Education Academy (2015): Fellow

Landscape Institute (2009 onwards): Full Academic Member

Town and Country Planning Association (2012 onwards): Full member