Saida Sobhani
Assistant Professor Acting
Saida Sobhani, Ph.D., AICP (Saeideh Sobhaninia) is an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. Her interdisciplinary research examines the intersection of urban design, hazard resilience, and post-disaster recovery, with a particular focus on how urban form and social systems can reduce risk and support long-term community well-being. She has authored more than twenty peer-reviewed publications on topics including the role of urban greening in hazard mitigation, the integration of heat and flood resilience into urban planning, and the critical influence of social cohesion in recovery processes. As Principal Investigator, she recently led a funded research project evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of heat action plans across diverse urban contexts worldwide.
Prior to joining UW, Saida worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Arizona State University, contributing to more than $25 million of externally funded research projects, focusing on planning and design solutions for hazard resilience. Saida’s work also bridges academic research and professional practice. In Greenville County, South Carolina, she served as Planner II, leading the design and transformation of floodplain buyout properties into multifunctional green spaces. In Iran, she worked as an urban designer with municipal agencies and planning firms, contributing to projects on historic revitalization, public space design, and pedestrian-oriented development.
She holds a Ph.D. in Planning, Design, and the Built Environment from Clemson University, an M.S. in Applied GIS and Geospatial Technologies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Master of Urban Design from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. She is a certified member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).
For additional details about Saida’s research, please see her lab website: https://www.urbanprex.com/