Workshop: "Beyond Resilience: Environmental Justice and the Governance of Environmental Risk", by Omar Pérez Figueroa

Omar Pérez Figueroa, environmental and urban researcher, will be visiting ICTA-UAB to give a workshop on  climate adaptation, risk-governance systems and inequalities.

Title: "Beyond Resilience: Environmental Justice and the Governance of Environmental Risk"

Speaker: Omar Pérez Figueroa, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Date: Tuesday, September 29th, 2026
• Time: From 10 to 12h
• Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB

The seminar examines how climate adaptation and risk-governance systems can either reproduce or challenge existing inequalities. Drawing on ongoing research on community aqueducts in Puerto Rico, wildfire risk at the wildland–urban interface in California, and environmental justice in the U.S. environmental-permitting process, the presentation explores how communities navigate unequal access to water, safety, participation, and decision-making power. It argues for approaches to resilience that move beyond technical risk management toward more democratic, accountable, and justice-centered forms of environmental governance. 

Omar Pérez Figueroa, M.S., Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary environmental and urban researcher and educator specializing in environmental justice, water governance, hazard mitigation, and climate resilience, with a focus on how communities and institutions navigate environmental risk, inequality, and change.