Carlos H Betancourth

Carlos H Betancourth is an urbanist, with extensive international experience as a consultant in research projects and strategic urban planning and design. Through his career in the field of urban development, he assist communities to shape and establish the main lines of their cities’ future development through preparing strategic spatial development visions for both, addressing the socio-spatial fragility and climate vulnerability of their interconnected cities and, for assessing individual plans and investment initiatives against the background of these desired directions of development.

Carlos is one of the founding members of the Recycle City network (www.recitynet.org).

The focus of his work is the development of circular systems of interconnected and multifunctional eco-infrastructures for transformational and low carbon urban development. Carlos coordinated with Replan, the design and planning of resettlement action plans for the management of the environmental and social impacts of the coal-mining sector in Cesar, Colombia. Recently he was the team leader for the elaboration of the strategic spatial plan for the city of Belize, with PADECO of Japan, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Government of Belize. Carlos also participated in the development of guidelines for the elaboration of local urban development plans and Investment Strategies in Haiti’s Northern- Development Corridor. He also worked in the development of support tools for the management of the territory around Caracol’s Industrial Park; as well as for the planning of the city of Caracol (With the Government of Haiti (UTE), and the Sustainable Cities Initiatives program of the IDB. Carlos has worked on the design of national, regional and urban spatial planning and design, at the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Environment and Spatial Development. He has also worked as a main planner in metropolitan transportation planning (MPO Farmington, New Mexico), and in Developing Urban Expansion Control Plans in the United States (Marstel-Day, Washington DC).

Carlos has been a visiting researcher fellow at the London School of Economics (London, UK), and at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, USA). Currently he has been coordinating with Recnet, the elaboration of a study for the evaluation of the concept of circular economy in dealing among others, with the problem of resource- scarcity, in Spain. The research aims at increasing the knowledge of the circular economy, in particular in relation with the policy requirements of the transition from a linear to a circular economy.

Carlos has produced more than 60 publications, in a variety of media such as journals, books, and conference’s proceedings.