Biography
Ahmed Owais Durrani is a PhD candidate in the Sustainable Development and Climate Change (PhD SDC) program at IUSS Pavia. His research focuses on urban flood risk, with particular attention to how pluvial flooding affects infrastructure systems and the functioning of cities.
His work explores both the direct and indirect impacts of flooding, ranging from physical damage to buildings and infrastructure to wider disruptions across interconnected urban systems. This includes understanding how such disruptions influence the performance of critical services and urban operations, providing a more complete view of flood risk.
His research aims to support better decision-making by developing risk-informed approaches that connect flood hazards with infrastructure and system-level impacts. The goal is to help design more effective and targeted strategies for urban flood mitigation in complex urban environments.
His broader research experience also includes work on economic and systemic risk, including the analysis of cascading impacts and sectoral interdependencies, as well as studies on transport-related risks. Together, these contributions reflect an interest in understanding how disruptions propagate across systems and how resilience can be improved.
As part of his current research, he has contributed to case studies in cities such as Milan, exploring how different interventions, including nature-based solutions, can reduce flood impacts and improve urban system performance.
In addition to his PhD research, he has been a visiting PhD candidate at TU Delft and completed an internship at Comune di Milano. He holds a background in Civil Engineering and Engineering Management, which supports his interdisciplinary approach to urban resilience and disaster risk reduction.