David Satterthwaite is Senior Fellow, Human Settlements Group, at the International Institute for Environment and Development and visiting professor at the Development Planning Unit, University College London. He specializes in poverty reduction and environmental problems in urban areas. In addition, he works in climate change adaptation, including contributions to the IPCC Third and Fourth Assessments and as one of the coordinating lead authors for the chapter on Adapting Cities in the IPCC Fifth Assessment that is currently underway. He has undertaken research and documentation of the current and potential role of urban poor federations to address their needs and develop partnerships with government agencies, and research on why the scale and depth of urban poverty is under-estimated and misrepresented by most governments and international agencies. He has written and edited various books on urban issues, including Squatter Citizen (with Jorge E. Hardoy), The Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Cities, Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World (with Jorge E. Hardoy and Diana Mitlin) and Empowering Squatter Citizen (with Diana Mitlin), which are published by Earthscan, London. He is also editor of Adapting Cities to Climate Change (with Jane Bicknell and David Dodman) published by Earthscan in April 2009 and co-author (with Diana Mitlin) of Urban Poverty in the Global South: Scale and Nature published by Routledge in 2012. He is Visiting Professor at University College London (Development Planning Unit) and he was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize in 2004.
