About

Valerio della Sala is an urban geographer and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Since 2024, he has coordinated R&D and innovation projects at the marine and coastal consulting company Elittoral. Academic research covers general topics on urbanism, human geography, environment, landscape and urban culture, earth observation, and remote sensing, including applied projects on the sport, spatial policy and retrofitting urban space and cultural-led regeneration programs. In particular, he was involved in several research groups on the city in co-participative planning. Among the leading research groups, we can mention the AGEI Italian Geographers’ Association Group on the topics of sport and territory and the Digital Geographies Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society DGRG in the U.K. and the ENoLL Health and Well-Being Working Group.

His main research interests concern the critical analysis of mega-events about territorial transformations and local development of Olympic Villages using innovative parameters about the Olympic legacy and memory. In particular, his doctoral research project focuses on the study of Olympic town planning and Olympic villages, analysing the projects of the host cities from the point of view of respect and protection of the territory.

In 2022, he obtained his PhD in Geography: Urban and Territorial Planning at the Autonomous University of Barcelonaand Urban and Regional Development at the Polytechnic University of Turin. The PhD was completed through an international co-tutorship agreement between the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Polytechnic University of Turin: Supervisor Prof. F. Muñoz, supervisor Prof. Egidio Dansero. The International Commission: Alberto Vanolo (University of Turin), Oriol Nello (Autonomous University of Barcelona), Nuria Benach University of Barcelona), Joao Seixas (Nova Lisboa University), Anna Maria Pioletti (University of Valle D’Aosta), Michelangelo Savino (University of Padua), Antoni Luna (Pompeu Fabra University), Giovanna Russo (University of Bologna). The grade obtained: Outstanding.

The doctoral thesis, ‘Olympic Villages and Olympic Urban Planning: Analysis and Evaluation of the Impact on Spatial and Urban Planning (20th-20th Century),’ has been disseminated through scientific articles and a monograph.

In addition, the thesis received important international references from the following authors: Alberto Vanolo (University of Turin), Alessandro Guala (University of Turin), Anna Maria Pioletti (University of Valle d’Aosta), Antonio de Rossi (Polytechnic University of Turin), Egidio Dansero (University of Turin), Francesc Muñoz (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona), Gavin Poynter (University of East London), Nelson Todt (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul), Stefano di Vita (Polytechnic University of Milan), Tracy Taylor (RMIT).

He is currently a Principal Investigator of the research team of the Elittoral, a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Research and Innovation proposal “Plataforma Aérea Autónoma Solar para la Monitorización de Eventos Contaminantes en el Ecosistema Marino (PERSEO)”, (24 months project) 654.779,50 €. He is also a participating member of the research team at the Urban Planning Observatory of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in the project “Eco-Heritage. Cultural and Climate Management”, funded by the University of Turin (36-month project), with a requested budget of €218,227.00.

It also participates in designing and presenting competitive research projects at national and European levels. Among which we can mention the two recently funded projects: CIIP-2024 Interempresas internacional proposal“(OCEANWATCHER) Sistema de alerta de patógenos para vigilar la calidad de las aguas costeras mediante un UAV equipado con cámara hiperspectral”, (24 months project) 400.000 €; PRIN Relevant Researches of National Interest 2022 “Dis-Abilities! Challenging the stigma of disability by altering the media representation of the Paralympic Games”, directed by Prof. Sakis Pappous Pappous (two-year project) 260.000 €. It has more than 25 European research proposals and tenders submitted in different subject areas.

Guest participation in prestigious international scientific meetings as a guest speaker or session moderator, such as UGI-IGU 2024 (International Geographic Union Centennial Congress) Dublin, CIUR 2024 (Conferencia Académica Internacional de Investigación Urbana y Rural) Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC), 100th Anniversary of the Winter Olympic Games 1924-2024, University of Lausanne, EUGEO 2023 (Association of Geographical Societies in Europe) Universitat de Barcelona, IACS 2023 “Summit on Communication & Sport”, UGI-IGU 2022 (International Geographic Union Centennial Congress), Université Sorbonne de Paris, Olympic Studies Forum 2021, PUCRS, Pierre de Coubertin Latin American Symposium.

I have been a keynote speaker at global international meetings such as the International Geographic Union CentennialCongress (Paris, 2022), the Olympic Studies Forum (Rio de Janeiro, 2021), or the Cities, Events, Mega-Events, and Tourism Congress (ORME 2021) (Paris, 2021).

Expert of the Observatory of Urbanism of the Autonomous University of Barcelona that has participated in several projects and missions on urban issues since 2016 (directed by Prof. Francesc Muñoz). Member of the Organising Committee of the Sports Research Institute (IRE-UAB) of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (directed by Prof. Emilio Fernandez Peña). Associate researcher of the Interdepartmental Research Centre in Urban Studies and Events (OMERO) of the University of Turin. (Headed by Prof. Alberto Vanolo). From 2017 to 2020, he was a member of the organising committee of SportComLab – Centro Studi e Ricerche sulla Comunicazione Sportiva – directed by Prof. Stefano Martelli – at the University of Bologna. From 2020, he was a member of the organising committee of SportComProject, directed by Prof. Giovanna Russo – at the University of Bologna.

During his years at the Observatory of Urbanism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he worked on several research projects on the territory and the city. Among them: Empty metropolitan spaces, conversion of public spaces, creation of tourist routes, revaluation of historical buildings, pilot projects, planning of regional areas and participation in competitions. In addition, with Francesc Muñoz, I study sports areas and observe the socio-economic phenomena induced by sports in the region. During this experience, he learnt how to use satellite images to analyse territorial changes. His expertise in using satellite technology to monitor natural landscapes has enabled him to examine the state of agricultural land, water masses, meteorological phenomena, land use and other characteristics based on spatial data.

As an adjunct professor, I am in charge of the practical Resource and Spatial Management and Planning course at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and in Modelling and Analysis of Geographic Information using modelling software (Q-GIS, MiraMon, ArcGIS pro). Within the “Modelling and Geographical Information” Analysis courses, he carried out a specific module on using satellite images to predict different environmental phenomena. Environmental analysis involves creating and using parametric indices to mitigate risks related to climate change. Valerio provides solid scientific training in earth observation techniques through analysing information using GIS to study the territory and manage its resources.

Visiting professors at several Italian, Spanish and American universities. Guest Professor since 2016 at the University of Bologna, since 2022, Guest Speaker at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Institute for American Universities (IAU). In 2021, he was a Guest Professor at the University of Valle d’Aosta. Since 2024, he has been a guest speaker at the Polytechnic of Milan and IULM University.

Since completing his doctorate, he has authored several scientific publications in Q1 journals in different subject areas. This includes a publication in the Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, Remote Sensing, Geotema, Savoir/agir, Documenti Geografici, Didattica della Storia, Applied Geographies, Event Management, Sport in Society, Belgeo: Revue Belge de Géographie, Environmental Analysis & Ecology Studies, Movement & Sport Sciences – Science & Motricité.

During his young career, he has published more than 50 scientific contributions (research articles, monographs, book chapters, contributions in encyclopedias, and book reviews). His monograph Olympic Villages and Urban Development: Analysis of Spatial Models and Geographic Transformations (Peter Lang, 2025) and The Urban Legacy of Olympic Villages: From Paris to Beijing (1924–2022) (Common Ground Research Networks, 2025) represent significant contributions to Olympic studies scholarship. He is co-editor, with Prof. Egidio Dansero, of Turin’s Olympic Legacy: The 2006 Winter Games and the Piedmont Region (Springer Nature, 2024), published in the prestigious Mega-event Planning series. Della Sala contributes regularly as a peer reviewer for international journals in human geography, urban planning, cultural heritage, sport, leisure, mega-events and spatial planning.

He currently works as a researcher and tutor at international institutions such as the International Olympic Committee (Centre for Olympic Studies, Barcelona), the Institute for Research on Sport (IRE) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Interdepartmental Research Centre in Urban and Event Studies (OMERO) of the University of Turin.

Founder of the Italian Sport Observatory using European Community funding on Italian territory (from 2021).

Since 2021, he has been a member of the Sport, Culture and Society series editorial staff published by Franco Angeli (Directors: Prof. Giovanna Russo and Prof. Barbara Mazza). Since 2024, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, published by Springer Nature (Director: Karl Spracklen). Since 2023, he has been an Early Career Researcher on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Event Management Journalpublished by Cognizant Communication Corporation (Director: Mike Duignan). Since 2025, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Cogent Social Sciences – Geography Section, published by Routledge (Director: Michael Hardman).

He serves as a referee for leading international peer-reviewed journals across urban studies, geography, sports policy, regional sciences and tourism. These include International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies, Cities, Cogent Social Sciences, Environmental Research Communication, International Journal of Sport Policy, Planning Perspectives, European Planning Studies, Tourism & Hospitality, Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, Scienze Regionali – Italian Journal of Regional Sciences, Sport in Society, Leisure Studies, Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, Geotema, Cambio. Rivista sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, Culture e Studi del Sociale, Tourism Planning and Development, Event Management Journal, Tourism Policy and Planning and Documenti Geografici. His peer-reviewed contributions uphold rigorous scholarly standards in human geography, urban planning, cultural heritage, sport studies, leisure, and spatial policy research.

Since 2024, as an evaluator for national and international research funding schemes, assessing competitive proposals for leading organisations and programmes. These encompass HORIZON Europe, ERASMUS+, COST Actions, LIFE Programme, European Urban Initiative, PRIN (Relevant National Research Projects), CIIP (Interempresas Internacional), IOC Advanced Olympic Research Grants, Spanish Ministry of Research and Innovation, European Commission Joint Research Centre calls, Biodiversa Joint Research Calls, and various government funding initiatives. This role underscores his expertise in project evaluation across urban development, sustainability, sports geography and environmental innovation.

I write quite regularly for the Italian newspaper Huffington Post Italia editing the news about mega sports events for the Omero Research Centre.