University of Michigan

Larissa Larsen is the chair of the urban and regional planning program and an associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan. She teaches graduate classes in environmental planning, land use planning, and physical planning and design. Larsen’s research focuses on the urban environmental problems of extreme heat/urban heat islands, water pollution and infrastructure, and stormwater flooding. In her research, she documents the magnitude of these environmental problems and ‘tests’ the effectiveness of different design and policy interventions. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and she incorporates many ‘physical/natural/health’ concepts and measures and works with faculty in public health and civil and environmental engineering.