Fantina Maria Tedim

Fantina Tedim has an Undergraduate Degree in Geography by University of Porto, a Master in Human Geography by the University of Coimbra and a PhD in Human Geography by University of Porto. She is currently Assistant Professor at Geography Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Porto.

Before her PhD (2000) Fantina Tedim developed research in Population Geography and Rural Development Studies. After the PhD Fantina Tedim looked for new research topics and “discovered” disaster risk reduction in 2001, which was a practically unknown scientific field in Portugal and completely absent in the Geography Curricula in Portuguese Universities. In 2002 she created a Master course in Analysis and Management of Natural Risks, the first one to be created in Portugal. Between 2002 and 2005 the focus of her activity was in improving the quality of the Master Course, recognizing the “window of opportunity” for training people on this field. In 2005 she began her research in natural hazards and published her first work related with tsunami risk. In the next years the research about tsunamis continued, however, new

opportunities of research appeared related with forest fires and floods.

Even though Fantina Tedim Master and PhD were in Human Geography she always tried to have a comprehensive perspective of Geography

which became very useful in understanding disaster risk as an interaction between society and environment (i.e. between hazard, vulnerability and resilience). Her current research focuses on vulnerability and resilience in a multi-hazard approach (e.g. forest fires, floods, coastal erosion, and tsunamis) and risk communication.

Most of Fantina Tedim activities occur on the scientific/practical interface, involving different kinds of stakeholders in order to enhance disaster risk reduction practices..