Fernando Nunes Da Silva, new INTA president

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Dear Colleagues and Friends, I have just been elected President of INTA, succeeding Maurice Charrier, for a three-year term. It is an honour and a challenge: the honour of following a great Mayor, a man of heart, conviction and culture; a challenge because Maurice Charrier, in his professional life as for INTA, carried very high the sense of public interest without ever sacrificing the individual to the collective, and made the requirement of dialogue and relationship to others a virtue allowing dignity to become a common good.

Our association, like others, faces the challenge of adapting to new times, without rejecting the founding matrix that makes INTA such a special association, namely, the ability to bring together, in the same open and plural space, different practitioners in the field of urban planning: mayors, elected officials and city technicians, civil servants from different levels of public administration, public and private companies, property developers, civic associations and so many other actors engaged in thinking about the city of tomorrow and caring for the transformation of the present urban spaces.

Unlike other associations, INTA does not focus on a specific aspect of town or country planning or on one type of actor. Our wealth, and our distinctive elements, is this mixture of actors who intend to come together to reflect, discuss and share the problems and solutions for the city and the urbanized areas of today and tomorrow. An association which, taking into account this diversity within the network and its independence from corporate interests - even legitimate ones - can help public authorities and entrepreneurs in the city to better position themselves vis-à-vis the challenges of the future and intervene more effectively in the present times.

It is this type of operation, and the activities that flow from it, that INTA will have to strengthen in the short term in order to overcome the difficulties of the transitions underway.

The challenges before us will not be overcome by the grace of fate or by the voluntarism of a single person, as active and effective as he or she may be. It is clearly a matter for everyone, especially those who assume responsibilities on the Governing Board, with the precious and efficient help of our secretariat. It is a collective task, which means that I do not see my role as that of a solitary navigator but rather as the mover of the crew so that together we can act to widen the presence of INTA in different countries and with different actors.

It will be my challenge for the next few years that I will take up with all of you.

Fernando Nunes da Silva, President of INTA

Who is Fernando Nunes Da Silva?

Professor, IST University of Lisbon, Portugal
Mr. Nunes da Silva is a full Professor of Urban Planning and Transports at the IST (Superior Institute of Technology), University of Lisbon since 2002. He gained his PhD (1992) and Pos-Doc (2000) in Civil Engineering by the former Technical University of Lisbon.
His Main professional interests include: urban strategies for sustainable mobility; urban planning; transportation planning.

He has gained experience as an advisor and consultant in transport and urban planning studies and projects in several municipalities and regional bodies; he is a researcher at CESUR (Centre for Urban and Regional Systems); he was also a councillor and deputy mayor for Mobility and Transport in Lisbon Municipality (2009/13).