Sabrina Lai is a civil engineer, a Research Doctor in Spatial Planning (University of Cagliari, Italy, 2009), and an MSc in International Planning and Development (Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, 2008). An Associate Professor at the University of Cagliari (Sector ICAR/20 – Spatial planning), she is presently teaching at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Architecture of the University of Cagliari within the Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Environmental and Territorial Engineering, and in the Professional Bachelor’s degree “Techniques for Building Construction and Land Development”. Her research interests and publications focus on environmental planning and relationships between spatial planning and preservation of natural resources at the regional scale, spanning from land-cover/land-use change analyses to mapping and assessing ecosystem services, from institutional tools for biodiversity conservation to environmental assessments.