Short Biography: Cigdem Ciftci is the Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Necmettin Erbakan University, Faculty of Fine Art and Architecture. She completed her PhD on social facilities in the metropolitan spatial planning of some metropols from Türkiye at the Istanbul Selcuk University’s Urban and Regional Planning Department in Konya, between 2000-2011. She was the executive of the TUBITAK Public Research and Development Project named Protection-oriented rural area planning, which was developed on behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization in cooperation with KTU and SU universities. She was a member of the Protection Boards of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Erzurum, Konya and Nevşehir between 2000-2012. She worked as a manager in the NEU Security, Health and Environment Application Research Center between 2018-2021. She has more than 34 years of experience as an academician in the higher education sector and has been involved in many public and private sector supported research and development projects as a coordinator, manager, researcher and consultant. Her areas of expertise and interest are Cultural Heritage Conservation Planning, Smart City, Metropolitan Spatial Planning, Regional and Urban Environment and Climate Changing, Settlement and Watershed Planning and Sustainable Rural Planning and development. She has focused his recent studies on “Cultural Heritage Management”, ” The Effects of Climate Change On Urban And Regional Environment ” and “Cultural Tourism Planning.