Nader Afzalan
Nader Afzalan (he/him) focuses on one key question: “Are our programs, plans, and policies making a difference for the communities they aim to serve?” Too often, they sit on a shelf without clear impact. His work is about changing that.
Afzalan’s practice, teaching, and research combine data analytics and inclusive stakeholder engagement to tackle complex urban and regional challenges. His work focuses particularly on the intersection of climate resilience, economic development, environmental justice, and urban technology.
He is the founder and CEO of The Triangle, a firm that helps organizations design and implement programs that deliver real community impact. Over the past 20 years, Afzalan has held leadership roles across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. He served as senior advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom, where he helped design programs and systems to track the success of state efforts that connect climate policy with economic development for a just transition. He also led the development and launch of California’s first statewide data warehouse on homelessness, which, unfortunately, is the largest in the country.
As chair of the American Planning Association’s Technology Division, he created programs and advocated for policies that promote the ethical use of big data and emerging technologies in city planning and design. Most recently, he served as an advisor to The LINE project in Saudi Arabia, where he focused on humanizing the role of technology in shaping the future of urban development.
Afzalan’s work has spanned communities across the U.S., China, Central America, and the Middle East. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, with publications in leading journals such as JAPA, JPER, Cities, and the Journal of Urban Technology.
Meenar, M., & Afzalan, N. (2023). Urban planners’ roles, perceptions, needs, and concerns in smart city planning: a survey of US planners. International Planning Studies, 28(1), 21–36.
Meenar, M., Afzalan, N., & Hajrasouliha, A. (2022). Analyzing Lynch’s city imageability in the digital age. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 42(4), 611–623.
Afzalan, N., & Muller, B. (2018). Online participatory technologies: Opportunities and challenges for enriching participatory planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 84(2), 162–177.
Schweitzer, L. A.,& Afzalan, N. (2017). 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: Four Reasons Why AICP Needs an Open Data Ethic. Journal of the American Planning Association, 83(2), 161–167.
Afzalan, N., Sanchez, T. W., & Evans-Cowley, J. (2017). Creating smarter cities: Considerations for selecting online participatory tools. Cities, 67, 21–30.
Afzalan, N., Evans-Cowley, J., & Mirzazad-Barijough, M. (2015). From big to little data for natural disaster recovery: How online and on-the-ground activities are connected. ISJLP, 11, 153.
Afzalan, N., & Evans-Cowley, J. (2015). Planning and social media: Facebook for planning at the neighbourhood scale. Planning Practice & Research, 30(3), 270–285.
Afzalan, N., & Muller, B. (2014). The role of social media in green infrastructure planning: A case study of neighborhood participation in park siting. Journal of Urban Technology, 21(3), 67–83.