Brian Muller

Brian Muller is the CEDaR faculty director and an associate professor in the environmental design program at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he teaches environment and land use planning, planning history and spatial analysis. His research interests include community engagement, spatial analysis, environment/land use policy and resilient infrastructure.

Muller's research focuses on planning methods, regional planning and planning for hazards and climate change, and his recent work has focused on green infrastructure as a climate adaptation strategy. His research has been supported by the US Forest Service, US Bureau of Land Management, National Science Foundation, the Microsoft Corporation, the Wyss Foundation and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Previously, Muller was chair of the planning and design program at the University of Colorado Denver and director of planning studies for the Program in Environmental Design at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

Muller holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California Berkeley. Prior to returning to school for his PhD, he had a 15-year career as an environmental planner, policy analyst and program manager.

Selected Publications

• Heris, Mehdi P., Ariane Middel and Brian Muller. 2020. Impacts of form and design policies on urban microclimate: Assessment of zoning and design guideline choices in urban redevelopment projects. Landscape and Urban Planning. 202: 103870. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103870
• J. McGlinchy, B. Johnson, B. Muller, M. Joseph and J. Diaz, "Application of UNet Fully Convolutional Neural Network to Impervious Surface Segmentation in Urban Environment from High Resolution Satellite Imagery," IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Yokohama, Japan, 2019, pp. 3915-3918. https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8900453
• Heris, Mehdi P., Brian Muller and Alana M. Wilson. 2019. Why Planning Matters in Microclimate Management and Urban Heat Mitigation. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X19883000.
• Afzalan, Nader and Brian Muller. 2018. Online Participatory Technologies: Opportunities and Challenges for Enriching Participatory Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association. 84:2, 162-177.
• Muller, Brian and Travis Flohr. 2016. A Geodesign Approach to Environmental Design Education: Framing the Pedagogy, Evaluating the Results. Landscape and Urban Planning. 156: 101-117.
• Muller, Brian. 2016. Mending Man's Ways: Wickedness, Complexity and Off-Road Travel. Landscape and Urban Planning. 154: 93-101.
• Afzalan, Nader and Brian Muller. 2014. The Role of Social Media in Green Space Planning: A Case Study of Neighborhood Participation in Park Siting. Journal of Urban Technology. 21 (3) 67-83.