Eliza Breder
Faculty, School of Architecture
Faculty, School of Landscape Architecture
Eliza Breder is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning with a designated emphasis in Global Metropolitan Studies at the University of California Berkeley, where she was a LAU Just Climate Futures Fellow. Her research uses geospatial analysis, archival documentation, historical ecology, and critical cartography to deepen understandings of site in landscape architecture. Focusing on water-controlled and climate-vulnerable landscapes, she examines how infrastructure, land-use policy, environmental governance, and historical decisions shape present-day ecological and social conditions.
Prior to her PhD, Eliza worked at a Planning and Design Research institute Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience (FIBER) that focused on long term climate adaptation and disaster recovery. During her time at FIBER, she contributed to citywide adaptation plans, community workshops, and awarded EPA grants. Her mission to contribute to equity in planning and design continued through strategic planning and landscape research in Dr. Rivera’s Just Environment Lab at Berkeley, focusing on California’s Central Valley and the impacts of the 2023 Atmospheric Rivers. Outcomes included a detailed community report and technical report outlining the patterns of flooding and jurisdictional fragmentation with both spatial and policy recommendations for future flood security in the region.
Eliza brings this professional and scholarly experience into her teaching. She has assisted in studios on sea level rise adaptation and environmental planning which required hands-on instruction bridging spatial analysis and design solutions. She has also assisted with a course on social factors in design, and led a course on Equity and the Archive that bridges historical analysis with the future-oriented demands of planning and design.
Eliza is a co-author of the chapter “Fuera SpaceX: Resisting Climate Coloniality via Terra Nullius within Contested Boca Chica State Park” with Danielle Rivera in the Book Confronting Climate Coloniality by Farhana Sultana. And a coauthor in the edited volume, Building Post-Carbon Futures, by Billy Fleming. Her research on historic ecologies, geospatial analysis, design, and climate adaptation has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Disaster Prevention and Management, Area, Journal of the American Water Resources Association, and Water Science. She holds a BSc in Sustainability and the Built Environment, an MSc in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and a Master of Landscape Architecture.
Eliza has teaching experience in GIS, site analysis, ecological design, environmental justice, and the social dimensions of planning and design. Her teaching combines technical instruction with critical spatial inquiry, helping students in landscape architecture use maps, historical records, and environmental data to interpret sites as layered, dynamic, and historically produced landscapes.