Ursula-Crisy Cardenas-Mamani is an urban metabolism researcher and graduate of the University of Louvain, where she defended her F.R.S.–FNRS-funded doctorate on 26 February 2025. Her thesis developed UMaNS, an integrated framework connecting urban metabolism assessment with ecosystem services and combined dynamic-modelling approaches.

Through comparative work involving Lima, London and Brussels, she examined how material and energy flows can be analysed alongside ecological functions, urban form and human needs. The research combined knowledge-base development, system dynamics and scenario-oriented assessment to help planners understand the consequences of different interventions, including nature-based solutions. Her subsequent collaborations extend this work into food security, urban agriculture and socio-ecological resilience in informal settlements. By bringing together biophysical accounting and ecosystem-service perspectives, her work contributes to more comprehensive urban models and to decision tools capable of linking resource efficiency with environmental quality and wellbeing.