Rate My Professor Thomas Hilde

Thomas Warren Hilde is an Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, where he serves as the GIS Certificate Coordinator. He teaches courses in geographic information systems (GIS), land use planning, the built environment, physical planning, urban design, and urban sustainability. His research centers on fostering resilient communities through sustainable urban development, with a focus on scenario planning techniques, spatial methods, innovative planning technologies, green infrastructure, urban trees, land use planning, and resilient cities. In his dissertation research, he examined how scenario-based planning methods can improve community resilience using green infrastructure such as parkland, open space, and natural features.

Hilde's scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed articles such as 'Collaborative Planning in the Context of Deindustrialization: A Qualitative Evaluation of Comparative Cases in Northeast Ohio' (Urban Affairs Review, 2025, with Ganning, Kellogg, and Rubado), 'Incorporating Flood Loss Estimation into Urban Planning and Development Scenarios' (Natural Hazards Review, 2025), 'Methods for Countering Spatial Inequality: Incorporating Strategic Opportunities for Housing Preservation into Transit-Oriented Development Planning' (Landscape and Urban Planning, 2018, with Mueller and Torrado), and 'Integrating Ecosystem Services Analysis into Scenario Planning Practice: Accounting for Street Tree Benefits with i-Tree Valuation in Central Texas' (Journal of Environmental Management, 2014, with Paterson). Additional works cover interlocal collaboration in legacy city-regions, factors predicting regional collaboration in Northeast Ohio, and scenario planning adaptations for small and mid-size legacy cities like Youngstown, Ohio (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2021). In 2025, he received the Levin College Golden Apple Award, recognizing his outstanding impact on students. Hilde supervises capstone projects addressing urban challenges, such as greenspace benefits and waterfront revitalization.