José Alberto Rio Fernandes is full professor at Faculdade de Letras of University of Porto and researcher at CEGOT (Centre for Investigation in Geography and Spatial Planning) where coordinates the group "Cities and Territorial Development". Teacher, investigator, author and conferencist in the areas of urban studies, urbanism and public policies. He has been invited to teach at universities world wide and as keynote speaker in several conferences, including as Portugal representative during the French Presidency of the European Union, and at the Iberian Congress of the Geographers. He's the President of the Portuguese Geographers General Assembly. He's the author of more than 100 titles and about 500 small texts in newspapers and magazines. In the last couple of years his scientific publications included books on the impact on Airbnb in Porto and Lisbon and its distribution in the all country, a geographic approach to the city of Porto, and articles about recent changes in Porto, on cultural, economical and urbanistic perspectives. A general view about the Portuguese Geography was also recently published and applied research was also done about retail, tracking its evolution in Porto city centre and the support of an "heritage" approach by the public policy in the cities of Porto, Braga, Viana do Castelo and Guimarães.