Daniela Poli was born in Florence, Italy, in 1961. She completed her undergraduate studies in Architecture   and went on to achieve her PhD in 1998, both at the University of Florence. She carried out her PhD thesis in the field of description and representation of the region investigating the scientific domain in regional description. From December of 2002 she is assistant professor of urban and regional planning (Icar 20).
From December 2011 she is Associate Professor. She currently teaches Analysis of Territory and Landscape and Planning and Design for Landscapes. Her field of interest for a long period has been  the relationship between regional historic substance and design dimensions. In this context she has used an experimental method of analysis and representation applied to the history of regional spaces. Her recent research addresses the description of a contemporary sense of landscape, landscape planning and descriptions where structural and perceptive dimensions converge. In particular she is interested in the relationship between agriculture, rural development and urban form. She is part of scientific comity of Interuniversity  Centre of Science of Territory (formed by the five university of Tuscany), the national executive comity of the Academic Society the Italian Regional town planning Society SIU (Società Italiana degli Urbanisti), and in the national executive comity of the international Society of study the SDT (Società dei territorialisti e delle territorialiste) - the Territorilialist Society.
She has carried out commissioned research and planning projects for several local and regional public offices on these subjects, as the PTC of Prato (Plan for the Province of Prato) and the Landscape Planning Office of the Region of Puglia, with the Landscape Planning Office of the Region of Tuscany, with the Bioregion research in Aquitaine en  France. She is chief editor of the series “Territori” and the international Review “Scienze del Territorio”, both published by the University of Florence Press. Among her publications: Poli D. (2012 - a cura di), Regole e progetti per il paesaggio. Verso il nuovo piano paesaggistico della Toscana , Firenze University Press, Firenze; Poli D. (2002 - a cura di), Progettare il paesaggio nella crisi della modernità. Casi, riflessioni, studi sul senso del paesaggio contemporaneo, All'Insegna del Giglio, Firenze; Poli D. (2012), "La dimension locale dans le projet du parc agricole de la Toscane centrale" in Guillot X. (a cura di), Espace rural et projet spatial, volume 3. Du terrain à la recherche: objets et stratégies , Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne (PUSE), Saint-Étienne, pp. 42-59 ; Poli D. (2010), "The patrimonial process of rural territory and landscape planning", in AA.VV., Living Landscape. The European Landscape Convention in research perspective , Atti del Convegno internazionale (Firenze, 18-19 Ottobre 2010), Bandecchi e Vivaldi Editori, Pontedera, pp. 474-487; B65 Poli D. (2010), "The Agrarian Park of Central Tuscany: innovative planning instrument", in Galli M., Lardon S., Marcaccini E., Bonari E., Agricultural management in peri-urban areas , Felici Editore, Ghezzano, pp. 105-114.