Update | March 2023
Check our third Institute Update of March! It is focusing on interesting topics, such as the further development of our European projects, the final program of our capacity building program in Southeast Asia and future activities later this year. We are happy also to announce that we were selected for two new European projects: one Horizon Europe research project, focusing on Land Use Management, and an INTERREG project. A lot of exciting new activities in the pipeline!
Institute Activities
+CityxChange
We'll be holding a series of Learning Sessions over the next few months in four of our Follower Cities: Sestao, Alba Iulia, Smolyan and Võru. Our first Session is later this month in Sestao and will focus on the topic of Energy Communities. Stay tuned to learn more about these exciting initiatives!
VARCITIES
End of February, VARCITIES' partners met in Skellefteå (Sweden) for the project's 5th Progress Meeting. Now well into its third year, the project is focusing on the concrete implementation of 28 Visionary Solutions across 7 Pilot sites. All the partners had the chance to visit Skellefteå's pilot, close to an old landfill turned into a residential area. The ISOCARP Institute supports the dissemination and replication efforts of VARCITIES' Visionary Solutions.
JUSTNature
The 3rd Progress Meeting and the 1st Collaborative CiPeL Workshop in Hungary. The JUSTNature project brought together 7 cities representatives and 13 organisations across Europe for the 3rd Project Meeting in Budapest to review the progress made over the previous six months. ISOCARP Institute is working mainly in WP7 NbS governance and WP9 Communication and Dissemination of the project.
DUST
DUST partners are preparing for this actual Kick-off meeting, which will be organised in Delft in a few weeks. You can now follow DUST social media accounts for updates!
PLUSCHANGE
We are very pleased to announce the selection of our new EU Research project PLUSChange - Planning Land Use Strategies: Meeting Biodiversity, Climate and Social Objectives in a changing world! PLUSChange brings together 23 institutions from across Europe. The objectives directly address the call with an aim to create land use strategies and decision-making processes that meet climate, biodiversity and human well-being objectives of sustainability and to develop interventions that leverage political, economic, societal, material and cultural contexts to achieve these strategies, by involving actors at multiple decision-making levels (individual, land management, planning, policy). Activities include land use modelling (including historical and future trajectories of change), systems mapping, causal loop diagrams, performing arts approaches, randomized controlled trials of behaviour change, sociological surveys, and policy and governance reviews. All activities are brought together in an integrated research design that draws on their different contributions to a holistic approach to understanding multi-scale land use systems across diverse socioeconomic and biogeographical contexts, and creating usable tools for land managers, users, planners and policymakers.
The project is anchored in and integrated through 11 location-based cases for co-creation and in a high-level multiplier cluster to identify challenges and impacts at EU and Global levels. Outputs include recommendations of co-designed and tested interventions to unlock behavioural, structural and procedural changes to achieve identified land-use strategies; and a toolkit to support land-use planners in enacting these interventions, including knowledge training, a planning dashboard and simulation tools, and methods for engaging citizens and land managers in behaviour change.
Urban Thinkers Campus
UTC / Webinar « Planifier avec l’informel ». ISOCARP Institute, together with AdP and MTPA, will organise an Urban Thinkers Campus on the topic of "Planning Urban Informality".
The UTC will focus on the importance and role of urban informality in sustainable urban development: indeed, informal urban districts represent today several aspects of the sustainable city: 15min city, density, proximity, affordable housing, functional mixity, and intense social life.
How can urban informality be recognised as such? Several speakers will be involved in the debate. The UTC will be held online and only in French in April 2023. Stay tuned.
Down-to-Earth
We are very pleased to announce the launch of a new cooperation project, Down-to-Earth! Funded by Interreg Europe, this 4-year project will identify and promote solutions through exchanging experience to manage, maintain and enhance natural capital in rural areas. In doing so, Down-to-Earth aims to reduce the risk and impact of environmental disasters linked with climate change while generating economic and social benefits to increase the attractiveness of rural areas. The ISOCARP Institute will manage the communication and dissemination of the project, its activities and results to ensure it benefits all rural areas in Europe and beyond! Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!
Institute Academy
The ISOCARP Institute and Think City Institute have partnered to deliver a series of three online masterclasses on Sustainable Urban Planning and Development in South-East Asia. The first course of these, focusing on Governance, has now opened and is accepting applicants who work in urban development in South-East Asia. Through the course, we aim to equip attendees with the knowledge and strategies to create an environment that will allow cities to embrace growth while using resources more efficiently. Watch this space for more updates!
🤝CONNECT WITH INSTITUTE
Opportunities for new partners! We are looking for new partners with whom we can work together on capacity building, research exploration, public outreach and technical assistance both in and outside of Europe. We are always open to new connections, reach out to us via email: info@isocarp-institute.org or connect on social media
Credits:
Created with images by logoboom - "City of Los Angeles skyline at sunrise, scenic cityscape view from Hollywood Hills." • photology1971 - "3d scale model of a city" • mario - "Guanajuato City View of the Sunset from the Pipila Monument on the Hill" • Mihai - "Stereographic panoramic projection of a filed in sunset light. 360 degree panorama." • AaronPlayStation - "View of a BTS skytrain traveling on elevated metro system between high rise skyscrapers in Downtown Bangkok on a beautiful sunny day~ Cityscape of Bangkok, the fast developing capital city of Thailand" • Ievgen Skrypko - "White abstract construction elements of wall of modern building" • Who is Danny - "Smart city and big data connection technology concept with digital blue wavy wires with antennas on night megapolis city skyline background, double exposure"