Draft URP 2020 Agenda
version 21 September 2020
Wed | 25 November 2020
13:00 – Excursions (pending)
Pending the Corona-virus situation, excursions to projects demonstrating urban and rural-urban transformation coping with sustainable and resilient development challenges are planned.
Bus tour:
From the dirtiest village in Europe to an attractive recreation area in a lake district (...)Facilitated by Prof. Dr. Andreas Berkner, Regional Planning LeipzigLooking back three decades ago, open cast mines and carbo-chemical industry coined the landscape south of the City of Leipzig. The village "Mölbis" was strongly affected by air pollution from the adjacent carbo-chemical enterprise. It got sad celebrity as dirtiest village in Europe. Additionally, a mining waste tip close by was not useable and the deep hole from former lignite mining pit witnessed immense landscape destruction. Nowadays the landscape has changed totally. A revitalised livable village exists within an attractive recreational area among a lake district. The excursion will show evidences for successful landscape change and its importance for attractive living conditions in the Leipzig region.
Walking tour:
Leipzig Charter on the ground – Integrated Urban (and District) Development in Leipzig (...)Facilitated by Karolin Pannike, City of LeipzigUsing the example of two city districts - the historic and compact urban district Leipzig East as well as the district Schönefeld with both historic and prefabricated residential buildings – city administration and stakeholders will present how in Leipzig the “Leipzig Charter” becomes alive and implemented. Due to their high socioeconomic and urbanistic need for action, both districts were identified as Priority Areas of Integrated District Development within the citywide Integrated Urban Development Concept Leipzig 2030. Accordingly, various administrative offices and stakeholders direct their activities to these districts and implement them with verve. Participants of the excursion will get to know new developments of green spaces, as the Parkbogen Ost or a multigenerational park in Schönefeld, current projects and networks in the fields of education, culture, integration and inclusion, as well as offers and supplies in the field of economy and work.
Walking tour:
Peaceful Revolution and post-socialist Transformation (...)Facilitated by Prof. Dr. Dieter Rink, UFZThe city of Leipzig played a prominent role during the peaceful revolution in 1989 in East Germany. The city tour will present central events of this revolution at various locations such as the Nikolai Church and the former Stasi headquarters. In addition, the history of Leipzig with focus on dynamics during the last three decades and its extremes of shrinkage and growth will be explained. Furthermore, the city centre of Leipzig with its well-known historical and cultural highlights such as Auerbachs Cellar, Music Hall "Gewandhaus" and Thomas Church are part of the excursion. The transformation from a socialist city centre to a post-socialist downtown will be demonstrated by several architectural examples and a number of urban projects.
19:00 – Welcome reception | Neues Rathaus
Official welcome message to all participants by the Mayor of Leipzig from Neues Rathaus (new city hall).
Thu | 26 November 2020
09:30 – Technical check and pre-program in conference app
10:00 – Grand Opening Session
Minister Anja Karliczek, Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF)
Minister President of Free State of Saxony Michael Kretschmer
Burkhard Jung, Mayor of Leipzig and President of Deutscher Städtetag
Prof. Dr. Georg Teutsch, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
10:30 – The New Leipzig Charter 2020 on the Transformative Power of Cities for the Common Good
Prof. Dr. Silke Weidner, BTU Cottbus, advisor to German government on Leipzig Charter
10:45 – Climate neutrality: Bridging the gap between political vision and practical reality
Maria Vassilakou, Member of Horizon Europe Mission Board for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and former Deputy Mayor of Vienna and Executive Councillor for urban planning, traffic & transport, climate protection, energy planning & public participation
11:15 – Driving Urban and Regional Transitions – the role of science, research and innovation
Margit Noll, Chair of the Management Board of the JPI Urban Europe
11:25 – Research and Innovation to Address Urban-Rural Partnerships Challenges
Dr. Stephan Bartke, German Environment Agency, Stadt-Land-Plus synthesis project
Prof. Dr. Sigrun Kabisch, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
11:45 – Research & Innovation Pitches
Elevator pitches introduce the variety of selected Stadt-Land-Plus projects & URP2020 posters.
12:15 – Exhibition / Poster Session and Lunch
Various exhibition formats including posters, video wall, interactive exhibit, publication desks show research, projects and relevant European networks
13:30 – Parallel Sessions
Please click on Tracks and Sessions to learn more. Find details on accepted contributions here.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.Urban-rural partnerships: Driving transitions towards sustainability with science-policy cooperation -3- (...)UN Habitat, EU Territorial and Urban Agenda, JPI Urban Europe, Co-ordination c/o Uwe Ferber, StadtLand GmbHUN-Habitat: Remy Sietchiping, UN HabitatUrban Agenda: Frederick-Christoph Richter, Ministère de l´Energie et de l´amènagement du TerritioireJPI Urban Europe: Johannes RieglerNew Territorial Agenda: Kai Böhme, Spatial ForesightUrban Rural Partnerships are increasingly becoming the focus at the European and international level. Initiatives have been started by the UN Habitat as well as EU regional and research policy. The session will present current policies and agendas as well as future opportunities to foster and promote urban-rural partnerships under different and particular governance arrangements. It includes:• UN-Habitat Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and Framework for Action to Advance Integrated Territorial Development (URL-GP) launched in May 2019, after a participatory process• The “Action plan on sustainable land use and nature based solutions” from the Urban Agenda working group launched in 2020 with concrete suggestions to promote the liveable compactness city model• The JPI Urban Europe led partnership “Driving urban transitions to a sustainable future (DUT)” contributing to the implementation and localisation of the Green Deal, the Agenda 2030, as well as the Leipzig Charter and the Urban Agenda for the EU (UAEU)• The new Territorial Agenda 2030 “A future for all places” is a strategic policy document for Europe, its regions and communities. It provides a framework for action towards territorial cohesion and a future for all places in Europe and will be launched with the Leipzig Charta in December 2020
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Towards spatial justice in asustainable urban-rural context -4- (...)Thomas Weith, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research e.V. and Ludger Gailing, Leibniz.Institute for Reserach on Society and SpaceSDGs and Habitat III emphasize the importance of urban-rural interrelations for sustainable development. But up to now overarching guiding principles for a balanced development and governance are missing. In recent years, debates about values and norms open the chance for guidance and further discussion. One important discourse reflects the ethical dimension of justice, regarding environmental justice and spatial justice (e.g. Basta 2016, Edwards/Reid/Hunter 2015), in particular as a basic norm to interpret equality of living conditions. But up to now a detailed discussion about theoretical approaches (e.g. Höffe 1989, Rawls 1971) and conceptual consequences in urban-rural development is missing. In the session, current lines of discussion (spatial justice, environmental justice, energy justice) will be presented, connected and reviewed in a detailed way, connecting scientific debates with necessities in practice. We expect an intensive discussion about normative goals, contextual embeddedness as well as adequate concepts for their operationalization. The contributions of the discussion as well as the results will be documented.Session FormatPart 1: Spatial justice (two presentations and discussion)• apl. Prof. Dr. Thomas Weith (ZALF Müncheberg): Spatial justice and regional spatial justice• Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Köck (Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ Leipzig): Equality of living conditions and regional burden sharingPart 2: Environmental justice (two presentations and discussion)• Dr. Sebastien Boillat (University of Bern): Telecoupling and environmental justice• Dr. Ludger Gailing (Leibniz-Centre for Research on Society and Space, IRS Erkner): Spatial justice and energy justice - the case of wind power plantsPart 3: Discussion of overarching questions• What kind of justice do people want?• What are adequate conceptual approaches?• What are challenges for transformative regional development?
Track 2Land-use management regional scale -10- (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.(Re)growth and urban-rural linkagesin a regional scope:a cross-European perspective -10- (...)Vanessa Miriam Carlow, TU Braunschweig, Annegret Haase and Dieter Rink Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZThis session discusses urban (re)growth and urban-rural linkages in a regional scope applying a cross-European approach. In doing so, it includes two different perspectives.In a first part, we invite papers that conceptually and/or empirically deal with regrowing cities and/or urban regions and related chances and challenges. The papers should take either take a case-based or comparative perspective. We would like to discuss the issue that, after decades of shrinkage, many urban regions across Europe have seen new growth within the last years or decade. New growth either happened as inner-city reurbanization or as growth of the city as a whole or the urban region. Now cities have to deal with redensification, new demand for businesses, housing and infrastructures. This situation brings about new challenges for policy-making and governance, involved actors and levels of decision-making. Set against this background, we discuss what prospects, chances and challenges regrowth brings for urban sustainability and what trade-offs and conflicts emerge from it for governance and planning.In a second part, we discuss central findings of the METAPOLIS research project funded 2016 and 2020 by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture (VW Vorab). This includes questions of mobility, landscape ecology, urban climatology and hydrology, political and social networks, energy and resource consumption, settlement patterns, novel planning instruments – and their interrelations, and derived scenarios for the future development of the METAPOLIS developed with relevant stakeholders. The discussion of the project results relate to the context that Germany is considered a highly urbanized country. Yet, outside the large metropolitan agglomerations, most people, just like 71% of the Lower Saxony population, live in small and medium sized towns, suburbs or villages, in both - prosperous or economically stagnating regions. The resulting network of large, medium-sized and small settlements set in a rural landscape matrix, linked by flows of people, goods, energy, materials, and information, was conceptualized as METAPOLIS by an interdisciplinary team of researchers.
Track 3Resilience and extreme events (...)Contributions to this track aim at designing new sociotechnical and nature-based solutions towards robust urban and rural systems. The sessions focus on coping with climate change, extreme events and disruptive changes. They also reflect on integrative multi-level approaches that link urban and rural ecosystems while considering also, justice and real-world paradoxes.Urban – rural (dis-)continuities: …in Europe and China…nature-based solutions -16- (...)Ellen Banzhaf, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZand Philipp Misselwitz, TU BerlinFollowing the call for new integrated territorial planning approaches and people- and place-based development at the urban-rural interface that is aligned with the localisation of SDG’s and the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the session takes stock of recent attempts to develop new approaches which accounts for the manifold interrelations and linkages between urban and rural spaces. During rapid urbanisation processes, historically evolved intricate urban-rural metabolisms are often at risk exacerbating environmental, social and economic sustainability challenges. In this context, Nature-based Solutions (NBS) offer a useful conceptual framework in which to readdress multidimensional and multi-scalar contemporary challenges facing both urban and rural areas such as climate change resilience, biodiversity loss, and social equity.The session will invite an assessment of innovative sociotechnical and nature-based solutions facing socio-economic and environmental challenges by building on approaches of, e.g., air pollution, noise, water risk and water quality management, waste management, resource efficiency, ecological food production, eco-tourism and revitalisation of cultural and built heritage at the urban-rural interface. What are specific conceptual and/ or practically tested solutions? How do they impact efficiently on the sustainable transformation of urban and rural spaces?Exemplifications may relate to the EC funded REGREEN project for Europe and China(https://www.regreen-project.eu/) and the BMBF-funded Sino-German research project “Urban-Rural Assembly (URA)” (https://urbanruralassembly.com).Session FormatOne introductory talk (max. 10 min) followed by short presentations including critical questions (5–7 minutes presentation – can be linked with a poster). The presentations concentrate on exploratory and ongoing research, short or experimental case studies in China and Europe. Format aims at close interaction with audience and plenty of room for discussion.
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.Food chains and land-use change in urban rural partnerships in Europe -19- (...)Andrea Früh-Müller, Isabella Lehmann, Markus Meyer, Otmar Seibert, Research Group on Agricultural and Regional Development Triesdorf, Nina Schwarz, University of TwenteThe population in urban agglomerations is expected to rise to a share of 68 % of the global population by 2050. Traditionally, urban areas mostly sourced food from their rural hinterland. However, urban areas shape with their processing facilities and consumers market opportunities for rural areas. Globalization and associated international trade-flows raise and scatter the extent of the global hinterland of urban areas. In a European context, the current role and impact of regional food sourcing is currently under debate.To address the debate on regional food chains, it is necessary to understand not only the isolated role of food production along urban-rural linkages but also general patterns of urban-rural exchange relationships (not only for food). In that respect, we aim at contributions assessing the role of (regional) food production on current as well as future exchange relationships between cities and their rural hinterland. The aim of this workshop will be to identify major patterns and typologies of food-related land use conflicts between urban and rural areas.This participatory workshop will identify and rate with an emphasis on urban-rural linkages:• major driving forces influencing food production and consumption• land use conflicts influenced by these driving forces• exemplary regions representing the identified food-related land-use conflictsThe workshop should clarify the role of food production and consumption for the identified land-use conflicts across Europe to contribute to a joint position paper.Session format:The session will start with several presentations with different perspectives on food systems, land- use change and urban-rural linkages (30 min). Afterwards, we invite participants to discuss and further develop a European typology on food systems and land-use change along urban-rural linkages. We will provide several workshop opportunities following the presentations (60 min).
Track 2Land-use management regional scale (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Implementing multifunctionalblue-green infrastructure –challenges and opportunities -13- (...)Roland A. Müller, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ and Ulrich Meyer, Kommunale Wasserwerke LeipzigWater and energy management is a key issue for sustainable spatial planning and within the SDGs, both under processes of population growth and shrinkage. Rural and urban areas are facing the expected consequences from climate change, especially more and longer droughts, heat waves and extreme rain events. Therefore multifunctional blue-green infrastructure (BGI) solutions are becoming more important for resilient climate adaptation. BGIs provide several ecosystem services e.g. for water storage, infiltration, transpiration, cooling, irrigation, energy production and quality of life.In this session the manifold challenges and options for an integration of multifunctional BGIs should be discussed using the example of district development and brownfield revitalisation. The City of Leipzig is one of 20 model cities within the federal initiative “future city”. Based on the related transdisciplinary project “Leipziger BlauGrün” the session will address co-design activities between stakeholders from science, local administration and industry for successful implementation of a BGI framework with governmental, technical, legal and financial recommendations. As we plan to have speakers from the local authority, the session will be held in German.FormatThe Session will be in German. Input talks (5–10 min) and moderated interactive discussion with audience, 4 speakers, 1 moderator, 60–90 minutes. The chairs will select the speakers based on stakeholders from the project “Leipziger BlauGrün” or suitable submitted abstracts for talks.
15:00 – Exhibition / Poster Session & Coffee / Tea
15:30 – Parallel Sessions
Please click on Tracks and Sessions to learn more. Find details on accepted contributions here.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
ISOCARP/ ESPON: Planning andGovernance for Sustainable andResilient Regions in Europe -8- (...)Didier Vancutsem & Ana Peric, ISOCARP and Nikos Lampropoulos, ESPONThe effect of globalisation on urban-rural partnerships addresses the fundamental questions on how to plan and govern such complex regions towards their sustainable and resilient development. As these spaces are usually faced with fragmented administrative structures, manifold power-centres, and different developmental priorities, the key task is to build more flexible and networked forms of planning and governance. We use the conceptual background of multi-level territorial governance, as it comprises two ideal types of institutions: general-purpose political institutions and single-purpose functional jurisdictions. Considering that urban-rural regions are affected by both types, their transformative capacity for sustainability and resilience depends upon the dynamics and mobilisation of institutional and non-institutional actors, rather than revolving solely around strong hierarchy (e.g. between different administrative levels) or overlapping sectoral/functional entities (in certain domains such as infrastructure expansion and the collective provision of services).The session is jointly organised by the ISOCARP – International Society of City and Regional Planners and ESPON, the European Territorial Observatory Network.Session FormatPanel discussion including the invited speakers:- Nicolas Rossignol, ESPON EGTC- Giancarlo Cotella, Politecnico di Torino- Julien Grunfelder, Nordregio- Jason Begley, Coventry University- Emmanuel Moulin, URBACT- 1 additional speaker selected from the URP2020 Call for Abstracts.moderated by Didier Vancutsem, Ana Peric (ISOCARP) and Nikos Lampropoulos (ESPON). After each 10 minutes position statements on the session topic by the speakers, a debate based on the questions from audience follows.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
METREX Science dialog: Managing themetropolitan landscape in Europe -2- (...)Henk Bouwman, METREX, and Tanja Blätter, Association of German Metropolitan RegionsGiven that a single city or small regional entity is less and less able to cope alone with today's complex social, economic and environmental challenges, multi-level cooperation can be considered as a second transversal dimension of the sustainable European city. The so-called rural areas surrounding the metropole’s urban cores are important for the metropolitan regions’ economy as well. The region’s identity, image and quality of urban life can even be defined by its surrounding ‘metropolitan landscape’. Urban-rural relations and partnerships play an increasingly important role for the governance of European metropolitan regions.Further impulses and European initiatives to balance urban and rural areas are expected from the upcoming updates of the Leipzig Charter 2.0 and the EU Territorial Agenda.The METREX workshop focus on the international exchange on policy fields, governance instruments of urban-rural cooperation in metropolitan areas and gives suggestions for the design of European policies in the field of regional development, research, the environment and agriculture.The workshop thus has the following topics:- Reviewing the European perspectives and exchange on urban-rural relations- Collecting future needs for act and research in the metropolitan regions, especially from a regional perspective- Bridging the governance gaps between functional interrelations of a region and administrative borders- Practical projects from German Metropolitan Regions show, how the particular governance structures of metropolitan regions enable cooperation between different actors and levels in cities and their surrounding rural areas in order to foster sustainable development.- Preparing further activities of the METREX Working Group
Track 2Land-use management regional scale (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Environmental Perspective on theUrban-Rural Nexus (1/2) -12.1- (...)Daniel Reißmann, German Environment Agency and Alice Schröder, German Environment AgencyTowns and cities are linked in a variety of ways with the countryside. In growing urban regions, the peripheral areas fulfil important functions, e.g. for the housing market or as a space for recreation. The economic structures of many towns and cities are closely intertwined with rural areas through commuting, leisure and consumer behaviour, trade, or flows of money. Supply and disposal infrastructures and transport relationships are organized beyond the municipal boundaries, as well as cultural and touristic offers. Many environmental aspects cannot be discussed in detail without considering urban-rural relationships, i.e. the various functional and spatial relationships within the urban-rural nexus. Municipalities and the surrounding rural areas are reacting to the growing need for cooperation by setting up administratively anchored regional associations, or sectoral associations, e.g. for transport or supply and disposal infrastructures. Complex issues such as adaptation to climate change, demographic change, regional economic structures, education, and digitalization are also increasingly addressed. With the debate on equal living conditions additional topics arise, such as the spatial and social distribution of environmental benefits and threats in an urban-rural context. Moreover, urban-rural relationships are also of growing importance for environmental and sustainability research. The session will therefore discuss approaches in the context of recent challenges (like climate change, Energiewende, land consumption etc.) with a distinct focus on• environmental impacts of urban development on surrounding areas (e.g. land consumption by peri-urban housing, transport development)• instruments for environmentally relevant urban-rural interactions (e.g. to analyze material flows between municipalities and rural areas)• environmental benefits of cooperation between municipalities (e.g. harmonised development of infrastructures, consolidated regional commercial development)• spatial and social distribution of environmental benefits/ threats and social interlinkages; environmental justiceSession FormatIn an introductory presentation, the German Environment Agency will outline its relevant work in the area. This will be followed by ca. 4 * 10–15 min presentations of scientific and practical approaches selected from proposals from Call for Abstracts.
Track 3Resilience and extreme events (...)Contributions to this track aim at designing new sociotechnical and nature-based solutions towards robust urban and rural systems. The sessions focus on coping with climate change, extreme events and disruptive changes. They also reflect on integrative multi-level approaches that link urban and rural ecosystems while considering also, justice and real-world paradoxes.
COVID19 and Beyond – Implications for Sustainable & Resilient Urban-Rural Partnerships -18- (...)Stephan Bartke, UBA and Sigrun Kabisch, UFZSustainable and resilient – the Corona-virus globally to very locally has questioned the day to day life of people, communities and urban-rural partnerships. While regional food and resources cycles gain attention, intermunicipal collaboration is threatened by acute action needed facing the crisis. We invite contributions to discuss, to analyze or reflect on the topical implications and more fundamental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for urban-rural partnerships’ near and strategic futures. What may we not forget in the topical situation and what can we learn for strategically improving our abilities to become resilient facing massive unforeseen shocks? Can urban-rural partnerships become the solution to a refocused, physically de-globalized world?
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.
Meeting the challenge for transition of rural-urban value chains towards sustainability and resilience -20- (...)Daniel Schiller, University of Greifswald and Johannes Fuchs, University of GreifswaldValue chains are an important element in the formation of rural-urban partnerships providing a foundation of regional circular economies by linking rural and urban regions via production, processing, consumption, and recycling. Rural-urban value chains have emerged most prominently within the context of food and energy systems. Their recent dynamism is driven by an increasing demand for locally sourced produces and environmentally conscious consumption. They are further triggered by the recent rurality reinvention discourse and the rediscovery of the countryside. In addition, new digital technologies are having a transformative effect on the configuration of rural-urban value chains.Session FormatThe basic format is "present and discuss". After an introduction, oral presentation of 4 to 5 papers (15 min + 5 min discussion) concluded by a wrap-up discussion at the end.
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.
Circular Economy – from businessmodels to regional transition? -23- (...)Daniel Keech and Matthew Reed, University of Gloucestershire and Theresia Oedl-Wieser, Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics, Rural and Mountain ResearchCircular Economy (CE) is a contested idea (Korhonen et al. 2018) of recent interest to policy-makers and business networks (e.g. the Ellen MacArthur Foundation). CE foresees a dramatic and urgent transition from linear, extractive and wasteful economic practices in favour of an ‘ecology’ of material flows, thereby conceptually eliminating waste. As the range of circular business models expands – for example using food waste to feed livestock; the ‘urban mining’ of repurposed construction materials for new buildings, or social circular enterprises which pursue social progress – businesses and policies embrace CE as a way to combine sustainability and growth in rural and urban areas.Stimulated by the convenors’ involvement in the Horizon 2020 project ROBUST (www.rural-urban.eu), which explores the governance of rural and urban synergies, this session seeks to raise questions including:(i) What range and types of CE enterprise models can be identified/characterised?(ii) How do these underline rural-urban synergies? Food, minerals, energy and social sectors seem to offer especial potential.(iii) How can such innovations best harness regional economic transitions, for example through the transformation of pubic and social infrastructures, and beyond a proliferation of inspiring but scattered good practice?(iv) And conversely, might CE lead to a lasting change in enterprise culture (e.g. from competition to enhanced collaborations, fostering social progress) in addition to ‘green growth’?Session FormatPresent and discuss format. Ideally 4 (or a maximum of 5 speakers) will be assigned 15 minutes each per presentation, inclusive of short clarification questions. In addition, 15–30 minutes (depending on speaker number) will be available for a discussion around the question: What, given the interesting models of circular enterprise presented, are the mechanisms whereby meso-level policy and practice change can be secured at regional level to support rural-urban synergies?
17:00 – Change rooms and grab a coffee / tea
17:15 – Parallel Sessions
Please click on Tracks and Sessions to learn more. Find details on accepted contributions here.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
New fissures in the urban-rural fabricand social justice: ethnic and immigrantghettos at the systemic edge -5- (...)Filip Alexandrescu, Research Institute for the Quality of Life and Stanislav Martinát, Cardiff University and the Institute of Geonics of the Czech Academy of SciencesThis session aims to bring into focus various forms of extreme segregation occurring in European cities and conurbations, as a result of intra-European or extra-European immigration. Extreme segregation refers to the rapid and often violent concentration of visible minorities (Gypsy/Roma or Middle Eastern/African immigrants) into makeshift ghettos on the outskirts of European cities. These ghettos tend to materialize Saskia Sassen’s (2014, 2015) postulated systemic edge, which is a set of conditions that become so extreme that they become ungraspable and unmanageable by using the standard public policy instruments of the welfare/workfare state.The aim of this session is to bring such cases into theoretical and empirical focus in order to ponder their influence on socially just and resilient urban configurations and on their relationships with the larger rural hinterlands. One of the crucial questions is whether the emerging belt of ghettos in European cities is a reversible process or, on the contrary, the beginning of a more enduring transformation towards what Mike Davis (2006) called a Planet of Slums. Rather than making definite predictions of a kind or another, the presentations in this session will aim to problematize as creatively as possible the emergence of ghettos and their relationships to wider changes linked to the expansion of neoliberal policies across the rural – urban continuum.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Kill or Promote – What does theEU-Green Deal mean for Agricultureand Rural-Urban-Partnership? -6- (...)Thomas Beil, Michael Succow Foundation and Michael Rühs, Greifswald UniversityThe EU Green Deal aims for a transition towards post-carbon land use to foster climate protection, biodiversity and sustainability in rural development. With regard to the Rural-Urban Partnership, the question arises: Who determines the goals and instruments and "orders" and who, on the other hand, has to ensure implementation and thus will "foot the bill"? – Visions of an agricultural turnaround encounter fears from already overstrained European farmers.The EU Green Deal paints the urban vision of a sustainably shaped agriculture providing the necessities for a green industry. It primarily intends to redirect existing funds into forms of land use defined as more sustainable. Thus, farmers have to adapt and adjust their land use on their own expenses, facing less revenues or higher costs for their production in future. But, their produces then still will have to compete on European and international markets with cheap(er) products, produced without such restrictions.The co-products “healthier landscape” and “ecological services” still have no established markets and the Green Deal still will not provide them - neither the financial resources, nor the necessary governance structures. But, for economic viability additional revenues are lacking, either directly for providing environmental services or indirectly via higher prices for their (labelled) products.Many farmers now fear, the EU Green Deal will mean the end of the road for their farms and lead to further structural change towards agro-industrial complexes. Will it be possible to steer into the direction of medium-scaled regional cycle economies? Or, will the development end up in an industrialized agricultural sector, delivering primary products for centralised green industrial complexes?Against the background of these two sides of the coin and potential development pathways we aim to get into a controversy debate about the forces, effects and control options for such a deep structural transition process.
Track 2Land-use management regional scale (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.Environmental Perspective on theUrban-Rural Nexus (2/2) -12.2- (...)Daniel Reißmann, German Environment Agency and Alice Schröder, German Environment AgencyTowns and cities are linked in a variety of ways with the countryside. In growing urban regions, the peripheral areas fulfil important functions, e.g. for the housing market or as a space for recreation. The economic structures of many towns and cities are closely intertwined with rural areas through commuting, leisure and consumer behaviour, trade, or flows of money. Supply and disposal infrastructures and transport relationships are organized beyond the municipal boundaries, as well as cultural and touristic offers. Many environmental aspects cannot be discussed in detail without considering urban-rural relationships, i.e. the various functional and spatial relationships within the urban-rural nexus. Municipalities and the surrounding rural areas are reacting to the growing need for cooperation by setting up administratively anchored regional associations, or sectoral associations, e.g. for transport or supply and disposal infrastructures. Complex issues such as adaptation to climate change, demographic change, regional economic structures, education, and digitalization are also increasingly addressed. With the debate on equal living conditions additional topics arise, such as the spatial and social distribution of environmental benefits and threats in an urban-rural context. Moreover, urban-rural relationships are also of growing importance for environmental and sustainability research. The session will therefore discuss approaches in the context of recent challenges (like climate change, Energiewende, land consumption etc.) with a distinct focus on• environmental impacts of urban development on surrounding areas (e.g. land consumption by peri-urban housing, transport development)• instruments for environmentally relevant urban-rural interactions (e.g. to analyze material flows between municipalities and rural areas)• environmental benefits of cooperation between municipalities (e.g. harmonised development of infrastructures, consolidated regional commercial development)• spatial and social distribution of environmental benefits/ threats and social interlinkages; environmental justiceSession FormatIn an introductory presentation, the German Environment Agency will outline its relevant work in the area. This will be followed by ca. 4 * 10–15 min presentations of scientific and practical approaches selected from proposals from Call for Abstracts.
Track 3Resilience and extreme events (...)Contributions to this track aim at designing new sociotechnical and nature-based solutions towards robust urban and rural systems. The sessions focus on coping with climate change, extreme events and disruptive changes. They also reflect on integrative multi-level approaches that link urban and rural ecosystems while considering also, justice and real-world paradoxes.
Urban-resilient city:how to integrate justicein re-naturing urban areas -14- (...)Thomas Thaler, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna and Thomas Hartmann, Wageningen UniversityDespite considerable efforts to reduce disaster risk by using technical solutions, losses due to hydro-meteorological hazards remain significant. Due to location, high concentration of people, and increasingly complex and interdependent infrastructures, especially urban areas are highly vulnerable to pluvial and fluvial flooding. Urban resilience has been emerging as a response to such disasters. Flood-resilient cities are meant to anticipate, recover from, and adapt to shocks and stresses.To realize resilience, nature-based solutions (NbS), such as forests, green roofs and facades, or green areas, are often discussed as solutions with multiple benefits and hardly any downsides for adaptation to climate change. They promise to mitigate consequences of flooding, but also reduce effects of urban heat islands, improve health and quality of life, create green jobs and increase the attractiveness of a city.However, recent studies of NbS’ planning and implementation show that they also run the risk of manifesting or even increasing social inequalities. So far, justice has been barely addressed by both scholars and policy-makers in relation to resilience.
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.Measuring economic and material flows: methodological options for the analyses of urban-rural metabolisms -21- (...)Tobias Chilla, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and Manuela Burkert, University of Erlangen–NurembergThis workshop focusses on methodological questions linked to urban-rural metabolisms. We are interested in particular in the nexus of economic and material/ecological flows in regional value creation. Circular economies bear a large potential in the implementation of the SDGS as they contribute in the ecological sense (e.g. sustainable production patterns) and in the socio-economic sense (e.g. sustainable economic growth, cultural heritage).The methods for analysing material and value flows of regional economies differ with regard to their spatial scale (global, national, regional, firm level, etc.) as well as to their methodological approaches to capture the (socio-) economic and ecological dimension.Session FormatResearchers, policy makers and practitioners will present and discuss.
Track 5 Digitalisation (...)This track explores digitalization strategies as catalyst and enabler of innovative development strategies, including hands-on scenarios and simulations. The sessions discuss the interrelation of digitalization and sustainable development and ask how regions can use digital transformation to build more sustainable and resilient societies and urban-rural partnerships.
Smart Villages –Catalysts of inclusive development? -26- (...)Arun Kashyap, Global Futures Group, Grace Githiri & Remy Sietchiping, UN-Habitat, Julia Binder, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg and Ariane Sept, Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene SozialforschungThe proposal while emphasizing the importance of Smart Villages in both, developing and developed countries, will critically reflect on technological needs, structural and institutional issues and operational aspects of successful smart villages while underscoring spatial effects and effective implementation of smart technologies in developing countries. It will highlight the global-local frameworks and principles that govern urban-rural linkages and suggest formulation of legislation and governance systems to strengthen urban-rural linkages and how to achieve them using innovation including digitalization, ICT knowledge and effective approaches to accomplishing circular economy. The role of ICT knowledge in shaping new forms of governance, cooperation, partnerships and network strategies will be examined, underscoring the involvement of actors as champions of inclusive development. Tools and methodologies to engage stakeholders and develop capacities of the citizens to better access goods and services will also be highlighted. The session will illustrate best practices for north-south and south-south partnerships to strengthen smart villages as catalysts of inclusive development.Some of the questions to be addressed include(i) How do we characterize actors and stakeholders that foster inclusive development against the backdrop of innovation, information- and technology knowledge?(ii) What are the socio-spatial and behavioral context factors that support or hinder these new forms of urban-rural partnership?(iii) Do these actor-networks constitute new forms of governance?(iv) What is the nature of support needed by the actors and stakeholders to form sustainable partnerships and networks?Session FormatPresent and discuss: 6 short presentations (10 min); 30 min panel and open discussion
19:30 – Excursion (pending)
St. Nicholas Church (...)The St. Nicholas Church (German: Nikolaikirche) is the oldest building and one of the major churches of Leipzig, Germany. Construction started in Romanesque style in 1165, but in the 16th century, the church was turned into a Gothic hall church. Baroque elements like the tower were added in the 18th century. Several works by Johann Sebastian Bach, who was the music director of Nikolaikirche and of St. Thomas Church from 1723–50, premiered here. The church rose to national fame in 1989 with the Monday Demonstrations when it became the centre of peaceful revolt against communist rule. By capacity, it is one of the largest churches in Saxony.
Fri | 27 November 2020
08:00 – Technical check and pre-program in conference app
08:30 – The Temptation of Urban Rural Partnerships in Transitional European Countries
Prof. Dr. Borislav Stojkov, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography. Full member of the Academy of Engineering Sciences of Serbia
09:00 – Change rooms and grab a coffee / tea
09:15 – Parallel Sessions
Please click on Tracks and Sessions to learn more. Find details on accepted contributions here.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Sustainable CityRegions –SDGs, Indicators and evaluation tools -9- (...)Pedro Bizarro, Council on European Municipalities and Regions and Alice Siragusa, Joint Research Centre (JRC) – European CommissionThe 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a strategic opportunity to establish an inclusive, participatory and place-based approach to territorial development. Integrated policies and planning contribute to foster cooperation between urban and rural areas, tackling depopulation, curbing the pressure on limited resources, as well as guaranteeing public service accessibility and minimum infrastructure to allow decent quality of life.For the URP2020 and in light of the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the session will present two tools that can foster multi-level, multi-sector and multi-stakeholder approach on the implementation of the SDGs and their track progress over time at local scale.The first one is the Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC), a tool with a focus on the integrated approach to sustainable urban development, promoted by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). The RFSC – cf. http://rfsc.eu/ – has been developed by a joint governance of all EU member states, the European Commission (DG REGIO) and networks of cities, to assist local and regional governments in the delivery of the Leipzig Charter on European Sustainable Cities and achieving the SDGs.The second tool is the European Handbook for SDG Voluntary Local Reviews, elaborated by the Joint Research Centre. The Handbook offers to policy makers, researchers and practitioners an inspirational framework to set up Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), instruments elaborated by cities and regions to monitor progresses and sustain the transformative and inclusive action of local actors towards the achievement of the SDGs – cf. https://urban.jrc.ec.europa.eu/#/en/sdgsSession FormatThe session will involve 2 speakers from CEMR and DG JRC and invites 2 further input speakers and/or posters to present on the topic. A demonstration of the RFSC tool and the European Handbook for SDG Voluntary Local Reviews, as well as a moderated workshop are foreseen.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
SPA-CEnet: Territorial governancearrangements for resilience inurban-rural interaction -1.1- (1/2) (...)Artem Korzhenevych, IOER and Matej Jaššo, STU BratislavaThe challenge of safeguarding resilience in the interplay between urban centres and their functional areas, including sub-urban and rural territories, is one of the most important challenges for territorial governance. The question is, to which extent are recent territorial governance arrangements able to frame efficient and effective actions of the stakeholders, and where and what kind of innovations are needed, especially reflecting specific conditions in Central and South-Eastern Europe and Western Balkan countries. These sessions will be under auspices of Spa-ce.net and Territorial Governance – Western Balkan network. Session is planned as annual meeting of the Spa-ce.net involving spatial planning and regional research institutions from Central and Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, but open for active contributions from all conference participants. Main thematic scopes of the Spa-ce.net session will be as follows:1. Need for new quality of urban-rural interactions in various types of regions in the context of global shifts and changes.2. New concepts of territorial governance reflecting recent development in urban/rural regions.3. Smart, sustainable and resilient approaches to urban/rural regional development management.Information about the Spa-ce.net network: http://www.spa-ce.net/Formatoral presentations (max 15 minutes) and posters.
Track 2Land-use management regional scale (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Land thrift, housing, and densification –international perspectives onstrategies of land policy -11- (...)Thomas Hartmann, Wageningen University and Andreas Hengstermann, Bern UniversityLand is a scarce resource. Not only in Germany but also in neighbouring countries, land is under pressure. In most urban areas, land prices are currently rising asking for land for housing. At the same time, land shall be used thriftly: The demand for urban growth on the one hand, and environmental or agricultural concerns for the preservation of landscapes on the other hand, are thus in conflict. Densification promises to relief this tension, but it comes along with new challenges related to land policy.Thereby, the way land is managed in the relation between urban and rural areas is not only an administrative, but above all a land policy issue. The political dimension of land management is often pushed into the background by the discussion about the effectiveness of spatial planning instruments. Spatial planning needs to face the political challenges of dealing with land to work a sustainable use of scarce land. This requires a broad debate on instruments of land policy and its strategic use.Session FormatSelected experts will reflect on strategies of land policy in their respective countries. The format of the session foresees short inputs by the experts complemented by an interactive podium debate and interaction with the audience.
Track 3Resilience and extreme events (...)Contributions to this track aim at designing new sociotechnical and nature-based solutions towards robust urban and rural systems. The sessions focus on coping with climate change, extreme events and disruptive changes. They also reflect on integrative multi-level approaches that link urban and rural ecosystems while considering also, justice and real-world paradoxes.
Linking urban and rural ecosystemsin policy, practice and governance -17- (...)Vincent O’Connell, Secretary General PURPLE and Ute Ammering, University of Innsbruck (t.b.c.)One effective way to formulate place-sensitive approaches to help link rural and urban areas is to understand and capitalise upon the relative strengths and contributions of territories of different kinds and explore how these can be exploited for mutual – and broader – benefit. This process will often require the confounding of assumptions and stereotypes! One particular context in which this approach can be used is that of ecosystems where policy conventions regarding distinctions, divisions and supposed conflict between urban and rural areas will for example assume urbanisation to be an automatic threat to ecosystems/services. In reality, cities and countryside – together with the peri-urban areas situated in-between - form complex territorial patterns within which many win-win scenarios can be developed. The multiple interactions across these territories are dynamic and change over time and require careful management and clear understanding in order to achieve sustainable regional development.Providing and enhancing ecosystem services across such territorial “lines” is key to local and wider resilience and achieving foresight and planning regarding future sustainability challenges. Such ecosystems management can be used to help shape coherent territorial development when driven by place-sensitive policy. The proximity of protected and other valuable space around and beyond urban areas can be capitalised upon to strengthen multi-level urban-rural governance arrangements and cooperation. Challenges remain in fully achieving this potential at both policy and practice levels, and just how these are (and are to be) overcome will be the particular focus of this session.Session FormatDuring the sessions, papers will be presented in very short form – restricted to 2–3 slide inputs. This will be followed by an interactive discussion (world café, fishbowl or panel) to form the main part of the session.
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.
Town hinterland water andnutrient transactions -24- (...)Alka Palrecha, People in Centre and Vishwanath Srikantaiah (Zenrainman), Biome Environmental SolutionsRural and urban are conceived as the opposing ends of the civilizational continuum regarding water use. Despite complementary coexistence, this divisive conception is reflected in the contrasting policy and planning tools serving these areas. The conventional approach to urban planning is based on the assumption that water is a good that can be brought from distance sources through pipes and tankers. The rural areas are not only sites of extraction and production for the city but also are at the receiving end of wastes and effluents from urban areas. Rural areas have been the externalities of political and economically powerful urban areas through policies and design. Rural and urban resources are interconnected by their hydrological system like groundwater, surface water and increasingly even wastewater across time and space. The material benefits (beyond jobs and livelihoods) to villages are to be recognized too, these may be with supply of water (through tankers), and potential of gaining through reusing waste, and most importantly through charging for providing ecosystem services like natural treatment of wastewaters or using wastewater and nutrients therein thus completing the nutrient cycle. Urban-rural relations are key to strategic cooperation between urban utility providers and rural landholders for water and wastewater production and reproduction.The recognition of interdependencies of water and wastewater between rural and urban with a circular economy perspective is the focus of the session. The objective of the session is to build cooperation between urban and rural giving a form to these collaborations of water and wastewater and legitimising their interdependencies.
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.
Food chains in Urban Rural Partnerships (...)Regionalized food chains as a motor in urban rural partnerships have received an increasing re-recognition over the last years. With the COVID-19 crisis their transformative capacity has gained even more attention.In mutual recognition of the specific challenges of urban and rural regions, but even more of the individual development and innovation potentials of each specific territory, new networks and institutional settings have been established. They aim at establishing a new urban- rural agenda setting at regional/ territorial scale, and thus challenge existing instruments and funding mechanisms at EU level. The first two contributions will present policy pathways to better stabilizing rural regions and to better capitalizing their added value.Cooperation between urban centres and rural regions is a key to this. In particular from food system governance for short supply chains and from related civil society driven innovations we experience powerful examples of such new partnerships. A contribution from European regions will present the identification and further development of distinct governance models that support the co-development of locally designed approaches.However, the view into realities of family farms in the global South will remind us that the coexistence of such short food supply chains and global supply chains will be maintained. Accordingly, local and global strategies and instruments should be mutually supportive. Case studies from Africa, India and Brazil will exemplify this, and point to the added value of human capacity building for cooperative action in the food sector and beyond its borders.
10:45 – Exhibition / Poster Session and coffee / tea
11:15 – Parallel Sessions
Please click on Tracks and Sessions to learn more. Find details on accepted contributions here.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
Linking Practical requirements and territorial policies tools -7- (...)Grace Githiri¹; Dajana Davidovic²; Frank Wagener³¹ UN-Habitat; ² VDI Technologiezentrum/Office of the Innovation Platform City of the Future, Germany; ³ WERTvollThe 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) recognize that urban and rural communities do not live in isolation from one another. The flow of people, goods, services and transport, does not go in one direction only. There is thus a need to transform planning, building and managing urban spaces, while ensuring that the rural areas are not left behind. This urban-rural relationship is increasingly the focus of attention from national, regional and local governments, planners and development agencies.UN-Habitat is supporting member states in integrating urban-rural linkages in their policies, legislation and governance frameworks among other tracks of work. Towards this the universal urban-rural linkages: guiding principles and framework for action (URL-GP) was developed by over 130 stakeholders from over 40 international institutions which was launched in May 2019 during the first UN-Habitat Assembly. The URL-GP tools and methodologies for localization of the URL-GP, have been developed and are being implemented in nine countries in Africa. Bolivia and Colombia in Latin America have also been supported in developing policy recommendations for their policies. Over 50 case studies have also been collected and documented to showcase the implementation of URL-GP in different contexts. These methodologies of localizing the URL-GP are quite relevant and are being implemented in collaboration with partners.The German Innovation Platform City of the Future (IPZ) aims at closing the gap between scientific knowledge and decision making in practice, and fostering integrated approaches and effective governance systems as Urban Living Labs in urban and regional contexts. It is a cross-departmental collaboration initiative of the German Federal Government founded by Federal Ministry of Research and Education in 2016. The new international funding program "Zukunftsstadt goes Europe" by the IPZ is supporting cities, towns & communities in sharing best-practice and innovative approaches to sustainable development with other partners in Europe and in promoting implementation in a spirit of partnership.IPZ is an exchange platform where urban actors get inspired by scientific knowledge – and vice versa. Successful implementation of sustainability goals ultimately depends on partnerships between urban and rural actors and areas at the local level. Due to the complexity of urban-rural linkages, strategies for strengthening collaboration have to be developed in partnership such as Urban Living Labs: across sectors, across different government levels – regional and local – and including many different stakeholders, such as project WERTvoll “Stadt-Land-Partnerschaft Leipzig&Umland”.The demands on rural communities are manifold. Specific knowledge is often required to meet these challenges in an appropriate manner. In the WERTvoll project, the mayors of the rural communities have found a solution that brings a decisive advantage for the pragmatic implementation of the project and the linked scientific work: cooperation. For example, the four municipalities in the Wurzener Land have founded a municipal enterprise to face the associated challenges with shared responsibilities. This cooperation is the base for the urban-rural partnership between Leipzig (urban) and the Wurzener Land (rural).A partnership between a city and rural communities has to link interdisciplinary topics. For example: How does drinking water protection become visible to citizens and consumers through the marketing of regional food products? The implementation of this cooperative urban-rural partnership is based on interdisciplinary scientific findings that are directly tested in practice.Session formatThe session will be a 90 min format of contributions and Q&A. The inputs will be presented by different speakers and with small video sequences of interviews. Each organisation will have a 20 min presentation. The audience will have 30 min to ask questions.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
SPA-CEnet: Territorial governancearrangements for resilience inurban-rural interaction -1.1- (2/2) (...)Artem Korzhenevych, IOER and Matej Jaššo, STU BratislavaThe challenge of safeguarding resilience in the interplay between urban centres and their functional areas, including sub-urban and rural territories, is one of the most important challenges for territorial governance. The question is, to which extent are recent territorial governance arrangements able to frame efficient and effective actions of the stakeholders, and where and what kind of innovations are needed, especially reflecting specific conditions in Central and South-Eastern Europe and Western Balkan countries. These sessions will be under auspices of Spa-ce.net and Territorial Governance – Western Balkan network. Session is planned as annual meeting of the Spa-ce.net involving spatial planning and regional research institutions from Central and Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, but open for active contributions from all conference participants. Main thematic scopes of the Spa-ce.net session will be as follows:1. Need for new quality of urban-rural interactions in various types of regions in the context of global shifts and changes.2. New concepts of territorial governance reflecting recent development in urban/rural regions.3. Smart, sustainable and resilient approaches to urban/rural regional development management.Information about the Spa-ce.net network: http://www.spa-ce.net/Formatoral presentations (max 15 minutes) and posters.
Track 1Governance of urban-rural linkages (...)This track brings together research and practice approaches towards establishing and evaluating multi-level, multi-actor and multi-sectoral governance modes on regional scale. Sessions will discuss how to measure progress and how to reveal and integrate conflicting positions in order to support justice and equity in living conditions while accepting local particularities. Key policies in Europe to drive more sustainable and resilient urban-rural linkages, including the New Leipzig Charter 2020, the revised Territorial Agenda and others, will be reflected.
From national policies to criteria for success – innovation in urban-rural governance in Europe? (...)Thomas Zimmermann, HafenCity Universität HamburgThe session aims to discuss different approaches for urban-rural linkages all over Europe and their degree of innovation. It starts off with the EUROCITIES comparative study providing a broad overview on the everyday life of urban-rural relations in 10 European metropolitan regions and continues with an case example analysing national territorial policy in Serbia. Finally, existing trade-off regimes and criteria affecting their success will be discussed.Branislav Antoni, University of Belgrade: The Prospects of Towns in Serbia: Current Challenges and Policy FrameworkPietro Reviglio, EUROCITIES: Spatial Dynamics and Strategic Planning in Metropolitan Areas (SPIMA)Paul Goede, ILS–Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development: Criteria for successful trade-off regimes in intercommunal land management
Track 3Resilience and extreme events (...)Contributions to this track aim at designing new sociotechnical and nature-based solutions towards robust urban and rural systems. The sessions focus on coping with climate change, extreme events and disruptive changes. They also reflect on integrative multi-level approaches that link urban and rural ecosystems while considering also, justice and real-world paradoxes.
Paradoxes of resilience in the contextof urban and rural areas -15- (...)Mariana Madruga de Brito, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ and Christian Kuhlicke, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZEnhancing resilience has become one of the key driving questions in extreme events research and policy. This concept is frequently used by politicians to gain political support, urban planners are requested to consider it, several institutions fund research into it, and academics are debating on how to measure and enhance resilience.Resilience is often framed as a promising idea that provides a stimulating way of thinking on how to boost the capacity of urban and rural systems to withstand future disturbances. At the same time, there is an increasing debate emerging about the wider implications of a change towards resilience in urban and rural planning.During this interdisciplinary and participatory session, we will explore the advancements, promises, trade-offs and dilemmas of the resilience concept, pointing towards new conflicts and solutions. We will also discuss challenges in the monitoring and evaluation of resilience and the efficacy of resilience interventions (e.g. sociotechnical and nature-based solutions).Session FormatA world-café format will be used to explore the topic from multiple diverse perspectives while ensuring equal footing among participants. The session will start with an elevator pitch presentation, where all authors will present the essence of their contribution in 2 minutes. The presentation may be a single slide, animation or simply a PDF showing your ideas. After that, participants will be divided into small groups to discuss different challenges. After changing tables and topics, the results of the discussion will be presented to all participants. In the end, ideas for a tentative joint paper will be debated.
Track 4Regional circular economies (...)Sessions in this track introduce and critically review the challenges of building regional circular economies. The focus is on establishing economical regional value chains and enhancing resource efficiency based on a deeper understanding of the urban-rural metabolism. This will be elaborated with several examples related to land use, water, food production and others.
Identifying potentials and gaps ofurban-rural networks…: social network analysis through Net-Mapping -22- (...)Arian Gülker, Schweisfurth Stiftung, Ludwig Hentschel, Gemeinde Bennewitz and Anett Richter, Thünen Insitute for BiodiversityIn order to understand existing regional value chains, it is useful not only to conduct classical market analysis, but also to explore networks and facilitate participation processes with local actors. Net-Mapping is a promising solution for this. In a moderated group discussion local actors are the experts of their own network. By mapping their network, potentials, gaps and cooperation possibilities can be identified. This knowledge can then be used to link existing and new value chains and thus promote regional economic development.In the context of the Stadt-Land-Plus project WERTvoll, the networks of actors along the regional value chain were very helpful in identifying potentials and gaps for the re-regionalisation of the food system.From a scientific point of view, Net-Mapping is a very effective way to obtain useful data and at the same time a way to strengthen the actors in the urban-rural food system. Therefore, this form of social network analysis helps to understand and change food systems in order to improve people's living conditions in terms of sustainability.Session FormatIn our session we will describe the method, present the results and let the participants benefit from our experience. The session is open for further contributions.Contribution I: “Establishing a basis for regional value chains through participatory formats” - Facing the challenge of establishing regional value chains in the context of urban rural partnerships, it is crucial to give actors the chance for communication and cooperation. Arian Gülker – Schweisfurth Stiftung (Projekt WERTvoll) and Ludwig Hentschel (local coordinator/Projekt WERTvoll) we will show a method of designing participatory events that empower the participants to develop their own vision of a sustainable future while planning specific next steps.Contribution II: “Understanding value chains using Social Network Analysis” - In order to understand regional value chains it is useful to explore networks and facilitate participation processes with local actors. Net mapping is a form of Social Network analysis with a hands-on approach for manifold stakeholders. The presenters will describe the method, present first results and let the participants benefit from experience based from the WERTvoll project.Contribution III: “Exploring value chains in Living Labs and through Citizen Science (Approaches and Potentials and Barriers)” - Living Labs or Agroecosystem Living Laboratories, as well as Citizen Science, are potential research infrastructures that combine transformative and participatory research through transdisciplinary approaches and novel means of research. Novel in this sense is specifically the diversity of partnerships that together pave the way towards the transition to sustainable, climate and ecosystem-friendly resource management. Dr. Anett Richter, Thünen Insitute for Biodiversity, will introduce Living Labs and Citizen Science as two approaches for understanding value chains in urban-rural networks. I will show the mutual benefits of collaborative design processes (co-creation) and will highlight the potentials and barriers of these approaches, specifically in an agricultural context.
Track 5 Digitalisation (...)This track explores digitalization strategies as catalyst and enabler of innovative development strategies, including hands-on scenarios and simulations. The sessions discuss the interrelation of digitalization and sustainable development and ask how regions can use digital transformation to build more sustainable and resilient societies and urban-rural partnerships.
More digital = more sustainable? …use the digital transformation to buildsustainable and resilient societies -25- (...)Peyman Khodabakhsh, atene KOM GmbH and Liz Price, University of LincolnThe digital transformation has traditionally been promoted as a clear driver for a sustainable economic, environmental and social development of cities and regions and as a solution to the continuing urbanisation and outmigration from rural areas. But global discussions on digitalization and the Sustainable Development Goals during recent years have also shown challenges and possible rebound effects related to economic, environmental and human well-being and societal cohesion. Will digitalization necessarily lead us into a more sustainable future? And how can we make sure that the digital transformation and the sustainable development of cities and regions can go hand in hand and support each other? The aim of this session is to explore how cities and regions can shape their digitalization strategies in a way that supports a transition towards more sustainable and resilient societies. It will build on stories and concrete examples from different parts of Europe.Session FormatThe session will combine elements of controversy and flash presentations. Two opening speakers will present opposing positions on the question in how far (and to what extent) digitalization supports the sustainable development. These opening presentations will take an overall perspective on the topic. After that, 3 short flash presentations by representatives of cities and regions will show different approaches on how to include sustainability and resilience as underlying principles in digitalization strategies and how this can work in practice. We will use an electronic audience interaction tool to involve the audience via voting, questionnaires or quizzes. Furthermore, the audience will also be encouraged to get involved in the discussions in a moderated Q&A part of the session.
12:45 – Building Sustainable Urban-Rural Partnerships: Co-Productive Tools for Transcending the Binary Divide
Prof. Dr. David Simon, Professor of Development Geography, Royal Holloway University of London and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS)
13:30 – Closing Ceremony
Concluding remarks; Best poster and Conference App competition awards; Outlook.
13:45 – Exhibition / Poster Session and Lunch
14:30 – Excursions (pending) | Start at Leipziger KUBUS
Pending the Corona-virus situation, excursions to Stadt-Land-Plus projects demonstrating cutting edge approaches to more sustainable rural-urban transformation are planned.
Bus tour:
A valuable region in which added value and the environment are in harmony (...)Facilitated by Dr. Bernhard Wagner, Wassergut Canitz, and Frank Wagener, Ifas, Stadt-Land-Plus project WERTvollTo illustrate urban-rural relationships, this excursion takes you to the beautiful Wurzener Land, which together with the city of Leipzig is the focus of applied research in the Stadt-Land-Plus project WERTvoll as a nationwide model region (https://wertvoll.stoffstrom.org/). It is a region located about 30 km east of Leipzig which is mainly characterized by agricultural structures and small communities surrounding the small town of Wurzen. The location is a great example of how closely interwoven city and countryside are to each other and that the countryside can not only offer local recreation and beautiful landscapes for city residents to enjoy, but also contributes to the protection of the climate, water resources and biodiversity.A local mayor will show the advantages the rural region has to offer as well as the great potential that is being pursued here. With this excursion you will be able to experience differing settlement and landscape structures, get an insight into a rural region also influenced by the former GDR and get to know the regional concepts for food production and marketing.A highlight of the excursion is a visit to the Wassergut Canitz GmbH agricultural site, which has for over 25 years been practicing ecological agriculture upon land belonging to the Leipzig Waterworks (Wasserwerke Leipzig). The Wassergut Canitz GmbH is thereby proactively committed to climate-friendly agriculture which also protects the drinking water supply.With funds from the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) Stadt-Land-Plus project WERTvoll, a suction plate system (Saugeplatte) was installed under a field test in order to systematically examine the effects of land management on the seepage water and thus ultimately on the groundwater. There are also some sections with agricultural timber that can be used for both erosion and water/groundwater protection. At the same time, they provide a habitat for many animal species and the wood can be used to supply the surrounding villages with a source of energy. This is an interesting example of multi-use concepts on agricultural land, as being developed and implemented in the WERTvoll project in order to be an example for other urban-rural partnerships.
Bus tour:
From lignite mining to post-mining landscapes (...)Facilitated by Prof. Dr. Andreas Berkner, Regional Planning LeipzigThe recent political decision to stop lignite production in 2035 in Germany in order to act appropriately towards climate change, initiates a fundamental structural change. This includes economic, social and ecological tasks in so far unknown dimensions. New economic branches are necessary to maintain the regional economic strength and to offer jobs for those people who will lose their former employment. Innovative landscape remediation to reuse huge brownfield sides can led to attractive spatial development. Within the excursion three locations will be visited to demonstrate the immense challenges.
Walking tour:
Peaceful Revolution and post-socialist Transformation (...)Facilitated by Prof. Dr. Dieter Rink, UFZThe city of Leipzig played a prominent role during the peaceful revolution in 1989 in East Germany. The city tour will present central events of this revolution at various locations such as the Nikolai Church and the former Stasi headquarters. In addition, the history of Leipzig with focus on dynamics during the last three decades and its extremes of shrinkage and growth will be explained. Furthermore, the city centre of Leipzig with its well-known historical and cultural highlights such as Auerbachs Cellar, Music Hall "Gewandhaus" and Thomas Church are part of the excursion. The transformation from a socialist city centre to a post-socialist downtown will be demonstrated by several architectural examples and a number of urban projects.
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Hybrid Conference
