Next week from 10-12 December, dozens of urban academics and experts will gather at the 11th edition of the annual conference of the International Forum of Urbanism (IfoU), which focuses this year on sharing research and knowledge to improve urban resilience implementation. The event will also feature a session on post-disaster and post-conflict resilience.
Highlights of the conference, titled Reframing Urban Resilience Implementation: Aligning Sustainability and Resilience, and organized by our master’s leadership, includes the following speakers:
Keynote | Urban Futures: Transforming Cities for Resilience and Sustainability
10 December | 10am | UIC Aula Magna
Timon McPhearson, is Associate Professor of Urban Ecology at The New School of New York, director of the Urban Systems Lab. He studies the ecology in, of, and for cities to advance resilience, sustainability, and justice. He contributes regularly to a number of of scientific journals including Nature, and his work has been and covered in media such as The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Nation. His keynote will be followe by Adrian Allen
Keynote | Urban Resilience of or Resilient Justice? Trajectories, Politics and Outcomes Across the Urban Global South
10 December | 10am | UIC Aula Magna
Adriana Allen is Professor of Development Planning and Urban Sustainability at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit at UCL. Her work focuses on investigating and promoting transformative links between socio-environmental change, justice and sustainability in urban and peri-urban contexts, by exploring how grassroots groups navigate their right to the city through food, land, infrastructures & services and risk accumulation cycles.
Keynote | Justice in Urban Climate Practices: From Green Gentrification to Pathways for Transformative and Equitable Adaptation
11 December | 10am | UIC Aula Magna
Isabelle Anguelovski is an ICREA Research Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona’s Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) where she leads the lab BCNUEJ. Her research examines the extent to which urban plans and policy decisions contribute to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, and how communities contest environmental inequities as a result of urban (re)development processes. She has published numerous articles around issues of environmental justice and gentrification is also a guest professor of our master program.
Keynote | Anticipation: The Ultimate Mind Set for Resilience in Flood Risk Management
11 December | 5:30pm | UIC Aula Magna
Chris Zevenvergen is a Professor at the Water Engineering Department of IHE Delft. He is aresearcher on various environmental issues related to the building industry, such as environmental impact assessments, product development, emission modeling, testing procedures, building codes and guidelines in the 1980s, followed by 25 years international research and consultancy in environmental engineering and water management. He has published more than 100 scientific publications in the field of environmental engineering and urban flood management.
Keynote | The Invisible Houses: Housing, Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction in Developing Countries
12 December | 4pm | UN-Habitat CRPP, Recinte Modernista Sant Pau
Gonzalo Lizarralde is a professor at the School of Architecture at the Université de Montréal. He is a distinguished expert on risk reduction, low-cost housing, and informality in urban settings and studies the causes and consequences of rapid urban transformation triggered by natural disasters, climate change, socio-political conflicts, and economic instability. He as fifteen years of experience in consulting for architecture and construction projects and has published numerous articles in the fields of low-cost housing and project management.
The conference, organized by our codirector Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, our program coordinator Raquel Colacios, and our faculty member and founder of the Urban Resilience Research Network Lorenzo Chelleri, is a joint venture between UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, UN-HABITAT and the Urban Resilience Research Network.
The first two days of the conference will take place at the UIC Campus, and the third day will be hosted at UN-Habitat’s offices at the Recinte Moderniste Sant Pau.
Watch the livestream of the opening and closing sessions, download the full program and for more information, visit the website.