Urban-Rural Assembly: Co-Visioning Interconnected Regions – Day 2

Even in our so-called “Urban Age”, almost half of the world’s population continues to reside in areas defined as rural. These largely productive landscapes span vast portions of the earth’s land mass. However, in urban research and practice, the “countryside” has not yet received the attention it deserves as a provider of food, water, energy, biodiversity, and other resources for the benefit of urban dwellers and the planet as a whole. To address climate change and better safeguard our critical resources, it is essential to approach urban development more holistically, tackling the interrelationships and metabolisms between urban and rural areas. Such an integrative view calls for circular economies, equitable distribution of resources, practices of solidarity, and care for more-than-human species at the urbanrural interface. Moreover, we must develop a territorial approach to spatial planning and design involving multiple and diverse actors through “co-visioning” processes.

The Urban-Rural Assembly project has addressed these critical issues and needs since 2019. A multi-disciplinary, Sino-German research team has studied rapid sociospatial transformation processes in urbanrural living labs in Zhejiang Province, China, developing strategies and tools for future change.

This closing conference of the Urban-Rural Assembly project will explore new approaches and methodologies for understanding and managing the complex interdependencies and linkages between urban and rural areas. It will present some of the project’s main findings and feature contributions from international experts on territorial planning approaches, best practices from various regions, and policy approaches for just and sustainable urbanrural development.

PROGRAMME

Wednesday, 2 October 2024

9:30 – 9:45 Welcome

• Heike Bauer, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)
• Shu Zhu, ICLEI East Asia

9:45 – 11:15 Roundtable 1: Interconnecting People

Moderation: Sigrun Abels, TU Berlin

Which socio-economic challenges do we face in heterogenous urban-rural regions? How can we create socially inclusive and equitable environments while encouraging participation and ownership in sustainable regional transformation? Who are the “movers and shakers” in such regions?

Impulse Talks:

• Gaoli Xiao, TU Berlin; Huang Huang, Tongji University Shanghai; Ava Lynam, TU Berlin
• Nicole Goymann, Qingshan Village, Hangzhou
• Kerstin Faber, Bundesstiftung Bauakademie Berlin
• Elena Meyer-Clement, University of Copenhagen

Discussants:

• Fengqing Li, Shanghai University
• Nina Gribat, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg

11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 – 13:00 Roundtable 2: Interconnecting Ecosystems

Moderation: Wolfgang Wende, IÖR Dresden

In which ways are natural ecologies and water systems affected by extended urbanization? How can ecosystems and green-blue infrastructure be restored and reconnected in the urban-rural continuum? What role can territorial planning and landscape design approaches play in this endeavor?

Impulse Talks:

• Suili Xiao, IÖR Dresden ; Wentao Yan, Tongji University Shanghai
• Maria Frölich-Kulik, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar; Yulin Zhang, Bauhaus University Weimar
• Yuting Xie, Zhejiang University
• Matthew Gandy, University of Cambridge

Discussants:

• Shu Zhu, ICLEI East Asia
• tba

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Roundtable 3: Interconnecting Resources

Moderation: Anke Hagemann, TU Berlin

What resources will be decisive in a climate-friendly urban future? How can urban-rural resources be harnessed in an equitable and sustainable way? How can resource cycles be reconnected on a regional scale?

Impulse Talks:

• Susanne Rotter, TU Berlin
• Phillip Misselwitz, Bauhaus Earth, Berlin
• Jian Liu, Tsinghua University Beijing
• Marcel Hardrath, City/District of Nordhausen

Discussants:

• Nikos Katsikis, TU Delft
• Hannes Langguth, HCU Hamburg

16:00 – 16:15 Coffee break

16:15 – 17:45 Final Panel: Co-visioning Interconnected Regions

Moderation: Sigrun Langner, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

How can we address relevant fields of sustainable transition in a strategic planning approach? What is the role of scientific research? What means and tools can be used to effectively engage a multitude of actors in co-visioning a sustainable regional future? How can the co-visioning approach be strengthened to achieve a greater impact on regional development and evolve as a relevant instrument for urban-rural governance from a global perspective?

Impulse Talks:

• Cordelia Polinna, Forward Planung und Forschung, Berlin
• Remy Sietchiping, UN-Habitat, Nairobi
• Lukas Pappert, TU Berlin
• Maria Frölich-Kulik, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

Discussants:

• Marcel Hardrath, District Nordhausen
• tba

17:45 End of conference

Host or Publisher ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory