INTA 34 WORLD CONGRESS: RETHINKING YOUR URBAN REGION

In keeping with the Congress theme you are participating in rethinking how Congress operates and communicates. Your presence may be physical or virtual. You may participate by blog, twitter or verbally in interactive workshops. You can give and receive feed back. To help, here are some issues that arose during the first morning. 

RENEWING OUR URBAN VISION – REINVENTING URBAN TERRITORY  As we face the challenge of accelerating change we find that classic urban models no longer apply. Our actions cannot be based on yesterday’s references. Rethinking territory  Territory is the physical space in which we operate and seek to manage. But increasingly we live in a virtual world with ‘the cell phone as our third hand’ giving us global connectivity and accessibility. Can we manage this interaction? New technology – new opportunities, new challenges  Instantaneous communication and global connectivity result in increasingly informed individual behaviour. This is changing the city, its patterns and its infrastructure. Direct access to online services such as healthcare can transform service delivery. How will individual lifestyle activities and patterns impact on what has been a collective approach to planning? Technology now enables real time information on how cities, buildings and citizens are performing. Our planning and management can be based on continuous post occupancy feedback which enables us to model, simulate and measure activity and performance. Thoughtful cities are emerging where even plants can send a message when they need watered. Have we grasped the breakthrough this offers? Rethinking governance  Our approach has evolved from cities to city regions, to clusters of cities. Now we must go further and envisage metropolitan ‘areas’ that include the whole ecosystem, within which we foster collaboration at a range of levels and seek internal cohesion and external connections. Each problem has its own level and scale. Through governance we can generate and allocate wealth and achieve leverage. Rethinking our priorities  People and better quality of life remain at the core of all our effort with technology as a means to that end. We seek social cohesion and respect identity. We aim to prosper (the economy) protect (the environment) and provide (social welfare). Rethinking our mindset  We must continuously adapt. When we shape change we achieve transformation. Pessimism is a mood ……. Optimism is a question of will

Report done by Kyle Alexander (Strategic Investment Board, Belfast, UK)

Board Member of INTA