Urbanicity News

FEATURES: New features on Urbanicity - submit your news, events and courses - if you want to submit a news item, conference details or courses and programmes for listing at Urbanicity, simply click on the links above. Alternatively, all of these features are now available at our home page www.urbanicity.org.

EVENTS: 12 New events for 2012 published this month at our online events calendar - far and away the most comprehensive in the world - please let us know if you have an urban related event you would like listed.

SUBSCRIBERS: 579 new subscribers to City Matters in December - 129,000 in total

Time to air your clean laundry in public: The European ENGAGE campaign has been launched!
Covenant of Mayors signatories have engaged their city to achieve and go beyond the EU "3x20" objectives. They need the support of all citizens and local stakeholders to jointly reach these targets. With ENGAGE, citizens take action for Europe!

Urban Parks Grew in 2011, as Employment Declines
The 100 largest U.S. cities added 120 new parks last year, but overall spending remained largely flat. Approximately half the cities experienced cuts in their parks budgets, forcing departments to defer maintenance costs even as usership grows.

Better transport for better cities
The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and UN-HABITAT have joined hands to help improve urban mobility in cities around the world many of which are growing increasingly polluted by vehicle exchaust often because of poor public transport.

Flying the urban design flag at UNHQ
UN-HABITAT has teamed up with the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and the United Nations Academic Impact agency to stage a glittering urban design exhibition in the visitor's lobby of the world body's global headquarters.

LINKS Project - The Technical Issues of Eco-Restoration of the Built Heritage
The URBACT LINKS project led by the city of Bayonne seeks to establish a positive relationship between living/housing in historic inner cities, promotion of the sustainable urban model and the preservation of architectural identity and heritage value.

Urban road charge in European cities: a possible means towards a new culture for urban mobility?
The high traffic rates in European cities have a great impact on environmental and economic damages. Air pollution, noise and greenhouse gas emission, delays and traffic accidents are good for a 100 billion euros each year, corresponding to about 1% of the EU’s GDP.

Train Cars Recycle Kinetic Energy
A subway in Warsaw, Poland now features a system that captures the energy created by braking train cars for reuse elsewhere in the system.

3 years of the Covenant of Mayors - cities show the way out of the crisis
Faced with economic hardship, cities signatory to the Covenant of Mayors have still managed to allocate over €40 billion to their sustainable energy development.

Asia's "Instant" Cities: Perfect Cities or Perfect Storm?
The "utopian" cities being built from scratch in Asia to accommodate its fantastic rate of urbanization are striving to be smarter and greener, but may also be financially risky.

Cities say: Urbanize the climate agenda
Cities are calling for the global climate agenda to be urbanized. During the UN climate talks in Durban (COP17/CMP7) cities are putting on a powerful demonstration of their ability to find local solutions to the global challenge of climate change – and they need to be engaged in and empowered by a global climate framework to support their actions.

City News

Mixed Feelings About Proposed Private-Public Space in London
The plan to create a floating public space along the Thames is a great idea, writes critic Rowan Moore, but the proposed London River Park will suffer from its private ownership and management.

Michigan Cities See Placemaking as the Key to a Brighter Future
Officials in recession-battered Michigan increasingly see placemaking as an important economic recovery strategy. The Michigan Municipal League, a coalition of local governments, is leading efforts to make the state's cities talent magnets.

Town Builds Restaurant to Lure Chef
Pocomoke City officials have funded the construction of a restaurant and bar in their city with no tenant on the horizon - just hopes to attract a star chef and spur economic development downtown.

London Experiments With Shared Streets
It may seem counter-intuitive, but "shared space" advocates say cars and bikes will get in fewer accidents if barriers and traffic lane markets are removed. London's Exhibition Road will open next month using this design concept.

Mongolia Constructs Glacier To Cool Capital
The Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator will begin construction this winter of an artificial glacier to cool the city next summer and provide melt water for drinking and irrigation.

New Efforts To Liven Up Parks
In Ohio, officials are looking at new ways to liven up their parks. They are providing incentives for volunteers to help beautify and maintain the parks, in addition to adding new programs to attract users to frequent the parks.

Pocket Parks Coming to Los Angeles
Last week, Mayor Villaraigosa presented his vision for a more livable L.A., including the addition of fifty pocket parks.

Copenhagen: Taking a Diversity Charter to the Business Community
When the City of Copenhagen was developing the next iteration of its integration plan, it realized that it was missing an important element.

Mayor of Vancouver wants to stay committed to the Kyoto Protocol
While Canada does not want to make a second commitment to Kyoto emission targets once the current phase expires in 2012, ICLEI Member Vancouver wants to stick to the Kyoto Protocol.

Pelican crossing providing pedestrian green wave
In autumn 2008, the City of Graz implemented a new type of pelican crossing on one the streets in the city that has particularly high pedestrian and cyclist flows. The typical pattern of vehicle priority was turned on its head.

Chaotic Urban Growth Hinders Economic Development In India
Amy Kazim explore how chaotic urban growth and a political preference for rural government is beginning to hinder the development of India's largest cities.

Spanish Cities Saddled with Half-Completed Infrastructure Projects
Marc Herman writes that cities in Spain used the housing bubble as a way to finance major infrastructure projects that now, after the real estate crash, they really can't afford.

To read the full stories and more news, please visit http://www.urbanicity.org/Site/News/default.aspx

International Urban Parks Conference - save the date.

European Conference on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems - call for abstracts.

Call for Papers - City Solutions Expo & Conference.

Register now - World Future Energy Summit.

Green Cities 2012 - Register Now and Save $300.

Discounted registration - Cyber Security for Governments Asia.

REAL CORP 2012 - Call for Papers.

February 2012

New Partners for Smart Growth

Urban Transformations: booms, busts and other catastrophes

The Future of Cities

Intermodes 2012

FCM Sustainable Communities Conference 2012

6th Australasian Housing Researchers' Conference 2012 (AHRC12)

4th Annual Urban Waterfronts

Urban and Housing Development

7th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design

Urban Transport World Australia

World Sustainable Energy Days

5th European Summit of Regions and Cities

Urban Congestion 2012

Visions for the Future of Housing: Mega Cities

Coastal Cities Summit II

International Transport Forum

CNU 2012

Resilient Cities 2012

REAL CORP 2012

ICLEI World Congress

Healthy Cities 2012

6th International Conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics

ECOMM 2012

5th Knowledge Cities World Summit

Human Centered Design for Intelligent Transport Systems

2012 INURA Conference

ENHR 2012

World Conference on Disaster Management

Velo-city Global 2012

World Cities Summit 2012

Water Solutions for Livable and Sustainable Cities

Sister Cities International Conference

International Urban Parks Conference

International Association for Urban Climate Conference

4th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC Davos 2012

World Urban Forum 2012

ISOCARP 2012

Child in the City Conference

WEFTEC

Stormwater 2012

5th International Urban Design Conference

European Forum for Urban Security Conference 2012

World Green City 2012

To see all events, please visit
http://www.urbanicity.org/Site/EventsCalendar/Events12.aspx

SAVE THE DATE: International Urban Parks Conference

July 14-17, 2012, New York City

As our planet becomes more urban, new and revitalized parks are critical to making our cities greater and greener – places that thrive economically, environmentally and socially.

City Parks Alliance presents an international urban parks conference, Greater & Greener: Re-Imagining Parks for 21st Century Cities, the premier forum for urban park innovation, offering high-profile topics and speakers, interactive mobile workshops and tours, a volunteer-led service project and a dynamic, diverse audience of city park and recreation professionals, advocates and urban thought leaders from around the world.

Visit www.urbanparks2012.org now to sign up for updates and be the first to know when registration opens.

Save the date - WEFTEC 2012
85th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference
Conference > September 29 – October 3 | Exhibition > October 1–3
New Orleans Morial Convention Center | New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
www.WEFTEC.org

It’s never too early to think about WEFTEC! Visit www.WEFTEC.org/Approval for tips on asking and receiving approval to attend WEFTEC. There you can watch a three-minute YouTube video and find several helpful worksheets that will help you spell out benefits to attending, estimate expenses, gauge return on investment, and much more. We hope to see you in New Orleans!
Why do thousands of professionals attend WEFTEC each year?

Presenters

• Advance your reputation by presenting your work at the most highly regarded technical conference
• Promote your expertise to an engaged audience of professional peers
• Personally enhance the knowledge base of the industry

Gain added exposure for your work in the official conference proceedings, on CD-Rom and online in Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Attendees

• Learn the latest practices, technologies, solutions, and regulations affecting your field of expertise
• Build your own educational program from technical sessions and workshops totaling more than 30 hours of training
• Network with thousands of professionals from across the USA and around the world.

Experience cutting-edge water quality technologies and services, and find solutions to your everyday challenges at the WEFTEC exhibition

Register now - Green Cities 2012 Conference & Expo

Green Cities 2012, Asia-Pacific’s largest green building conference and expo will bring together the best and brightest green building professionals, industry experts, suppliers and manufacturers for three days of green building conversation, innovation and collaboration.

We want your thinking at Green Cities 2012.

Enter the Green Cities conversation.
More than 1200 delegates, 40 exhibiting companies, and 520 Master Class and site tour attendees went to Green Cities 2011. Don’t miss your chance to engage with speakers and issues at the forefront of green buildings, communities and cities.

THINK Green Cities 2012.
greencities.org.au

Call for Papers - REAL CORP 2012

17th International Conference on Urban Planning, Regional Development and Information Society

1st announcement and Call for Papers:
“RE-MIXING THE CITY” – Towards Sustainability and Resilience?
14-16 May 2012, Multiversum Schwechat (Vienna), Austria
www.corp.at

"There is nothing permanent except change." (Heraclitus)

Cities worldwide are facing rapid social, economic, environmental, technological and cultural changes such as: rapid urbanisation, aging of society, security issues, housing emergency, new solutions on mobility, integration of immigrants, food and water shortage, etc.

Especially in times of economic crisis and demographic changes in cities, it is necessary to think about how to best handle what we have, and therefore “RE-MIXING THE CITY” is a challenge to manage and re-combine the elements which make our modern cities in order to better respond to change: REAL CORP 2012 in Schwechat will offer the possibility to collectively discuss a wide range of topics in different panel groups and workshops. We kindly invite you to submit your contributions and abstracts/papers for REAL CORP 2012 to the following sections and topics:

• Living, working, learning, relaxing, enjoying, shopping, ... – anything anywhere & anytime?
• Is it the purpose of spatial planning to “sort land uses in space”?
• Do the urban patterns and structure of our cities still meet the needs of the people in their everyday life?
• How do urban, transport and environmental technologies and solutions shape our cities?
• New faces, new approaches, new ideas – does and can migration re-mix the city?
• -space patterns of the 24/7 city
• “Urban Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)”/intelligent urban environments
• Resilience, safety and security
  

Special topics of REAL CORP 2012:

• Urban, Transport & Environmental Technologies and Solutions

• Urban AAL (Ambient Assisted Living)/Intelligent Urban Environments

• Resilience, Safety & Security

Report on the Inaugural IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference

The inaugural IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference was held October 30-November 1st in Seattle, Washington USA. The conference jointly sponsored by the IEEE Seattle Section (ieee-seattle.org) and IEEE Region 6 (sites.ieee.org/r6) had 222 attendees from industry, NGOs, government, foundations and academe. On Sunday attendees could sit through tutorials on power generation projects and system level thinking.

Day one opened with a welcome from Conference Chair Paul Kostek, followed by remarks from 2011 IEEE President Dr. Moshe Kam. The first conference keynote was given by Dr. Tony Marjoram (retired UNESCO STEM group leader). A panel on the good and bad issues related to technology was held with Dr. Kentaro Toyama (UC – Berkeley) and Ahktar (VP Microsoft Community Relations).

At dinner on Monday October 31st the attendees heard from Lawrence Friedl of NASA. He discussed how NASA’s work in earth observation could be used to improve lives and respond to natural disasters.
Dr Patrick Ball (VP Human Rights Benetech, Corp) was the day two opening plenary speaker and highlighted the work Benetech does and his personal experience in the use of technology in developing nations and the study/research of war crimes.
A panel was held on the role of professional engineering societies in humanitarian activities – the speakers included – Cathy Leslie (ED -Engineers Without Borders – USA), Noha ElGobashy (ED Engineers for Change) and Pete Sobel (IEEE – Director Global Development). Each discussed what their organizations are currently doing and planned projects and collaborations.

The conference closed with a presentation by Dr. Mike North (Reallocate.org) and IEEE 2012 President Gordon Day discussed the IEEE plans for 2012.

The GHTC 2012 Conference will be held again in Seattle from October 21 -24. The Call for Paper deadline was extended to April 20, 2012 (www.ieeeghtc.org/2012).