13-12-2009

15-12-2009

Turkey, Istanbul
Cevahir Convention Center

Posted by: citizensofculture

Category: Other

Field: Design

Source http://www.ecocity2009.com/

the 8th International Ecocity Conference

Urban Ecological Foundations for Climate Solutions

Get the city right and everything else has a chance. It's big. It's basic. If our built environment is well organized and well designed, we can go a long way toward solving transport, energy, biodiversity, agricultural and climate problems. This is a rare insight in today's econmoic and environmental debate. It is crucial and this conference is putting it forward at a time of historic necessity.

Why cities?
Cities cover less than 1% of the earth's surface but are responsible for up to 75% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. With more than 50% of the world's population living in cities (set to reach 60% by 2030), there is a ripe opportunity for humanity to reconsider the way we approach the built environment.

Reasons to Attend
Cities are complex, and enacting meaningful change while working with multiple constituencies can be filled with setbacks and frustration. What are the key ingredients for a successful plan that, after months and even years of work, doesn’t end up gathering dust on the shelf or become so watered down that the original vision is lost? What are the basic principles of ecocity design, planning and implementation, and how do they apply to already built out cities as well as new ecocity projects and proposals? Find out how ecocity practitioners — from architects, planners, designers and community organizers to government and political leaders — pull together the right teams of people with good ideas and get their projects up and running, in many cases with limited financial resources and sometimes despite a mountain of political opposition.

Who should attend?
Whether you’re a student, academic, non-profit organization representative, planner, developer, local government official, architect, landscape architect, designer, economist, builder, transportation advocate, or just an interested member of the planetary public — if you care about ecology and cities, this conference has much to offer you. The Ecocity World Summit is an unprecedented opportunity for you to join together with an international community of inspired change-makers who are putting their time and talents to work addressing series problems of the world’s environment with thoughtful and long-range solutions that are truly sustainable, ecologically healthy and socially just.

Themes
The Ecocity Future of Cities, Towns and Villages, Land Use, Architecture and Design, Standards, Metrics and Measures, Transportation, Energy, Nature, Food, Consumption and Population, Business, Government.

Priority Objectives
Leverage Ecocity 2009 to send a message to the United Nations climate change conference that will be concurrently convening in Copenhagen. We're arranging for a live feed from COP15, working with an Istanbul media team and some journalist contacts who will be our conference counterparts in Copenhagen. To date, the UN series has not seriously looked at the form and function of the built environment as an engine of both climate change and climate solutions.

The Ecocity Challenge, a special four-hour session where conference participants will begin to define internationally acceptable principles and metrics against which to evaluate the performance of ecocity projects worldwide.

• Attending
• Not attending
• Maybe