International Working Group - Resilient Metropolitan Regions (IWG-RMR)
Environmental and climate emergency
Territorial cohesion
The IWG-RMR combines academic knowledge with its members’ practical experience to answer questions from both perspectives: How can we make metropolitan regions more resilient? Which strategic, planning and organisational approaches in metropolitan regions can be identified as good practices for other regions and should therefore be further developed and extended?
Objectives
The central objective of the working group is to put forward proposals for increasing resilience in spatial and strategic planning, using selected metropolitan regions in German-speaking countries as an example, as well as in southwestern European countries. The group seeks to contribute to expanding both spatial and planning theory and the knowledge and discourse of planning practice.
In 2023, the Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL) opened a call for proposals to create an international working group called “Resilient Metropolitan Regions - Spatial Planning and Management for Urban Transformation”. Due to the subject matter and given the PEMB’s recent experience in drafting the Metropolitan Commitment 2030, the general coordinator, Oriol Estela Barnet, was invited to submit the PEMB’s candidacy to form part of the group and contribute its practical experience.
The working group, which started its work in May 2024 with a meeting in Valencia, is composed of 12 members representing different European countries, coming from both practice and research. The group’s composition prioritised a regional approach to sustainable and resilient urban planning and development in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, as well as in Germany and Austria. The working group requires its members to dedicate approximately three years to the project.
The central objective of the international working group “Resilient Metropolitan Regions - Spatial Planning and Management for Urban Transformation” is to contribute to increasing resilience in spatial development, based on the example of selected metropolitan regions in German-speaking countries as well as in southwestern Europe using an interdisciplinary perspective. In this way, the group aims to contribute to expanding both spatial and planning theory, as well as practical planning knowledge and discourses. The following research questions will provide the structure for the work to be carried out:
- What areas of action and challenges for spatial planning result from the multiple crises we currently face?
- How can we make metropolitan regions more resilient?
- How can urban transformations address normative goals such as justice and equality and thus contribute to just and resilient transformation?
- Which spatial planning instruments are suitable to drive the transformation towards resilient metropolitan regions and what adjustments are needed?
- What institutional conditions are necessary to make metropolitan regions more resilient and ensure their sustainable development?
- Which strategic, planning and organisational approaches in metropolitan regions can be established as “good examples” for other regions and should therefore be further developed?
Specific topics will be addressed in detail in thematic workshops that will take place in different face-to-face meetings. Joint outputs of the working group may include articles in scientific journals, monographic publications, policy papers, participation in conferences or other means.
