Webinar: What Shapes Our Future Cities?
“What Shapes Our Future Cities?” webinar was organized in collaboration with Arup and Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), to discuss the trends that will shape the Future Cities Inspiring presentations and best practices from Turkey and all over the world on the topics such as social inclusion and participation, smart cities and technological trends, sustainable urban mobility and healthy streets were shared during the webinar by representatives from local governments as well as experts working in this field.
The international webinar, moderated by Şeyda Taluk, Political Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Expert, started with the opening speech of Mehmet Kilic, CTBUH Turkey Representative and Turner Country Manager, and continued with international speakers. In the first session of the webinar, Phil Dowrick, Partnerships and Engagements Leader at Arup International Development, made a presentation on the importance of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) and stakeholder participation in urban planning. Stating that GESI and participation provide a faster economic growth, Dowrick emphasized that giving importance to this subject will have social and economic benefits for "all".
In the second session “Technological Trends in Future Cities”, Mehmet Gülez, EY Turkey Markets and Innovation Leader, shared the technological trends that will shape the Future Cities and drew attention to the importance of Smart Cities created by the leadership of digital transformation for the development of cities. Followed by, Ersoy Pehlivan, Smart Cities and Communities Leader at Arup Turkey, who talked about “Transforming Bursa into a Smart City” Project within the scope of Global Future Cities Prosperity Fund Programme in Turkey (PF GFCP Turkey), shared examples and explained the trends that guide the smart city transformation. Summarizing the scope and benefits of the project, Pehlivan shared the activities carried out in this process to the participants. Cüneyt Taşkesen, Head of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Smart Urbanism and Innovation Department, made a presentation about the project that took place in Bursa. Taşkesen, while sharing the Smart City strategy of Bursa with the participants, emphasized that pandemic conditions reveal the importance of smart city implementations.
In the session of “Urban Mobility in Future Cities”, Johnny Ojeil, Transport Planning Leader at Arup Midlands, addressed the issue of urban mobility and gave an informative speech about the general scope of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) and shared examples of good practices in European cities. Later, Utku Cihan, Head of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Transportation Department, pointed out that they started preparing the first SUMP in Turkey, also the first in the world considering the conditions pandemic. Cihan explained the project “Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for Istanbul” within the scope of PF GFCP Turkey. In the continuation of his speech, Cihan gave examples of the projects they have carried out for urban mobility in Istanbul and their future goals.
In the last session, Sertaç Erten, Masterplanning and Urban Design Leader at Arup Turkey, made a presentation to convey the "Healthy Streets Approach in Future Cities". Emphasizing the public space needs of cities, Erten shared the basic principles of the approach in her presentation and shared the examples of Healthy Streets from around the world. Erten explained the studies carried out with Çankaya Municipality as an example of Turkey, within the scope of “Çankaya Healthy Streets Project”, one of the interventions of PF GFCP Turkey.
As known, Arup is the Delivery Partner of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for the PF GFCP Turkey. The webinar also focused on this cooperation which contributes to the Future Cities of Turkey. The webinar attracted great interest from the participants, ended with a Q&A session and reached more than three hundred audience from various cities around the world.
The recording of the webinar is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ntf83rw0pNo
