Urban Planning for Resilience

Organised with the Slovenian Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning

Recognising the urgency to guard against climate related disasters, the EUKN joined with Slovenia for a Policy Lab on Urban Planning for Resilience. The event, held online, aimed to focus the attention of the urban practitioner community around an issue that has become even more pressing since the severe flooding Slovenia experienced in August 2023.

A keynote presentation from resilience expert, Dr. Lorenzo Chelleri, covered the evolution of the resilience field and conveyed several key messages, including the need to differentiate between resilience and sustainability, identify trade-offs and possible unintended consequences and to develop greater skills and human resources and address the gap in policy coherence.

A panel of experts then provided an overview of their experience in building resilience in various contexts. The speakers included, Jane da Mosto, Director of We are Here Venice, a group safeguarding Venice against climate threats and Nikša Božić, who oversaw Zagreb’s recovery from earthquakes. They were joined by Maarten de Backer, of Perspective.Brussels, who is helping make Brussels a ‘sponge city’ as well as Miran Gajšek, Head of Environment and Spatial Planning for the City of Celje. Urban planner, tech expert and consultant Nikolas Neubert offered analysis and response to each of the presentations.