LIST OF PANELS

COVID-19 urges us to develop, or re-consider, public policy and urban planning for sustainable city. Few arguments have been explicitly and effectively made on the validity of the urban and national land planning, such as urban railways and stations, residential development in historic area, mergers of hospitals, metropolitan highway, and Maglev, to make Tokyo more economically productive and globally competitive, for instance. In the period of the pandemic, however, the development image of Tokyo was shaken and diversified by witnessing unbelievably vacant commuter and bullet trains and experiencing ‘new’ lifestyles balancing work and private life. New urban policy and planning, not only in Tokyo but also in other global cities, should deal with the emerging change in value and behavior of people as well as the existing issues including climate change, resilience against natural disaster, gentrification, democratic governance, and sustainable infrastructure. Or, as Norman Foster maintains in his article on the Guardian, the evolution of cities would simply be accelerated by the pandemic.
Holistic understanding of the social impact made by urban planning, especially infrastructure development, would not have been fully elaborated. Urban expressway reform, for instance, has been planned or executed in many cities, including Big Dig in Boston, Madrid Rio in Madrid, and the restoration of Cheonggyecheon, Seoul. Despite the huge budget and public attention, there have been a limited number of studies on those cases, particularly focusing on the wider impact on the society. In the case of Madrid, Madrid Rio would perhaps have contributed to the higher attractiveness of surrounding areas, especially for young creative people with various backgrounds, and the higher competitiveness of the city based on diversity and inclusion. But the policy process to plan the M-30 expressway reform and Madrid Rio has often been a matter of debate for the lack of deliberation and comprehensive planning. On what factors/aspects does an urban policy or infrastructure development influence in what mechanism? What policy, planning and infrastructure would serve for the sustainability and creativity of city?
Democratic frameworks, such as collaborative governance, would be further explored for sustainable and creative urban planning. The resilience of city and/or community gets even more important to cope with the uncertainty and instability caused, or accelerated, by COVID-19. Moreover, the inclusiveness, one of the key factors to attract creative people, could be strengthened not only by urban space and infrastructure but also through participatory planning process and governance system. What collaboration should be formulated by what institutional/administrative framework for the resilient design of city in this transition period?
This panel aims at developing our holistic understanding of the social impact by urban planning and infrastructure for future urban design responding to the changes and/or evolution caused by COVID-19. It would extend the discussion to the role of democratic frameworks and concepts for sustainable and creative urban planning. The panel invites both papers providing theoretical framework and ones from the practical perspective, especially case studies in various regions and multidisciplinary research.

This panel aims at developing our holistic understanding of the social impact by urban planning and infrastructure for future urban design responding to the changes and/or evolution caused by COVID-19. The general questions in this panel are (1) what issues and values in relation to urban sustainability and creativity should be addressed in post-COVID urban planning and policy, (2) what urban policy, planning and infrastructure should be (re)considered for higher sustainability and creativity, (3) what governance would be effective for implementing and//or designing such urban policy and planning. As the discussion in the panel would range from the conceptual aspect of urban planning to the practical ones (design, plan, implementation, and evaluation), it invites both papers providing theoretical framework and ones anchored to practices in various regions. The panel is expected to be an opportunity to explore further collaborative research and practice from the multidisciplinary perspective, especially between urban/civil engineering and public policy.
Urban and civil engineers have sought the higher density and connectivity for the higher productivity of city. However, for example, the experiences under the pandemic would make us pursue hybrid working styles with diversified environments more urgently. People would put more emphasis on sustainability, such as resilience, work-life balance, gender equality and well-being in the post-COVID era. The concept of smart city would likewise be revisited based on deeper collaboration between social sciences and engineering. We should thus argue values on which urban planning should be grounded and understand social impacts of urban policy, planning and infrastructure. Past pioneering cases of urban (re)development would give us useful lessons and insights; for instance, “What public space development could reduce unintentional gentrification and contribute to more inclusive area?” and “What policy process and governance enabled such good practices?”