Humanising the cities and their various social and health dimensions, raising awareness of climate changes and their impact on planning, exchange of global experiences and expertise are in focus at the two-day October Urban Planning Forum 2022, organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning from Monday at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre (OCEC).
The forum aims to enhance the economic dimension of future cities, consider urban sustainability that serves the goals of Oman Vision 2040, review the experiences of regional development projects, and enable environmental sustainability is rich with the participation of experts in urban planning, CEOs of related projects, as well as engineering consulting firms, and school and college students.
As many as 1,500 people are expected to visit the forum. Its accompanying events will continue for two days.
“The forum is the result of believing in the importance of the urban strategy in raising societal awareness of the nature and objectives of urban planning and in order to enhance the concept of prosperous communities,” said the Public Relations representatives from the ministry.
The forum includes four themes, with more than ten speakers presenting over 14 research papers in the areas of sustainable quality of life for prosperous communities, urban planning and risk management, regional development projects, in addition to planning and the spatial nature.
The theme of sustainable quality of life for prosperous societies includes three papers on city humanisation, cities for all, and green infrastructure.
The theme of urban planning and risk management, in turn, includes three papers on planning flexibility to adapt to climate change, city planning, mental health and the impact of the pandemic on life in the cities, and the importance of planning in economic prosperity and cities to keep pace with economic trends.
The theme of regional development projects discusses the sustainable city projects in Yiti, Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia, and Dubai Expo 2020, while the theme of planning and spatial nature reviews planning areas of special nature, parks, wadis, planning and seasonal climate, and Geo-Oman.
The forum also involves a number of accompanying events, the most important of which is the signing of a trilateral cooperation programme between MoHUP, the Environment Authority (EA) and Muscat Municipality on tree planting in residential neighbourhoods in Muscat Governorate, which comes as part of the Authority to plant 1 million trees.
There will also be the Urban Planning Hackathon, which targets undergraduate students of last year as well as recently graduated students of architecture and design majors in order to empower them and enhance their energies and ideas to serve the process of construction and urban planning besides urban planning debates targeting school students.
The MoHUP aims to raise awareness of the importance of urban planning, contribute to the aspirations of the community in the future lifestyle, empower the youth and involve them in the urban planning sector, enable the National Urban Development Strategy, as well as involve institutions in the urban planning process and to achieve institutional integration towards future cities.
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