30^th International Conference on Urban Planning
and Regional Development in the Information Society

Not only is the world’s population constantly growing, many cities around the globe are also subject to permanent growth, even in countries and regions with constant or even shrinking population numbers. Global urbanisation is not only creating new challenges in terms of infrastructure, mobility, housing and spatial planning, but especially in climate mitigation and adoption, in technological change - especially digitisation, in resilience towards multiple natural and man-made challenges and in inclusion and accessibility to improve the quality of life even under adverse conditions.

In world’s megacities, such challenges have to be tackled on a large scale – with all the technical, organisational, administrative hurdles that have to be dealt with. What about medium-sized and smaller cities?

Can they be faster, more flexible, more efficient than the “big tankers” when it comes to innovations? Can they lead the way to a bright future? Can they take us to solutions that help us to boldly go where no cities have gone before, especially when it comes to the criteria of sustainability, resilience and especially quality of life for the whole society? Can solutions developed on a smaller scale be upscaled to metropolises on the one hand and even trickle down to small cities and rural regions? Can measures be easily scaled up and down or do they require completely different approaches?

We therefore invite contributions from all disciplines involved in urban development and spatial planning and related fields in order to analyse the challenges for the future of urban spaces in a holistic manner. In addition to science-based contributions, we also welcome practise-based reports on short-term measures and/or long-term strategies for urban and regional development.

Which questions and topics are you dealing with, what are the challenges in your city or in the places you have been or are working on?

Traditionally we are keeping  the range of topics at REAL CORP conferences very broad – as we are convinced that it is advantageous and necessary to use the conference to hear about other topics, to get inspired by similar and maybe totally different approaches and very important: getting to know experts and personalities with the same and also different professional, organisational, cultural backgrounds and networking with them – to possibly develop new ideas and – by URBAN INNOVATION help cities TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO CITIES HAVE GONE BEFORE.

The City of Graz will be a fantastic host city – we are going to provide some more information in upcoming newsletters, but have a look at https://graz.at/– perhaps you want to spend some additional days before or after the conference in Graz and its surroundings.

FH Joanneum will host REAL CORP 2025 and is an outstanding educational and research institution, especially the Department of Building, Environment and Society, www.fh-joanneum.at/en/university/departments/building-environment-society/

These main topics are going to be addressed during REAL CORP 2025,and we invite you to submit your contributions to these and related themes:

1. The special role and quality of medium-sized and smaller cities
   • Specialisation and positioning?
   • Comparative advantages?
   • Special quality of life?
   • Co-operations and networks?
   • Relations to vicinity and countryside?
2. Climate mitigation and climate adoption
   • NBS – Nature Based Solutions as a cure for the urban spirit?
   • Green and Blue Infrastructure – how can it improve the environment, spatial structure and quality of life?
   • Reducing land consumption, unsealing soil, renovation and reuse
   • Food security, urban gardening and urban farming – roofs, facades, greenhouses, underground space, aquaponics, …
   • Trees and bushes everywhere, even in historic environments? Cosmetics or real contributions to better life?
3. Cities4All and Regions4All
   • Inclusive and accessible
   • Persons with disabilities
   • Demographic change
   • Multicultural environments
4. Environmental friendly, effective, attractive and smart mobility on all scales:
   • 15 minute city? Active mobility!
   • Attractive and efficient public transport and traffic solutions for the whole city
   • Regional traffic and transport networks
   • Long distance and international travel – business and leisure
5. Dimensions of growth and management of cities
   • Horizontal expansion into the surroundings with all known challenges
   • Going Underground – what are the perspectives for expanding cities not only in area and height but also facilitating underground space
   • Expansion in time: from the 9 to 5 city to 24/7 – a chance to balance peaks or simply more stress?
   • Outer space – how are our cities and regions monitored and even steered from space applications?
6. The Future of affordable Housing
   • smart, resilient, zero energy, avoiding segregation
   • future production, distribution, storage, consumption
7. Innovation and “war for talent”
   • Educational institutions, smart companies,  socio-economic stability – what are the ingredients for ongoing innovaton?
8. Disasters, crises, wars and conflicts
   • Preparedness – Mitigation – Disaster – Response - Recovery
   • Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions
   • Man-made crises and disasters
   • Diseases and epidemics
9. The holistic view on the (Smart) City
   • technology, business, environmental effects, social aspects  – ingredients for more livable cities?
10. AI and Big Data, New datasources, new methods and technologies– what else?
    • Actually heavily discussed in basically all fields of research and application
    • What are the perspectives for Urban and Regional Planning?
11. Status and future of the profession of urban and regional planning
    • Planners' involvement in actual developments?
    • Do we learn and teach the right things?
    • What about lifelong learning and in what context should it take place?
    • Challenges from the local to the global level, from the neighbourhood, building block or the village to the megacity and urban agglomerations of up to 100 million inhabitants – all with the same tools?

For all these topics REAL CORP 2025 asks especially about

• The role of urban planning and related disciplines
• Digitisation and technological innovation
• Short term measures, long range perspectives
• Ongoing research, new ideas, best practise examples, case studies