International Conference on Evolving Cities and Towns

(ICEC 2023)

University of Southampton, 12 – 14 September 2023

Hybrid conference 

The 4th International Conference on Evolving Cities and Towns (ICEC 2023) took place as a hybrid event with over 150 delegates joining in-person and online at the University of Southampton, UK from the 12th – 14th September 2023.  The conference chairs would like to take this opportunity to thank the participants for helping to make ICEC2023 a success. 

Over the course of the three days, there were 4 panels including 16 panelists 3 keynotes, 58 oral presentations and 8 posters by delegates from international and national organisations (see ICEC 2023 Book of Abstracts). Day 1 covered collaboration and co-creation with talks around co-design and civic engagement followed by a panel and a collaborative participatory budgeting game. Day 2 focused on frameworks for flourishing with parallel sessions on liveability, cityscapes of change, human-centric equitable infrastructure and energy systems alongisde 2 panels. The conference concluded with talks on inovations in flexibility and retrofitting accompanied by an interactive interview with a Southampton MP and a panle on inspiring change and urban transformation. Over the three days participants were able to discuss ways to develop multi-stakeholder partnerships and implement innovative solutions to propel cities and towns towards healthier and low carbon pathways. 

 

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CONFERENCE

Cllr Roz Chadd

Deputy Leader of Hampshire County Council

Dr Debbie Chase

Director of Public Health, Southampton City Council

Cllr Satvir Kaur

Leader of Southampton City Council to give welcome speech 

Eng Isaac Kiva

Secretary, Renewable Energy, State Department for Energy, Ministry of Energy & Petroleum, Kenya

Prof William Powrie

Professor of Geotechnical Engineering to give a talk on coastal cities and towns

Dr Alan Whitehead

Labour MP for Southampton, Test and Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Net Zero 

Click on a panel to see the topic and contributors

Collaboration and co-creation panel

Evolving cities as complex systems panel

Frameworks for flourishing panel

Inspiring change and urban transformation panel

For the 2023 conference we organised the programme around three ‘meta’-themes that cut across our established eight conference topics. 

This theme is centred around inspiring stories of impact and innovation in cities and towns from around the UK and the world. The theme seeks to learn from leading responses to the challenges of the 21st century, highlighting the potential scale and pace of change.

This theme is intended to open up a discussion around the frameworks within which we understand human (and non-human) flourishing within cities and the value we place on different aspects of the built and natural environment and systems as we transition to net-zero.

The final theme will be centred around collaboration and co-creation. Recognising the urgency of the net-zero challenge, this theme will examine how relevant stakeholders can engage in the creation and implementation of processes and solutions.

Message from the Chairs

 

Prof AbuBakr Bahaj

Dr Stephanie Gauthier

After successful previous conferences we are pleased that we received plenty of positive feedback with encouragements to sustain the conference in the years to come. We thank all those that contributed to the Conference, either virtually or in person and we look forward to welcoming you to the next International Conference on Evolving Cities in 2025.