Sustainable Planning Challenges: Rapid Urbanization, Global Recession and Climate Change

[i]9th Symposium of the International Urban Planning and Environment Association (UPE9) - Call For Abstracts [/i] [b]New deadline is January 31, 2010[/b] 3rd - 6th , August 2010 Guangzhou City, China For some time, opportunities and strategies for sustainable development have been significantly challenged by rapid urbanization and climate change. To this we must now add the recent phenomenon of the Global Recession. In China, for example, overall land area per capita is about one third of the world average. However, with increasing conversion of land to urban uses, the amount of agricultural land per capita is only one quarter of that found worldwide. China’s accelerating economic growth and urban development have led to over-consumption of natural resources, over-loaded carrying capacity, and deterioration in specific regions’ ecological systems. There are seven specific focus areas: 1. Challenges in planning theory 2. Rapid urbanization in global city-regions 3. Global recession and its economic, social, and environmental impacts 4. The responses of planning and environmental professionals to Climate Change 5. Governance and regulatory issues 6. Emerging technologies, tools and methods for urban planning and the environment 7. Special topics in China’s urban planning and development For more information: www.upe9.org