As knowledge partner of the Hannover Messe, ISOCARP co-organised two sessions at Metropolitan Solutions at Hannover Messe 2012, the world’s largest industry fair.
The overall topic was reliable infrastructure and ISOCARP was present in Shanghai, where two sessions were held:
- Reliable water supply, waste water disposal & sewage treatment for smart cities; and
- Efficient traffic management and reliable mobility concepts for smart cities.
ISOCARP General Rapporteur Stefan Rau moderated the two sessions, together with Dong Wei from the Urban Planning Society of China UPSC (also an ISOCARP partner).
Several corporate, institutional and academic speakers covered innovative technology and operations aspects of water and transportation infrastructure solutions for service improvements to cities with a wide range of aspects.
It became apparent that the way we think about infrastructure will change dramatically. From large systems with enormous capital expenditures built in one generation for the following generations to come, flexible, responsive, self-sufficient even distributed systems may offer efficient solutions for the next generation of urban territories in the emerging and developing world. An intelligent combination of large scale systems with distributed systems may become the way to go in the future and may be described as “hub and spokes versus crowd and cloud” systems (attr. S. Rau).
Examples for water supply and water treatment systems showed that on the one hand massive investments are needed for construction and reconstruction of pipe-work, storage, pumping, filtration etc. to service populous metropolitan agglomerations while on the other hand new urban and suburban areas and developing rural areas may best be served by autonomous, automated, remote-controlled scaled systems that are energy-self-sufficient, powered by renewable energies and operation-optimized through sensor-feedback loops indicating water quality and levels.
More details on speakers, speeches and summary conclusions by Stefan Rau and Dong Wei are available for download >>here.
ISOCARP China special session at the world largest industry fair
China has been the partner country of this year’s Hannover Messe (Germany) with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Premier Wen Jiabao present. As part of the knowledge partnership of ISOCARP and the Hannover Messe a full day “China Special” session was organized on April 25 at “Metropolitan Solutions”, a successful venue at the fair. The session was co-organised by ISOCARP and UPSC (Urban Planning Society of China) and focused on the exchange of knowledge on urban technologies between China and Europe.
After the opening of the China special session by delegates from Hannover Messe, UPSC and ISOCARP Dr. Johnson Lee, Party Secretary, Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission (China) gave a keynote on the state of urban planning in the city of Chongqing.
The keynote was followed by presentations of projects on infrastructure and urban development:
- Highspeed train development in China: Dieter Michell-Auli, DB International, Berlin (Germany)
- Sino-German Ecopark in Qingdao: Ralf Marohn, Far, Ludwigshafen (Germany)
- From garbage to green coal – Third generation of recycling of household waste: Dr. Axel Schweitzer, CEO, ALBA Group, Berlin (Germany)
- Efficient train technologies for urbanisation in China: Sebastian Webel, Corporate Communications, Siemens AG, Munich (Germany)
- Low Carbon Future Cities in China: Dr. Daniel Vallentin, Wuppertal Institute, Wuppertal (Germany)
ISOCARP Vice President Dirk Engelke chaired the China Special session and gave a speech demonstrating ISOCARP’s knowledge for better cities. He highlighted selected projects from China and Europe that won the ISOCARP Awards for Excellence in the last years and he summarized criteria for innovative and successful urban projects along aspects from the award-winning projects.
The highlight of the China special session clearly was the panel discussion with the speakers of the afternoon and a representative of UPSC. This panel discussion was moderated by ISOCARP member Stefan Rau. After his input “China and The World – The World and China: Better Cooperation – Better Cities“ the panel discussed urban development in China and “old Europe” and opportunities of mutual technology exchange and development. One conclusion was the necessity of integrating sectors, disciplines, operations and ICT to achieve better Metropolitan Solutions.
The sharing of knowledge linked with the European projects ISOCARP is involved in was actively done by Prof. Didier Vancutsem, head of the ISOCARP Liaison Office in Brussels.
Programme
After its successful premiere and huge visitor interest at Hannover Messe 2011, Metropolitan Solutions is back for a second run. As China is the partner country of the Hannover Messe this year ISOCARP is co-organising a “China special session” together with the Urban Planning Society of China (UPSC) at Metropolitan Solutions 2012.
Primary programme China special session (13:45 to 17:45 followed by a reception)
> Opening of China Special Session by Hannover Messe, UPSC and ISOCARP
> Key Note by the Vice Mayor City of Chongqing (requested)
> Presentations of different projects and companies focused on activities in China
> ISOCARP presentation on the ISOCARP Awards for Excellence, Dirk Engelke (CH), VP Communications and Awards
> Panel discussion on transfer of knowledge in urban technologies – a one way only? Moderated by Stefan Rau, ISOCARP General Rapporteur 2012 (CN, D)
> Reception
Free entrance for ISOCARP members
ISOCARP members will get entrance free of charge for the entire Hannover Messe for all days and the China special session on 25th April 2012. Just send a mail to the ISOCARP secretariat and get your e-ticket.
Impressions of the 2011 event
Have a look at the successful ISOCARP event in 2011 at the Hannover Messe here.
