Thematic Alumni Event : 2017

by | Jul 6, 2017 | Activities, Uncategorized

Livability in cities of the future: Addressing multiple challenges of climate change, urbanization, food and water security issues

 The main objectives of the event are:

  1. Provide a platform for Alumni involved in different aspects/sectors of urban livability to get together and share their common problems/concerns and experiences.
  2. Realize a sustainable professional network of such Alumni that will continue improved collaboration beyond the event.
  3. Share some of the success-stories in integrated urban (water cycle) management from around the world by experts involved in those case studies.
  4. Share experiences of harmonizing the strategies/actions of diverse urban organizations.
  5. Give an opportunity for the participating alumni to experience some of the successful strategies of collaboration by participating in structured collective brainstorming workshop (whose objective is to strategize and plan (2) above).

The Programme

Day 1

There is a public seminar titled “Livability in cities of the future: Addressing multiple challenges of climate change, urbanization, food and water security issues”. You can download the draft program here. If you would like to participate, please register here. 

Programme
09:30 – 10:00      Registration

10:00 – 10:05      Opening

10:05 – 10:15      Welcome Address, H.E. Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

10:15 – 10:35      Aspirations and Challenges of Urban Development in Sri Lanka, Eng. Nihal Rupasinghe Secretary of the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development

10:35 – 11:00      Urban Water System and Livability in the Cities of the Future, Assoc. Prof., Dr. Assela Pathirana, IHE-Delft

11:00 – 11:25      Refreshments

11:25 – 11:45      Coastal Risk and Livability in Cities of The Future, Prof. Roshanka Ranasinghe, IHE-Delft

11:45 – 12:05      Disaster Resilience in Cities of the Future, Prof. Srikantha Herath. Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development

12:05 – 13:00      Panel Discussion, Moderated by Eng. William Veerbeek. IHE-Delft

13:00 – 14:00      Lunch and Networking

14:00                     End of the Programme

Day 2

This day will be a workshop session with the Alumni and invited delegates and experts (25 Alumni and maximum 5 invitees)
Morning will be a ‘planning charrette ’ on the topic:  Organizing and sustaining a UNESCO-IHE/Dutch Alumni Professional network on urban development.
The afternoon session will be a training on a new topic.

9:00-9:30 registration
9:30-10:00 plenary introduction
10:00-11:00 Group brainstorming
11:00-12:00 plenary reporting and discussion
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 13:30 Lecture 1
13:30 – 14:30 Guided open discussion on gender inclusivity in urban sector
14:30 – 15:30 Alumni share their views about the event and the way forward

The most important benefit

is to expose urban sector experts to trans-disciplinary way of working. Convincing them of the benefit of integrated approaches and possibility of achieving win-win scenarios with concrete examples of good-practice.

Governance issues

A central issue facing urban (and general) governance of Sri Lanka is the sectoral split. The central objectives of this event is to show the tools and techniques to create a harmonized enabling environment despite the prevailing institutional/governance problems.

Gender issues

Numerous studies have shown that societies need more feminine (not necessarily =female) traits than they currently possess in order to succeed in harmonizing competing societal entities and agendas. A central theme in the proposed integrated approaches is to help instil these qualities to urban professionals. This approach will also create more recognition for female professionals in urban sectors.

Anticipated outputs of the event

  1. The IHE alumni working in urban sectors will get a concrete opportunity to get together in a professional, learning environment to exchange these experiences.
  2. The alumni as well as other participants will be exposed to a number of case studies of urban liveability improvement via trans-disciplinary action and sectoral collaboration.
  3. The alumni will develop abilities of better collaboration by practically experiencing some of the proven approaches that has been successfully used in many diverse case studies.
  4. The alumni will be given an opportunity to sustain the collaboration among them and with the IHE/Dutch experts and Dutch private sector.
Assela Pathirana

Assela Pathirana

Event Coordinator

Associate Professor of Integrated Urban Water Cycle Management

Tel :+31152151854

Email: [email protected]

Rosh Ranasinghe

Rosh Ranasinghe

Event Coordinator

Professor of Climate Change Impacts
and Coastal Risk

Tel: +31152151805