This international conference aims at exploring various attributes of the contingency planning process via three major themes as follows:

Theme 1: Resilient / Adaptive Spatial Planning

Urban resilience is the capacity of cities’ or nations’ systems, businesses, institutions, communities, and individuals to survive, adapt, and grow, while experiencing chronic stresses and acute shocks. Planning for a resilient urban future requires tackling challenges and creating solutions in a place-based, integrated, inclusive, risk-aware, and forward-looking manner.

This theme focuses on urban resilience aspects such as:

• Responsive land use – transportation planning
• Adaptive urban expansion of existing settlements
• Resilient new settlements planning
• Urban design for safer and healthier public spaces
• Landscape design and planning for green and cultural networks
• Contingency & Heritage Preservation

Theme 2: Contingency Urban Management / Governance

There is a dire need for models of governance that mitigate risk and respond to evolving challenges such as extreme weather, refugee crises, disease pandemics, supply chains, and cyberattacks. Business-as-usual models of reactive planning and siloed decision-making will not generate the fundamental strength and flexibility essential to thrive in the face of such acute shocks and chronic stresses of the 21st century.

 This theme aims at exploring topics related to needed approaches, techniques and methods such as the following:

• Scenario planning
• Crisis and risk management tools to cope with uncertainty
• Adaptive mechanisms for policy formulation and urban governance
• Urban modeling for adaptive urbanism
• Addressing socioeconomic vulnerability and inclusiveness

Theme 3: Environmental Contingency Planning

Environmental intense and threatening events include a spectrum of challenges such as limited energy resources, water scarcity, climate change, sea-level rise, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. The impact such acute shocks are often exacerbated by chronic stresses that weaken the fabric of a community over time. Moreover, cities are also usually confronted by combinations of theses acute shocks and chronic stresses. This theme aims at deepening the understanding of such environmental risks, and how contingency planning interventions and mitigation measures can improve a city’s or nation’s contextual overall trajectory and the well-being of citizens, as well as prosper in the face of challenges both expected and as yet unimagined.

 As such, this theme explores the following topics:

• Renewable energy and green infrastructure planning
• Resilient planning for environmental risks of climate change, sea-level rise, and floods
• Urban flood: Risk assessment methods and governance
• Mitigation measures and adaptive strategies for sustainable development
• Water management for urban drought and water scarcity in arid zones
• Planning for environmental protected and sensitive areas