On Friday, October 11, 2024, our Pilot city, Dundalk, represented by Ursula Conlon from Louth County Council (LCC) was presented during a special session organised by the ISOCARP Institute during the 60th World Planning Congress. Held in Siena (italy) the Congress convened more than 400 urban professionals from across the globe to discuss the topic of urban regeneration.

Our Dundalk pilot site was particularly relevant to the topic: thanks to VARCITIES and the development of three Visionary Solutions, Dundalk Library and Museum Courtyard has been regenerated into a new public space accessible and welcoming all! The Special Session they were featured in focused on nature-based solutions for urban regeneration, and discussed three other cases of integrating green infrastructure for resilient, sustainable and circular cities: Melzano in Italy,  Quito in Ecuador and Surat India.

The discussion led to a comparison of the 4 cases:

• What challenges are they addressing?
• Which form of governance do they have?
• Which stakeholders were involved?
• What are barriers and enablers?

The formal report from this Special Session will be included in the Congress proceedings.

Discover more about Dundalk’s Pilot on their Pilot page.