7th KRIHS-WB Annual Workshop

Theme: Planning for Liveable Neighborhoods

Date: December 11, 2019 (Wed)

Venue: World Bank HQ, MC C2-125

The Global Development Partnership Center (GDPC) held the 7th KRIHS-WB Annual Workshop on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at the World Bank HQ in Washington D.C. This annual workshop aims to share experiences and knowledge of research and joint projects and explore continuous cooperation between KRIHS and WB. This year’s topic was “Planning for livable neighborhoods” focusing on disaster-prevention urban planning strategies and geospatial technologies in territorial development.

During the opening ceremony moderated by Peter Ellis, Lead Urban Economist of WB, Sameh Wahba, Global Director of WB and Se Hoon Park, Director of GDPC at KRIHS delivered the welcoming remarks. They both looked forward to sharing best practices of planning strategies and means for the development of resilient cities, as well as efficient implementation strategies for developing countries through in-depth discussions with the WB specialists.

In the first session, Peter Ellis, Lead Urban Economist of WB briefly summarized the joint projects between KRIHS and WB for the last seven years and introduced the theme of this year’s annual workshop. He also announced the new focus area (cities and climate change) that WB is considering for collaboration next year.

For the main event, four presentations were prepared by KRIHS and WB under the theme of “Planning for livable neighborhoods.” The two presenters from KRIHS talked about disaster-prevention urban planning for resilient cities and the open GIS technologies for improving situational awareness in Korea. The two presenters from the WB introduced ongoing projects on geospatial technologies in territorial development and smart neighborhoods with disrupting urban planning and design.

During the round table session following the presentations, the participants shared a variety of issues on the role of the government in policy-making and planning for safe and sound development, compromising measures for stakeholders, and utilization of high technologies in the planning of resilient cities. After all the presentations and Q&A sessions, KRIHS and WB had discussions about the collaboration projects that the two institutions have undertaken or will be undertaking during this fiscal year.