Metropolitan Resilience: Challenges, Fields of Action and Approaches
The International Working Group ‘Resilient Metropolitan’ at the AESOP Congress 2025 in Istanbul
The International Working Group (IWG) “Resilient Metropolitan Regions – Spatial Planning and Management for Urban Transformation“ was honoured to host a Special Session at the 37th AESOP – Association of European Schools of Planning Annual Congress held this year in Istanbul from July 7 to July 11. The session focused on “Planning as a Transformative Action in an Age of Planetary Crisis.”
Represented by the group members and associated colleagues from Turkey and the Netherlands, the session brought together experts from science and practice to discuss and present first results on how to increase resilience in metropolitan regions. It also explored the role spatial planning can play in this context and identified the main starting points to increase the capacity of metropolitan spatial governance to foster resilience. Having in mind that metropolitan regions are organised differently across Europe and even within Germany and encounter a variety of unprecedented challenges, including rapid urbanization, climate change, increasing social and economic disparities, means that addressing these complex issues necessitates besides awareness raising innovative approaches that utilize the strengths of strategic planning, regional land-use planning as well as urban planning and a good governance together.
Starting point for the Special Session was that resilience has become a topic of increasing importance, gaining presence in debates at metropolitan level and in spatial planning. Related to the understanding of the ARL IWG ‘Resilient Metropolitan Regions’, it refers to the capacity to resist and to maintain vital functions and identity, but also the capacity to go forward, to learn, to build back better, to become more efficient and more functional in face of risks or shocks like f. ex. flooding, which is being experienced in Europe with greater frequency and more impact. Based on this definition, the special session offered a transdisciplinary overview of the key research questions addressed by the IWG. Drawing on case studies, it examined the most pressing challenges and fields of action at both the territorial level and governance levels.
- How do we define and understand “Resilience”, “Space”, “Spatial Planning“, “Strategic Planning“ and ”Metropolitan Regions”?
- What are the spatial / territorial specific entry points to resilience and how do spatial aspects interrelate to the characteristics, patterns and dynamics of resilience?
- Which capacities and financing instruments are needed to govern towards an increased resilience
A key feature was the comparative analysis of specific challenges faced by different metropolitan regions. Participants agreed that an understanding of the territorial scope of the challenges posed by resilience is essential. It is widely acknowledged that these challenges are unlikely to be fully addressed withing existing administrative structures. Therefore, a shared vision and implementation frameworks, sufficient human and financial resources, and a strong political commitment were identified as crucial requirements.
Many thanks to the organisers and Chairs of our ARL International Working Group, Joaquin Farinos Dasi, Professor for Geography at University of Valencia and Petra Schelkmann, Executive Director and Head of the Planning Department at the Verband Region Rhein-Neckar in the Metropolitan Region Rhine-Neckar!
Contributions delivered at the Special Session:
Joaquín Farinós Dasí, Moneyba Gonzalez-Medina, Alankrita Sarkar: “Spatial Planning and Metropolitan Governance to Face Flood Risk in The New Climate Change Context: A Comparison Between Eurodelta Megaregion and Valencia Metropolitan Area”
Alankrita Sarkar, Paul Gerretsen: “Spatial Planning at a Time of Climate Change: Dutch Metropolis to Eurodelta Megaregion”
Johannes Suitner, Valeria Fedeli: “From Complex Adaptive Systems to Anti-Fragility and Social Innovation: The Notion of Resilience in Metropolitan Spatial Planning”
Sónia Alves, Valeria Fedeli: “Planning and Housing Policy: In Defence of Resilient Metropolitan Regions”
Alessandro Delpiano, Görsev Argın Uz: “It Takes a Metropolis and Even a Megalopolis to Become Resilient: Lessons from Bologna and Marmara”
Oriol Estela Barnet, Petra Schelkmann: “Strategic metropolitan governance for resilience in practice: The Barcelona Metropolitan Commitment 2030 and the governance model in the German Metropolitan Region Rhein-Neckar“
