Future Green City World Congress offers more than ideas

Cities are growing, but space for green space is shrinking. At the same time, cities are increasingly facing more extreme weather, such as heavy rain and heat waves. In this complex situation, the Future Green City World Congress is a crucial congress for experts and decision-makers worldwide to make and keep cities livable for the future. After more than two years of preparation by Koninklijke Vereniging van Hoveniers en Groenvoorzieners (VHG) and Koninklijke Vereniging Stadswerk Nederland, it is time to turn ideas into action. "Inspiration is necessary, but practical applicability is at least as important."

The Future Green City World Congress stems from the growing urgency to make cities resilient and livable at a time of increasing urban densification. "Greening is not only beautiful and useful, it is an absolute necessity," believes Marc van Rosmalen, director of Royal VHG. "With 70% of the world's population living in urban areas, we need to think about how to create a healthy living environment."

This conference, organized for the first time on this scale, aims to bring together different disciplines. The challenges facing cities, such as integrating green space and infrastructure, require an interdisciplinary approach, Marc says. "We not only need to create green space, but also ensure that our cities remain functional and livable. That means connecting construction, green space, infrastructure and water to achieve an inclusive living environment. Working together is the only solution."

This interdisciplinary approach is well reflected in the program of this four-day congress. The extensive program offers more than 150 sessions, ranging from lectures to workshops, serious games, debates, science labs and fieldtrips to several Dutch cities. The goal is not only to inspire participants, but also to provide them with practical tools for their daily work.

The program is filled with renowned experts from around the world, often with groundbreaking ideas. "One interesting speaker is Kongjian Yu from China, known for his concept of sponge cities. These cities are designed to store, filter and reuse river and rainwater by creating green areas." Speakers are also coming from Singapore and Seattle to share their progressive approaches to urban greening. Adriaan Geuze, a well-known Dutch landscape architect, shares his views on combining landscape architecture, urban planning and infrastructure.

The themes of the conference have been carefully chosen to cover all aspects of urban greening. For example, there is a focus on the adaptive city, which discusses strategies to make cities climate-proof. The natural city theme focuses on promoting biodiversity within the urban environment. It also looks at the circular city, which focuses on sustainable living, reusing materials and working and moving without using fossil fuels.

In addition to lectures and keynotes, there are numerous workshops and sessions in which participants get to work on concrete issues. Marc emphasizes the importance of these sessions: "It's great to share innovative ideas, but the real value of this congress lies in how those ideas can be put into practice. Participants will go home with useful knowledge and tools to actually make their cities greener and more livable." 

The fieldtrips thereby offer participants the opportunity to see successful greening projects in practice. One of the highlights is the fieldtrip to the redesigned canal in Utrecht, where a freeway has been replaced by a canal. This fieldtrip provides insight into the challenges and success factors of this project. But projects in Arnhem, Tilburg and Eindhoven can also be visited.

As such, the Future Green City World Congress is not a traditional congress, Marc said. "Because of all the different forms and styles included in the program, it is more like a festival. To make all the underlying connections, we organized another street food festival on Tuesday. That gives a cozy and inspiring vibe. The combination of relevant content and the lively atmosphere makes this international conference a real must visit!"

The Future Green City World Congress will be held at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht from September 23 to 26, 2024. Tickets can be ordered through the congress website.