Metropolis 11th congress_ Seoul Sharing Session

• Host: Metropolis

• Date: 2014. 09. 10

• Session Cocept

  • The number of megacities is increasing as the world is undergoing rapid urbanization on an unprecedented scale. While megacities embody the concentration of economic powers, they are also the source of major urban problems. Rapid urbanization is often linked to population explosion, housing shortages, traffic congestion, air and water pollution, and a generally lower quality of life for residents. 
    
    The seriousness of such urban problems is growing in proportion to the megacities’ expanding urban scale. Thus, the role and influence of its city governments to proactively deal with such challenges is also becoming increasingly important to ensure sustainable growth and well-being of its citizens. This is especially more pressing in Asian megacities as their urban populations are growing faster than ever. 
    
    Seoul has also dealt with such rapid urbanization in a very short period of time from the 1950s to 1990s but has grown into an exemplary city for innovative policies and sustainable urban growth in Asia. One of the key success points of Seoul was having long-term visions and implementation plans appropriate to its local characteristics. 
    
    The Seoul Institute, established by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 1992, had also played a vital role in providing such visions and implementation plans for Seoul. In this session, we plan to share some of the important agendas of Seoul today, regarding public safety, clean environment, and human friendly transportation and to share the policy solutions of those issues. Based on the experiences of Seoul, we would also like to advocate the important role of city-level think-tanks in megacities and enhanced collaboration among research institutions to provide better solutions. 
    
    Moreover, we ask cities of India to join Megacity Think-Tank Alliance (MeTTA), an international alliance of representative think-tanks of megacities. This Alliance was officially founded on July 7th 2014 by the collaboration of 5 megacity think-tanks in Asia including Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, and Ho Chi Minh City, with the support of ICLEI, CITYNET and Metropolis. We hope this alliance could provide creative and collaborative approaches in dealing with urban problems confronting megacities based on the mutual exchange of knowledge and urban experiences.

• Adenda

  • ​What are the common dominators in dealing with policy making for megacities?

  • How can city level think-tanks support their local government in addressing such issues?

  • How do we make implementable policies which could both deal with current problems and also prepare for future challenges?

  • How can megacity think-tanks work together in finding collaborative solutions?

• Presentor

  • Dr. Sang-Young SHIN  (Research Fellow, The Seoul Institute)

  • Dr. Yu-Jin CHOI  (Research Fellow, The Seoul Institute)

  • Dr. Joonho KO (Director of Megacity Research Center)​