Climate-proofing transitions and adaptations are not only economic and technical, but social, political, cultural, psychological – so how to bring all these parts together? How to mobilize all human resources for inclusive, job-creating, participative pathways? Few things are simple – cities for instance are taking new shapes and meanings – so the ‘Eco-Wise’ has now to include the new ‘peri-urban’ between and around cities, often in the line of flood, fire, storm and other climate hazards. And then we can explore the circular labyrinth of food-energy-water, and the question of resilience to what and for who? Themes include:
- peri-urban & urban-regional development
- climate change adaptation, risk & resilience
- food-energy-water & natural capital
- bio-regional & circular economy
Core partner: the Peri-cene project (www.peri-cene.net) , with University of Manchester, KTH Stockholm, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and a Policy Lab of 21 cities with ICLEI and UN-Habitat.
For background see the Deeper City – 6-2 – Eco-urban-III
Outline program:
- Peri-cene Policy Lab launch: Jan 29th;
- ‘Green new deal 3.0’: can the circular economy transition be equal & inclusive? (with EU-JRC): March 26th
- ‘Bio-regional 3.0’: how to tame the global tiger? (with Univ Granada): May 28th ;
- (Peri-cene Policy Lab workshops): project sessions, also open to interested parties; (various dates in June);
- ‘Food 3.0’: how to link agro-ecology, super-food & urban livelihood? (with Camley St Community Land Trust): Sept 24th;
- ‘Peri-cene 3.0 pathways’: how to put theory / practice together & what next? (link to COP 26): Oct 29th
Related events –
- From ‘here be dragons’ to a ‘collective spatial intelligence’ – prospects for mapping in a hyper connected world. Keynote for the Indian National Cartographic Association 2021 Conference – https://inca2020.org/conference – March 10th
- International Conference on “Challenges of Disasters: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience’: JNU, New Delhi: Valedictory Address by Joe Ravetz, March 3rd – https://www.jmi.ac.in/bulletinboard/eventmodule/latest/detail/2461/26542

Questions, challenges, insights
Eco-wise builds on some decades of work on sustainable city-regions – not only the grey part of the map, but the settlements and livelihoods in the context of hinterland, ecosystems, resource flows local and global.
