Facilitator
Prof. Shawqi Al Dallal
Acting Dean College of Medical & Health Sciences and
President’s Advisor for Futuristic Studies and Innovation
Ahlia University
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Smart Cities and Urban Planning
This workshop has been designed to introduce the principles of Smart City design and urban planning in the MENA Region. The aim is to develop the essential skills and competencies necessary for decision makers to plan, identify and examine the objectives, advantages, drawbacks, models, stages and requirements of Smart City Urban Planning Sustainable framework. The workshop aims to enable municipalities, private sectors, non-profit organizations, and representative from science and academia to develop strategies for making our cities smarter, and accommodate the cultural dimensions of our societies. At the end of the workshop, the attendees should be able to acquire a comprehensive knowledge and practical experience about how to construct cities adopting smart growth principles, effective urban planning models, ICTs and low carbon energy systems.
Key Outcomes
The workshop will provide city to city knowledge exchange, to identify MENA regional Smart City innovations, opportunities and constraints, and addresses the practical challenges that policy makers, city planners, engineers, designers, and government officials face as they seek to build, upgrade and exploit smart city knowledge based inclusive development within their organizations. Upon completion of the course, attendees will write a report and present findings on the their understandings of the key smart city urban planning solutions, the best global practices on the subject, and brainstorm the local implementation challenges to be addressed to develop future innovative solutions.
Learning objectives
- Understand the concept of smart cities from different perspectives: innovation, policy, and practice.
- Identify drivers and challenges to smart cities development.
- Understand the building blocks of smart cities such as big data solutions, service-oriented models, and value networks.
- Compare top-down and bottom-up approaches to smart cities development.
- Analyse leading business models of smart cities around the globe to identify common characteristics in cities’ smart planning and development, while also noting differences between them.
- Evaluate the impact of smart city on a national and global scale.
- Develop a Smart City Regional framework for the MENA.
Target audience
- Policy makers
- ICT Practitioners
- Non Government Organisations
- Architects
- Spatial planners
- Engineers
- Urban designers
- Researchers, academics, and students
Course structure
- Interactive workshop with set of activities to help you engage with the knowledge and concepts introduced within the workshop.
- Your tutors will be on hand to guide you through the course and will expect you to bring to bear personal experience and reflection on the topics covered.
- Group work will be required for participants to engage in the workshop. Such activity allows participants to embed the new knowledge within their experience through active discussion and conceptual challenges.