Towards New Paradigms in Urban-Rural Linkages: Fostering Innovations for Sustainable Resource Management and Collective Resilience

Urban and rural regions can be well understood as dynamic systems embedded and interconnected through their social and environmental settings. The availability of better life opportunities through basic services and employment makes urban regions significant players in reducing the vulnerabilities of migrant rural and poor populations. At the same time, managing economic prosperity and protecting natural resources in rural regions can ensure food and energy security for urban areas. Enhancing the continuity and connectedness between urban and rural regions has the potential to revitalise local economies, reduce poverty and inequality, and at the same time, maintain the ecological and cultural diversity that is crucial for sustaining both rural and urban regions. This becomes more explicit when it comes to sustainable development and disaster resilience, irrespective of developed or developing countries.

This session invites speakers from local governments, academia and research institutes both from Japan and overseas, and provides a platform to exchange views on the importance of urban rural collaboration to establish regional and local Circular and Ecological Economy (CEE) and to discuss issues, challenges and opportunities to establish Regional CEE through urban-rural partnership.

Organised by:
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Keio University and Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology

Supported by:
Japan Society for the promotion of Science (JSPS) and Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)