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conomic, social and cultural activities, as well as environmental and human impacts, are increasingly concentrated in and around cities. In the era of planetary urbanization and technological revolution, cities have transformed beyond their proper borders into hinterlands, city-regions, urban corridors, and mega-regions. As a consequence, development challenges have become far more complex than were anticipated in the ‘traditional’ conception of the ‘city’. Transforming beyond their natural and human resources and institutional capacity, cities currently face significant sustainability challenges in terms of governance; land and housing; basic services; food, water and energy security; and disaster risks.
The United Nations Habitat Agenda has set out the New Urban Agenda (NUA), which seeks to create a mutually reinforcing relationship between the trends of urbanization and development. In this context, urbanization will become a parallel vehicle for achieving sustainable development. The NUA attempts to address the development trends while also recognizing that cities and metropolitan areas are the major drivers of regional, national, and global economies. The idea of the NUA is to offer guidelines on a range of ‘enablers’ that can further strengthen the relationship between urbanization and sustainable development. In this context, infrastructure will be a key vehicle for achieving sustainable urban development.
Currently, the NUA has not been properly recognized and integrated in urban, regional, and infrastructure development strategies. In fact, there is limited recognition of the NUA in the current academic research and policy-making processes. Considering the urgency of the NUA in the planning, development, and governance of contemporary cities, we should start incorporating the agenda into academic research and policy making, as well as communicating its problems and potential solutions in a scholarly and practically relevant discourse.
The aim of ITB International Conference and Exhibition on Infrastructure Development and the Fourth Planocosmo International Conference are: to discuss about infrastructure and transportation issues in the context of New Urban Agenda (NUA): connectivity, inclusiveness, resilience, security, governance; to propose infrastructure-related technologies and strategies addressing NUA; to connect various stakeholders interested in infrastructure and urban planning, development, and innovations; to market ITB strengths in infrastructure technological and policy innovations. This join conference is a special opening event to commemorate the Centenary of Indonesian Higher Education in Engineering and the 60th Anniversary of Urban and Regional Planning Education in Indonesia. The event is organized by the Regional and City Planning Program under the School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, Institut Teknologi Bandung and the Research Center for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Institut Teknologi Bandung.
