The planet is nowadays confronted with major challenges, such as the escalating urbanization rates, the severe climate change impacts, the loss of biodiversity, the intensifying resource scarcity, the upsurge in migration movements, the endangered cultural resources of land and maritime European regions, etc. 

The Mediterranean region seems to constitute a hotspot in most of the above respects, with unpredicted repercussions with regards to future sustainability achievements. Undesirable trends and related risks call for trend-breaking endeavors that can steadily decrease ecological footprint of Mediterranean urban constellations, reverse current economic recession and ensure sustainable, resilient, liveable and prosperous MED localities for current and future generations.

The recently evolving Smart and Sustainable City (SSC) paradigm and its potential towards managing many of the above aspects in the Mediterranean Region lies at the core of the 3rd Euro- Mediterranean Conference on “Featuring Territorial Intelligence of Small and Medium-sized Cities and Insular Communities in the Mediterranean Scenery - Bridging Local Endeavors to Global Developments”, to be held in an insular community of the Mediterranean Region, Larnaca- Cyprus, in October 5-6, 2018.

Taking into consideration that the timing of the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Conference (October 2018) falls into the European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH); and that the geographical region of concern is one of the culturally wealthiest regions of the world and a crossroad of various civilizations, the Theme of Cultural Heritage in an SSC context will lay at the core of the Conference (Theme 1), honouring this way the EYCH label award gained by SMART-MED Conference 2018 effort.

The aim of the Conference

The Conference aims at bringing to the forefront the specific challenges appearing in the Mediterranean context and, based on the peculiarities of the area e.g. historical, cultural, environmental, social, climate, etc., addressing the potential of SSC applications as well as the new perspectives for small and medium-sized cities and insular communities, based on recent developments in the field. In doing so, it also attempts to establish a bridge between Mediterranean and global SSC endeavors, with the aim to create adding value in the focus area by spreading successful experiences from other parts of the world.

The theme of the Conference

The theme of the Conference is on “Featuring Territorial Intelligence of Small and Medium-sized Cities and Insular Communities in the Mediterranean Scenery – Building Bridges between Local Endeavors and Global Developments”.

Call for abstracts is now open for gathering innovative ideas, smart and sustainable solutions as well as new research streams from the Mediterranean but also the European and the global community. A variety of themes are laid at the heart of the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Conference, which aspires to establish a fruitful and creative discussion forum for knowledge interaction and integration, stepping forward potential for ICT-enabled human-centric sustainability achievements of small and medium-sized settlements and insular communities that fall into this intriguing but also highly vulnerable neighbourhood of the world, the Mediterranean Region.

Who can participate

City and Citizens / Authorities
City Councils, Government Departments,
Regional authorities, Chambers and Associations

Academia
Universities, Research Centers, Institutes,
Academic Societies

Industry/ Service providers/ SME's, Startups/
Professionals/ Experts
Energy, Transport, ICT, Water, Environment, Spatial
planning, Building sector, Tourism and Culture

Important dates

- Abstract submission: 30 April 2018

- Notification of acceptance: 20 May 2018

- Registration and payment: 15 June 2018

Conference themes and submission details can be seen on the conference's website. See details about registrations and fees from here. 

Top image courtesy of SmartBlueCity' Euro-Mediterranean Conference 2018

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