Prof. Dr. Karim Hassan Alwan and Prof. Dr. Nada Khalifa from the Center for Regional Urban Planning for Postgraduate Studies at the University of Baghdad have lately participated in the second international scientific conference on the (Smart Spatial Planning and the Role of Urban Data) that was organized by the Higher Institute of Regional Planning at the Damascus University in Syria. The conference included various sessions lasted for two consecutive days and that focused on regional integration and high-quality development of urban agglomerations, as well as urban security and resilient cities, protection of cultural heritage and urban renewal, as well as the development of the education system for spatial planning. The conference aimed to study smart technologies, integrated management of regional data, responses of regional plans to climate change, as well as applications of smart cities, big data management and sustainable systems for smart transport at the local and regional levels.
Dr. Karim Alwan delivered a research paper entitled “The Challenges of Infrastructure Planning”, in which he addressed topics such as climate change, population increase and the importance of infrastructure services and their problems in the preparation and planning of infrastructure. For her part, Dr. Nada Khalifa presented a study on “Smart City Challenges”, which highlighted the mechanism of data collection and its problems, as well as the overlap of data with maps of areas nominated to be smart cities, as well as addressing the water, environmental and other footprints. The professors of the University of Baghdad have received certificates of acknowledgment for their active participation in this event that received a great echo from the academic circles for witnessing attendants from Iraq, Syria, Britain, Italy, India, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
