“Urban Research as an Effective Development Tool for St. Petersburg 2030” Conference brought together representatives of government, experts and universities. The main point of discussion was to determine whether current urban research undertaken by various government entities meet real-life needs and also to find avenues for collaboration between the city administration, business community and colleges, according to the Director for Strategic Development of ITMO University’s Institute of Design and Urban Studies Mikhail Klimovsky.

“We consider this event as a sort of crash test to help determine the direction for young urban scientists,” he said. “Before the conference we have posed several questions, including is there a demand for town-planning research, for a profession of an urban scientist as a comprehensive specialist, whether he or she should be engaged in transforming the system of town-planning activities, real estate development, or working in business.”

The city administration considers not just the results of research but also to expert opinion of volunteer researchers, said Elena Uljanova, head of the Committee on Economic Policy and Strategic Planning.

“Over the past several months we’ve been meeting with several developers of various strategies that work in urban development, and their ideas are shaping our activity,” she said. “Some become a foundation for city planning concepts while others are set aside for future use. I’m hoping that our collaboration will continue to grow after this event.”

The core of the conference was the presentations by ITMO University graduates. The “Design of Urban Ecosystems” program was launched two years ago. During their studies, the students learn to “listen” to the city, understand its problems and address real-life needs. Out of 16 graduates only four had a chance to present their work due to time constraints.

Tatjana Adamchenko presented “Analysis of the Night Space,” where she pointed out the lack of infrastructure for those working and studying at night and offered suggestions for improvement.

Darya Bliznjuk’s project Happy Campus addressed the impact of the campus environment on students’ emotional wellbeing, while Olga Begovatova shared her research of regulatory systems in management of urban development.

The most discussion was generated by the project of Steve Kuddins, who had participated in the study of Krasnoyarsk transport system development for the upcoming Universiade – 2019.

“The project solutions that used to work in the past are not effective anymore,” said Mr. Kuddins. “As a result, current systems can’t meet the challenges created by the boom in automotive traffic, which leads to ecological and economic problems as well as loss of time for drivers, passengers and pedestrians. In our research we use the Avoid-Shift-Improve strategy that suggests discontinuing the use of ineffective modes of transport, the shift towards sustainable modes of transport and improvement existing transport systems.”

During the discussion some of the experts expressed doubt in the viability of some of the projects as they currently stand because of not meeting the city’s format for project documents. Yet according to the Marina Sukhorukova, head of ITMO University’s Institute of Design and Urban Studies, those doubts will be dissipated once the city planners get to know the results of the research better.

The results of studies by the graduates of the Master Program “Design of Urban Ecosystems” will be included into the collection of research for final qualifying works by ITMO University students and published on the Institute’s portal. The conference was organized by ITMO University and VTB Development.