Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Wegener of Spiekerman & Wegener, Dortmund, Germany was welcomed virtually to University of Toronto on November 25, 2021.
He attended a Research Roundtable with graduate students in transportation, hosted by Professor Khandker Nurul Habib, early in the day.
Later, he delivered his featured talk “Integrated modelling of land use and transport” and participated in a panel discussion as part of the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series. Department Chair Professor Brent Sleep welcomed the audience to the Distinguished Lecture Series and introduced Professor Habib, who in turn introduced and welcomed Professor Wegener.
Following Wegener’s presentation, UTTRI’s Dr. Judy Farvolden introduced guest panelists Marcy Burchfield of the Toronto Region Board of Trade and Richard Joy of Urban Land Institute Toronto. Each panelist made a brief statement before joining in a panel discussion and audience Q & A moderated by Dr. Farvolden.
Presentation summary
Climate researchers agree that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions significantly contribute to climate change, and that radical measures to reduce them and to adapt to no longer avoidable climate change are needed. In the project, the IRPUD model developed at the University of Dortmund was applied. The IRPUD model is a simulation model of intraregional location and mobility decisions in urban regions. In the project the model was extended in space, time and policy fields to answer the following questions: How will settlement structure, transport, energy and environment in the Ruhr Area develop until the year 2050 under different assumptions about urban land use and transport policies? What will be the impacts of land use and transport policies on energy consumption and CO2 emissions? Which policy recommendations can be derived from the results?
About the speaker
Until 2003, Michael Wegener was Director of the Institute of Spatial Planning and Professor at the Faculty of Spatial Planning of the University of Dortmund. In 1988 and 1989 he was Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Tokyo. Since 2003 he is a partner in Spiekermann & Wegener (S&W) Urban and Regional Research, Dortmund.
His main research fields are urban and regional development and European urban systems. His specialization is urban and regional modelling, in particular of land use, transport and the environment in cities and regions.
About the panel
Moderator
- Dr. Judy Farvolden, Executive Director, UTTRI – Read short biography
Panelists
- Marcy Burchfield is the Vice President of the Economic Blueprint Institute (EBI), a strategic initiative of the Toronto Region Board of Trade with a mandate of turning data into direction to influence policy. Marcy’s work applies a data driven approach to solving for regional problems that intersect policy issues and require unique place-based solutions. Under Marcy’s leadership and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, EBI brought together business, academic and civic leaders to co-create Shaping our Future, a playbook for rebooting and reimagining Toronto’s regional economy. The playbook introduced a new model for understanding the regional economy and assessing the impact of the pandemic on business districts across the Toronto region. Prior to joining the Board in 2018, Marcy led the Neptis Foundation, a think tank on the forefront of regional planning whose research and programming has influenced significant provincial policy files in land use, transportation, and economic development. To broaden the impact of the Foundation’s research, Marcy led the conceptualization and development of the Neptis Geoweb, a unique web-based mapping and informatics tool used to inform engaged stakeholders and the public on complex policy matters. Marcy holds a graduate degree in Geography from the University of Toronto and volunteers her time at organizations that create positive impact and change.
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Richard Joy is the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto. Since his arrival as the first full-time Executive Director in 2014, the organization has more than tripled its membership – now the largest chapter in the global network. ULI Toronto’s multidisciplinary professional network extends across the private and public sectors to advance the global ULI mission to “shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.” Key initiatives that Richard has implemented include the Curtner Leadership Program (mid-career), Urban Plan Program (high school), the annual Meet The Chief Planners dinner and four regional industry symposiums, including most recently The New Urgency focused on ESG. Prior to joining ULI, Richard served as the Vice President Policy and Government Relations at the Toronto Region Board of Trade as Vice President, Policy and Government Relations, following a tenure as Director of Municipal and Provincial (Ontario) at Global Public Affairs, a leading Canadian Government Relations firm. Richard’s extensive public policy knowledge and experience comes from over a decade of service at Toronto City Hall and Queen’s Park, where he was the Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing responsible for the public policy development for the City of Toronto Act (2006). Richard received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Carleton University, and currently sits on the Advisory Committee for Ryerson’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development. He has previous served on the Premier of Ontario’s Community Hubs Advisory Panel, the City of Toronto, TOCore Advisory Committee, and the Greenbelt Foundation, Places to Grow Advisory Board.