Resilient Cities Need to be Smart and Prospering

by Wolfgang Schmidt | wolfgang.schmidt@kiel.de Christian Lausten Sørensen|cls@aarhus.dk

In times of Covid, the question of resilience in cities is once again becoming extremely important. For us, it is clear that cities wanting to become more resilient need to be smart and prospering.

There are so many innovative, forward-thinking approaches and successful concepts, especially among our UBC member cities. Therefore, we are optimistic that our constant exchange will make the Baltic Sea region a model region for resilient cities.

We as UBC-Commission are looking forward to fulfilling our responsibility and will go the extra mile in 2021: in the coming months we will put even more energy into the work of the Commission to give our member cities more inspiration.

We want to lift the currently partly unused potential: the huge knowledge of our member states. With more exchange of experience and very concrete examples, we want to specifically get more out of our cooperation within the UBC.

Under the main topic “Resilient Cities”, we are planning four virtual seminars for 2021 in which we will exchange concrete experiences regarding Corona, digitalisation, sustainability and tourism. We will evaluate the experiences from these seminars and use them as a basis for further initiatives. Of course, like always, input by other UBC members is highly appreciated. Our first event took place on 23 April where Ulf Kämpfer (Mayor of Kiel), Niels Højberg (CEO of Aarhus) and Mantas Jurgutis (UBC President) in the light of the corona pandemic discussed the question of how cities absorb and recover from past shocks and how they prepare for future ones.

We are very much looking forward to the upcoming months. Stay safe and healthy!