Assuming that there is no turning back from integrated development planning, understood as a public planning of activities for economic, social and spatial changes while maintaining the natural environment in good condition, the relations between the basic spheres (social, economic and environmental) should be reorganized and clarified, as a determinants for sustainable development. As a part of integrated development planning, we consider not only the sphere of praxeological planning of economic and social activities, but also the sphere of designing and adopting regulations that concern jointly used space and resources as well as the values of the natural environment. Therefore, space should be treated not only as a condition for the development of the social and economic sphere in the long term, but also, and perhaps above all, as a strategic goal of politics - a specific public value that should be the basis for formulating goals and actions in spatial policy and formulating statutory provisions and local regulations in the regulatory acts of spatial planning. This approach radically changes the current practice and methodology, which was developed by the economic planners and spatial planners after 1992 (Rio Summit).

The concept of integrated development planning and management de facto means assuming that the goals of development are balanced and integrated categories that contribute to the long-term sustainability of socio-economic processes. Integrated development strategies must therefore have a multidimensional analytical and decision-making horizon. In the new planning approach, it is therefore necessary to properly combine the long-term perspective of shaping space with the medium-term point of view of social processes and short-term activities supporting highly dynamic economic processes. In such different time horizons, ex ante benefits and costs should be evaluated for the operational activities and projects indicated in the strategy, regardless of the formally adopted validity period of the strategy. This diversified analytical and decision-making horizon is often contradicted by the (seemingly) a priori planning horizon for the binding documents.

The core idea of integrated planning does not lie in achieving so-called integrated development (as it is sometimes pointed out), but in an integrated planning and decision-making process, which, when properly applied, should lead to a high degree of integration of social, economic and spatial subsystems, and thus to ensure development goals, including sustainable development.

In order to successfully address opportunities for positive change in an era of transitions, smart cities must combine both technological and social aspects. Advanced technologies are changing the urban (and natural) systems, becoming a key factor in development. Digital transformation involves the implementation of systems for collection, exchange, processing and analysis of urban and regional systems data to support decision-making.

We live in a world affected by high volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), and its complex and rapidly changing environment requires communities to meet new challenges in managing urban and regional systems and assessing the risks associated with unpredictable events. VUCA is disrupting the picture of the future, hence rapid and reliable diagnosis of the current state and rapid flow of information are becoming essential for proper planning of urban and regional systems operations.

Smart and agile urban planning require access to large data sets and appropriate technologies to securely aggregate and process this data to inform decision-making. An important role in this process is played by up-to-date and precise geospatial data, and questions arise about how far processes can be automated by artificial intelligence or, vice-versa to what extent the role of human analysts and planners is still crucial to provide reliable recommendations for decision-making in addressing sustainability grand challenges.

Topics of interest to the track 2: Smart and Agile Planning: Smart Cities and Regions include in particular (but not exclusively):

- smart cities and regions
- urban agile planning
- ICTs for urban and regional management
- digital transformation of cities
- data-driven-planning in smart cities
- digital twins
- geospatial data
- big data
- Internet of City
- smart urban services
- the digital transformation of planning

Spatial planning, when grounded in laws and regulations, intervenes in the allocation and distribution of land. It thereby intervenes in private property rights – i.e. granting, changing, or even taking them. This creates issues ranging from procedural matters that affect quality of governance, to substantive policies and instruments that may enable- or deter - sustainable use of land. In recent years planning law faces additional challenges that go beyond the domestic domains into the global arena. Planning and thus also planning law is continuously adapting and changing to socio-economic or environmental challenges. Can the laws and institutions that govern planning meet the challenges posed by climate change, sustainability, demographic changes and increasing economic and political uncertainties?
This track aims to provide a platform for sharing research on any topic that connects planning and law with property rights. Examples of topic areas:

- Statutory (regulatory) planning systems and instruments: How does planning law address challenges or transitions within a given country, or comparatively; - Governance structures and procedures: How does planning law structure the relationships between central governmental control, local government, markets, and non-governmental organizations?; - Legitimacy and planning interventions: How does the law frame public participation, stakeholder involvement, lobbyism, and dispute resolution;
- Regulatory instruments of spatial planning: how do instruments work, such as local statutory plans, land use plans, building permits, expropriation, compensation;
- Regulation of agricultural land, open space and natural resources, heritage-building regulation;
- Land value capture through agreements with developers, developer obligations, land readjustment, taxation of land values (betterment tax etc.), transfer or development rights, expropriation, compensation;
- Theory of property rights: How to deal with tensions between public and private rights and responsibilities (i.e. with land for public services, customary collective or private rights).

Contributions may look at the general theory of planning and law or investigate particular issues, focusing either on a particular country or cross-nationally. Since legal and planning systems vary greatly from country to country, authors should make the terms they use as transparent as possible.

Keywords:
Spatial planning law, land policy, property rights, housing regulations, development control, participation in planning procedures; governance of spatial planning; land-value capture

Although local, regional or national authorities are typically endowed with the mandate for regulatory spatial planning, the existence and importance of planning across administrative borders of jurisdictions is undeniable. While cross-border regions and large-scale macro-regions are often associated with European spatial planning, transboundary planning processes exist also within countries at various scales, visible for example in the emergence of soft spaces such as city-regions. With the rise of maritime spatial planning, another type of transboundary planning has emerged at the land-sea interface. These transboundary planning processes are especially interesting regarding their governance arrangements, their relationship with statutory planning systems and practices, and their mechanisms for democratic control and participation. Moreover, new planning scales might challenge existing administrative divisions and practices, causing or solving challenges related to policy integration.

Contributions to Track 4 “Integrated planning over the borders” might cover the following issues (although this list is not exhaustive):

- Multi-level governance and the opportunities and challenges it entails
- The changing nature and role of borders in spatial planning
- Planning across internal and external EU borders
- Drivers for transboundary planning, such as EU integration and wicked problems such as climate change
- Spatial planning in functional regions and soft spaces
- Mechanisms for democratic control and citizen involvement in non-statutory planning processes
- Instances of rescaling and the resulting processes of institutional change
- Maritime spatial planning, and its linkages and interactions with planning on land
- Planning beyond territorialism
- Visions and strategies at macro-regional (e.g. Baltic Sea region) or continental level
- Comparative perspectives on planning systems and planning cultures, within and between countries
- Planning practices that cross administrative divisions and professional siloes
- Processes of international policy transfer and policy diffusion
- The role of cities, city-regional and regional planning in the sustainability debate and the just and green transition

For all these themes, one might wish to discuss: theoretical perspectives, lessons learned, preconditions of success, monitoring and evaluation attempts, stakeholder involvement, as well as key results/impacts achieved or not achieved such as spatial justice, improvement in provision of public services, strengthening territorial cohesion or better use of the territorial capital.

Interweaving and overlapping of innovation and advancement with failures and turbulences of diverse origin, geographical location and magnitude, is an inherent element of socio-economic development. That interweaving has got manifold manifestations and effects, including the transformation of mobility behaviour. On the one hand, new theoretical concepts, technical and organisational solutions are implemented, which is fostered by the increasing ecological awareness. On the other, vehicles relying on fossil fuels still hold a key role in moving people and goods, raising concerns about the climate change, its long-term effects and other nuisances for people and their environment. Also, despite the advancement in transport planning and management, and the successive development and modernisation of technical infrastructure, social exclusion due to insufficient accessibility still has not been eliminated.

In this context, contributions that focus on determinants, patterns and effects of human mobility are invited, no matter the approach (theoretical, methodological, policies formulation and implementation, design) or the spatial scale of the analysis. Within this track we aim to share reflections on wide range of topics, namely mass transit and its effects, congestion, urban form vs. commuting, new sources of data, mobility trends, innovative design for mobility, affordable transport, transport vs. safety and health (e.g., exposure to pollution and noise, active transport, walkable city, risks and their mitigation). Taking under consideration the contemporary situation and turbulences (post-COVID world, pressure on natural environment, military tensions and crisis in the energy sector) presentations tackling issues such as smart, sustainable and alternative mobilities, electrification and autonomous vehicles, mobility as a service, adaptation of infrastructure for new solutions, cybersecurity in transport are expected with particular interest.

Issues related to the governance and democracy of urban areas and regions are gaining importance in scientific research. It is accompanied by an increase in social awareness and activity in the field of spatial development. New, often non-statutory forms of participation of residents and their representation are also introduced into the decision-making process in spatial planning. Moreover, managing the process of changing the use of space, in particular the public space, is complicated and requires knowledge of many procedures. Improving spatial planning requires further discussion including a theoretical perspective.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

- local community and stakeholders in planning processes
- ethical approaches and public participation in planning
- social challenges of planning for democracy
- values in urban design and planning
- the interrelation between justice and spatial governance

The notion of resilience regards to multiple dimensions and territorial scales. Perceiving it through the lens of ecology – as a property of the natural system to maintain its structure, connectivity and efficiency in face of a disturbance, facilitates research in ecosystem dynamics, compensation, management etc. That is the original field in which this concept was developed, however, nowadays studies are also shifting towards social and economic dimensions, for which theoretical achievements are successfully incorporated into planning practice. In particular, concepts such as community resilience or evolutionary resilience are gaining much attention, which is attributed to increasing complexity and uncertainty of contemporary world. In regards to resilience theory, the role of connectivity, redundancy, robustness, awareness, knowledge, flexibility, persistence, not to mention many other features, are accentuated. Therefore, creating a resilient community, city or other environment requires thoughtful examination of those properties first. Also, creating institutional and legal frames, resources and risk assessment, implementing warning systems and providing education remain among indispensable elements for enhancing shock-resistant systems.

Within this track, contributions that explore causes, course and effects of crises (natural catastrophic events, economic collapse, construction disasters, military conflicts etc.) are welcome. It is no less important to know what have we learned from those events. Are we more prepared? How can resilience and the progress toward achieving it be assessed? How do different dimensions of resilience interact with one another? Among other keywords for the contributions, there are also: adaptability, synergy, transformation, community initiatives, critical infrastructure, urban pressure vs. ecosystems, urban design for reducing exposure and vulnerability, good practices and failures in resilience-making.

Whether visiting or living in a city, public spaces are an intrinsic part of the urban experience. They form the connection to a city’s past, with the buildings surrounding them, the encounter and surprise of activities in the present. Public spaces are equally a reservoir for future opportunities, which adapt to unexpected change, and accommodate activities for transitions to materialise. In this process within different times, various stakeholders are involved and could affect the role of public space, especially in times of conflict. This track focuses on the role of public spaces in turbulent times.

The first reflection of conflict and ironically its dissolution, occur in urban public spaces. These spaces reflect the discourses and practices of tolerance towards differences and display or disguise the tensions immanent in encounters and exchange across diverse urban cultures. From the mundane acts of conviviality to demonstrations, public space accommodates different expressions of demands and claims for spatial and social justice. These struggles can materialise in various forms, from peaceful to violent in a panoply of endeavours that try to belong and partake in democracy.

Track 8 Public Spaces invites abstracts that explore the construction of peace at different scales and through diverse disciplines, to reflect the position of urban studies within this process and build on observations, experimentation, and narration of the transformative power of peace within public spaces. The abstracts could address the following, or other, topics in relation to the construction of peace:

- Care
- Climate
- Digitalization
- Diversity and tolerance towards differences (community engagement, participation and Co-creation, enabling and establishing possibilities for dialogue)
- Inclusion (age, gender, special needs, backgrounds, ethnicities and so on)
- The Political and Urban Space
- Human-centred spaces
- Spatial justice
- Urban transformation
- Memory, identity and culture
- Public space and temporality

Solidarity, equality, inclusion, cohesion, freedom, diversity, justice: in a world of multiple social and political threats, the necessity to cultivate and operationalise these values becomes more than just an issue of fine words and politically correct statements. Planners have the concrete opportunity to address and overcome urban injustices at the local level. They can, for example: pay attention to urban dwellers’ needs, aspirations, and worries; enhance initiatives for inclusive and democratic forms of design and development; introduce conditions for stimulating a beneficial and safe urban life; provide fair rules which enable and protect the manifestation of different lifestyles and cultures. These, and many other initiatives, are within the scope of planners’ interests and responsibilities.

This track welcomes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions exploring urban justice and planning approaches to promote it. Among the expected topics there are: human dignity and civil rights; living conditions and quality of life; access to resources and facilities; public and private space use and regulation; planned or spontaneous processes of segregation, gentrification, etc.; public participation and community-driven planning; property-ownership distribution and power; gender, cultural and socio-economic issues/barriers. We seek answers to questions for which there might be no easy or unambiguous answers. For instance, how can urban planning:

- keep a fair balance between political, market and social objectives and forces?
- provide/facilitate access to fundamental life aspects such as housing, jobs, infrastructures, etc.?
- coordinate the creation of interconnected liveable, diverse and socially inclusive urban spaces?
- overcome urban prejudice, stigmas, and isolation?
- promote and guarantee health, well-being, and realisation of individual and collective aspirations?

Planning understood as an activity aimed at the rational and sustainable development of space, requires an interdisciplinary approach. This is due to the nature of planning, which relies on the cooperation of many actors and affects the social, economic, and spatial aspects of our lives. Therefore, planning education also requires interdisciplinarity in many respects. It can be expressed through the involvement in the educational process of scientists and practitioners from many fields: architecture, geography, geology, sociology, psychology, economics, cultural sciences, and many others, but it is also related to the diverse skills that one acquires in planning schools.

After all, a good planner should not only know how to draw plans but also be aware of the risks posed by natural aspects, assess whether plans are viable, embed them in broader development strategies, be able to discuss them with various stakeholders, and finally how to incorporate the cultural environment into them. The end result of this educational process should be to prepare planning practitioners to deal with the complexities and uncertainties that need to be addressed in spatial development. This is a difficult challenge, but definitely not impossible.

As such, this track invites theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions that explore the following:

- contemporary challenges facing planning education related to post-pandemic development, planning in times of war risk, and ever-accelerating climate change
- current discussions on the direction of planning education, conducted at the international, national or local level, aimed at improving the quality of education for future planners
- innovative methods of teaching planning related to the development of new technologies, so necessary in constantly changing times

Given the interdisciplinary nature of planning, we encourage participation from those representing not only architecture and urban planning but also economists, sociologists, geographers, and others for whom planning is an integral part of their professional lives.

In this session, an attempt will be made to identify and discuss the most important contemporary factors influencing the development of cities and determining the manner of their spatial development and directions of future development. The most important factors - determinants of the development of modern cities include: demographic changes, globalization processes, the development of digital technologies affecting the spatial behavior of the population, global climate changes and the ongoing processes of anthropogenic impact resulting in the transformation of the natural environment and landscape in areas inhabited by humans. In addition to facts and figures, we want to address the practice side, too: What are the ideas, concepts, experiments in the planning environment that will help face these challenges? And: Do we have the right instruments, processes, governance structures to manage these challenges of a ‘turbulent urban future’?

To stimulate responses by authors and scholars, below some points of reflection; of course, non-exclusive and open for additions.

Demography

Nowadays, in the global dimension, we continue to observe an increase in the number of people in urban areas, which can be described as the demographic dimension of urbanization processes - an increasing part of the human population lives in urban areas (also as a result of migration from rural areas) and finds a place to live and work there. The increase in the level of wealth and education of the society correlates with the urban lifestyle. In addition to the above-mentioned quantitative changes in the population in urban areas, attention should also be paid to the qualitative and cultural changes taking place in urban areas today. Identifying them is a serious challenge and - in fact - should be done on a case-by-case (city) basis.

Globalization of the economy

For the practice of urban planning, the globalization of the economy means that cities must compete not only for capital, but also for more and more mobile inhabitants - local taxpayers (which is and will be especially visible in cities affected by negative natural growth and / or negative migration balance). Cities will therefore feel a strong pressure to adapt urban structures to the contemporary, ever-changing needs of the economy, resulting from, inter alia, shortening the life cycles of products, as well as developing completely new services or forms of trade, which in turn require new urban structures and new types of architectural and construction objects. At the same time, as a result of the processes of globalization and the dissemination of specific, new cultural patterns, changes in the lifestyles of residents will occur, which will translate into their expectations as to the living conditions in the city, e.g. with regard to the arrangement and management of public spaces. The qualitatively new requirements of the rapid changing economy and society as to the desired utility values of urban space may be in contradiction with the conservation objectives of certain historic urban structures, the maintenance of which may result from the will to preserve the local identity. Potentially, this may lead to social problems and conflicts as to the directions and methods of land development in the city, which will most often be seen when planning large-scale and long-term revitalization projects.

New technologies

The attempt to predict changes in spatial development resulting from the development of technology is based on the assumption that forms of human activity (in the professional and economic sphere, but also in the area of social activity) are reflected in the forms of land development. On the other hand, the types of activity undertaken are, in the course of civilization development, increasingly determined by technologies available to the public, aimed at improving the efficiency of certain activities, improving the quality of life, increasing the broadly understood safety, etc. spatial development of cities and other settlement areas, is the development of advanced information technologies, including the so-called artificial intelligence. The importance of this phenomenon for urban issues stems primarily from the fact that the development of the technologies in question affects the spatial behavior of the population. This influence may be of a different nature. Changes in the organization of urban transport and the use of urban traffic control devices as a result of the development of control systems based on artificial intelligence and the introduction of autonomous vehicles on a large scale may also become quite important factors of transformations in the spatial development of cities. These solutions may affect the functional and spatial structure of cities, in particular the spatial organization and arrangement of individual elements of the transport system - roads, parking lots, public transport interchange nodes, etc.

The development of digital technologies leading to a change in the forms of contacts and communication between people (in the considered context - members of a specific community, e.g. local, urban), may also lead to a phenomenon that should be described as "virtualization of public space".

Climate change

The relationship between the currently observed climate change, consisting primarily in a significant acceleration of their pace (in relation to the processes of natural climate variability), has a twofold reference to the issue of the functioning of cities.

Cities are - firstly - places of concentration of population (which has already been pointed out above), and thus various economic processes (production, exchange, consumption), as well as various forms of social activity, which causes that a significant part of global gas emissions greenhouse gases, and above all carbon dioxide (CO2), is generated in the area of the urban economy.

Secondly - cities due to their physical specificity -, intensive land development and use, highly changed, transformed and even heavily degraded environment (as discussed below) are places where the effects of climate change will become more and more felt by inhabitants.

The natural environment of cities

Cities are one of those areas in geographic space (next to mining areas) where the largest-scale transformation of the natural environment is observed, it can be seen that problems such as: landscape transformations, degradation of nature, air, soil and water pollution, or noise in cities, become - with the growing ecological awareness of the society (resulting from the increase in the general level of prosperity and education) - one of the main challenges for city development policy and its urban policy. Improvement of living conditions and expectations of an increase in the quality of life are, in social perception, more and more often associated with the state of the urban environment. This phenomenon nowadays mainly concerns highly developed countries, but it can be assumed that economic growth in developing countries or those undergoing systemic transformation, and the accompanying social advancement, will disseminate these expectations globally - to an increasing part of the human population.

The track will try to address these and more challenges of ‘turbulent urban futures’. We welcome contributions from research and practice. We would like to hear your views on:

- Relevant analytical and trend perspectives (sector, theme, integrated)
- Practices to cope with the challenges (ideas, concepts, experiments)
- Reflections on instruments, processes, governance structures

Territorial governance, according to the UE guidelines, brings together the place-based approach and multi-level governance and it is closely linked to the cohesion policy. To ensure cohesion in all its aspects, three dimensions of territorial governance are crucial: 1) territorial or place-based dimension of policy-making, 2) bringing together stakeholders from different sectors and levels of governance, 3) considering the long-term consequences in order to in order to achieve social goals. Territorial governance, therefore, involves a change in the way local governments work together for development beyond the traditional boundaries of formal administrative divisions

The territorial approach to ensuring cohesion assumes that development processes are multidimensional in nature, which is a key feature for taking into account the territorial socio-economic, environmental conditions of the areas where development processes take place. Taking into account the territorial dimension in cohesion efforts focuses attention on the potential development opportunities of individual territories. The use of their potential and competitive advantages, however, must take place using local experiences, knowledge, specializations and relations occurring between different stakeholders. The European Union's cohesion policy, in this context, emphasizes the use of multi-level management of development processes, the building and improvement of local institutions, the development of relational capital and the creation of partnerships that allow the dissemination of knowledge and experience.

Track 12 covers, among many others, the following issues:

- components of territorial governance
- challenges within the territorial approach to development
- best practices in territorial governance for cohesion

Track 13 invites the bold explorers of the multiverse of planning theories to share their ideas on creative destruction, disruptive knowledge, inventive borrowing, and turbulent polyrationality with respect to spatial planning theories. Leaving behind the final frontier of a Pure and Unified Theory of Planning, Track 13 normalizes and mediates a wide variety of theoretical approaches to planning. Moreover, Track 13 welcomes reflections on how planners employ or are disappointed by theories that address the methods, processes, and substances of planning.

Planning theories are the expression and foundation of planning knowledge and planning performance. However, these theories are not static, but inspire constant change and development. Track 13 highlights a multiverse of planning theories in a world of turbulence. The co-chairs of Track 13 expect that questions of planning and theory will be raised and discussed in all tracks. Track 13 specifically encourages.

- unfolding the different meanings of planning as object and subject of planning theories
- contributing to a better understanding of the interconnections between planning practices, planning theories, and planning academia
- understanding the strategies and dynamics of theory-building in planning theories
- deconstructing the relationships between truth, the political, and ideology in planning theories, as well as
- stimulating a debate on the suitability of planning systems and approaches to encounter today’s big topics and raise awareness for needful changes

Track 13 offers experienced as well as young planning academics an opportunity to engage with plural planning theories in a turbulent world. Their contributions will examine the scope of planning theories, the integrated or fragile knowledge shared by planning theorists, and the obstacles within planning theories. Recognizing that theoretical narratives often are lost in translation and vague meanings, Track 13 also invites to improve quality through a more precise and explicit language in planning theories.

The systemic and economic transformation the countries of Central and Eastern Europe went through in the early 1990s has led to significant changes in their planning systems. The legacy from a socialist economy did not facilitate the occurring changes, and the dynamics of economic and social processes, resulting from the impact of the market mechanism on the one hand and the need to democratise the life on the other, posed many risks. In such circumstances, some Central and Eastern European countries, despite the challenges mentioned, managed to build well-functioning planning systems based on well-thought-out doctrines whose assumptions are made real by properly implemented practices of planning processes. Unfortunately, in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the planning system is not functioning properly to this day, which results in ever-greater spatial chaos that in turn brings about high economic and social expenses.

The path is to create conditions for the exchange of research results and discussions about doctrines and planning practices in Central and Eastern Europe. The examples of thematic areas include:

- A doctrine of the national planning system and its practical functioning
- A strategic planning system at national, regional and local levels: Assumptions vs planning practice
- A spatial planning system at national, regional and local levels: Assumptions vs planning practice
- National planning system reforms towards integrated planning: Experiences, successes and failures
- Challenges of integrated planning in pursuit of spatial order
- Good planning practices in the face of new challenges and threats

The papers may consider the general theory of planning and law, and/or analyse specific examples of good planning practices at the international level of Central and Eastern European states or focusing on a specific country. Owing to the fact that legal and planning systems differ significantly from country to country, authors should make their terminology as clear as possible.

The currently observed effects of anthropogenic climate change indicate the need for a broad implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies, including those with regard to spatial development. These strategies apply to virtually all sectors of the economy, but in particular to the energy sector along its entire chain: production - transmission - distribution and consumption of energy.

It is difficult to imagine the development of modern civilization without ensuring the sustainability of energy supplies. The energy systems, which include the production, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy, are currently facing the challenge of transformation, mainly related to the transition to such energy production methods that will not generate carbon dioxide emissions. Another, equally important aspect of the transformation of energy systems is the need to increase the diversification of energy sources, in particular to become independent from supplies from specific geographic regions, taking into account the actual and potentially possible political perturbations (e.g. supplies of fossil fuels from Russia). The change in energy sources dictated by the above conditions is usually associated with an increase in the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the energy balance. Considering the physical specificity of these sources, the manner and nature of the processes of producing energy from them - increasing their use implies the need to change the way the energy system is organized - in particular, the transition from a centralized model of energy production based on large commercial energy sources to a decentralized model, using local and dispersed Networked distributed energy resources. An important condition related to the energy transformation is also the progressive development process of the so-called economy 4.0, one of the characteristic elements of which is a quite radical increase in demand for electricity, while ensuring the stability and durability of its supplies to various types of end users. It can be argued that the currently observed increase in energy prices has been, is and will be a phenomenon that constantly accompanies the development of civilization, which implies the need to search for innovations aimed at ensuring sustainable clean energy supply at socially acceptable costs.

The challenges related to the energy transformation therefore imply the need for a new organization of the chain of production - transmission - distribution - consumption of energy. One of the solutions that are already becoming popular is prosumer energy. New methods of managing the organization of energy systems are sought, aimed not only at changing power sources, but also introducing solutions in the field of energy conservation (increasing efficiency - energy efficiency of energy processes and devices related to energy use) and energy efficiency. This means introducing innovations related not only to the management of the supply side, but also to the management of the demand side of the energy market.

The necessity of the energy transformation mentioned above is especially visible in areas with a high concentration of population and socio-economic activity - such as cities and highly urbanized areas (the so-called Functional Urban Areas - FUA). FUA are places in geographical space where the processes of consumption of physical environmental resources (including energy) are concentrated, as well as the effects of anthropogenic pressure related to it (including the effects of climate change). This means that the energy transformation of urbanized areas becomes a particular challenge in the context of organizing new methods of production - transmission - distribution - consumption in these areas, aimed at the mitigation and adaptation of urban space to climate change, ensuring the sustainability and stability of energy supply and preventing poverty of energy.

When discussing the problem of reorganizing energy systems in urbanized areas in the context of increasing the share of renewable energy sources and the development of distributed generation / distributed energy production, including prosumer energy, attention should also be paid to how, new forms of production, distribution and consumption energy will affect the functional and spatial structure of the city and how does this structure determine the efficiency of energy systems? How will the new model of urbanization take shape and how will this affect future architecture and construction? The formation and development of cities was associated with the so-called benefits of agglomeration - concentration of population and economic activity in certain areas of space allowed for a more efficient and effective organization of production processes, requiring physical proximity, availability of workforce, direct interpersonal interactions, etc. historical) development trends. Contemporary development processes, together with the spread of remote work, remote services, and the development of decentralized - distributed - energy systems may lead to the deepening of de-glomeration processes, initiated by the massive development of the automotive industry in the second half of the 20th century. Distributed and decentralized energy production poses the threat of progressive spilling urban areas, and thus various negative consequences - mainly environmental and social of this process. From this reflection, it can be concluded that the energy transformation of cities should be related to spatial policy and planning the development of the settlement system. Therefore, the energy transformation requires the integration of spatial and energy policy, focused on the one hand on the modernization of the energy system (in view of the above-mentioned challenges) and the optimization of spatial development.

The integration of planning procedures in the sphere of energy and spatial development is also dictated by the fact that the infrastructure used to generate energy from renewable sources is a potential source of spatial conflicts, the resolution of which requires new planning and economic instruments.

The intensive development of service industries and the accompanying industries, which has been observed for over a dozen years, resulting from the creation of new technological, information and digital solutions in the world, as well as automation and autonomization of economic processes, raises the need to ask the question - whether the European economy can again see development opportunities in new (nowadays) industries? To what extent is it possible for the current policy of the European Union to address such global development challenges as climate change and the need to increasingly compete with the dynamically growing economies of developing countries.

It is worth noting that contemporary civilization challenges, such as climate change and the need to mitigate them and adapt to their effects, in particular imply the need to develop technologies that promote the use of renewable energy sources, and the construction of distributed energy systems. The ongoing civilization changes force the development of new industries and economic sectors corresponding to the contemporary postulates of building a low-emission economy, circular economy, green economy or bio-economy. These development trends call for a question about the possibilities and directions of green reindustrialisation of Europe and re-stimulation of development processes in the areas of former industrial districts, but at a different - higher - level of advancement (?). We address this question to the participants of the Congress.

The complex geopolitical processes that take place in the contemporary world pose many questions about the future and shape of the world map and the place of countries and regions in the new balance of power.

Today, the issue of conflict is gaining wide and growing interest in various scientific disciplines. It is commonly believed that resource constraints are the most common cause of space conflict. However, the subject of the conflict is specific material goods but also a need for power, prestige, functions, or values.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

- the political value of space and foreign policy
- participatory democracy
- spatial conflicts
- globalization and the new international order
- relationships between man and his political behaviour and space
- social perceptions of the political space
- the spheres of influence on a regional and global scale

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a global threat that can be described as a disruption of the relative balance in the functioning of the societies and economies of all countries of the world. The epidemic situation has negatively affected, among other things, the environment, public transportation, the economy, and many other aspects of people's relationship with the territory in which they operate. COVID-19 has forced city governments to reconsider the relationship between mobility, urban space and health to ensure physical distance while meeting the travel needs of residents.

The crisis caused by the pandemic had a significant impact on people's lives and forced immediate changes in living, working, leisure and travel spaces, regardless of the type and function of the space. Fear of crowds, social distance, telecommuting and commuting restrictions have now changed ways of living , as well as the structure and configuration of cities. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that social resilience and urban regeneration must be built starting from a new idea of organizing urban space, places for living and working.

In today's post-pandemic world, we need to answer the following questions: How are cities and regions dealing with the current situation and managing continuity? How do cities and regions learn and emerge stronger? How cities and regions are preparing for and shaping the "new normal"? Topics of interest to the Track 17: Planning for Post-pandemic World include in particular (but not exclusively):

- 15-minute city
- urban and region resilience
- sustainable mobility
- new living spaces
- new working spaces
- new urban development scenarios
- and more…