VI Icon-la International Conference

Green Infrastructure:
from global to local

EFLA Regional Congress

St. Petersburg (Russia), Stockholm and Uppsala (Sweden)

11–15 June 2012

The main objective of this international scientific conference is to raise the attention and awareness among scientists, urban planners, landscape architects, city's administrations and the other stakeholders on importance of creating sustainable green infrastructure in the cities and using the full potentials of green infrastructure for primary production, biodiversity development, ecosystems services, recreation and mitigation of consequences of globalisation and climate change.

The current unsustainable development of most cities of the world (UNCHS, 1996) furthermore features a range of specific problems relating to its green infrastructure and which we address to discuss in the proposed conference.

The idea of hosting the conference in two places: in St. Petersburg, Russia and in Stockholm (and Uppsala) has sprung from the need to demonstrate to the international scientific and professional communities the effectiveness and timeliness of developing advanced green infrastructure.

You are very welcome to our joint conference in St. Petersburg and Uppsala. We are expecting a participation of many good professionals from all around the globe.

There will be 7 subthemes in the conference:

1. Green Infrastructure in different scales;
2. Green Heritage;
3. Green-Blue infrastructures;
4. Built-Green infrastructure and their interactions;
5. Green infrastructures: ecosystem services;
6. The link between green and social infrastructure;
7. Transportation and green infrastructures.

The scientific output will be in the form of a peer-reviewed conference abstract proceedings (will be completed before the conference) and a special issue in one of the peer reviewed publications (Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, Landscape and Ecological Engineering or Nordic Architectural Research etc.) after the conference. Editors of these scientific journals will be invited to the conference.

The conference will consist of total 5 days:

two days of conference presentations and a technical excursion in St. Petersburg,
one day on the train St. Petersburg-Helsinki plus boat-ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm
and two days of conference presentations and technical excursions in Stockholm and Uppsala.

The keynote speakers are world leading academics and practitioners: Martha Schwartz (USA, UK), one of the leading world's landscape architects, Professor Nancy Rottle from the University of Washington, USA; Professor Stephan Pauleit from Munich Technical University, Germany, Dr. Larisa Kanunnikova, the Main Landscape Architect of St. Petersburg, Professors Clas Florgård, world specialist in indigenous vegetation and Per G Berg, DG Environment (EU) expert for the European Green Capital Award from SLU, Sweden.

This conference will be a part of the EFLA
(European Federation of Landscape Architecture)

General Assembly meeting which will take place on 8–10th of June in St. Petersburg.
Invited to the conference are also IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) and its members. The conference will be held in the time of the Imperial Gardens of Russia Festival in St. Petersburg and participants will be able to be a part of this event as well.

Informational letter