News

Participation of iSEE Experts in the Workshop on Urban and Regional Planning in Ukraine in the Context of Preparations for Ukraine's Accession to the EU

On April 24, 2024, our experts, Olha Zadorozhna and Bogna Gawrońska-Nowak, had the honor to participate in a workshop on urban and regional planning of Ukraine in the context of its future accession to the EU. The event was organized by the One Works Foundation (OW) and the Polytechnic University of Milan (POLIMI) as part of a UNECE-funded project aimed at developing a revitalization plan for the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to the use of new tools and methods for urban and regional planning in Ukraine. As one of the speakers, Olha Zadorozhna emphasized the key role of understanding functional urban areas and their surrounding regions for effective political decision-making and urban planning, especially in the post-war context. Olha presented a novel econometric methodology, validated by a citizen science approach, for determining functional urban areas based on the experience of Poland. This method has been published in a scientific journal and can be found at this link: [link]. Olha also discussed how functional urban area designation techniques can be used in Ukraine and influence reconstruction efforts, supporting sustainable development and resilience of war-affected urban areas. Furthermore, in the discussion Olha highlighted the importance of agricultural land market reform in Ukraine and its implications for functional urban area designation.

Participation of iSEE Experts in the Workshop on Revitalization of the City of Mykolaiv

On March 13, 2024, our experts, Olha Zadorozhna and Bogna Gawrońska-Nowak, had the honor to participate in a workshop on the validation of demographic research conducted for the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The event was organized by Visionary Analytics (VA), in cooperation with the Polytechnic University of Milan (POLIMI) and One Works (OW), as part of a UNECE-funded project aimed at developing a revitalization plan for the city. The main goal of this initiative was to verify the results of the team's demographic research, in cooperation with both local and international experts in the field of demography and economics. During the workshop, experts had the opportunity to discuss and verify possible scenarios for the development of the local population of Mykolaiv in the short, medium and long term. 

During the meeting, the priorities of key pull and push factors that may affect the scale of return migration to the city were also discussed, and the quantitative scenarios prepared by the research team were thoroughly analyzed. Expert opinions will be used to refine scenarios for population return estimates, which in turn will have a significant impact on planning the city’s revitalization process.