Cities are being asked to undergo profound transformations in the coming decades, to adapt to major environmental changes resulting from a development model based on continuous growth and to attenuate the negative externalities of urbanization. It should be possible for cities to participate in the regeneration of ecosystems and the biophysical balance of terrestrial systems such as the carbon cycle, while ensuring a decent and just living environment for all.
This is what the Pôle sur la ville résiliente (Resilient City research Hub) of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is exploring from a collaborative interdisciplinary perspective.
UQAM’s Resilient City research Hub
Founded in November 2021, the research Hub brings together researchers from every scientific and academic background required for thinking about socio-ecological resilience: urban water hydrogeologists, urban forest and soil ecologists, urban planners, geographers, and specialists in urban agriculture, mobility, housing and management, citizen mobilization and conflict. These people have come together to work alongside one another on innovative projects in cities: places to live, work and inhabit. The research Hub has also assembled a group of committed partners in the field: stakeholders and actors from the municipal sector, civil society and environmental groups as well as private and public companies that prioritize the development of socio-ecological resilience.
MixCité, the Hub’s open innovation centre
MixCité is a unique place dedicated to open and participatory innovation by providing a space for discussion, support and networking. It offers a space for the shared conception of ideas about issues relating to the development of socio-ecological resilience among partners and researchers, based on concrete cases originating in the field. Through the development of new participatory practices, it promotes encounters between the academic world and actors working to invent the city of tomorrow.
