Webinar: Planning for Rural Regeneration Post-COVID 19
NCSG’s Irish research partner, the ICLRD, is hosting a webinar on planning for rural areas post-COVID 19. Please see below for details and registration
The ICLRD Are delighted to invite you to the fourth webinar as part of its ‘Post-Pandemic Planning’ Series.
The COVID 19 “… crisis offers rural communities an opportunity to mobilise and strengthen their local networks and co-operative structures to face the economic shock. Rural areas tend to benefit from tight community networks able to self-organise to adapt to structural changes. Local initiatives that emerged temporarily to address the immediate economic and social effects of the pandemic can be useful mechanisms to promote well-being and cohesion in rural communities in the long term.” (OECD https://www.oecd.org/
During the on-going COVID-19 pandemic we are continually learning about the resilience and vulnerabilities of rural communities and places. It has become apparent that many positives have emerged from the community-level response to the measures to suppress the virus. However, there have also been significant challenges and pressures in rural areas and on rural communities since restrictions on movement and interactions have been implemented. For example, the demographic characteristics of rural areas, with a higher proportion of older people and the potential for greater levels of isolation and lack of access to basic services, has the potential to leave certain cohorts particularly vulnerable. Positively, strategies such as Our Rural Future have identified the role rural areas can contribute to regional and national economies. In the longer term, if there are continued changes in consumption patterns and a move towards remote working, a basis for sustainable rural growth may emerge from this challenging time. This Webinar examines how rural areas have been impacted by our changed relationship with place during the pandemic, and the potential that rural towns and spaces can contribute to rural regeneration in a post-COVID world.
Event Programme
Moderator: Dr Karen Keaveney, Senior Research Associate ICLRD, and Assistant Professor of Rural Development, University College Dublin
Welcome from ICLRD Chair: Ms. Mary MacIntyre OBE
Prof. Ryan Gibson, Associate Professor (Libro Professor) in Regional Economic Development, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Dr Philip Crowe, Assistant Professor in Climate Responsive Design, UCD School Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy and UCD School Civil Engineering
Donall Mac An Bheatha, Senior Planner, Longford County Council