UR-DATA team at NARSC Conference

November 13-16, 2024
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Members of the UR-DATA team, Jelena Stanković and Ivana Marjanović, actively participated in the 71st Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI), hosted by the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC). The conference was held from November 13 to 16, 2024, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference officially began with a vibrant opening session, featuring a welcome address and an engaging plenary session titled “Decentralized vs. Centralized Water Pollution Cleanup in the Ganges in a Model with Three Cities”, plenary speaker: Amit Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology, while the session is chaired by Karima Kourtit, Open University of the Netherlands. This keynote address set the tone for the conference by emphasizing the role of urban development in addressing global environmental challenges.

Our team members attended multiple concurrent sessions focused on themes such as urban resilience, regional connectivity, and socioeconomic dynamics. Networking opportunities were abundant, and they reconnected with Hans Westlund, current President of RSAI, and Peter Nijkamp, renowned economist and a long-standing contributor to the field of regional science.

The second day, the UR-DATA team members actively participated in the Spatial Analysis and Economic Modelling session, where Jelena Stanković presented the paper titled “Resilience and Network Connectivity in the Balkans,” co-authored research. The presentation sparked insightful discussions, and Professor Kelley Pace of Louisiana State University provided valuable feedback and praised the research’s originality and analytical rigor. Ivana Marjanović participated in a session exploring data-driven urban policy-making, further enriching her insights for application in the UR-DATA project.

In the following conference days, the team engaged with participants from various regions, exchanging ideas on innovative methodologies and potential collaborative opportunities. Discussions during this day were particularly fruitful for identifying synergies that could enhance the UR-DATA project’s goals.