The International Conference on Urban Planning and Architectural Design for Sustainable Development was held in the University Of Salento- Lecce Italy.  The conference was chaired by Professor Fabio Pollice (Department Of History, Society and Human Studies, University Del Salento) and organized by IEREK.

The opening session was held at Castello Carlo V, which was opened by a welcoming word from Prof. Vincenzo Zara (Rector of the University del Salento), Prof. Vitantonio Giola (Director of the Department of History, Society and Human Studies), and Prof. Franco Salvatori (President Emeritus of Italian Geographical Society).

It was shortly followed by a word from the Mayor of Lecce Dr. Paolo Perrone. Later on Mr. Mourad Amer (IEREK’s CEO), and Prof. Fabio Pollice (Scientific Coordinator of the Conference), made an introduction about the conference and its delegates, officially starting the conference, and allowing for the plenary sessions to begin.

The plenary sessions titled “The Sustainability of Planning a Critical approach”, and “Historic Centers and Tourism Development: Sustainable Paths” were run by the following professors;

– Prof. Michelangelo RUSSO (President of Italian Urbanist Society – University of Naples “Federico II”)

-Prof. Giandomenico AMENDOLA, sociologist (University of Florence)

-Prof. Mohsen A. B. BAYAD, architect (University of Alexandria)

-Prof. Attilio BELLI, urbanist (University of Naples “Federico II”)

-Prof. Konstantinos MORAITIS, Landscape architect (National Technical University of Athens)

-Prof. Angelo TURCO, geographer (IULM University)

-Chairman: Prof. Fabio POLLICE (University of Salento)

-Sen. Alfonso ANDRIA (President of the European University Centre for Cultural Heritage)

-Dr. Claudio BOCCI (Director of Federculture)

-Arch. Roberta MARASCO (Municipality of Lecce)

-Prof. Nabil MOHAREB (Head of Faculty of Architectural Engineering, Tripoli Branch)

-Arch. Maria PICCARRETA (Overseer, Department for Cultural Heritage)

-Prof. Franco SALVATORI (University of Roma “Tor Vergata”)

Moving on to the parallel sessions which was held at the Monastero Degli Olivetani- Lecce and which was led and moderated by great and reputable professors who were of great help in organizing this conference and its sessions. The topics discussed during the conference are of great interest to Lecce, which led in creating the “Round Table” that consisted of key people in Lecce and the University of Salento, discussing the urban regeneration projects in Lecce which was opened by, Professor Sergio Conti (President of the Italian Geographical Society), and was then discussed by;

-Massimo CRUSI (Architect, President of Architects’ Association, Province of Lecce)

-Gabriella DE GIORGI (Professor of Administrative Law, University of Salento)

-Anna Lucia DENITTO (Professor of Contemporary History, University of Salento)

-Luigi MANIGLIO (Architect, Director of “Planning Sector and Development”, Municipality of Lecce)

-Severo MARTINI (Councilor for Urban Planning, Municipality of Lecce)

-Maria Valeria MININNI (Professor of Urban Planning, University of Basilicata, T.S. PPTR Apulia Region)

-Fabio NASELLI (Professor of Urbanist, University Kore of Enna)

-Maria PICCARRETA (Overseer, Department for Cultural Heritage)

-Anna TRONO (Professor of Geography, University of Salento)

 After the “Round Table” finished their discussion, the conference has moved to the public discussion which had many of the delegates participate into it, with a remarkable not to one of the Authors, Chaham Alalouch, thanking IEREK for its efforts, and also stating that IEREK is the first ever in the middle east to organize such great events. Taking the conference to its summary by MR. Mourad Amer (IEREK’s CEO), and to close the conference with the conclusions by Prof. Fabio POLLICE (Scientific Coordinator of the Conference, University of Salento), and Prof. Angelo TURCO (Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Tourism and Markets, IULM University).

Conference Topics

A wide range of topics was covered by the conference papers, they were grouped into sections, and the conference topics are as follows;

• Planning Approaches for Sustainable Development
• Community Participation
• Urban Design and Urban Infrastructure
• Landscape Planning and Design
• City Planning, Development and Management
• Sustainable Public Transport Systems
• Cultural Development and Awareness
• Energy and the Environment
• Accessibility in Cityscape and Development Issues
• Climate Change and Ecological Planning
• Building Physics and Technology
• Planning for Risk and Natural Hazards
• Balancing Heritage Conservation and Development
• Planning for Public Health
• Sustainability and Architecture
• Sustainable Design and Configuration of Sustainable Cities
• Forms and Aesthetics in Architectural Designs
• Other topics related to Architecture Design and Urban Design

Conference Gala Dinner

Almost all of the delegates and organizers were able to get together during the conference days, at the gala dinner which was organized beforehand, to allow the authors and organizers to get together and discuss the conference.

During the gathering of the delegates at the gala dinner, they were able to discuss many topics of the conference, furthermore, they were able to exchange ideas about their papers and their cultural backgrounds.

The conference’s dinner took place in the Grand Tiziano Hotel at Lecce located near to where the parallel sessions were held, at the Monastero Degli Olivetani- Lecce.

 Publication of Papers

The proceedings of the international conference on “Urban Planning and Architectural Design for Sustainable Development” will be published by ELSEVIER at the Procedia journal “Social and Behavioral Sciences”

The Participants were awarded and internationally recognized certificate from IEREK that they have attended the conference and presented their papers.

1. 1. Planning Approaches For Sustainable Development.
2. 2. City Planning, Development And Management.
3. 3. Landscape Planning And Design.
4. 4. Urban Design And Urban Infrastructure.
5. 5. Accessibility In Cityscape And Development Issues
6. 6. Waterfront Developments.
7. 7. Energy And The Environment.
8. 8. Community Participation.
9. 9. Planning For Risk And Natural Hazards.
10. 10. Sustainable Public Transport Systems
11. 11. Cultural Development And Awareness.
12. 12. Balancing Heritage Conservation And Development.
13. 13. Planning For Public Health.
14. 14. Climate Change And Ecological Planning.
15. 15. Building Physics And Technology.
16. 16. Architecture And Urban Design Education.
17. 17. Sustainable Design And Configuration Of Sustainable Cities.
18. 18. Forms And Aesthetics In Architectural Designs.
19. 19. Sustainability And Architecture.
20. 20. Other Topics Related To Architectural Design And Urban Design.

The Conference’s detailed program is now available on IEREK‘s website, with a detailed schedule as well for the workshops and the conference sessions. Please click on the following link to download the UPADSD exclusive program:

Download Plenary Sessions Program

Download Parallel Sessions Program

Attending conferences is very beneficial on the professional level. Conferences are full of people promoting new ideas which will expand your knowledge and undoubtedly help your career.

Conferences also can expand your resources by providing a great opportunity to promote gathered information on new technologies related to your research. Moreover, they let you test them out, share teaching tools and techniques, or even obtain samples of textbooks.

It is an opportunity to engage with respectable professors and discuss with them the very latest research projects they could be working on.

Delegates will have the choice of receiving the conference proceedings as either a hard cover book or in digital format on CD. The USB flash drive will additionally contain proceedings from previous conferences in this series.

Indexing and Archiving Papers presented at IEREK conferences regularly appear in notable reviews, publications and databases, including referencing and abstract.

All conference papers are digitally archived online in sciencedirect.com by ELSEVIER where they are immediately and permanently available to the international scientific community.

Journal participants may be asked after the conference to submit an enhanced version of their researches for possible publication at procidea journal and sciencedirect.com website.

Once an abstract is submitted, it will be sent to the reviewers' committee to go through the revision process:

• Elementary Review:

Once an abstract has been submitted to our website, it is assigned for review by the reviewers using the abstract review sheet and validation of publication. This is based on four criteria:

· Accepted for publication (with minor editing changes).

· Conditionally accepted for publication (with revisions provided to authors).

· Rejected but encouraged for re-submission with major modifications.

· Rejected as inappropriate or unworthy of publication in this certain conference.

The criteria for accepting abstracts for the conference are as follows; a relevant topic of the conference should be proposed with clear writing, aims, and objectives of the study clearly presented, as well as a sound literature and methodology of the work.

• First Acceptance:

Authors will receive a notification message to know the feedback of the reviewers' committee. If an author receives the acceptance of his or her abstract, he or she has to continue writing the full-length paper using the requested templates.

• Uploading Full-Length Paper:

Authors who are allowed to upload their full-length paper(s) should use the same account details to upload their full paper(s).

• Second Acceptance:

The final paper will proceed to the primary revision to be checked if it meets the conference proceedings standards. Once it gets accepted, the author of the paper will be informed to pay the fees so that it could be sent for the final revision by the scientific committee.

• Payment:

In this step, and to proceed paper(s) that passed to the final revision process and to get the final approval, authors have to pay the requested fees. Otherwise, the final revision process will not be considered for their papers.

• Inspections and Final Approval of Full Papers:

Those with full papers and who have paid the requested fees will get finally inspected, either scientifically or linguistically. There will be a rigorous review process of full papers following the previous process according to the following criteria:

(1) Is the topic relevant to the conference?

(2) Are the writing and structure clear?

(3) Are graphics, photos, illustrations used where needed?

(4) Are the aims of the study clearly stated?

(5) Are the objectives of the study achieved?

(6) Is the literature review relevant and adequate?

(7) Has the author used an appropriate methodology and has it been clearly explained?

(8) Has the author interpreted the findings correctly?

(9) Is the paper a significant contribution to the field?

These are the registration and revision procedures for publication that all authors should follow.

– Instructions

– Every research paper should have at least a main author who should pay the full fees, even if the main author is a Master’s or a PhD candidate. These fees include the attendance of only one author to the conference. (As shown in the table, row 1),

– In case there is a co-author who is either a student or a professor and wants to attend the conference, participate in its activities and get a certificate of attending, he or she has to pay the specified fees (As shown in the table, row 5),

– In case students or interested audience want to attend the conference without presenting a paper, they must pay the specified fees. (As shown in the table, row 6).

(25% discount only for Author fees has Expired!)

– A 25% discount for the author fees was granted to those who paid the paper fees before the 15^th of June, 2015, allowing them to pay only ($300) instead of ($400).

– Additionally, the online open access at sciencedirect.com had fixed fees that did not get the discount offer, even if the fees had been paid early.

(10% additional discount for Author fees/The paper fees has Expired!)

– A 10% discount for the author fees was granted to those who paid the paper fees before the 1st of July, 2015 allowing the authors to pay for the authors fees ($360) instead of ($400)

– The online open access at sciencedirect.com had fixed fees that did not get the discount offer, even if they were paid early.

Late Payment (after 18 August, 2015)

– ($100) will be added to the author fees and the system will ask you to pay ($500) instead of ($400).

– ($75)  will be added to the Audience fees and the system will ask you to pay ($375) instead of ($300).

– ($50) will be added to the Co-author fees and the system will ask you to pay ($250) instead of ($200).

– CANCELLATIONS/REFUNDS

– Delegates who cancel their registration due to special circumstances more than 60 days before the start of the conference and do not have a paper published in the proceedings will receive a complete refund minus the list price of the conference book and a $100 administration charge. Fees remain payable in full for cancellations received within 60 days of the start of the conference.

– Please notice that we will endeavor to assist you in obtaining a visa but the responsibility is yours and the decision rests solely with the appropriate Embassy.

* There will be a Gala Dinner held on the 8th of October, where it is a good chance for the conference members to join and meet , to talk and open discussions, and to get to enjoy this event further. The Gala Dinner will cost €35, which will be paid at the front disk.

“FINAL payment deadline is on the 5th of September, 2015”!

Kindly note that you will not be considered as an attendee to the conference if you have not completed your payment before the given deadline even if your paper has successfully passed its revision process. 

http://www.ierek.com/events/urbanistica-e-disegno-architettonico-per-lo-sviluppo-sostenibileupadsd/

Late Payment (after 18 August 2015)

– ($100) will be added to the author fees and the system will ask you to pay ($500) instead of ($400).

– ($75)  will be added to the Audience fees and the system will ask you to pay ($375) instead of ($300).

– ($50) will be added to the Co-author fees and the system will ask you to pay ($250) instead of ($200).

“FINAL payment deadline is on the 5th of September, 2015”!

Kindly note that you will not be considered as an attendee of the conference if you have not completed your payment before the given deadline even if your paper has successfully passed its revision process. 

University of Salento. Lecce – Italy.

A young dynamic university, keen to expand and to prove itself at a national and international level. Since 1955, the Università del Salento has had the aim of promoting knowledge, skill, and merit and has offered a large range of educational opportunities.

The University of Salento (Italian: Università del Salento, called until 2007 Università degli Studi di Lecce) is a university located in Lecce, Italy. It was founded in 1955 and is organized in 10 Faculties.

Lecce, Italy

Travel to Lecce:

• By train from Rome or Milan. Take a Eurostar(EC) or Intercity(IC) train; overnight trains are equipped with sleeping accommodations, couchettes or beds. It takes about 6 hours to reach Lecce from Rome and 10 hours from Milan by train.Note: practically all train timetables in Italy (with the exception of some local companies) are available at the website http://www.trenitalia.it/(also in English) with online booking.

• By a plane to Bari from the most central Italian hubs (Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate) and also from a number of foreign airports. The airport’s web address is http://www.seap-puglia.it/. After arriving at Bari, you will need to take a public bus to the Bari train station and then travel to Lecce by train.

• Travel to Brindisi:

• The plane to Brindisi is preferable. You may fly to Brindisi from the Italian airports of Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate. The website of the airport is http://www.seap-puglia.it/.

• Arrivals to Brindisi (13 October 2015 or a day before for participants who will attend the conference only). Outside Brindisi airport, there is a public bus going to Lecce. The schedule can be found here. However, we stress that such a timetable is going to change, so you have to check the timetable of flights to/from Brindisi. The ticket can be bought at the newspapers kiosk inside the airport. The bus is gray and green, with the `SITA’ logo, and usually, leaves on the right of the main exit of the airport.

Then one can reach Lecce train station by taxi. The average fare for the trip Lecce Airport City Terminal – Lecce Train Station should be about 10 euros. If the office of the Airport City Terminal is open, you may ask the employees to call a taxi for you. Otherwise, you may call it yourself (but you could be answered by people who does not speak English) at one of the following numbers: 0832 332857, EUROMED service (works 24/7); 0832 247978 (Train station taxis). Public phones could be found in the square in front of the Airport city terminal about 1EUR/run.

When you arrive at the train station, you may store your luggage at the baggage storage area in the train station and visit the historical center of Lecce which is 10 minutes walking from the train station. Just go straight ahead from the main entrance of the train station and after 500m, you will be in the old center.

Other means of travel

• By plane and train: it is possible to combine plane and train trips which could be a convenient alternative if you plan to visit other parts of Italy. There are day and night trains from Rome and Milan every day, please refer to http://www.trenitalia.it/. Moreover, especially from Europe, many low-cost companies have scheduled flights to smaller Italian airports such as Forlí and Pescara, from which a train is the most practical mode of transportation to reach Lecce.

• By car from Bari (150Km), via a freeway. Just follow the signs to Brindisi-Lecce. Rental cars are available in the main Italian airports, including the airports of Brindisi and Bari. This could be a good idea if you wish to join a visit to the South of Italy to the conference.

For participants who need Entry Visas, IEREK will issue a visa letter by Salento University for applicants who are accepted to present at our conferences.

Please notice that we will endeavor to assist you in obtaining a visa but the responsibility is yours and the decision rests solely with the appropriate Embassy.

However, you are required to prepare your papers according to the regulations of your country’s embassy/consulate. To do this, you will need to visit the embassy/consulate website or by contacting them.

In the case of any missing document during the appointment or any other unfortunate incident that leads to your rejection, IEREK clears its responsibility as we will have done our part in providing the documents we can provide to ease the process.

These are the suggested hotels that you can use for accommodation during the

period of the conference. You can reserve your place by contacting the
hotel.

Please note: these are just suggestions that we found most suitable for
accommodation, they are not mandatory.