congress team: 
Francois Vienne (France/Singapore) & Nasim Iranmanesh (Iran)

Aside from the main tracks, the Special Track on the Future Hot City will be organised. The rationale for this comes from the fact that approximately 30% of the world's surface is arid lands and the cities within face greater challenges than cities in other climate zones. Whilst this natural setting is specific and irreversible, the current planning and design practices in shaping the hot climate cities that adopt international-city making paradigm does not resolve many of the unique challenges. With climate change this issue will become bigger. Understanding the natural and geographical context in arid environment will lead to the appropriate future responses tailored to address the specific challenges. All these aspects have to be discussed in a comprehensive and holistic fashion in order to allow to reshape our future hot cities as well as to seek appropriate sustainable and liveable models for urban areas in the arid climate and desert context.

Papers and presentations within this special session shall focus on:

• Climate appropriate planning and design for arid environment (urban structure, Water Sensitive Urban Design,  urban system, urban form, public realm, building, landscape)
• Water resilient planning and design solutions and strategies to face climate challenges and sustainable urban development growth;
• Appropriate size, population and development density for arid climate context
• Appropriate hard infrastructure (transport, housing, innovative technology, utility) for arid climate context
• Appropriate soft infrastructure (policies, governance, institutions, culture, education) for arid climate context