Cities & Regions in Action: Planning Pathways to Resilience and Quality of Life

61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Between 1 and 4 December 2025, more than 1,200 participants from more than fifty countries - representing international organisations, governments, civil society, the private sector, planning professionals, and academia - gathered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress, boosting international collaboration on urban planning challenges. International Society of City and Regional Planners extends its sincere gratitude to the City of Riyadh and its Mayor, His Excellency Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf, for hosting this Congress during the Society's 60th anniversary. The event took place in a purpose-built venue for the congress, highlighting Riyadh's role in advancing global planning dialogue.

1. Cities at the Frontline of Global Change

Cities today face overlapping crises from climate shocks to demographic and economic transitions. Yet they remain hubs of innovation and opportunity, uniquely positioned to enhance quality of life, strengthen well-being, and pioneer solutions with global relevance. Urban and regional planning is essential in channelling this potential while building resilience for both current and future generations. The role of the professional urban planning community lies in rethinking traditional approaches, keeping in mind scalability to respond to complex global challenges. City and Regional Planners support and work with cities and communities in experimenting with new strategies, collaboration models, and governance systems with the aim of improving quality of life and accelerating action toward resilience.

2. Forging New Pathways for Urban and Regional Development

The Congress called for planning approaches that equip cities to confront the convergence of crises. Delegates emphasised the importance of planning within wider regional systems, including metropolitan, cross-border, and functional urban areas. They highlighted the rising significance of integrated, inclusive, and multi-scalar approaches: care-based planning, temporary urbanism, human-centred design, regenerative approaches, and neighbourhood-scale innovation. Participants also reaffirmed that planning processes - who participates, how decisions are made, and how communities influence outcomes - are as vital as the final plan itself. These themes shaped discussions across all Congress tracks, including the New Cities, Humanisation, Do-Track Breakfast Talks, and sessions on national urban policy, proximity, framework planning, quality of life, and regional development.

3. Building a Culture of Foresight

ISOCARP promotes the need to institutionalise urban foresight as a core planning instrument to anticipate future challenges. Foresight enables the planning process to shift from reacting to crises to anticipating them by using data-driven tools, scenario planning, and trend analysis. This anticipatory approach allows cities to navigate demographic change, intensifying climate risks, economic transformation, and technological disruption. An expanded foresight culture promotes adaptive and resilient planning frameworks under uncertainty.

4. Advancing Regenerative Urbanism

ISOCARP endorses a transition toward regenerative planning. This approach goes beyond minimising harm to actively restoring ecological, social, and spatial systems. This includes integrating climate-adaptive infrastructure, nature-based solutions, green and blue networks, compact development, sustainable mobility, and eco-responsible housing aligned with emerging well-being economic models. Regenerative planning strengthens biodiversity, reduces resource pressures, improves responses to climate change, and promotes social cohesion and inclusion.

5. Climate Action and Urban Planning

ISOCARP emphasises the importance of integrating climate resilience across planning scales, taking into consideration the economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Held right after COP30, the congress reaffirms the growing recognition of the role of cities and regions in meeting global climate commitments and the necessity of empowering local governments and municipalities with resources and support. In cities, the participants emphasised multilevel governance, adaptation, and climate finance with strong calls to embed local and regional perspectives into national climate strategies and strengthen multilevel climate action. Participants agreed that regenerative, resilient, equitable and nature-positive urban approaches that respond to the local context support cities and municipalities in driving climate action. In particular, urban and territorial planning play a significant role in bridging global climate objectives with local implementation. ISOCARP advocates for regional and city systems that empower local communities, incorporate Indigenous knowledge, and embrace equity, ensuring that no community or territory is left behind.

6. Place-making, Inclusion, and Community Well-Being

The Congress underscored place-making as a strategic driver of resilient, inclusive, and human-centred urban transformation. Strengthening neighbourhood identity, enhancing the quality of public spaces, improving walkability, and fostering microclimate comfort.

are essential components of socially cohesive and climate-responsive cities. Integrating cultural heritage, local identity, behavioural patterns, and community narratives ensures that planning reflects residents' lived experiences and supports a stronger sense of belonging. The congress concluded that humanisation - people-centric planning approaches - entails embedding proximity, culture, heritage, shading, public-space quality, and participatory approaches to design decisions. Place-making and humanisation are catalytic ways to shape cities for place-based impact investments and for dignity, equity, and belonging.

The urban environment - from building design and housing to public spaces, pedestrian networks, pedestrian infrastructure, and mobility systems - should be leveraged to promote physical wellbeing, mental health, and social wellbeing. We pledge to integrate climate-resilient development frameworks that are evidence-based, accessible public space through proximity, climate-responsive design, walkability, transit last mile and connectivity, and compact city principles to reduce heat stress, encourage active lifestyles, and build healthier, more liveable urban communities.

7. Collaboration as the Default Mode

The Congress reaffirmed collaborative planning as essential for addressing today's systemic challenges. Governments, civil society, academia, the private sector, and young professionals must work in partnership to navigate the complexities of urban development. ISOCARP will continue to strengthen cooperation with international partners, city networks, academic institutions, and built environment professionals to deepen shared knowledge, advance innovation, and support resilient and equitable urban and regional futures. In particular, the participants emphasized co-creation across scales and sectors, shared governance, inclusive stakeholder engagement, participatory planning, and strategic public-private-community partnerships - ensuring that planning cities and regions is a collective effort anchored in local realities and inclusion.

Collaboration, Culture, and Inclusion work in tandem as pivotal pillars of sustainable, resilient urbanism. Strategic Planning, temporary urbanism, and neighbourhood planning benefit from considering local identity, heritage, social values, and alternative community narratives in spatial development and urban design - whether in historic cores, rapidly developing districts, or new cities. By doing so, we affirm that dynamic, well-planned sustainable urban development enhances belonging and enables building on the cultural roots ever-present in urban territories to foster social cohesion, identity, community values, and intergenerational continuity. Culture-led planning helps ensure that transformation has place-specific meaning or community spirit, leaving no one behind.

8. Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Planning

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping urban planning and development. While AI offers significant opportunities for analysis, modelling, and decision support, it also raises questions about governance, ethics, public trust, and the resource demands of digital infrastructure. ISOCARP will expand its engagement in research, capacity building, advocacy, and knowledge exchange to promote the ethical, people-centred, and climate-conscious application of AI in city and regional planning, ensuring technology serves communities and enhances quality of life.

The 61st ISOCARP Congress in Riyadh demonstrated the Society's enduring vitality and its commitment to advancing leading-edge debates in city and regional planning. Although this Declaration summarises key insights, the Congress covered a much broader range of topics and perspectives. ISOCARP will carry these discussions forward through future congresses, workshops, publications, and advocacy, and welcomes all who wish to contribute to these ongoing efforts.

International Society of City and Regional Planners invites all members, partners, and interested institutions to join us in advancing resilient, inclusive, and regenerative cities and regions. Together, we can transform shared knowledge into concrete action and help shape a better urban future for cities and other human settlements worldwide.