The Royal Society of Arts and the Masaryk Academy hosted a panel discussion exploring the challenges facing three post-industrial urban areas and their surrounding communities: Glasgow in Scotland, Pittsburgh in the United States, and the Ostrava agglomeration in the Czech Republic. The discussion facilitated a three-way transfer of knowledge between all the cities involved, enabling participants to learn from policy successes around the world.

The goal of this first discussion will be to take an interdisciplinary look at the ways in which economic change has affected landscapes in post-industrial cities and surrounding communities, and at possible solutions for the challenges presented by these changes including ways in which past planning decisions have impacted on transport infrastructure and how innovative solutions in all three urban areas have successfully transformed local economies and communities.

The aim is to present technical solutions and explore the impact of change on culture and identity in these three cities.