Capacity Building Academy III.

Urbasofia, a Bucharest-based urban planning consultancy, led our third capacity-building session. Their mission is to shape the “cities of tomorrow” through sustainable urban development with the clear goal of enhancing quality of life for all urban communities. The consultancy has implemented projects across the continent, collaborating closely with academia, private companies, NGOs and international networks.

Urbasofia's case study was the project “Connecting hiSTorical Danube rEgions Roman routes” (ISTER), an Interreg initiative like CAST. The aim of the project, which ran from 2020 to 2022, was to integrate the ancient Roman road network along the Danube River into sustainable modern development. Results included a GIS Atlas of Roman roads, a mobile app for digital tourism and heritage education as well as a policy handbook with recommendations for decision-makers.

A focus of the case study presentation was stakeholder mapping. After identifying the stakeholders, Urbasofia used a chain mapping technique to analyse the interest and influence of each stakeholder including the relationship between them. Finally, they developed an engagement strategy. One of the most important lessons they learned during the project was the value of early stakeholder involvement in building trust.

The specific knowledge and expertise shared during the capacity-building session will help us develop pilot actions that are richer and more diverse in the next phase of our project, allowing us to adapt and strengthen our approaches moving forward.