The Malaga City Council´s Town Planning, Works and Infrastructure Department is organising the 1st International Innovation Forum – 6th Road Conservation Conference
\nThe 1st International Innovation Forum – 6th Road Safety Conference, held on 27th and 28th October, has focused on two fundamental aspects to guarantee the viability of road safety: increasing investment to facilitate habitability in cities and innovation.<\/p>\n
The Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, attended the opening ceremony of the 1st International Innovation Forum, organised by the Malaga City Council´s Town Planning, Works and Infrastructures Department in collaboration with the companies Conacon<\/a> (Sando Group), Eiffage Infraestructuras and Itafec. During his appearance he referred to how applying new technologies to the city environment has increased the quality of life of the people who live in the city.<\/p>\n In this regard, Jorge G\u00e1miz, Sando\u2019s Infrastructure Conservation and Maintenance Director, described conservation as an essential service: \u201cthe innovative projects carried out in Malaga\u2019s road maintenance service have optimised the quality of service for citizens\u201d. This aspect was continued by Ra\u00fal L\u00f3pez, Malaga City Council´s Territorial Planning Councillor, and related to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic: \u201cIt would be important to link this economic and social situation with the world of conservation\u201d.<\/p>\n First session<\/p>\n The forum began with a round table on transparency models applied to Urban conservation<\/a>, moderated by journalist Luis Carlos Ram\u00edrez. During the opening conference, David Giles, Director of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, stressed the added value of preventive management: \u201cWe are calling for investment in road conservation now to stop spending money on reactive conservation\u201d.<\/p>\n Juan Jos\u00e9 Potti, President of the Spanish Association of Asphalt Mix Manufacturers, then presented the results of the Vuelva 2020 report: \u201c23% of urban accidents could be attributed to the urban state of conservation\u201d. This aspect was clarified by Javier P\u00e9rez de la Fuente, head of the Infrastructure Projects and Works Department of the Malaga Town Planning Department: \u201cConserving is not maintaining, it is providing added value". In this regard, on how to transfer the knowledge generated in research, Mayca Rubio, director of the LabIC.UGR group at the University of Granada explained one of her projects to implement intelligent pavements in urban infrastructures: \u201cThe results obtained have highlighted the potential of codified pavements\u201d.<\/p>\n From the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, Professor \u00c1lvaro Garc\u00eda continued to present the research undertaken by the Transportation Engineering Centre, which specialises in computerised design of asphalt mixtures. While the professor of Road Engineering at the Alfonso X El Sabio University, \u00c1ngel Sampedro, has talked about the concept of innovation with the development indicators of the countries.<\/p>\n
\nDuring the second round table, University Forum, Research Applied to Cities, moderated by the journalist and writer Jos\u00e9 Antonio Sau, Raquel Barco, Vice-Chancellor of Smart-Campus of the University of Malaga, explained the project to convert the Campus into an \u201cUrban-Lab\u201d where researchers, students and external companies can test prototypes that can be replicated in other parts of the city.<\/p>\n