June 22, 2026 Building vibrant cities for a changing world What makes a city truly vibrant in a time of climate and social change? That question was at the centre of a Calgary Climate Week session, where University of Calgary researchers, students and partners explored how cities can better adapt, connect and respond under pressure. “Vibrant cities must be able to support people when systems are under stress. They must be prepared to respond to climate risks, affordability pressures, aging infrastructure, social vulnerability, and the ways the challenges compound one another,” says Dr. Seiran Heshami, PhD, an assistant professor in the Schulich School of Engineering’s Sustainable Systems Engineering program. Schulich partnered with construction engineering company AECOM to explore vibrant cities as part of the first-ever Calgary Climate Week, which took place June 1-6, with a mission to prepare and position Calgary as an emerging hub for global climate solutions. The afternoon of June 4 was dedicated to exploring vibrant cities and featured talks and panel discussions with presenters from UCalgary, the City of Calgary, AECOM and architecture firms. From visible activity to civic capacity Courtesy Seiran Heshami “The June 4 Vibrant Cities sessions demonstrated that building a vibrant city is not a single project, sector, or plan,” says Heshami. “Calgary’s challenges are interconnected, and they require integrated, co-created solutions that involve communities, researchers, city staff, industry, policymakers and partners from the beginning.” Heshami’s opening talk, What is a Vibrant City? defined a vibrant city as one that can adapt, care, connect and act; one that adapts to changing conditions, cares for its residents, and learns from and acts on evidence, lived experience and shared responsibility. This framing, according to Heshami, shifted the conversation from vibrancy as an aesthetic or economic condition to vibrancy as a civic capacity: a city’s ability