City registers as 150th member at Spain summit

AI-based ComPlanAI and quadrant analysis model unveiled

Nam Young-hee, Incheon's deputy mayor for balanced development, poses for a photo with Philippe Froissard to mark Incheon's bid to host the G20. [Incheon City]
Nam Young-hee, Incheon's deputy mayor for balanced development, poses for a photo with Philippe Froissard to mark Incheon's bid to host the G20. [Incheon City]

Incheon has joined a Europe-led global network of innovative cities as it pursues carbon neutrality and a sustainable urban development model.

The city formally registered as the 150th member of the Urban Transition Mission — and the first South Korean city to join — at the 2026 UTM Global Innovation Summit held Tuesday in Viladecans, Spain.

Lyon, France, and Porto, Portugal, were also among the cities that joined as new members at the summit.

The UTM is a global cooperation platform led by the European Commission and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, designed to help major cities share policy and technology toward sustainable urban transformation and carbon neutrality.

Nam Young-hee, Incheon's deputy mayor for balanced development, led the city's delegation and held high-level meetings with key figures including Philippe Froissard, head of the urban transition division at the European Commission's Research and Innovation Directorate-General.

The delegation also met with former Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who championed the "15-minute city" concept, to exchange ideas on building sustainable, people-centered cities.

During an international cooperation session, Incheon drew attention from participating countries by presenting a data-driven urban innovation proposal that combines ComPlanAI — an AI-based urban planning solution — with a civic participation platform.

The city drew particular praise for introducing a "quadrant model" that integrates spatial data with real-life accessibility to classify urban environments into four zone types.

Incheon plans to use this assessment framework to set priorities for balanced regional development policy and budget and investment allocation.

"Through our participation in the UTM, we will swiftly incorporate international standard policies on climate change response and sustainability across Incheon's transportation, environment and urban planning," Nam said. "We will lead an on-the-ground urban transition that residents can feel in their daily lives."

Meanwhile, Incheon intends to channel collaborative research outcomes from the UTM network into its "2045 Incheon Urban Master Plan" and neighborhood-level planning currently under development, while broadening the scope of its global partnerships on multiple fronts.


gilbert@heraldcorp.com