PHILADELPHIA -- Nurses, veterinarians and city planners will talk about their first-hand experiences volunteering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at the opening session of the University of Pennsylvania's symposium "Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster," Feb. 2-3, during which national experts will offer insights into the challenge of rebuilding cities.

"Because disasters are in our future, developing the right mix of individual and collective action is important, and we can do so by learning from Katrina," said Susan Wachter, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, host of the two-day event.

The Thursday session will begin with an address by former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 in the Bodek Lounge at Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce St., Philadelphia.  Now chief executive officer with the National Urban League, Morial will discuss the challenges of this disaster, which will be followed by the panel discussion featuring Penn faculty members and others talking about their volunteer efforts in the Katrina recovery.

Friday's program, to be held on the 8th Floor of Huntsman Hall, 3730 Walnut St., will focus on rebuilding of both the infrastructure and the culture of urban settings in general and the Gulf Coast communities in particular.

"The rebuilding of cities and development of preparedness measures offer enormous challenges and opportunities," said Eugenie Birch,Penn IUR co-director.  "And since 75 percent of the nation population is urban, an exploration of these issues in metropolitan areas is not only relevant but critical."

"Deciding how, what, when and for whom to rebuild after a disaster is the kind of complex public policy problem that can only be resolved by bringing together experts from many different fields, ordinary citizens, government officials, and civic leaders to think together about what must be done," said Penn President Amy Gutmann.  "This conference will do that as only a truly engaged urban research university can."  Gutmann will open the day's program with a discussion of the priorities for rebuilding, followed by several panels discussing various aspects of the process, such as:

The symposium will wrap up with two conversations that will explore how culture and heritage are enmeshed within the material aspects of any urban center. In the first, a group of planners and designers will talk about how aspects of heritage shape decisions and perceptions about rebuilding.

In the second, Nick Spitzer, folklorist and producer of public radio's American Routes, will explore the links between building arts and music in recreating the real and the cultural landscape with Creole artisans/musicians from the Gulf Coast.

This symposium follows a post-Katrina conference on risk and disaster, sponsored by Penn Provost Ron Daniels and the Fels Institute of Government at Penn and held in Washington, D.C., in early December.  The lessons identified and conclusions drawn by leading experts at that event about how to best prevent and manage risks from future disasters were chronicled in the book, "On Risk and Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina," published in January by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The companion book to the "Rebuilding symposium will be available in the fall.

Additional information about the speakers and agenda for the Feb. 2-3 symposium can be found at http://www.upenn.edu/penniur/rebuilding.