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Land
Special Issues
Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape
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Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Contexts and Urban-Rural Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 13323

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francesca Moraci

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Guest Editor
DARTE Department, University of Reggio Calabria “Mediterranea”, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Interests: urban and territorial planning; strategic plan; urban regeneration; transportation and port infrastructure policies; climate adaptation plans and ecosystem services
Prof. Dr. Laura Ricci

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Guest Editor
Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome, 00196 Rome, Italy
Interests: urban and territorial planning; urban regeneration; public space and cultural heritage; public city and urban well-being; territorial government tools and policies; local plan and ecological transition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Kh Md Nahiduzzaman

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Applied Science, The University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
Interests: digital twins; transformational land use and smart cities; resilient planning; climate challenges and environmental studies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Celestina Fazia

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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture and Territory, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, via dell'Università, 25-89124, Italy
Interests: approaches to heritage; environment change and planning; land and natural resource planning; environmental sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Carmela Mariano

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Guest Editor
Department of Planning, Design, Architecture Technology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00196 Rome, Italy
Interests: urban and territorial planning; urban regeneration; public spaces and cultural heritage; climate-proof planning; local plan and urban resilience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Francesca Perrone

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Guest Editor
Department of Planning, Design, Architecture Technology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: urban, territorial and landscape planning; landscape architecture; cultural and natural resources; urban regeneration; green and public spaces; land use, land take and ecosystem services

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Numerous aspects come into play when addressing the issues of urban regeneration and various interventions are necessary to make cities resilient and ready to respond to environmental, economic, and social challenges. Resilience is understood as a "transversal condition" in the reorganization of a city, as the ability to deal with adverse events and externalities is induced by programmatic choices that will significantly change the reference structures and scenarios.

The complexity of the new urban scenarios is reflected in the increased difficulty both of understanding and describing the connotations of the contemporary city and of thinking of new policies capable of capturing the signals of change and managing various aspects.

The city was almost always saturated and not able to update the range of services and the offer of public spaces in the past, which is something that has changed in recent times. Above all, cities that show a historical delay in the adaptation of public spaces, services, and collective equipment are unprepared at present because they are unable to keep up with the speed of change. It is essential to recognize the changing demand for public spaces, which corresponds to the evolution of living models, to analyze the potential of the growing diffusion of digital technology and the availability of local spaces in the social transition towards the future city. Consequently, this will enable an investigation on how the development of new digital media spaces influences design.

The Special Issue focuses on welfare tools, the supply of services and mobility, the landscape standard, the environment, the restoration of the landscape, historic architecture, and cultural heritage. The enhancement of the landscape as an opportunity to regenerate cities.

How important is space in the age of advanced technology and what are the expected requirements of its users in terms of quality, shape, size, and function?

Are one function and one type of user enough? Is the traditional organization of spaces still feasible, and what are the uses and symbols? Above all, is the space residual (what remains of the physical commitment of roads, public buildings, and private spaces) "public" or is it an urban connective that both welds and cuts through the city and places demands on it?

We now turn our attention away from the undifferentiated demand for basic services and towards the increasingly diversified almost individual requests, the hyper-technologies.

Measures and policies to activate city modernization processes can be implemented through the urban regeneration interventions envisaged by the new European programming

In the transition towards the era of prevailing technology, the era of the smart city, urban public spaces and services must renew themselves by looking at the challenges that the contemporary world poses and that the future demands by developing proactive performing, and intelligent cities. At the same time, the city must be resilient.

Therefore, the cities in which we live today must renew themselves and face the complexity of the issues that arise by the fact that they are "contemporary" cities, cities of change. However, there exists a structural gap: the city is unable to follow the "times" and the speed of the social and physical transformations of the city itself.

In the absence of a punctual and adequate design response, the city undergoes planning inertia, the lack of adequate redevelopment interventions, and the rapid extension of the residential, commercial, industrial, and touristic fabric. Cities and territories suffer and experience dilemmas and profound transformations: segregation, immigration, integration, the density and heterogeneity of the urban settlement, the transformations of the use of time and space of communities and cities, urbanization and sprawl, mobility and new populations in transit, being perpetually in crisis, the environmental paradigm, the new information and communication technologies, and the effect of not being a city.

This call to transform the city will open a discussion on the current issues that animate the scientific debate and the urban/territorial policy agenda.

The idea of developing a Special Issue arose from a variety of issues addressed in the context of the debate on urban regeneration and its relationship to territory, landscape, and current and future transformations.

The topic has in fact solicited points of reflection and in-depth analysis in numerous contexts, welcoming interesting multidisciplinary contributions from teachers and PhD students, which can be studied in depth and published because of their scientific contributions to the topics.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) that provide insights into the advances in the models of urban regeneration and innovative approaches for resilience for the enhancement of the landscape as an opportunity to regenerate cities.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link to the following themes:

  • PNRR and urban regeneration best practices for landscape enhancement;
  • Public spaces and urban landscape;
  • Welfare in urban regeneration; public urban policy for identity and landscape;
  • Accessibility and sustainable mobility, prerequisites for enhancing the urban landscape as it changes;
  • Cultural heritage and landscape;
  • Architecture and new social relations and the landscape of urban connections;
  • Not only an ecological transition: the challenges of the landscape;
  • Landscape and urban planning for climate-proofing
  • Landscape development amongst competing land uses;
  • Sustainable and inclusive design of open spaces;
  • Multifunctional role of green infrastructures in the landscape urban regeneration;
  • The role ecosystem services play in landscape planning;
  • Landscape identity and community involvement.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Francesca Moraci
Prof. Dr. Laura Ricci
Prof. Dr. Kh Md Nahiduzzaman
Prof. Dr. Celestina Fazia
Prof. Dr. Carmela Mariano
Dr. Francesca Perrone
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • urban regeneration for landscape, best practices
  • public spaces and urban landscape, social animation
  • cultural heritage and landscape
  • landscape, architecture, and new social relations
  • land, landscapes, risk management
  • landscape enhancement
  • the role ecosystem services play in landscape planning
  • energy and the environment: the challenges of the landscape
  • landscape and urban planning for climate-proofing
  • landscape development
  • management and competing land uses
  • sustainable and inclusive design of open spaces
  • role of green infrastructures
  • landscape urban regeneration
  • ecosystem services in landscape planning
  • landscape identity and community involvement
  • welfare in urban regeneration, public urban policy for identity and landscape
  • accessibility and sustainable mobility, prerequisites for enhancing the urban landscape as it changes.

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  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

31 pages, 1127 KiB  
Article
A Study on the Public Perception of Sports Spaces Under Urban Overpasses from the Perspective of Age Differences
by Ziyi Wen, Xiangming Luo, Xin Wang and Haoran Liu
Land 2025, 14(2), 293; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14020293 - 30 Jan 2025
Viewed by 286
Abstract
As China’s urban development enters the era of stock optimization, the practice of transforming and utilizing spaces under urban overpasses is rapidly gaining momentum. Converting these underpass spaces into sports areas has emerged as a new form of creating public space. Understanding the [...] Read more.
As China’s urban development enters the era of stock optimization, the practice of transforming and utilizing spaces under urban overpasses is rapidly gaining momentum. Converting these underpass spaces into sports areas has emerged as a new form of creating public space. Understanding the perceptions of users from different age groups towards these underpass spaces holds significant guiding value for optimizing the design of such areas and improving the quality of service. Taking the Yanshan Interchange Lowline Park in Jinan as an example, this research applied methods of observation, interviews, questionnaires, and importance–satisfaction analysis (ISA) to investigate the activity preferences and the similarities and differences in the perceptions of spatial environment elements in underpass spaces among four age groups: children, youth, middle-aged adults, and the elderly. The findings indicate that different age groups exhibit varying degrees of sensitivity to spatial information, demand levels, and perceptual perspectives in underline parks, which result in distinct spatiotemporal distributions and spatial perception disparities when using the park. All the groups agree that the underpass sports space requires significant improvements in terms of comfort and safety. Based on this, this study proposes age-friendly urban space renewal strategies for spaces under elevated highways, focusing on addressing areas with lower satisfaction across all age groups. These strategies include optimizing the allocation of time, area, and activity types within activity spaces, enhancing the safety and comfort of activity areas, and enriching the cultural connotation and inclusivity of the space. This research provides a theoretical basis for optimizing and creating age-friendly or age-specific urban sports public spaces under elevated highways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
20 pages, 3793 KiB  
Article
What Is the Perceived Environmental Restorative Potential of Informal Green Spaces? An Empirical Study Based on Visitor-Employed Photography
by Jiayi Jiang, Hong Xu, Ruochen Ma, Shi Chen, Huixin Wang and Ziang Zheng
Land 2024, 13(11), 1768; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13111768 - 28 Oct 2024
Viewed by 971
Abstract
Informal green spaces (IGSs) play an essential role in enhancing urban well-being by offering restorative environments, yet the impact of visitor behaviors on perceived restorativeness (PR) remains underexplored. This study investigates how different spatio-temporal behaviors influence PR in IGS, providing urban planners with [...] Read more.
Informal green spaces (IGSs) play an essential role in enhancing urban well-being by offering restorative environments, yet the impact of visitor behaviors on perceived restorativeness (PR) remains underexplored. This study investigates how different spatio-temporal behaviors influence PR in IGS, providing urban planners with actionable insights to optimize these spaces for better user experiences. Using a visitor-employed photography (VEP) survey and post-visit PR assessments, K-means clustering was applied to identify distinct visitor behavior patterns. Correlation analysis further explored the relationships between these patterns and PR; the results reveal three unique clusters of visitor behaviors—fast, extensive exploration; moderate, focused exploration; and slow, thorough exploration—each showing distinct impacts on PR. Visitors who engage in rapid, broad exploration perceive larger, navigable spaces as more restorative, while those focusing on specific or in-depth exploration emphasize psychological aspects like escape and fascination. These behavioral patterns demonstrate varying strengths in their association with restorative experiences; This study underscores the importance of integrating spatio-temporal behavior data with PR assessments, highlighting how the physical and psychological features of IGS influence visitor experiences. These findings offer critical insights for designing and managing IGS to accommodate diverse user needs and promote urban well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
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19 pages, 17003 KiB  
Article
Potential of Former Mill Race Corridors for Urban Regeneration Strategies—A Case Study from Podolínec in Prešov Region (Slovakia)
by Juraj Illes, Katarina Kristianova, Viera Joklova and Aida Shayegani
Land 2024, 13(7), 1012; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13071012 - 8 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 852
Abstract
In the past, mill races were part of the urban structure of many towns in Slovakia. As regulated and artificially created waterways, they served to drive mills, rollers, or hammers. With the use of new sources of energy, they lost their functions, and [...] Read more.
In the past, mill races were part of the urban structure of many towns in Slovakia. As regulated and artificially created waterways, they served to drive mills, rollers, or hammers. With the use of new sources of energy, they lost their functions, and most of them were dried, filled, or buried underground. In our research, we examine the former mill race corridor in Podolínec (Prešov region, Slovakia) and its potential to contribute to urban regeneration strategies. The research steps included the following, namely 1. Identification of the route of the mill race corridor according to historical sources, 2. survey of its current state and its spatial preservation in the urban structure, 3. evaluation of the possibilities of its new uses, which could increase the quality and attractiveness of urban public spaces. The research results show that the fragments of the corridor of the extinct mill race are still identifiable in the urban fabric, and in the cadaster, they are in public ownership and suitable for new uses. The fragments of the corridor of the extinct mill race in Podolínec represent a potential for strengthening the blue and green infrastructure, pedestrian and cycling greenways, and a potential for the presentation of cultural heritage values, which could contribute to the improvement of the qualities of the urban environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
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21 pages, 1281 KiB  
Article
Counteract Soil Consumption through Ecosystem Services and Landscape Restoration for an Efficient Urban Regeneration
by Celestina Fazia, Kh Md Nahiduzzaman, Baqer Al-Ramadan, Adel Aldosary and Francesca Moraci
Land 2024, 13(3), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13030323 - 2 Mar 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2443
Abstract
Soil consumption, marked by the expansion of artificial land cover for residential, productive, and infrastructural purposes, is a concerning trend in Italy, as revealed by the Copernicus land monitoring program. The issue is exacerbated by agricultural intensification and urbanization, particularly affecting regions like [...] Read more.
Soil consumption, marked by the expansion of artificial land cover for residential, productive, and infrastructural purposes, is a concerning trend in Italy, as revealed by the Copernicus land monitoring program. The issue is exacerbated by agricultural intensification and urbanization, particularly affecting regions like Lombardia and Piemonte. However, Sicilia, Abruzzo, and Lazio experience notable increases in processes of abandonment and re-naturalization. Data from Ispra highlights the need for in-depth study, especially in regions like Sicilia, where contrasting phenomena occur. This study utilizes Ispra data to monitor and formulate strategies for mitigating soil consumption and safeguarding ecosystem services. The research aligns with objectives related to combating climate change and facilitating the ecological transition of territories. The complexity of land consumption, influenced by interdependent factors, is evident in the achieved results. Effective strategies for containment and re-naturalization involve the implementation of town planning regulations and multi-level behavioral pathways. This study aims to identify contextual actions that can reduce land consumption, promote de-impermeabilization, and encourage re-naturalization, focusing on enhancing ecosystem services in land use activities. Thus, it focuses on understanding the contributions of ecosystem services, landscape restoration and green infrastructure on climate mitigation, and a reduction in land consumption in urban regeneration processes. As well, through open-source systems, it is important to monitor in real time the trend of the quantity of factors and variables and the state of the environment, and the reasons to intervene with systemic strategies and actions constitutes another lens of focus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
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14 pages, 1354 KiB  
Article
Placing Urban Renewal in the Context of the Resilience Adaptive Cycle
by Lars Marcus and Johan Colding
Land 2024, 13(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010008 - 19 Dec 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2553
Abstract
Resilience thinking provides valuable insights into the dynamics of complex adaptive systems. To achieve resilience in urban systems, it can be fruitful to delve into the intricacies of resilience processes. This paper theorizes about how the specific characteristics of resilient systems can be [...] Read more.
Resilience thinking provides valuable insights into the dynamics of complex adaptive systems. To achieve resilience in urban systems, it can be fruitful to delve into the intricacies of resilience processes. This paper theorizes about how the specific characteristics of resilient systems can be integrated into the spatial design of cities. Emphasizing the importance of the built form and spatial systems in maintaining order within urban processes, we focus on how adaptive renewal cycles can be applied to various systems and dimensions where urban change, adaptation, and renewal occur. The paper identifies key resilient system characteristics applicable to urban spatial form and contextualizes urban renewal within the adaptive renewal cycle—a framework originally developed to capture temporal and spatial ecosystem dynamics. We integrate insights within ‘space syntax theory’, theorizing about how cities renew themselves over space and time. We discuss instances of ‘compressed resilience’ and the challenges posed by the ‘tyranny of small decisions’ in urban planning and development. In conclusion, we identify future research directions in the theory of spatial morphology and resilient urban systems, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of the interplay between urban processes, urban form, resilience, and adaptive renewal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
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25 pages, 4195 KiB  
Article
From Urban Challenges to “ClimaEquitable” Opportunities: Enhancing Resilience with Urban Welfare
by Marsia Marino
Land 2023, 12(12), 2157; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12122157 - 12 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1482
Abstract
From the perspective of the scientific-disciplinary debate within urban planning, this research addresses the theme of the “new urban question” resulting from environmental concerns related to the climate crisis and socioeconomic issues that have now become structural. It then delves into the connection [...] Read more.
From the perspective of the scientific-disciplinary debate within urban planning, this research addresses the theme of the “new urban question” resulting from environmental concerns related to the climate crisis and socioeconomic issues that have now become structural. It then delves into the connection between urban environment quality and quality of life, ultimately questioning the role that territorial governance tools play in positively influencing the perception of well-being in cities. The overall objective of this contribution is to define an interpretative framework for experimental approaches in territorial governance. This overarching objective is articulated in the definition of two specific outcomes, pursued through an inductive methodology. The first one involves establishing an initial set of urban welfare indicators; the second entails defining strategies for planning, designing, and regenerating the public components of the city that could influence the indicators. Both outcomes are designed to be exportable to different territorial contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
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19 pages, 1525 KiB  
Article
Cultural Landscape as a Resource for Urban Regeneration in Rupea (Romania)
by Georgeta Gabriela Rățulea, Codrina Csesznek, Mariana Borcoman and Daniela Sorea
Land 2023, 12(11), 1985; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12111985 - 29 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1646
Abstract
Cultural heritage plays a key role in communities’ sustainable development. The culture-led development highlights the local cultural resources and specifics while being assisted by contemporary tourist interest in niche offers. At the same time, culture-led development could reinforce a process of urban regeneration. [...] Read more.
Cultural heritage plays a key role in communities’ sustainable development. The culture-led development highlights the local cultural resources and specifics while being assisted by contemporary tourist interest in niche offers. At the same time, culture-led development could reinforce a process of urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the urban regeneration potential of culture-led development in the case of a small town from Transylvania (Romania), Rupea, by identifying local characteristics that define this town and its surroundings as a cultural landscape and also by suggesting methods for capitalizing on this cultural landscape in heritage tourism. Data collected from six interviews with cultural stakeholders, bibliographic research on archaeological discoveries, and local tourism potential, as well as through ethnographic methods, support the approach of the Rupea area as a cultural landscape. The main dimensions of this cultural landscape are the interethnic character of the area and the multitude of archaeological discoveries that indicate its habitation in the Paleolithic. Tourist capitalization could support the urban regeneration of Rupea in a culture-led development approach by arranging routes that highlight the specifics of the Romanian, Saxon, Hungarian, and mixed villages in the Rupea area and/or the points of archaeological interest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Regeneration: Challenges and Opportunities for the Landscape)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Landscape implications from urban regeneration policies
Author: Silva
Highlights: Urban regeneration models in fragile European economies have a strong impact on urban landscapes. The misuse of technical definitions needs to be addressed, to contribute to a better qualified landscape. Although many of the urban policies are conducted under the EU umbrella, its broader scope shrinks as it gets to site interventions, losing the broader impact in terms of landscape.

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