Sustainable Urbanism: Definition, Assessment, and Agenda for Future Research: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to consider a submission of an original research article for the Special Issue of Sustainability, on “Sustainable Urbanism: Definition, Assessment, and Agenda for Future Research”. During this time of historic challenges for cities, there is an urgent need to clarify the critical place of urbanism in the larger challenge of a sustainable future, and to define a more detailed research agenda in sustainable urbanism for the future. 

“Sustainability” has become a commonplace term in a remarkable variety of fields—including urban planning and development—and it has thereby provided a useful interdisciplinary platform for assessment and reform. Yet the term is also dangerously ill-defined and prone to careless use and shallow claims. This Special Issue will consider more precise and rigorous definitions of urban sustainability and will assess current research findings. In particular, we will ask to what extent is “urban sustainability” a matter of sustaining existing urban patterns and ways of life—perhaps with more efficient technology and renewable resources—and to what extent must true sustainability require a deeper transformation of our technologies, systems, and even institutions?

The Issue will assess new insights from the sciences that may inform a future research agenda, including the understanding of complex adaptive systems, network science, generativity and evolution, algorithmic processes, and biological dynamics. We will also examine human systems and their failures, including the barriers that prevent necessary reforms, and the necessary tools and strategies to overcome them. On that basis, the Issue will aim to outline the future research agenda in this crucial field.

The Issue will recognize that urban sustainability is inextricably linked to other kinds of sustainability, and the goals outlined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (and its related urban-focused document, the New Urban Agenda). Both documents recognize that it is in human settlements that we move about, interact, consume resources, and generate many or most of the impacts that we have on the planet, and on the quality and durability of human life. It is therefore crucial that human settlements receive special attention, as we work toward more truly sustainable systems.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Metrics, diagnostics, and certifications for urban sustainability;
• The urban dimensions of climate change: adaptation, mitigation, and resilience;
• The ecology of cities: social, economic, and natural systems;
• Natural systems in cities: water, air, soil, flora, and fauna;
• Social sustainability and social infrastructure;
• Economic feedback and economic reform;
• Biophilia in nature, in cities and in buildings;
• Walkability and multi-modal mobility;
• Compactness, mix of uses, and coherent public space systems;
• Self-organization, participation, co-design, and capacity-building;
• Current barriers to urban sustainability, and tools to overcome them;
• Regulatory reforms and innovations;
• Economic tools and strategies: making sustainability pay;
• New professional and educational models;
• Future research topics: theory, practice, and policy.

 I/We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Michael W. Mehaffy
Guest Editor

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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

• sustainable urbanism
• urban sustainability metrics
• urban ecology
• urban walkability
• New Urban Agenda
• Sustainable Development Goals

• Sustainable Urbanism: Definition, Assessment, and Agenda for Future Research in Sustainability (5 articles)