Sustainable Urban Design and Land Use Planning

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable urban design and land use planning represent key issues in the development of resilient cities while practical solutions are mainstreamed to reduce climate vulnerability and increase the health and security of citizens. The scientific literature has widely demonstrated that adaptation to climate change should be adequately projected and evaluated through plans and projects since the application of nature-based or technological solutions itself does not guarantee maximization of the resilient performance of cities. If not adequately planned in a systematic and comprehensive framework, urban renewal, building retrofits, land use transformation, de-sealing, or smart mobility projects cannot reach their highest performance at the city-level scale.

Therefore, the design of strategies and techniques played out by plans and projects should be grounded in the biophysical comprehension of socioecological and technological systems, employing GIS techniques and detailed spatial analytical assessments while supporting the design of green and blue infrastructures at the landscape/rural and urban level, achieving multiple purposes: reducing structural and ecological vulnerability, improving the environmental conditions, improving accessibility to green areas and related recreational facilities, increasing the wellbeing and safety of communities, reducing pollution and noise, and increasing smart and efficient mobility.

These kinds of urban planning targets are based on multidisciplinary approaches while involving assessments of physical and social parameters enclosed in multiple disciplines: urban planning, architecture, landscape ecology, social science, soil science, agronomy, environmental, structural, and mobility engineering. Despite the complexity, the possibility of having very advanced tools in the field of the spatial assessment of different characteristics has allowed deepening of the scientific investigations of the system while achieving reliable targets.

In light of Goals 11 and 13 of the United Nations, this Special Issue invites authors working on the abovementioned themes to publish their latest advances in a collection of papers that will answer the question: can sustainable urban design and land use planning be integrated and supported by new ecosystemic, socioecological, structural–technological, smart mobility assessments aided by GIS techniques with a resilient spatial perspective? If so, how do plans and projects benefit from these assessments and, moreover, how are the adopted solutions practically targeted, evaluated, delivered and monitored by plans and projects?

Existing literature in this field is relevant, and includes (but is not limited to) the following references:

Artmann, M., 2015. Managing urban soil sealing in Munich and Leipzig (Germany)—From a wicked problem to clumsy solutions. Land use policy 46, 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.02.004

Collier, F., Hambling, J., Kernaghan, S., Kovacevic, B., Miller, R., Pérez, A.P., Richardson, E., Macmillan, S., 2014. Tomorrow ’ s cities: a framework to assess urban resilience. Urban Des. Plan. 167, 79–91. https://doi.org/10.1680/udap.13.00019

Grêt-Regamey, A., Altwegg, J., Sirén, E.A., van Strien, M.J., Weibel, B., 2017. Integrating ecosystem services into spatial planning—A spatial decision support tool. Landsc. Urban Plan. 165, 206–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.003

Hansen, R., Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T., Rall, E., Kabisch, N., Kaczorowska, A., Kain, J.-H., Artmann, M., Pauleit, S., 2015. The uptake of the ecosystem services concept in planning discourses of European and American cities. Ecosyst. Serv. 12, 228–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.11.013

Lafortezza, R., Davies, C., Sanesi, G., Konijnendijk, C.C.C., 2013. Green Infrastructure as a tool to support spatial planning in European urban regions. iForest - Biogeosciences For. 6, 102–108. https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0723-006

Meerow, S., Newell, J.P., 2017. Spatial planning for multifunctional green infrastructure: Growing resilience in Detroit. Landsc. Urban Plan. 159, 62–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.10.005

Brunetta, G., Salata, S., 2019. Mapping Urban Resilience for Spatial Planning—A First Attempt to Measure the Vulnerability of the System. Sustainability 11, 2331. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11082331

Dr. Stefano Salata
Guest Editor

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• environmental planning
• land use planning
• urban transformation
• sustainability
• ecosystem services
• green infrastructures
• resilience
• vulnerability
• climate change
• adaptation
• GIS