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Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management
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Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 10645

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Eduardo Medeiros

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
DINÂMIA’ CET, ISCTE, 2835029 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: territorial development; sustainable development; territorial cohesion; territorial impact assessment; spatial planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Vasco Gonçalves

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
DINÂMIA’ CET, ISCTE, 2835029 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: sustainable development; evaluation of public investment decision; uncertain environmental risk management; sustainable finance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas are engines of territorial development and catalysts for innovation and creativity. Currently, approximately 70% of the European Union (EU) inhabitants reside in urban areas, which generate more than two-thirds of the EU’s GDP. Urban areas are, however, places marked by many persistent problems, such as poverty, segregation, unemployment, and environmental pressures. In this light, successful urban development strategies can only be achieved through an integrated and sustainable approach. In an age of climate change and increasing vulnerability to extreme climate catastrophes, the choice of a sustainable urban development approach has become widely accepted as a concrete solution for sound regional management. Indeed, how effectively a city plans and prepares for future potential environmental shocks is decisive in determining its prospects for sustainable development as a key dimension for territorial cohesion and regional development. By entailing several complex and interacting systems, sustainable development deals with a myriad of aspects of global development. Ultimately, however, it has its roots in conservation and the desire to protect the planet’s ecosystems. Partly as a result of constructed social processes that are normally associated with environmental concerns, the social and economic dimensions of sustainability are often incorporated into the familiar typologies of sustainable development: (i) people, planet, and profit; (ii) environment, economy, and equity; or (iii) environmental, economic, and social processes. Taking this further, innovation, entailing human needs for a healthier and environmentally sustainable world, and successfully combining all dimensions of sustainability in new practices with high potential on the local level, has been developed since the 1980s in Europe. In this context, this Special Issue debates processes of Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management in several scientific domains: environmental sustainability, urban planning, social environmental awareness, circular economy, and urban governance.

In an increasingly urbanized world and in the context of global warming and the degradation of nature, sustainable development requires significant transformations in urbanized spaces in order to make them clean energy and food producers in a circular process. At the same time, urban planning and government strategies require support for increasing green public spaces, green public transportation, and improved participatory and inclusive processes. Moreover, sustainable urban development requires enhanced inclusive and sustainable urbanization and proactive measures to make urban areas more resilient to natural and human risks in a wider context of strategy-based regional development. In this context, this Special Issue welcomes the following kinds of contributions:

(a) Evidence-based papers illustrating and discussing the implementation of Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management: (i) their role in fostering sustainable urban development processes, regional development, territorial cohesion, circular economy, urban participatory governance, urban vertical farms, urban production of renewables sources of energy; (iii) the role of public tools for promoting Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management processes.

(b) Theoretical papers that propose conceptual visions and appropriate methodologies and indicators to design, implement and assess Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management processes and related (local, regional, national, and EU) policies.  

(c) Foresight papers showing future paths of Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management for unhanded sustainable development at various geographical scales

Prof. Dr. Eduardo Medeiros
Prof. Dr. Vasco Gonçalves
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. 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.

Keywords

  • sustainable urban development
  • regional management
  • regional development
  • sustainable development
  • circular economy
  • reenable energy
  • urban planning
  • urban governance

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1261 KiB  
Article
From Emissions Inventories to Cost Accounting: Making Business as Usual Visible for Climate Action Planning
by Mary Ann Cunningham and Kate G. Leventhal
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11657; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511657 - 28 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2275
Abstract
Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are widely considered a first step toward climate mitigation and adaptation planning, but progress completing inventories at the local level is often slow. Local governments may lack motivation to carry out inventories when staffing and funding are tight. Articulating [...] Read more.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are widely considered a first step toward climate mitigation and adaptation planning, but progress completing inventories at the local level is often slow. Local governments may lack motivation to carry out inventories when staffing and funding are tight. Articulating the current costs of energy consumption could motivate cash-limited local governments and help justify investments in alternatives. Calculating financial savings of alternatives could further motivate planning. Here we demonstrate an approach to calculate operating costs (and potential savings) for a town in southern New York, using measures of heat consumption and eGallons to calculate expenditures. We find that business-as-usual community energy cost amount to $50–$60 million per year in funds exported from the community, or $10,000–$12,000 per household. By replacing gasoline vehicles with electric vehicles and oil-burning furnaces with heat pumps, the community could save around $20–$33 million per year, or $4400–$7000 per household. Local government operations costs could decline by over $70,000 per year. For a small government, such reductions could have a substantial financial impact. Adding a cost assessment to a standard GHG inventory appears reasonably straightforward, and if implemented broadly, it could increase the speed and effectiveness of GHG inventories and climate action planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management)
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22 pages, 528 KiB  
Article
Under the Risk of COVID-19 Epidemic: A Study on the Influence of Life Attitudes, Leisure Sports Values, and Workplace Risk Perceptions on Urban Development and Public Well-Being
by Lu Yang, Yong-Zhan Zheng, Hsiao-Hsien Lin, I-Shen Chen, Kuan-Yu Chen, Qi-Yuan Li and I-En Tsai
Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 7740; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107740 - 9 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1640
Abstract
This study examined the impact of attitudes toward life, recreational sports values, and workplace risk perceptions on urban development and public well-being under the risk of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. A mixed-method research study was conducted, and 2400 valid questionnaires were collected [...] Read more.
This study examined the impact of attitudes toward life, recreational sports values, and workplace risk perceptions on urban development and public well-being under the risk of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. A mixed-method research study was conducted, and 2400 valid questionnaires were collected via purposeful sampling. The questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS 26.0 statistical software and validated with basic statistical methods and Pearson’s correlation analysis. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted to collect the opinions of 12 respondents on the questionnaire results, including academics, foreign entrepreneurs and employees, local entrepreneurs and employees, and official institutions. Finally, all the data collected were discussed via triangulation analysis. The survey found that different cities’ social and industrial development and job market needs lead to different attitudes toward life, leisure values, and perceptions of job-seeking and employment risks. The smoother a person’s growing-up background, the better their learning history, the better their learning and working experience, and the richer their life experience; consequently, positive attitudes toward life, correct leisure values, and positive attitudes toward job hunting and employment can be cultivated. In addition, people with positive attitudes toward life, leisure values, and job hunting and employment can improve their city’s economy and environment for sustainable development, thereby improving their quality of life and increasing their well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management)
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17 pages, 7933 KiB  
Article
Spatial and Temporal Variation Characteristics and Driving Mechanisms of Multidimensional Socio-Economic Development Levels in Resource-Based Cities
by Yiting Su, Jing Li, Shouqiang Yin, Jiabao Yue, Zhai Jiang, Tianyue Ma and Zhangqian Han
Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1573; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021573 - 13 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1610
Abstract
As resources are depleted, resource-based cities face unique challenges in the process of socio-economic development. We constructed a multidimensional socio-economic development level model by adopting Entropy Value Method, Analytical Hierarchy Process, time series weighting method, and Game Theory approach for the data of [...] Read more.
As resources are depleted, resource-based cities face unique challenges in the process of socio-economic development. We constructed a multidimensional socio-economic development level model by adopting Entropy Value Method, Analytical Hierarchy Process, time series weighting method, and Game Theory approach for the data of 10 indicators in 4 dimensions of 115 resource-based cities in China from 2004 to 2019 to explore the spatial and temporal divergence characteristics of multidimensional socio-economic development level and the driving mechanism of its pattern of evolution. The results show that: (1) the overall socio-economic development level of resource-based cities has improved from 2004 to 2019, but the overall level is low. Large differences exist in the spatial distribution of socio-economic development levels between cities with more significant regional spatial aggregation characteristics. (2) Secondary industry, tertiary industry, retail trade goods sales, urban construction land area, and total freight transport have a significant positive impact on socio-economic development; the correlation coefficient between the number of schools and the socio-economic development level index is negative. (3) Retail trade merchandise sales contribute the most to the Gini coefficient, where the percentage of secondary industry and urban construction land area have a higher cumulative contribution to growing cities (55.02%), the percentage of secondary industry has the lowest contribution to regenerating cities (10.94%), and the percentage of tertiary industry has an increasing contribution to declining cities year by year. Based on the above findings, some specific suggestions are provided to provide reference for resource-based city development planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management)
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22 pages, 3021 KiB  
Article
Socially Sustainable Accessibility to Goods and Services in the Metropolitan Area of Concepción, Chile, Post-COVID-19
by Francisco Núñez, Elías Albornoz, Mariella Gutiérrez and Antonio Zumelzu
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14042; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114042 - 28 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1479
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s mobility and access to urban activities. When the contagion was at a community level, quarantine measures were taken, causing population immobility. The lack of alternatives significantly altered the satisfaction of people’s basic needs. The objective of this article [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected people’s mobility and access to urban activities. When the contagion was at a community level, quarantine measures were taken, causing population immobility. The lack of alternatives significantly altered the satisfaction of people’s basic needs. The objective of this article was to explore and generate real accessibility indicators for goods and services, in addition to the levels of spatial satisfaction of the population, at a regional level in the metropolitan area of Concepción, Chile. To focus on citizens’ social welfare, social geomarketing was applied as the method, obtaining the delimitation of accessibility areas for goods and services through population surveys and the delimited spatial decelerated satisfaction. Pre-pandemic and during-pandemic situations were evaluated. The results showed an improvement in the delimitation of accessibility areas of goods and services, as the citizens’ preferences as consumers were included, revealing an increment during the pandemic, especially in the food typology. In the same way, the existence of geospatial satisfaction and its increment under the pandemic context when accessing the diverse facilities that offer these kinds of goods was confirmed. In conclusion, the satisfaction areas were useful for analyzing urban form designs and focusing them to promote revitalization, as well as for inclusive and sustainable urbanization and proactive measures to make urban areas more resilient to natural or human risks, incorporating the role of geospatial tools for promoting sustainable urban development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management)
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17 pages, 1524 KiB  
Article
How Impactful Are Public Policies on Environmental Sustainability? Debating the Portuguese Case of PO SEUR 2014–2020
by Eduardo Medeiros, Bernardo Valente, Vasco Gonçalves and Paula Castro
Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7917; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137917 - 29 Jun 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2603
Abstract
Sustainable development is a key feature of national, European Union and global development strategies. The main research goal is to provide evidence on how impactful public policies on environmental sustainability in Portugal are at the regional level, in various policy areas. In this [...] Read more.
Sustainable development is a key feature of national, European Union and global development strategies. The main research goal is to provide evidence on how impactful public policies on environmental sustainability in Portugal are at the regional level, in various policy areas. In this context, this paper analyses the main impacts of the Portuguese Operational Programme for Sustainability and Efficient Use of Resources (PO SEUR 2014–20). The research uses a territorial impact assessment (TIA) methodology (TARGET_TIA) to assess these impacts in five analytic dimensions (economy with low emissions, adaptation to climate change, risk prevention and management, environmental protection and resource efficiency) in the five mainland Portuguese NUTS 2. It concludes that, in overall terms, PO SEUR produced low to moderate positive impacts in all NUTS II and analysed dimensions, but it was particularly positive in measures fostering adaptation to climate change, and less impactful in measures supporting an economy with low emissions and resource efficiency in Portugal. Despite data limitations, the research provided adequate evidence that key public policies supporting environmental sustainability in Portugal are largely ineffective and inefficient in view of their policy goals and allocated funding. To turn this scenario around, the process of project selection needs to undergo significant improvements to better adjust the regional needs on environmental sustainability-related issues to the available funding. Moreover, on a policy strategic level, there needs to be support for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy in Portugal via concrete actions exploring environmental capital and a green economy in urban areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Management)
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