Sustainable Urbanism: Definition, Assessment, and Agenda for Future Research

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to submit an original research article to this Special Issue of Sustainability, “Sustainable Urbanism: Definition, Assessment and Agenda for Future Research.” As cities are currently facing historic challenges in the face of urbanization, there is an urgent need to clarify the place of urbanism in the larger framework of ensuring a sustainable future, and to define a more detailed research agenda for achieving this goal. 

“Sustainability” has become a commonplace term in a variety of fields, including urban planning and development, and it has thereby provided a useful interdisciplinary platform for assessment and reform. Yet, this 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 assess current research findings. In particular, we will investigate to what extent “urban sustainability” is a matter of maintaining existing urban patterns and ways of life—perhaps with more efficient technology and renewable resources—and the degree to which we much introduce a deeper transformation of our technologies, systems and even institutions to achieve it.

This Special 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 this basis, we aim to outline future research directions in this crucial field.

The Special Issue recognizes 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 acknowledge that human settlements are crucial for human movement, interaction and resource consumption; responsible for many or most of human-related impacts on the planet; and directly related to 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.

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;
• Streets and street patterns;
• 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 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