Sustainable Urban Planning and Regional Development
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 584
Special Issue Editors
Interests: territorial systems; energy policies; environmental problems; considering geostrategies from the perspective of territorial planning; creating a balanced relationship between man and nature and economy and territory
Interests: settlement dynamics and processes of socio-economic, structural and functional transformation that characterize contemporary urban and rural systems; territorial competitiveness and the interrelationship between global and local networks; the development and evolution of minor tourist spaces; landscape-environmental changes linked to the energy transition
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
You are invited to submit your work to this Special Issue, entitled “Sustainable Urban Planning and Regional Development”, to the international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of Sustainability.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect technical–scientific contributions on the themes of sustainable urbanization and integrated strategic planning oriented towards cooperation between different territorial levels and aimed at reducing the complex conditions of peripherality and marginality experienced by some places, including the urban–rural divide, areas with geographical and demographic specificities, and internal suburbs (ESPON, 2018; 2019). This reflection is in line with the main political frameworks, including the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (2015), in particular “SDG 11–Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” and the “New Urban Agenda” (2016) of the United Nations: the “Territorial Agenda 2030”, “New Leipzig Charter” (2020), the “Urban Agenda for the EU (2016)”, and the “European Green Deal” (2019).
On a global scale, the rural population is decreasing at a high rate (World Bank), while people in cities will accommodate 60% of the world population by 2030, rising to 68% by 2050 (World Urban Forum, 2020). On a European level, by 2050, rural areas will suffer a decrease of 7.9 million units compared to an urban population growth of 24.1 million (Espon, 2020). In this sense, the spread of information and communication technology (ICT) and the growing application of Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIS) technologies based on integration and interoperability systems lead us to reflect on new models of urban governance and territorial planning, broadening the reflection between territory, sustainability, and technology.
Urban areas, in particular, are the engine of the European economy and act as catalysts for creativity and innovation across the European Union. But they are also places where persistent problems, such as unemployment, segregation, and poverty, are most severe. Urban policies, therefore, have a broader cross-border significance, which is why urban development is central to EU regional policy. Likewise, the mechanisms of the generation and distribution of income in the regional space are very complex, and they depend on various factors and affect the socio-demographic dynamics of the geographical context of reference.
The various dimensions—environmental, economic, social, and cultural—are interconnected, and success in urban and regional development can only be achieved through an integrated approach. Measures addressing physical renewal must be combined with those promoting education, economic development, social inclusion, and environmental protection. Strong partnerships are needed between local citizens, civil society, industry, and various levels of government.
For this Special Issue, both methodological and logical–operational approaches are of interest, especially contributions of the numerous disciplines involved, from economics to the economic evaluation of projects and from economic–political geography to estimation and sustainable planning.
Original research articles and reviews are welcome to be submitted to this Special Issue.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
References
- ESPON, Inner peripheries in Europe, European Union, Luxembourg, 2018. https://www.espon.eu/sites/default/files/attachments/ESPON-Policy-Brief-Inner-Peripheries.pdf.
- ESPON, The territorial dimension of future policies, European Union, Luxembourg, 2018. https://www.espon.eu/sites/default/files/attachments/ESPON_Working_Paper_Territorial_dimension_of_future_policies.pdf.
- ESPON, Building the next generation of research on territorial development, European Union, Luxembourg, 2019. https://www.espon.eu/sites/default/files/attachments/ESPON%20Scientific%20Report%202019.pdf.
- ESPON, Sustainable Urbanisation in Europe, European Union, Luxembourg, 2021. https://www.espon.eu/sites/default/files/attachments/ESPON%20Policy%20Brief%2C%20Sustainable%20Urbanisation.pdf.
- ESPON, Policy Brief: Shrinking Rural Regions in Europe, European Union, Luxembourg, 2017. https://www.espon.eu/sites/default/files/attachments/ESPON%20Policy%20Brief%20on%20Shrinking%20Rural%20Regions.pdf.
Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Bencardino
Dr. Angela Cresta
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- economic evaluations
- territorial dynamics
- sustainable goals
- urban growth models
- smart cities
- urban regeneration
- tourism spatial planning
