Urban Resilience and Environmental Land Planning

Dear Colleagues,

In a more and more urbanized world, the concept of urban resilience and the issue of environmental land planning are gaining increasing attention in several fields of research (anthropology, sociology, politics, public policy, economics, urban studies, urban planning, innovation studies, management, geography, civil engineering etc.) and in the social debate.

Urbanization is one of the main megatrends shaping our societies and affecting the everyday life of billions of people all over the world. Contemporary cities configure complex environments where structural and social tensions are dramatically intertwined.

Cities are laboratories of ideas, innovation, social cooperation and wealth creation. At the same time, cities are largely responsible for the most crucial challenges to global sustainability: from climate change and its environmental impacts to crises due to the unavailability of food, water, energy, and essential public services such as health care, urban public transport networks, and public housing.

Understanding key trends in urbanization in the coming years is crucial for the implementation of  SDG 11 of the UN2030 Agenda (Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and for orienting urban management towards resilient and fair models that are consistent with the local needs and specificities of urban contexts. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the challenge of the urbanization megatrend. Policymakers, city and regional planners, and the third-sector are called upon to make crucial decisions for developing resilient, fair and sustainable cities able to cope with the challenges of the "Urbanocene" era (as the theoretical physicist Geoffrey West labels the exponential rise of cities). However, promoting more resilient cities it is not an easy undertaking: it requires system thinking, i.e. interdisciplinary approaches, and collaboration across all policy areas and levels.

Moving from these premises, this SI aims to contribute to thought and debate on urban resilience and environmental land planning by providing theoretical reflections, conceptual frameworks and applications.

In particular, in this Special Issue on "Urban Resilience and Environmental Land Planning" we invite authors to submit original research articles, reviews, and viewpoint articles related to recent advances at all levels of urban management and environmental land planning according to a resilient perspective. We are open to papers addressing a broad range of topics, from foundational topics regarding theoretical issues of urban resilience and environmental land planning to emerging issues related to digital platforms' impact on urban everyday life. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Conceptualizing urban resilience: dimensions, perspectives (economic, institutional, managerial, civil engineering etc.), and taxonomies.
• Environmental land planning and nature-based solutions (NBSs).
• 2030 Agenda: SDG11 and its implications for urban governance.
• The urbanization megatrend and the challenges for sustainable environmental land planning.
• Urban resilience and climate change.
• The bioregion framework: conceptualization and application.
• Urban platforms and urban governance: challenges and opportunities to promoting resilient cities
• Assessing urban resilience: dimensions, approaches and indicators.
• Shaping resilient urban contexts: principles, policies, tools and practices:
• Leveraging spatial planning to promote urban resilience.
• The role of urban resilience to enabling social inclusion.
• The impact of COVID-19 pandemic in rethinking environmental land planning.
• Urban resilience and disaster risk management.
• System dynamics modelling to building resilient urban contexts.

Prof. Dr. Cristina Simone
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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