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Buildings
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New Challenges in Digital City Planning
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New Challenges in Digital City Planning

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Design, Urban Science, and Real Estate".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1973

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Qingming Zhan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Interests: smart urban planning; digital city; resilience city; urban climate; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Huimin Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Interests: urban climate change; climate resilience; digital city planning; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cities have become central to ensuring a sustainable future, with digital city planning serving as a crucial tool. The rapid growth in computational power, visualization, and the ability to quickly acquire and represent large datasets on most elements of cities at a high resolution has enabled digital city planning to seek optimized solutions to meet complex urban problems.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Progress, challenges, and opportunities of digital city planning;
  • City simulation and prediction with AI technology;
  • Scenario design and planning response for future change;
  • Digital technologies in urban planning and urban management;
  • AI technologies in urban analysis;
  • Digital twins for digital city planning;
  • Big data and planning applications.

Prof. Dr. Qingming Zhan
Dr. Huimin Liu
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. Buildings 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 2600 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

  • digital city planning
  • artificial intelligence
  • digital twins
  • urban sustainability
  • data-driven urban analysis

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4361 KiB  
Article
From 2D to 3D Urban Analysis: An Adaptive Urban Zoning Framework That Takes Building Height into Account
by Tao Shen, Fulu Kong, Shuai Yuan, Xueying Wang, Di Sun and Zongshuo Ren
Buildings 2025, 15(7), 1182; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071182 - 3 Apr 2025
Viewed by 250
Abstract
The vertical heterogeneous structures formed during the evolution of urban agglomerations, driven by globalization, pose challenges to traditional two-dimensional spatial analysis methods. This study addresses the vertical heterogeneity and spatial multiscale problem in three-dimensional urban space and proposes an adaptive framework that takes [...] Read more.
The vertical heterogeneous structures formed during the evolution of urban agglomerations, driven by globalization, pose challenges to traditional two-dimensional spatial analysis methods. This study addresses the vertical heterogeneity and spatial multiscale problem in three-dimensional urban space and proposes an adaptive framework that takes into account building height for multiscale clustering in urban areas. Firstly, we established a macro-, meso- and micro-level analysis system for the characteristics of urban spatial structures. Subsequently, we developed a parameter-adaptive model through a dynamic coupling mechanism of height thresholds and average elevations. Finally, we proposed a density-based clustering method that integrates the multiscale urban analysis with parameter adaptation to distinguish urban spatial features at different scales, thereby achieving multiscale urban regional delineation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed clustering framework outperforms traditional density-based and hierarchical clustering algorithms in terms of both the Silhouette Coefficient and the Davies–Bouldin Index, effectively resolving the problem of vertical density variation in urban clustering. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Digital City Planning)
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25 pages, 14621 KiB  
Article
Thermal Environmental Impact of Urban Development Scenarios from a Low Carbon Perspective: A Case Study of Wuhan
by Kai Lin, Qingming Zhan, Wei Xue, Yulong Shu and Yixiao Lu
Buildings 2025, 15(2), 208; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15020208 - 12 Jan 2025
Viewed by 955
Abstract
Amidst the increasingly escalating global concern regarding climate change, adopting a low-carbon approach has become crucial for charting the future developmental trajectory of urban areas. It also offers a novel angle for cities to avoid high-temperature risks. This paper estimates carbon emissions in [...] Read more.
Amidst the increasingly escalating global concern regarding climate change, adopting a low-carbon approach has become crucial for charting the future developmental trajectory of urban areas. It also offers a novel angle for cities to avoid high-temperature risks. This paper estimates carbon emissions in Wuhan City from both direct and indirect aspects. Then, the ANN (artificial neural network)–CA (Cellular Automata) model is employed to establish three distinct development scenarios (Ecological Priority, Tight Growth, and Natural Growth) to predict future urban expansion. Additionally, the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting Model)—UCM (Urban Canopy Model) model is used to investigate the thermal environmental impacts of varying urban development scenarios. This study uses a low-carbon perspective to explore how cities can develop scientifically sound urban strategies to meet climate change challenges and achieve sustainable development goals. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The net carbon emission for Wuhan in 2022 is estimated to be approximately 20.8353 million tonnes. Should the city maintain an average annual emission reduction rate of 10%, the carbon sink capacity of Wuhan would need to be enhanced by 382,200 tonnes by 2060. (2) In the absence of anthropogenic influence, there is a propensity for the urban construction zone of Wuhan to expand primarily towards the southeast and western sectors. (3) The Ecological Priority (EP) and Tight Growth (TG) scenarios are effective in alleviating the urban thermal environment, achieving a reduction of 0.88% and 2.48%, respectively, in the urban heat island index during afternoon hours. In contrast, the Natural Growth (NG) scenario results in a degradation of the urban thermal environment, with a significant increase of over 4% in the urban heat island index during the morning and evening periods. (4) An overabundance of urban green spaces and water bodies could exacerbate the urban heat island effect during the early morning and at night. The findings of this study enhance the comprehension of the climatic implications associated with various urban development paradigms and are instrumental in delineating future trajectories for low-carbon sustainable urban development models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Digital City Planning)
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