Built Environment, Pedestrian Behaviors, and Urban Sustainability: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The built environment and resultant behaviors of people are key determinants of the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of a city. The reckless spread of urban sprawl and consequent progress in motorization (increasing car dependency) have been pointed out as key causes of energy crisis, environmental pollution, human-induced global warming and climate change. On the other hand, active or nonmotorized transportation mode, including walking, have been encouraged as a desirable mode for quality life of people and urban sustainability. In particular, walking affects individual health and social capital, and determines street safety and attractiveness, neighborhood livability and vitality, and even the prosperity of regional and state economies. The policy interventions for promoting walking and pedestrian-friendly urban built environment is undoubtedly a crucial success factor for streets, neighborhoods, and cities.

Thus, the built environment and the resulting pedestrian behaviors are not only traditional research topics in planning, urban design, and transportation, but are also receiving considerable attention in sociology, public health, environmental science, and many other disciplines. Several previous studies have examined the physical conditions under which more walking activities can occur, and found that the traditional 5D variables play significant roles. However, recent studies have shown that the effects of these variables can vary significantly depending on the urban context, and research on micro-scale built environmental variables is still insufficient. Meanwhile, researchers have also argued that ensuring the pedestrian rights and safety should be prioritized over providing a pedestrian-friendly built environment. Recently, experimental studies using virtual reality technologies have been attempted to analyze the microscopic built environment and pedestrian behaviors, but important policy questions still remain unanswered.

This special issue focuses on the analysis of the relationship between built environment, pedestrian behaviors, and urban social, economic, and environmental sustainability. This special issue aims to provide new empirical evidence for physical planning practices and policies for more sustainable future of cities, including following topics:

• The relationship between built environment and transportation mode choice (particularly, focused on the active modes)
• The relationship between built environment and outdoor activities
• The relationship between built environment and street-level pedestrian volume
• The relationship between microscopic street design and subjectively perceived or objectively measured pedestrian safety level
• The impacts of active travel and outdoor activities on individual outcomes such as physical and mental health, social network and participation, and other quality of life indicators
• The impacts of walking or pedestrian volume on urban social, economic, and environmental sustainability

As an approach to examine above research topics, various traditional research data are allowed including the data from travel diary survey, self-reported survey, trained investigator's observation, and automated investigation using GPS, sensors, and computer vision techniques. Experimental studies using VR experiment or Social/Natural experiment are also encouraged. Above all, this issue welcomes empirical research conducted on various cities around the world. Submitted manuscripts should have solid theoretical basis and analysis and valid conclusions.

Dr. Seung-Nam Kim
Dr. Gi-Hyoug Cho
Dr. Hee-Chul Kim
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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

• built environment
• pedestrian environment
• urban form and land use
• urban spatial structure
• pedestrian behaviors/activities
• active travel
• nonmotorized travel
• urban sustainability
• virtual reality experiment

• Built Environment, Pedestrian Behaviors, and Urban Sustainability in Land (5 articles)