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Sustainability
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Nature-Based Solutions to Foster Sustainable Urban Development
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Nature-Based Solutions to Foster Sustainable Urban Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2023) | Viewed by 6470

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Juan Pablo Rodríguez

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Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
Interests: urban hydrology; sustainable urban drainage; asset management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Anja Ranđelović

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: environmental engineering; exploitation and groundwater protection; incompressible fluid mechanics and hydraulics; transport processes in hydraulic engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ana Mijić

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
Interests: whole-water system modelling; integration of innovative and sustainable solutions; water management under uncertainties; system analysis and sustainable development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing trend of the urbanization process and the current climate crisis had produced adverse effects on citizens’ quality of life such as mental and physical health deterioration, an increase in living costs, and the presence of informal settlements. Under this scenario, nature-based solutions (NbS) are recognized as an essential ally to improve cities’ resilience and generate environmental, social, and economic benefits without adding significant cost. Scientific literature provides evidence of direct NbS benefits quantification in the city context by means of remote sensing-based monitoring, environmental matrices sampling (e.g., leaf, soil, and water), and in-situ testing, among others. Furthermore, several studies used decision support tools (e.g., I-Tree and Best) for NbS benefits accounting.

Despite recent progress in understanding NbS benefits, there is a need to develop new urban planning approaches based on site-specific priority criteria to identify urban challenges, select the best suited NbS, and quantify the benefits derived by their implementation. This new approach implies the transformation of traditional urban planning methodologies to a people-centered perspective created by multidisciplinary stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive understanding of citizens’ needs and improve NbS benefits provision. This Special Issue aims to increase the current knowledge on NbS urban planning by providing insights on i) NbS implementation criteria, ii) NbS selection according to their benefit accounting, and iii) the monitoring and quantification of environmental, social, and economic benefits derived from NbS implementation.

Prof. Dr. Juan Pablo Rodríguez
Dr. Anja Ranđelović
Prof. Dr. Ana Mijić
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. 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.

Keywords

  • nature-based solutions
  • benefits
  • decision support tools
  • urban planning
  • monitoring
  • quantification

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2371 KiB  
Article
An Evaluation of Local Comprehensive Plans Regarding Green Infrastructure in 52 Cities across the U.S. Gulf Coast Region
by Trang Le and Tho Tran
Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 7939; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107939 - 12 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2198
Abstract
The utilization of green infrastructure (GI) showed promising results as a flood mitigation strategy and a viable solution for building community resilience and achieving sustainability, especially in light of the challenges posed by climate change and increasing climate-related hazards. Meanwhile, it remains uncertain [...] Read more.
The utilization of green infrastructure (GI) showed promising results as a flood mitigation strategy and a viable solution for building community resilience and achieving sustainability, especially in light of the challenges posed by climate change and increasing climate-related hazards. Meanwhile, it remains uncertain how local governments incorporated the key principles of GI into their planning and regulatory frameworks, particularly their comprehensive plans. This study aimed to fill in the gaps by evaluating U.S. Gulf Coast cities’ comprehensive plans regarding GI. Using the content analysis method, a sample of fifty-two city comprehensive plans was evaluated to determine how well local plans support GI and to examine the factors which influence the quality of local plans. Our results indicate that the sampled cities in the Gulf Coast region are likely to have low willingness to plan and implement GI. Moreover, results from statistical analysis implied that the sampled Gulf Coast cities are more likely to produce higher-quality plans in terms of GI when there are more opportunities for public participation and involvement in the planning process. Findings from our study can provide valuable information and direction for local authorities and planners to improve the performance of their comprehensive plans and support GI implementation in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions to Foster Sustainable Urban Development)
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27 pages, 18367 KiB  
Article
A Low-Cost Gamified Urban Planning Methodology Enhanced with Co-Creation and Participatory Approaches
by Ioannis Kavouras, Emmanuel Sardis, Eftychios Protopapadakis, Ioannis Rallis, Anastasios Doulamis and Nikolaos Doulamis
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2297; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032297 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3587
Abstract
Targeted nature-based small-scale interventions is an approach commonly adopted by urban developers. The public acceptance of their implementation could be improved by participation, emphasizing residents or shopkeepers located close to the areas of interest. In this work, we propose a methodology that combines [...] Read more.
Targeted nature-based small-scale interventions is an approach commonly adopted by urban developers. The public acceptance of their implementation could be improved by participation, emphasizing residents or shopkeepers located close to the areas of interest. In this work, we propose a methodology that combines 3D technology, based on open data sources, user-generated content, 3D software and game engines for both minimizing the time and cost of the whole planning process and enhancing citizen participation. The proposed schemes are demonstrated in Piraeus (Greece) and Gladsaxe (Denmark). The core findings can be summarized as follows: (a) the time and cost are minimized by using online databases, (b) the gamification of the planning process enhances the decision making process and (c) the interactivity provided by the game engine inspired the participation of non-experts in the planning process (co-creation and co-evaluation), which decentralizes and democratizes the final planning solution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions to Foster Sustainable Urban Development)
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