Achieving Sustainable and Resilient Urban Development: Effective Governance, Policy and Practice

Dear Colleagues, 

Cities are the nexus of economic growth, demographic expansion, social inequality, and growing carbon emissions and pollution [1-3], and they act as urban commons [4]. Environmental degradation, the worsening impacts of global warming, climate change, and the natural hazards and disaster risks expose urban vulnerability and ‘hot spots’ [5-6]. In response to these challenges, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (including the SDGs), the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Agenda, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction underline the importance of integrated approaches towards achieving sustainability and resilience [7-11]. These goals focus on improving the circular economy, environment, and equity and social inclusion, and require the design and implementation of innovative, smart, and green solutions [12]. We consider ‘smart’ not necessarily to be high-tech but to be related to the development and application of technological and other solutions that are appropriate and affordable within the context in which they are proposed and applied [13]. 

Within this context, the overarching scope of this Special Issue, “Achieving Sustainable and Resilient Urban Development: Effective Governance, Policy and Practice,” offers an interdisciplinary platform to explore, present, and discuss new knowledge from around the world. We invite submissions that assess and analyze not only the latest advances towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 11 on inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements [14], but also on smart, healthy and liveable cities. Within the currently evolving context of global pandemic, we invite papers that envision cities of the future in the post Covid-19 world [15], with an accent on improved foresight, planning, policy and decision-making. We particularly welcome contributions that examine and/or review the latest findings and progress made with regard to the various dimensions of sustainable and resilient urban development.

References:

1. Haase, D.; Guneralp, B.; Dahiya, B.; Bai, X.; Elmqvist, T. (2018) ‘Global Urbanization: Perspectives and Trends’, In T. Elmqvist, X. Bai, N. Frantzeskaki, C. Griffith, D. Maddox, T. McPhearson, S. Parnell, P. Romero-Lankao, D. Simon, and M. Watkins (Eds.) Urban Planet: Knowledge Towards Sustainable Cities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.19-44. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316647554.003
2. UN-HABITAT (2016) World Cities Report 2016—Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures. UN-HABITAT: Nairobi. ISBN 9789211327083.
3. Keivani, R. (2010) A review of the main challenges to urban sustainability, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 1:1-2, 5-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463131003704213
4. Foster, Sheila and Iaione, Christian (2016) The City as a Commons. 34 Yale Law & Policy Review. 281. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2653084 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2653084
5. UNDRR (2019) Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR): Geneva. eISBN 9789210041805.
6. Jackson RB; Le Quéré C; Andrew RM; Canadell JG; Korsbakken JI; Liu Z; Peters GP; Zheng B; Friedlingstein P (2019) Global Energy Growth Is Outpacing Decarbonization. A special report for the United Nations Climate Action Summit September 2019. Global Carbon Project, International Project Office, Canberra Australia.
7. United Nations (2015) Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A/RES/70/1. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication
8. United Nations (2017) New Urban Agenda. New York, NY: United Nations. Available at: http://habitat3.org/wp-content/uploads/NUA-English.pdf
9. UNFCCC (2015) Paris Agreement. FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev1. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf
10. United Nations (2015) Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. A/RES/69/313. Available at: https://www.un.org/esa/ffd/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AAAA_Outcome.pdf
11. UNDRR (2015) Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR): Geneva. Retrieved from https://www.preventionweb.net/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf
12. Sandhu, S.C.; Naik Singru, R.; Bachmann, J.; Vaideeswaran, S.; Arnoux, P. (2016) GrEEEn Solutions for Livable Cities; Asian Development Bank: Mandaluyong City, Philippines; ISBN 978-92-9257-350-8 (Print), 978-92-9257-351-5 (e-ISBN).
13. Vinod Kumar T.M.; Dahiya B. (2017) Smart Economy in Smart Cities. In: Vinod Kumar T. (eds) Smart Economy in Smart Cities. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore, pp. 3-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1610-3_1
14. United Nations (2020) Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Available at: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/
15. Le Quéré, C., Jackson, R.B., Jones, M.W. et al. (2020) Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions during the COVID-19 forced confinement. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0797-x

Extraordinary Prof. Bharat Dahiya
Dr. Jonathan Parkinson
Guest Editors

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