Sustainable Urbanization, Regional Planning and Development

Dear Colleagues,

In 2006, a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) announced that urban sprawl is “the ignored challenge”, drawing attention to its consequences at the scale of an entire continent. Urban sprawl was already on the research agenda, but the EEA report made researchers focus their activity on this phenomenon, its drivers and ways to address it. The size of cities continues to proliferate, with alarming predictions for the future given this growth rate and the possible negative outcomes. This growth is intensive, resulting in a densification of the built up area, negative psychological and sociological outcomes, and environmental consequences such as the loss of urban nature and its ecosystem service, as well as extensive, in the form of sprawl. Sprawl also results in the fragmentation and loss of natural landscapes, and in a dependence on automobiles and its associated consequences. As a result, urbanization processes result in increased vulnerability to various types of hazards and stressors. These examples, chosen to exemplify the research presented in this Special Issue, show that urban growth, analyzed at the local and regional scale, exhibits unsustainable patterns.

This Special Issue aims to analyze the current state of urbanization and future perspectives in relation to regional planning and development, focusing on the patterns identified so far and their outcomes. It also focuses on the role of regional planning and development policies in controlling or shaping these patterns, and solutions regarding the enhancement of sustainable urbanization, including building resilience to various types of risks. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

(1) The debate surrounding compact cities versus urban sprawl;

(2) Analyses of current urbanization patterns from the perspective of one or more pillars of sustainability (economy, society, environment, culture);

(3) The role of regional planning and development policies in controlling urbanization;

(4) Future patterns of urbanization, planning policies and strategies;

(5) Instruments for controlling urbanization;

(6) Vulnerability and resilience of urbanized areas and planned urbanization processes, and other relevant issues.

Prof. Dr. Lidia Mierzejewska
Prof. Dr. Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor
Guest Editors

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• urban sprawl
• urban and territorial planning
• sustainability pillars
• vulnerability
• resilience