Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas are at the frontline of global sustainability challenges, facing increasing pressures from climate change, population growth, rapid urbanization, and resource scarcity. Building resilient cities is therefore central to achieving sustainable futures. This Research Topic aims to advance knowledge and practice on urban resilience, with a particular focus on innovative approaches that integrate infrastructure, environment, governance, and social equity. We welcome contributions that address resilience across multiple dimensions:

(i) using advanced data science, machine learning, remote sensing, and GIS tools to monitor and analyze dynamic urban environments;

(ii) developing innovative modelling approaches to quantify human exposure and access to key environmental indicators, such as greenspace, flooding, and heatwaves;

(iii) examining the interactions among natural hazards, infrastructure systems, and human health and well-being;

(iv) designing sustainable, adaptive, and equitable strategies to strengthen resilience in diverse urban contexts.

By bridging technological, environmental, and social perspectives, this Topic aims to generate actionable insights that inform resilient urban planning and policy.

Dr. Ying Tu
Dr. Hanlin Zhou
Dr. Wei Lang
Dr. Tingting Chen
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Buildings buildings	3.1	4.4	2011	15.1 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Land land	3.2	5.9	2012	17.5 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Sustainability sustainability	3.3	7.7	2009	17.9 Days	CHF 2400	Submit
Urban Science urbansci	2.9	3.7	2017	21.6 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Water water	3.0	6.0	2009	18.9 Days	CHF 2600	Submit

Preprints.org is a multidisciplinary platform offering a preprint service designed to facilitate the early sharing of your research. It supports and empowers your research journey from the very beginning.

MDPI Topics is collaborating with Preprints.org and has established a direct connection between MDPI journals and the platform. Authors are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity by posting their preprints at Preprints.org prior to publication:

1. Share your research immediately: disseminate your ideas prior to publication and establish priority for your work.
2. Safeguard your intellectual contribution: Protect your ideas with a time-stamped preprint that serves as proof of your research timeline.
3. Boost visibility and impact: Increase the reach and influence of your research by making it accessible to a global audience.
4. Gain early feedback: Receive valuable input and insights from peers before submitting to a journal.
5. Ensure broad indexing: Web of Science (Preprint Citation Index), Google Scholar, Crossref, SHARE, PrePubMed, Scilit and Europe PMC.

Published Papers (9 papers)

Order results

Content type Publication Date

Result details

Normal Extended Compact

Journals

All Buildings Land Sustainability Urban Science Water

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Plain Text BibTeX BibTeX (without abstracts) Endnote Endnote (without abstracts) Tab-delimited RIS

Error

Oops... you haven't selected anything for export.

Ok

clear

21 pages, 1321 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Does Financial Agglomeration Enhance Urban Economic Resilience? Evidence from Chinese Cities

by Yan Qian, Xiaoping Wang, Jiayi Zhu and Wenya Hu

Sustainability 2026, 18(7), 3445; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18073445 - 2 Apr 2026

Viewed by 277

Abstract

Amidst escalating global economic instability, urban economic resilience has emerged as a fundamental pillar for sustainable urban development. Using a dataset of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2021, this study examines the impact of financial agglomeration on urban economic resilience. [...] Read more.

Amidst escalating global economic instability, urban economic resilience has emerged as a fundamental pillar for sustainable urban development. Using a dataset of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2021, this study examines the impact of financial agglomeration on urban economic resilience. The entropy weight approach is used to measure urban economic resilience. The main empirical results show that financial agglomeration has a statistically significant positive impact on urban economic resilience, mainly through two mediating channels: the promotion of technical innovation and the optimization of the industrial structure. The beneficial effects of financial agglomeration increase with city size, according to a threshold effect analysis, giving urban sustainable development a stronger boost. Furthermore, compared to resource-based cities, cities in the central and western regions, and cities with low levels of digital finance development, this promotional effect is much more noticeable in non-resource-based cities, cities in the eastern regions, and cities with a high degree of digital finance development. This study underscores the pivotal influence of financial clustering on reinforcing urban economic robustness, offering policy recommendations for fostering sustainable growth and urban development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 449 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Digital–Real Economy Integration and Urban Ecological Resilience: Evidence from the Yellow River Basin of China

by Zhenhua Xu and Jiawen Zhang

Land 2026, 15(4), 528; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15040528 - 25 Mar 2026

Viewed by 379

Abstract

Enhancing urban ecological resilience (UER) is crucial for mitigating soil erosion, improving land use efficiency, and preventing ecological degradation. The digital–real economy integration (DRI) plays a pivotal role in strengthening UER, offering a vital pathway for modernizing ecological governance systems and capabilities in [...] Read more.

Enhancing urban ecological resilience (UER) is crucial for mitigating soil erosion, improving land use efficiency, and preventing ecological degradation. The digital–real economy integration (DRI) plays a pivotal role in strengthening UER, offering a vital pathway for modernizing ecological governance systems and capabilities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Based on ecological resilience theory, this study establishes a three-dimensional evaluation framework centered on “resistance–recovery–adaptation”. Using panel data from 78 cities in the YRB from 2011 to 2023, we empirically examine the impact of DRI on UER. The results indicate that DRI significantly improves UER in the YRB, with notably strong positive effects on recovery and adaptation capacities, although there is no significant effect on resistance capacity. Mechanism analysis reveals that DRI promotes UER primarily through three channels: upgrading the industrial structure, strengthening government governance, and spurring green technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the positive impact of DRI on UER is more pronounced in downstream cities, urban agglomerations, non-resource-based cities, key environmental protection cities, green data center pilot cities, and informatization–industrialization integration pilot cities. Spatial analysis confirms DRI generating positive spatial spillover effects on the UER of neighboring cities. This study provides a theoretical basis for understanding the ecological governance potential of DRI and offers policy insights to support coordinated digital and green transformation in the YRB. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 5491 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Assessing Spatiotemporal Accessibility of Fire Services to Key Units of Fire Safety in Shanghai: Dynamics, Disparities, and Policy Implications

by Yiqi Zhang, Xiao Wang, Shizhen Cao, Yuheng He and Xiang Li

Buildings 2026, 16(6), 1262; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16061262 - 23 Mar 2026

Viewed by 257

Abstract

Accurately assessing the accessibility of fire services is critical for enhancing urban safety and the resilience of the built environment. However, existing studies often lack a systematic analysis of spatiotemporal dynamics across an entire municipality. To address this gap, this study develops a [...] Read more.

Accurately assessing the accessibility of fire services is critical for enhancing urban safety and the resilience of the built environment. However, existing studies often lack a systematic analysis of spatiotemporal dynamics across an entire municipality. To address this gap, this study develops a citywide dynamic assessment framework for Shanghai, integrating GIS with real-time traffic data across 240 consecutive intervals to assess the service accessibility of 195 fire stations in relation to 7973 key units of fire safety. The principal findings are threefold. First, the results reveal significant urban–suburban heterogeneity in emergency response times. Notably, the proximity advantage of fire stations in central urban areas is offset by traffic congestion, and the marginal benefit of traffic speed improvement exhibits a sharp decline once the average speed exceeds a critical threshold of 13.7–21.0 km/h. Second, the accessibility ratio demonstrates a clear temporal pattern, being highest on holidays and lowest during weekday peak hours, and follows a nonlinear spatial decline from the urban centre to the periphery. This pattern is influenced more critically by the matching of supply and demand than by fire station density alone. Third, the analysis identifies dynamic vulnerability hotspots, which display a ‘bimodal (M-shaped)’ pattern on weekdays and a ‘unimodal (A-shaped)’ pattern on weekends and holidays. This spatiotemporal mismatch shows that central urban areas, despite higher station density, can suffer from both high fire risk and low accessibility, revealing structural patterns consistent with the ‘Inverse Care Law’ in emergency service provision. This study concludes that merely improving traffic conditions is insufficient; optimising the spatial matching of resources is paramount for effective urban disaster prevention. By developing a refined dynamic assessment framework, this study advances current knowledge by focusing on demand locations consistent with actual fire regulatory priorities and examining spatiotemporal patterns across both urban and suburban areas, thereby providing quantitative, evidence-based support for the strategic planning of fire stations and the enhancement of infrastructure resilience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

29 pages, 26243 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Introducing the T-MCCR Index for Evaluating Urban Thermal Comfort and Morphological Performance

by Hossein Abdeyazdan and Daniele Santucci

Urban Sci. 2026, 10(3), 123; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci10030123 - 25 Feb 2026

Viewed by 667

Abstract

Urban morphology plays a key role in shaping outdoor thermal comfort, especially as cities experience increasing heat stress under climate change. While the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is widely applied in outdoor thermal comfort studies, existing approaches rarely provide a comprehensive framework [...] Read more.

Urban morphology plays a key role in shaping outdoor thermal comfort, especially as cities experience increasing heat stress under climate change. While the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) is widely applied in outdoor thermal comfort studies, existing approaches rarely provide a comprehensive framework for evaluating and comparing the thermal comfort performance of urban morphologies across different times of the day. This study addresses this gap by proposing a time-aggregated, morphology-sensitive framework for comparative assessment of outdoor thermal comfort. Morphological performance is defined as the measurable capacity of an urban form to provide and sustain thermally comfortable outdoor conditions over time, emerging from the combined effects of its spatial configuration and geometry. Hourly UTCI simulations were conducted for three urban morphologies in Aachen, Germany, under present climate conditions and a high-emission future scenario (RCP 8.5, 2050). The urban fabric was discretized into uniform spatial parcels, and the proportion of thermally comfortable areas was evaluated across the diurnal cycle using the Time-weighted Morphological Climate Comfort Ratio (T-MCCR). The results show clear differences in thermal comfort performance among morphologies. Compact urban form exhibits higher comfort persistence and greater resilience under future climate conditions, whereas detached morphologies show lower performance and more fragmented comfort patterns. The proposed framework provides a comparative, design-support tool for morphology-driven thermal comfort evaluation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 4061 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Urban Resilience and Spatiotemporal Patterns in Small and Medium-Sized Chinese Cities

by Xuehang Sun, Xinyue Ge, Ran Li, Zhao Deng and Bangfan Liu

Sustainability 2026, 18(4), 1756; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18041756 - 9 Feb 2026

Viewed by 347

Abstract

Amid the compounded impacts of climate change, economic volatility, and sudden shocks, small and medium-sized cities (SMSCs) have become a critical yet frequently overlooked weak link in urban resilience research. Objective assessment of resilience in SMSCs is essential for improving the design and [...] Read more.

Amid the compounded impacts of climate change, economic volatility, and sudden shocks, small and medium-sized cities (SMSCs) have become a critical yet frequently overlooked weak link in urban resilience research. Objective assessment of resilience in SMSCs is essential for improving the design and effectiveness of resilience-building policies. Following China’s official city-size classification criteria—i.e., using urban-district resident population as the statistical basis and defining SMSCs as cities with less than 1 million urban-district residents—this study examines 510 Chinese SMSCs from 2012 to 2023. An entropy-weighted Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is employed to construct an urban resilience index. Subsequently, spatiotemporal disparities are characterized using nonparametric kernel density estimation and Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition. The results indicate that: (1) from 2012 to 2023, the resilience index of Chinese SMSCs rose from 0.1108 to 0.1121, with an average annual growth rate of 0.1067%. Overall resilience remains low, and the increase is modest, showing a clear regional gradient of Eastern > Central > Western > Northeastern China. (2) Spatiotemporal differentiation reveals the fastest growth in the Eastern region, a similar trajectory in the Central region, slower growth in the Western region, and a decline in the Northeastern region, reinforcing a pattern of gradient divergence. Within-region disparities generally converged, whereas between-region disparities expanded markedly; nonetheless, the transvariation (overlapping) component remained the primary contributor to overall inequality. (3) The resilience of Chinese SMSCs may face a potential Matthew-effect risk driven by the interaction of scale disadvantage and regional disadvantage. These findings provide evidence to support policies aimed at enhancing resilience in SMSCs and inform the development of differentiated resilience-building strategies across regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

35 pages, 2261 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Green Finance and Urban Ecological Resilience: Institutional, Technological, and Behavioral Mechanisms

by Xiaoyong Zhou, Yingying Dong, Zaozhuang Liao and Zhengbo Peng

Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1691; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031691 - 6 Feb 2026

Viewed by 464

Abstract

Building resilient cities that can survive, adapt, and thrive amid climate and ecological challenges has become a global priority, yet achieving this goal requires adequate financial support. This study investigates the impact of green finance on urban ecological resilience (UER) by exploiting the [...] Read more.

Building resilient cities that can survive, adapt, and thrive amid climate and ecological challenges has become a global priority, yet achieving this goal requires adequate financial support. This study investigates the impact of green finance on urban ecological resilience (UER) by exploiting the establishment of China’s Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones (GFPZs) as a policy shock. Using a DPSIR-based (driving force–pressure–state–impact–response) evaluation framework and a staggered difference-in-differences approach with panel data from 277 cities (2011–2022), the empirical results show that (1) the GFPZ policy significantly enhances UER; (2) green finance improves UER through three transmission channels—government environmental governance, green technological innovation, and public environmental participation; (3) the policy effects display clear spatial and structural heterogeneity, with stronger impacts in southern, less-developed, and non-traditional industrial cities, as well as positive local effects, negative spatial spillovers, and significant synergies with national big data pilot zones. This study clarifies how financial instruments contribute to building resilient cities and offers insights for embedding green finance into urban ecological strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

32 pages, 6721 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Resilience-Oriented Study on Pedestrian Accessibility Between Subway Stations and Commercial Complexes in Cities

by Xinyu Wang, Changming Yu, Binzhuo Gou and Stephen Siu Yu Lau

Land 2026, 15(2), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15020266 - 5 Feb 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 629

Abstract

Against the backdrop of global climate change, the rising frequency and intensity of extreme weather events pose severe challenges to urban transport and commercial systems. As a core capacity for managing uncertainty and risk, urban resilience requires infrastructure to resist shocks, recover rapidly, [...] Read more.

Against the backdrop of global climate change, the rising frequency and intensity of extreme weather events pose severe challenges to urban transport and commercial systems. As a core capacity for managing uncertainty and risk, urban resilience requires infrastructure to resist shocks, recover rapidly, and adaptively evolve. From a resilience perspective, this study develops a comprehensive evaluation system for spatial accessibility between subway stations and commercial complexes, operationalized by 21 indicators across five dimensions: Connectivity, Redundancy, Robustness, Dynamic adaptability, and Comfort. Spatial accessibility is simulated and measured using sDNA spatial network analysis, while an in-depth questionnaire survey collects, feeds back, and validates users’ subjective perceptions. By constructing a dual evaluation model that integrates spatial configuration and behavioral psychology, we find that the integrated development of subway stations and commercial complexes can maintain stable functional performance and sustained vitality under complex urban conditions by optimizing connectivity, enhancing redundancy, and improving adaptability. This is manifested in the expansion of residents’ pedestrian networks and the spillover of social service functions. In parallel, underground spaces can be transformed into resilient infrastructure to enhance civil air defense performance and provide diversified evacuation routes. The findings offer theoretical support and practical guidance for the construction of resilient cities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4777 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Nonlinear Impact of Population Shrinkage on Urban Ecological Resilience: A Threshold Effect Analysis Based on City-Level Panel Data from the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

by Xuan Chen, Yuluan Zhao, Chunfang Zhou and Yonglong Cai

Land 2026, 15(2), 261; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15020261 - 3 Feb 2026

Viewed by 381

Abstract

In the context of rapid urbanization and demographic transition, the implications of population shrinkage for urban sustainable development have attracted increasing scholarly attention. Nevertheless, empirical evidence on the relationship between population change and urban ecological resilience remains limited. Drawing on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) [...] Read more.

In the context of rapid urbanization and demographic transition, the implications of population shrinkage for urban sustainable development have attracted increasing scholarly attention. Nevertheless, empirical evidence on the relationship between population change and urban ecological resilience remains limited. Drawing on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework, this study constructs a comprehensive indicator system to assess urban ecological resilience in 110 cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) over the period of 2012–2021. Furthermore, a panel threshold regression model is employed to examine the nonlinear effects of population shrinkage on urban ecological resilience. The findings indicate that urban ecological resilience exhibits an overall upward trend in YEB, characterized by pronounced spatial disparities. Eastern cities have a higher level of resilience than cities in the western region in YEB. The number of cities with shrinking populations is gradually increasing, and these shrinking cities are mainly small and medium-sized cities. The empirical results show that the impact of population shrinkage on urban ecological resilience is distinctly nonlinear, and regional economic development plays a moderating role in this nonlinear relationship. At lower levels of economic development, population shrinkage does not significantly moderate urban ecological resilience. As the economy reaches a moderate stage, population shrinkage exerts a stronger modulatory effect on ecological resilience. When economic development advances to a higher level, however, population shrinkage tends to inhibit ecological resilience. Overall, this study provides a scientific basis for the population–ecological policies tailored to local conditions and offers valuable insights to promote urban sustainable development under conditions of population shrinkage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 612 KB  

Open AccessArticle

Does Emergency Capability Promote Community Responsibility?—A Moderated Mediation Model of Risk Perception and Community Resilience

by Kunpeng Hu, Luqi Wang, Mengyuan Zhang and Chao Wang

Sustainability 2026, 18(3), 1335; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031335 - 29 Jan 2026

Viewed by 355

Abstract

Clarifying the pathways through which public emergency response capability influences community responsibility holds positive implications for promoting public participation in community disaster prevention and mitigation efforts. Based on a large-scale community survey covering over 70 cities in China, this study obtained a sample [...] Read more.

Clarifying the pathways through which public emergency response capability influences community responsibility holds positive implications for promoting public participation in community disaster prevention and mitigation efforts. Based on a large-scale community survey covering over 70 cities in China, this study obtained a sample of 1753 individuals through random sampling and employed Bootstrap methods for effect testing. Findings reveal the following: ① Public emergency response capability significantly correlates positively with sense of community responsibility, with both intrinsic cognitive emergency response capability and extrinsic skill-based emergency response capability demonstrating strong positive associations with community responsibility. ② Risk perception mediates the relationship between public emergency response capability and community responsibility, forming the associative pathway: “Enhanced public emergency response capability → Reduced risk perception → Strengthened sense of community responsibility”. ③ Community resilience moderates the “public emergency response capability → risk perception” pathway, with high-resilience communities significantly reducing public risk perception levels. Therefore, to fully leverage the role of public emergency response capability in enhancing community responsibility, efforts should focus on cultivating public risk prevention awareness, comprehensively disseminating safety and emergency knowledge, strengthening public emergency skills training, fostering a culture of neighborhood watch within communities, and optimizing public participation mechanisms for community disaster reduction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Advances in Urban Resilience for Sustainable Futures)

►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Plain Text BibTeX BibTeX (without abstracts) Endnote Endnote (without abstracts) Tab-delimited RIS

 

Error

Oops... you haven't selected anything for export.

Ok

clear

Displaying articles 1-9