Resilience and Sustainability in Architecture and Urban Planning: Policies, Practices, Strategies and Visions

Dear Colleagues,

The production and development of the built environment relates strongly to the disciplines of architecture and urban planning. The built environment experiences severe impacts by disasters that have become more frequent, intense and widespread around the world due to climate change and other human actions, requiring research on architectural design and urban planning that contribute to long-term resilience. On the other hand, the built environment itself causes environmental impacts through the consumption of energy, land use change and pressure on ecosystems, among a variety of other factors. Two key frameworks of the United Nations—the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals—have targets concerned with the resilience and sustainability of the built environment, and to meet these targets, research-informed policies, practices and strategies are necessary, requiring innovative and forward-thinking visions for a resilient and sustainable future. The built environment is multifold, with its manifestation determined by economic levels, political systems, demography and natural resources. Thus, contextual approaches and solutions in architecture and urban planning are essential, which can be expected to produce a diverse range of research findings. This Special Issue aims to serve as a platform to assemble such recent and innovative research findings relating to resilience and sustainability in the architecture and urban planning fields and, through an open access mode, disseminate this knowledge widely at a time when the world is facing critical challenges posed by disasters and environmental transformation. The discussions in this Special Issue will focus on (but are not limited to) the following thematic areas:

• Hazard-resistant design and construction;
• Sustainable design and building materials;
• Building codes and regulations for disaster resilience and sustainability;
• Sustainable urban planning and development;
• Disaster-resilient and strategic land use planning;
• Infrastructure planning for disaster resilience;
• Post-disaster planning of resettlement and reconstruction;
• Post-disaster housing with ‘building back better’ strategies;
• Design and planning for marginal and vulnerable populations;
• Housing and infrastructure in informal settlements;
• Social, cultural and political factors in architecture and urban planning for resilience and sustainability;
• Public, private and not-for-profit investments and partnerships for disaster-resilient and sustainable architecture and urban planning.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed
Dr. Masa Noguchi
Dr. David O’Brien
Dr. Chris Tucker
Dr. Mittul Vahanvati
Guest Editors

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