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Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density...
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Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density Cities

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Design, Urban Science, and Real Estate".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 4887

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Lingyue Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Urban Planning, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Interests: urban governance; urban tech and innovation; urban policy; mega events; sustainability; political economy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editors are pleased to invite submissions to a Special Issue of Buildings, entitled “Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density Cities”. Buildings occupy land during their full life cycle and are significant constituents of the built environment of human beings. In high-density cities, the population is massive and requires liveable and convenient urban living, which requires smart arrangement of buildings and building clusters. Planning land use and the built environment with sustainability in mind supports sustainable building construction, producing high-quality human settlements for dwellers, the arrangement of urban activities and the improvement of urban vitality. As urban systems, especially those in high-density cities, becomes increasingly complex, an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of how land use and the environment evolve, perform, operate, etc., will assuredly aid in planning and adjustment. The rise of new technologies and new data environment, in the meantime, has the potential to offer new clues in disclosing land use patterns and perceiving the built environment, thus further informing planning practice accordingly. This Special Issue calls for attention and discussion on up-to-date findings of sustainable land use and built environment (e.g., characteristics, mechanisms and main contributors), as well as the frontiers of planning technics and approaches to actualize the sustainability. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Theoretical and empirical studies on sustainable, mixed land use in high-density built environment;
  • Sustainable assessment of land use and built environment aided by new data/approaches;
  • Evolution and change of urban land use and built environment alongside urban transformation;
  • Advances of technologies or methods applied to land use and built environment planning;
  • Machine learning and quantitative methods measuring built environment;
  • Planning practices of compact and intensive land use;
  • Three-dimensional planning and research of smart built environment

Dr. Lingyue Li
Guest Editor

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. Buildings 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 2600 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

  • smart spatial planning
  • intensive/mixed land use
  • high-density built environment
  • sustainability
  • three-dimensional
  • compact development
  • machine learning
  • land use change and evolution
  • data-driven approach
  • quality environment

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 16024 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Built Environment on Urban Vitality—A Multi-Scale Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis in the Case of Shenyang, China
by Xu Lu, Shan Huang, Wuqi Xie and Yuhang Sun
Buildings 2025, 15(17), 2989; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15172989 - 22 Aug 2025
Abstract
Urban vitality acts as a key driver of sustainable urban development, while the built environment serves as its physical foundation. However, spatial heterogeneity in urban landscapes leads to imbalanced impacts of economic, social, and environmental factors on vitality. Therefore, it is essential to [...] Read more.
Urban vitality acts as a key driver of sustainable urban development, while the built environment serves as its physical foundation. However, spatial heterogeneity in urban landscapes leads to imbalanced impacts of economic, social, and environmental factors on vitality. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the underlying principles governing vitality impacts imposed by diverse components of the built environment at the spatial level. This study synthesized multi-source remote sensing data alongside geospatial datasets aiming to quantify vitality and built environment indicators across Shenyang, China. We applied Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression for collinearity diagnosis and Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) to model spatial heterogeneity impacts at the planning-unit level. The regression factor analysis yielded three primary conclusions: (1) Functional Mixture Degree, Bus Stop Density, and Subway Station Density demonstrated a statistically significant positive correlation with urban vitality. (2) FAR (Floor Area Ratio), Vegetation Coverage, Commercial Facility Density, and Road Density exhibited differentiated effects in core areas versus peripheral areas. (3) Public Facility Density and Bus Stop Density showed a negative correlation trend with vitality levels in Industrial Functional Zones. We propose a geospatial analysis framework that leverages remote sensing to decode spatially heterogeneous built environment–vitality linkages. This approach supports precision urban renewal planning by identifying location-specific interventions. Geospatial big data and MGWR offer replicable tools for analyzing urban sustainability. Future work should integrate real-time sensor data to track vitality dynamics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density Cities)
18 pages, 6810 KiB  
Article
The Impact of the Built Environment on Innovation Output in High-Density Urban Centres at the Micro-Scale: A Case Study of the G60 S&T Innovation Valley, China
by Lie Wang and Lingyue Li
Buildings 2025, 15(14), 2528; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15142528 - 18 Jul 2025
Viewed by 235
Abstract
The micro-scale interplay between the built environment and innovation has attracted increasing scholarly attention. However, discussions on how such microdynamics operate and vary across high-density cities remain insufficient. This study focuses on nine high-density urban centres along the G60 S&T Innovation Valley and [...] Read more.
The micro-scale interplay between the built environment and innovation has attracted increasing scholarly attention. However, discussions on how such microdynamics operate and vary across high-density cities remain insufficient. This study focuses on nine high-density urban centres along the G60 S&T Innovation Valley and employs a fine-grained grid unit, viz. 1 km × 1 km, combined with the gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) model to address these issues. Results show that urban construction density-related variables, including the building density, floor area ratio, and transportation network density, generally rank higher than the amenity density and proximity-related variables. The former contributes 50.90% of the total relative importance in predicting invention patent application density (IPAD), while the latter two contribute 13.64% and 35.46%, respectively. Threshold effect analysis identifies optimal levels for enhancing IPAD. Specifically, the optimal building density is approximately 20%, floor area ratio is 5, and transportation network density is 8 km/km2. Optimal distances to universities, city centres, and transportation hubs are around 1 km, 17 km, and 9 km, respectively. Furthermore, significant city-level heterogeneity was observed: most density-related variables consistently have an overall positive association with IPAD, with metropolitan cities (e.g., Hangzhou and Suzhou) exhibiting notably higher optimal values compared to medium and small cities (e.g., Xuancheng and Huzhou). In contrast, the threshold effects of proximity-related variables on IPAD are more complex and diverse. These findings offer empirical support for enhancing innovation in high-density urban environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density Cities)
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19 pages, 11710 KiB  
Article
Investigating the Structural Health of High-Rise Buildings and Its Influencing Factors Using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery: A Case Study of the Guangzhou–Foshan Metropolitan Area
by Di Huang, Zhixin Qi, Suya Lin, Yuze Gu, Wenxuan Song and Qianwen Lv
Buildings 2024, 14(12), 4074; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14124074 - 21 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1732
Abstract
Urban growth is increasingly shifting from horizontal expansion to vertical development, resulting in skylines dominated by high-rise buildings. The post-construction operations and maintenance of these buildings are critical, requiring regular structural health monitoring (SHM) to proactively identify and address potential safety concerns. Interferometric [...] Read more.
Urban growth is increasingly shifting from horizontal expansion to vertical development, resulting in skylines dominated by high-rise buildings. The post-construction operations and maintenance of these buildings are critical, requiring regular structural health monitoring (SHM) to proactively identify and address potential safety concerns. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has proven effective for monitoring building safety, but most studies rely on high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The high cost and limited coverage of these images restrict their use for large-scale monitoring. Sentinel-1 medium-resolution SAR images, which are freely available and offer broad coverage, make large-scale SHM more feasible. However, studies on the use of Sentinel-1 SAR images for structural health monitoring, especially at large spatial scales, remain limited. To address this gap, in this study, Sentinel-1 SAR images and PS-InSAR technology are proposed for performing a comprehensive structural safety assessment of super high-rise buildings in the Guangzhou–Foshan Metropolitan Area (GFMA) and for analyzing the influencing factors. Our assessment shows that while the overall structural safety of these buildings is satisfactory, certain areas, including Pearl River New Town, central Huadu district in Guangzhou, and southeastern Shunde district in Foshan, exhibit suboptimal safety conditions. We verified these findings using GNSS data and on-site investigations, confirming that Sentinel-1 SAR imagery offers reliable accuracy for monitoring building structural health. Furthermore, we identified factors such as settlement in soft soil layers, the construction of surrounding (underground) infrastructure, and building aging, which could potentially impact building structural safety. The results demonstrate that Sentinel-1 SAR images provide a reliable, rapid, and cost-effective method for the large-scale monitoring of building stability, enhancing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and informing strategies to prevent potential safety crises, and also ensuring the sustainable development of society. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density Cities)
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20 pages, 5319 KiB  
Article
Predicting Land Use Changes under Shared Socioeconomic Pathway–Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios to Support Sustainable Planning in High-Density Urban Areas: A Case Study of Hangzhou, Southeastern China
by Song Yao, Yonghua Li, Hezhou Jiang, Xiaohan Wang, Qinchuan Ran, Xinyi Ding, Huarong Wang and Anqi Ding
Buildings 2024, 14(7), 2165; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14072165 - 14 Jul 2024
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1760
Abstract
Amidst the challenges posed by global climate change and accelerated urbanization, the structure and distribution of land use are shifting dramatically, exacerbating ecological and land-use conflicts, particularly in China. Effective land resource management requires accurate forecasts of land use and cover change (LUCC). [...] Read more.
Amidst the challenges posed by global climate change and accelerated urbanization, the structure and distribution of land use are shifting dramatically, exacerbating ecological and land-use conflicts, particularly in China. Effective land resource management requires accurate forecasts of land use and cover change (LUCC). However, the future trajectory of LUCC, influenced by climate change and urbanization, remains uncertain. This study developed an integrated multi-scenario framework by combining system dynamics and patch-generating land use simulation models to predict future LUCC in high-density urban regions under various Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP)–Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. The results showed the following: (1) From 2020 to 2050, cultivated land, unused land, and water are projected to decrease, while construction land is expected to increase. (2) Future land use patterns exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity across three scenarios. Construction land will expand in all districts of Hangzhou, particularly in the main urban areas. Under the SSP585 scenario, the expansion of construction land is most significant, while it is the least under the SSP126 scenario. (3) Distinct factors drive the expansion of different land use types. The digital elevation model is the predominant factor for the expansion of forest and grassland, contributing 19.25% and 30.76%, respectively. Night light contributes the most to cultivated land and construction land, at 13.94% and 20.35%, respectively. (4) The average land use intensity (LUI) in central urban districts markedly surpasses that in the surrounding suburban areas, with Xiacheng having the highest LUI and Chun’an the lowest. Under the SSP126 scenario, the area with increased LUI is significantly smaller than under the SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios. These findings offer valuable guidance for sustainable planning and built environment management in Hangzhou and similarly situated urban centers worldwide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Built Environment in High-Density Cities)
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