Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Urban and Heritage Built Environments

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is intensifying compound risks in cities and historic places—heat stress, pluvial flooding, air-quality episodes, and energy disruptions—while simultaneously raising the bar for low-carbon transformation. This Special Issue aims to bring together interdisciplinary research on climate adaptation and resilience across urban and heritage built environments, bridging planning and design, microclimate science, building physics, and conservation practice. We welcome contributions that advance (i) climate-informed urban renewal and resilient spatial planning; (ii) microclimate-sensitive design and thermal comfort improvement in campuses, neighbourhoods, and public spaces; (iii) adaptation strategies for heritage sites and historic buildings under climate stressors, balancing conservation constraints with environmental performance; and (iv) integrated approaches linking environmental optimization with energy systems and carbon mitigation. Methodological contributions using simulation, monitoring, data-driven analytics, and comparative cross-climate/cross-country studies are particularly encouraged. By synthesizing evidence and actionable strategies, this Special Issue seeks to support robust, context-specific pathways toward climate-resilient and sustainable built environments.

Dr. Duo Xu
Dr. Barbara Galli
Dr. Yingtao Qi
Dr. Yujun Yang
Dr. Yuan Chen
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.