Community Resilience and Urban Sustainability: A Global Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past few decades, communities worldwide have faced diverse challenges, including natural disasters, climate change, ecological and health crises, and social inequalities. The concept of community resilience—the ability of a community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from adverse events—has gained increasing importance. Meanwhile, the pursuit of urban sustainability has become a central goal, focusing on enhancing energy efficiency, minimizing environmental impact, and ensuring the long-term viability of cities. However, despite their shared relevance, community resilience and urban sustainability have often been treated as separate agendas in both research and practice. This disconnection has resulted in uncoordinated efforts, inadequate disaster preparedness, and heightened climate vulnerability. Without broad community involvement and understanding, sustainability initiatives often struggle to gain traction. These challenges are especially pronounced in the Global South, where urbanization unfolds under different conditions than in the Global North. On the one hand, rapid population growth, informal settlements, insufficient infrastructure, and environmental vulnerability present urgent pressures. On the other hand, cities in the Global South possess distinct and often underestimated capacities for innovation, adaptation, and grassroots problem-solving. A global perspective that values knowledge and experiences in diverse contexts is therefore essential for recognizing existing problems and strengths, as well as creating more inclusive, responsive, and effective strategies for both resilience and sustainability.

This Special Issue of Buildings seeks papers addressing theoretical frameworks, empirical studies, case analyses, and innovative practices from the frontiers of transformative practices across the world that can inform global strategies for sustainable and resilient urban futures. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Frameworks and theories exploring the conceptual linkages between community resilience and urban sustainability;
• Empirical studies of challenges in and approaches to the involvement of local communities in developing environmental awareness, implementing sustainable solutions and retrofitting existing infrastructure;
• Case analyses of urban planning policies for incorporating community resilience into urban governance and the (re)development of green infrastructure;
• Contextually relevant solutions that reduce dependence on external resources and minimize vulnerability through the integration of resilience into sustainable practices.

Prospective authors are encouraged to submit papers by 30 September 2025. All full papers will go through the standard review process to determine their suitability for publication. For further queries, please contact the Guest Editors (Prof. Duanfang Lu <duanfang.lu@sydney.edu.au>; Assoc. Prof. Chunyan Yang <chunyan.yang@swjtu.edu.cn>) by including “CRUS” in the email subject line.

Prof. Dr. Duanfang Lu
Dr. Chunyan Yang
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-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.

• community resilience
• building sustainability
• climate change
• urban governance
• green Infrastructure
• sustainable design