Integrated Sustainable Urban Development: Governance and Management Strategies for Connecting Urban Systems

Dear Colleagues,

In the urban context, where many different functions and values need to be served within a contained space, the implementation of the energy transition runs into many barriers and conflicts, such as those over the use of space, insufficient public support and funding, and short-term gains versus long-term goals. The uncertain and quickly changing macro-landscape within which the energy transition is taking place is feeding the policy process with doubts and delays, whereas (inter)nationally agreed ambitions and targets underline the urgent need to take action.

Connecting or coupling policy issues and urban systems is considered a suitable strategy for overcoming deadlocked processes while creating mutual benefits. Especially in the field of the energy transition, such strategies are actively sought in an attempt to speed-up the energy transition by creating support, for example solutions such as waste-to-energy, and the active search for connecting energy transition interventions to improvements at the level of buildings, streets, public spaces or other infrastructures. Issue coupling in the urban domain therefore almost also involves the establishment of physical couplings, with new connections within or between systems. Nevertheless, there are structural limitations to the coupling of multiple systems caused by their complexity and institutional diversity.

In this Special Issue, we invite papers exploring the potentials and pitfalls of coupling and connecting strategies, the possible outcomes, and the strategies and supporting instruments used. We are looking for theoretically and empirically informed contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ellen van Bueren
Dr. Aksel Ersoy
Dr. Thomas Hoppe
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. Energies 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.