Towards Inclusive and Healthy Urban Public Spaces: Assessing Accessibility, Spatial Equity, and Well-Being
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Planning and Landscape Architecture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025
Special Issue Editors
Interests: urban planning; sustainability; food accessibility
Interests: accessibility; tansportation; planning
Interests: urban health; sustainability; urban planning; bioclimatic design
Interests: accessibility planning; active mobility; transit-oriented development; governance and policy-making; urban transition experiments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: mobility justice; data mining; spatial modelling; mixed methods
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As urban populations continue to grow, ensuring that public spaces are inclusive, accessible, and supportive of well-being has become a critical challenge because they play a fundamental role in fostering social interaction, physical activity, and mental health. However, rapid urbanization, inequitable planning, and mobility barriers often lead to exclusionary environments, limiting the benefits of these spaces for diverse populations. Addressing these challenges calls for innovative approaches to enhance the inclusivity and health impact of urban public spaces.
The objective of this Special Issue is to examine the potential of different approaches for evaluating and enhancing accessibility, spatial equity, and well-being in urban environments. This objective is consistent with Land's emphasis on the sustainable development of human environments by highlighting innovative methods and case studies that promote fair and inclusive public spaces. We hereby extend an invitation for the submission of original research articles and review papers that offer insights into data-driven approaches for assessing urban spaces and addressing social and spatial inequalities.
This Special Issue welcomes contributions related but not limited to the following themes:
- Geospatial and participatory data approaches for evaluating accessibility and inclusivity in public spaces;
- The role of urban design and planning in promoting spatial justice and well-being;
- Crowdsourced and volunteered geographic information (VGI) for understanding public space use and perception;
- The impact of digital tools and smart technologies on urban accessibility;
- Spatial and mobility justice evaluation in urban and rural areas;
- Urban health assessment;
- Case studies on equitable urban transformations and community-led interventions.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews that contribute to this important discussion.
Dr. Ana Zazo-Moratalla
Dr. María Teresa Baquero Larriva
Dr. Ester Higueras García
Dr. Benjamin Büttner
Dr. David Durán-Rodas
Dr. Andrea Alonso
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 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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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
- urban health
- spatial equity
- urban accessibility
- urban public spaces
- inclusive public spaces
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