Urban Water Sustainability and Green Infrastructure Solutions for City Transformation

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and its effects are forcing the transformation of urban areas, which has become necessary in order to increase the resilience of city dwellers to the impacts of climate change and to help cities adapt to changing climatic conditions. Sustainable urban water management and the introduction of nature-based solutions into the urban fabric are particularly important within this framework. Sustainable urban water management requires a comprehensive approach addressing many issues, such as a lack of water, flash floods, or outdated, overloaded, or underloaded and failure-prone infrastructure, among other potential issues.

Key actions in urban water sustainability include the shift from a linear to a circular water economy (enhancing water use efficiency, innovative water and wastewater treatment, and water reuse), the diversification of water sources within cities (including rainwater harvesting), and the implementation of blue and green infrastructure. It is particularly important to note that these actions should be implemented with the quadruple and quintuple helix approach as a driver of sustainable development. Moreover, he key element in the implementation such activities is raising public awareness regarding the need for sustainable water management in cities.

As scientists, we are all committed to creating innovations in urban transformation, so we are aware of the importance of disseminating knowledge about new scientific achievements in this field and gathering them together in one place. Doing so will accelerate the transfer of knowledge between scientists and facilitate the formation of new interdisciplinary research teams. We cordially invite you, therefore, to submit your work to this Special Issue.

TOPICS:

• Introduction of blue and green systems into the urban fabric;
• Green transformation of cities;
• Alternative sources of water, water resource diversification, and the decentralization of water systems in urban areas;
• Urban rainwater management;
• Conceptions and frameworks for urban water sustainability;
• Climate change impacts on cities and solutions for adaptation;
• Increasing of the resilience of citizens;
• Transforming water supply systems and sewerage;
• Sustainable water systems;
• Water and wastewater treatment technologies, including in particular low-carbon solutions.

Submissions focusing on the urban fabric, green transformation, and green infrastructure are encouraged to submit to Land, while contributions emphasizing water resources, rainwater management, and water supply systems and sewerage should be directed to Sustainability.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Sustainability.

Dr. Alexandros I. Stefanakis
Dr. Joanna Bąk
Dr. Rocío Pineda-Martos
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. 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.