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Land
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Resilient Urban Regeneration: Adaptive Strategies for Future Metropolis
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Resilient Urban Regeneration: Adaptive Strategies for Future Metropolis

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Contexts and Urban-Rural Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 May 2026 | Viewed by 2829

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Qipeng Liao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China
Interests: territorial spatial planning and governance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Arkadiusz Przybysz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for Climate Research SGGW, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: landscape ecology and green space planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Isidoro Fasolino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Interests: urban planning; spatial planning; risk management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Decades of intensive urbanization have profoundly transformed metropolitan landscapes, leaving behind structural, social, and ecological challenges that now demand systematic regeneration. Resilient urban regeneration is no longer optional but a strategic imperative to address accumulated vulnerabilities while preparing metropolises for uncertain futures. This Special Issue advances scholarly and practical debates on adaptive strategies that integrate urban resilience, smart spatial planning, and digital governance. By highlighting innovative frameworks, methodological advances, and evidence-based practices, it aims to establish a forward-looking agenda for shaping sustainable, inclusive, and adaptive metropolitan futures.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) that provide insights into resilient urban regeneration.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  • Conceptual and Theoretical Perspectives on Resilient Urban Regeneration;
  • Smart Spatial Planning and Metropolitan Transformation;
  • Digital Governance and Data-Driven Urban Regeneration;
  • Climate Change Adaptation and Nature-Based Strategies;
  • Socio-Economic and Cultural Dimensions of Resilient Regeneration;
  • Metrics, Modeling, and Assessment of Metropolitan Resilience;
  • Governance, Policy, and Implementation Pathways.

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

Prof. Dr. Qipeng Liao
Dr. Arkadiusz Przybysz
Dr. Isidoro Fasolino
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.

Keywords

  • urban resilience
  • urban regeneration
  • metropolis
  • smart spatial planning
  • digital governance

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

31 pages, 3378 KB  
Article
From Innovation to Resilience: How Digital Technology Boosts the Risk Resistance Capability of Cities
by Pinyue Wang, Dongqin Cao and Chaoqun Wang
Land 2026, 15(4), 679; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15040679 - 20 Apr 2026
Viewed by 269
Abstract
As a transformative techno-economic paradigm shift in the digital economy, digital technology innovation (DTI) has profoundly reshaped urban socio-economic systems. Using panel data of 264 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2020, this research empirically examined DTI’s impact on urban economic resilience (UER) and [...] Read more.
As a transformative techno-economic paradigm shift in the digital economy, digital technology innovation (DTI) has profoundly reshaped urban socio-economic systems. Using panel data of 264 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2020, this research empirically examined DTI’s impact on urban economic resilience (UER) and its underlying mechanisms. Results show that DTI significantly boosts UER, with heterogeneous effects related to city size, emerging industry development, R&D investment, and public attention. Mechanism analysis revealed that DTI enhances UER indirectly by promoting the development of new-type infrastructure, advancing industrial structure upgrading, and fostering the agglomeration of scientific and technological talents. Spatial analysis showed significantly positive direct effects yet negative indirect spillover effects driven by the siphoning of digital resources. These findings offer practical implications for strengthening UER and achieving high-quality economic development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Urban Regeneration: Adaptive Strategies for Future Metropolis)
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33 pages, 9819 KB  
Article
Integrating Vernacular Architecture into Contemporary Urban Regeneration: Heritage, Identity and Modernization in Saudi Cities
by Mohammed Mashary Alnaim and Mashary Abdullah Alnaim
Land 2026, 15(3), 494; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15030494 - 18 Mar 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 928
Abstract
This study examines how traditional Saudi vernacular architecture can be strategically integrated into contemporary urban development as a culturally grounded and sustainability-oriented design approach, rather than as a symbolic or esthetic reference. While heritage-led urban projects are increasingly promoted within Saudi Arabia’s Vision [...] Read more.
This study examines how traditional Saudi vernacular architecture can be strategically integrated into contemporary urban development as a culturally grounded and sustainability-oriented design approach, rather than as a symbolic or esthetic reference. While heritage-led urban projects are increasingly promoted within Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 agenda, the existing scholarship has insufficiently addressed how vernacular architectural principles operate as socio-cultural systems within modern urban frameworks. Drawing on theories of vernacular architecture, adaptive reuse, and culturally responsive urbanism, this study conceptualizes “integration” as the functional, spatial, and social re-embedding of traditional architectural logic within contemporary planning processes. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, the study integrates comparative case study analysis with primary data from expert interviews and structured survey questionnaires administered to residents and visitors. Secondary demographic and policy documentation were analyzed to contextualize the case studies and support triangulation of findings. The findings demonstrate that projects that meaningfully integrate vernacular principles, such as climate-responsive construction, spatial hierarchy, and material authenticity, contribute to strengthened cultural identity, enhanced environmental performance, and increased public acceptance of urban transformation. The study further reveals that modernization does not inherently conflict with heritage preservation when guided by context-specific policy frameworks and community engagement mechanisms. By explicitly linking vernacular architecture to sustainability, socio-cultural continuity, and urban governance, this research offers an original contribution to heritage and urban studies. It provides evidence-based insights for policymakers, planners, and designers seeking to balance rapid urban growth with the preservation of cultural identity in Saudi cities and comparable contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Urban Regeneration: Adaptive Strategies for Future Metropolis)
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26 pages, 2421 KB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Regional Disparities of Urban Resilience in China’s Mining Cities
by Hua Wei, Qipeng Liao, Jie Yang, Xinsheng Hu and Daojun Zhang
Land 2026, 15(2), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15020348 - 20 Feb 2026
Viewed by 410
Abstract
Building safe and resilient cities is a key objective of China’s urbanisation and a prerequisite for high-quality development. This study assesses urban resilience in 73 mining cities from 2014 to 2023 using a composite index system (30 indicators) structured around robustness, resistance, and [...] Read more.
Building safe and resilient cities is a key objective of China’s urbanisation and a prerequisite for high-quality development. This study assesses urban resilience in 73 mining cities from 2014 to 2023 using a composite index system (30 indicators) structured around robustness, resistance, and recovery. We integrate ARIMA-based forecasting, kernel density estimation, and Dagum Gini decomposition to characterise spatiotemporal dynamics and quantify regional inequality. Urban resilience increases steadily over the study period and can be characterised by three sequential stages, with further gains forecast for 2024–2030. Spatially, high-resilience cities shift from a dispersed pattern to belt-like and clustered agglomerations, consistent with an increasingly stratified centre–periphery structure. Inequality is driven primarily by between-region disparities: the East performs best, followed by the Central region, whereas the West and Northeast lag behind, revealing a pronounced gap between the Northeast and the East, alongside relatively convergent Central–West trajectories. These patterns are associated with interacting differences in location and market development, fiscal capacity and transition pathways, infrastructure endowment and ecological constraints, and institutional and demographic dynamics. The findings underscore the need for place-based regional coordination and targeted investments to strengthen recovery-related capacities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Urban Regeneration: Adaptive Strategies for Future Metropolis)
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24 pages, 5928 KB  
Article
Can Megacities Repair Ecological Networks? Insights from Shenzhen’s 25-Year Transformation
by Guangying Zhao, Han Wang and Jiren Zhu
Land 2026, 15(2), 216; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15020216 - 27 Jan 2026
Viewed by 644
Abstract
Rapid urbanization is fragmenting ecological spaces in megacities, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, it remains unclear whether, and under what conditions, urban ecological networks (ENs) can recover robustness once heavily disrupted. This study aims to (i) develop a dynamic assessment framework that [...] Read more.
Rapid urbanization is fragmenting ecological spaces in megacities, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, it remains unclear whether, and under what conditions, urban ecological networks (ENs) can recover robustness once heavily disrupted. This study aims to (i) develop a dynamic assessment framework that couples network robustness and connectivity, and (ii) apply it to examine how ENs evolve under sustained urbanization and shifting policy regimes. Using multi-period data for Shenzhen, China (2000–2025), we simulate deliberate and random attacks on patches and corridors to derive data-driven thresholds that grade the importance of ecological elements, and integrate these with graph-based connectivity metrics to track changes in network structure and node centrality over time. Shenzhen’s EN exhibits a typical “fragmentation–reconfiguration–optimization” pathway, with a “rapid decline–deceleration–recovery” trajectory in robustness that closely aligns with the introduction of strict ecological control lines and subsequent restoration initiatives. The results show that targeted protection of residual core habitats, combined with strategic reconnection and infill greening in the urban interior, can reverse earlier losses in network robustness. The proposed robustness-informed framework provides operational guidance for prioritizing protection, restoration, and optimization of ecological space, and offers a transferable approach for adaptive EN planning in high-density tropical and subtropical megacities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilient Urban Regeneration: Adaptive Strategies for Future Metropolis)
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