Urban Planning for a Sustainable Future

Dear Colleagues,

Cities worldwide are being challenged to decarbonize, adapt to climate change, and reverse widening social inequities while sustaining economic vitality. In this context, the “15-minute city” (15mC) has emerged as a powerful, people-centered planning paradigm. The concept proposes that every resident should be able to reach six essential functions—living, working, commerce, healthcare, education, and leisure—within a 15-minute walk or cycle from home.

Growing evidence highlights the multiple co-benefits of proximity planning. Empirical studies suggest that shorter trip distances can result in lower household transportation costs. Walkable, amenity-rich neighborhoods foster local economic activity, enhance mental and physical health, and strengthen social cohesion. These advantages have prompted cities, from Paris to Melbourne, to embed the 15mC in their post-COVID recovery strategies and climate action plans.

Despite this momentum, implementation knowledge remains fragmented, particularly in areas such as stakeholder co-creation, property owner engagement, and context-specific adaptation. By synthesizing the theoretical foundations, empirical benefits, and cutting-edge experimentation of the 15mC, this Special Issue aims to advance both scholarly and practical understanding of how proximity-oriented urbanism can accelerate sustainable, resilient, and inclusive city futures.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights into sustainable urban transitions through 15-minute city implementation, participatory planning methodologies, and community-centered approaches to urban development. This Special Issue directly aligns with the updated aims and scope of the Land journal, which emphasizes urban contexts, urban planning, and urban-rural interactions as core areas of focus.

The Land journal's mission encompasses land system science, landscape research, and urban studies with particular attention to sustainability transitions and social-ecological system research. The Special Issue will contribute to advancing knowledge on how cities can transition toward more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development patterns while maintaining strong connections to the journal's focus on landuse planning and urban interactions. The interdisciplinary nature of this research, spanning urban design, environmental planning, social sciences, and technology integration, aligns with the Land journal's commitment to cross-disciplinary approaches to understanding complex urban systems. By examining real-world implementation experiences from diverse European contexts, this Special Issue will provide both theoretical insights and practical guidance for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working on sustainable urban development challenges.

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

1. 15-Minute City Implementation and Adaptation, Research examining how the 15-minute city concept can be adapted to different cultural, geographic, and urban contexts, including comparative analysis of implementation strategies, barriers, and success factors.
2. Participatory Planning and Community Co-Creation, Studies on innovative methodologies for engaging diverse stakeholders in urban planning processes, including residents, property owners, municipalities, and marginalized communities, in collaborative decision-making.
3. Digital Innovation in Urban Planning, Investigation of AR/VR technologies, digital visualization tools, and innovative city applications that enhance community engagement and support participatory design processes in urban transformation.
4. Urban Living Labs and Experimental Governance, Research on Urban Living Lab methodologies, their effectiveness in testing urban innovations, and their role in facilitating sustainable urban transitions across different institutional and cultural contexts.
5. Climate Adaptation and Urban Resilience, Studies examining how proximity-based planning approaches can enhance urban resilience to climate change, including nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, and climate-sensitive urban design.
6. Sustainable Mobility and Active Transportation, Research on walkability, cycling infrastructure, public transportation integration, and the reduction in car dependency through proximity-oriented urban planning.
7. Heritage-Led Urban Regeneration, Investigation of how historical and cultural preservation can be integrated with sustainable development principles, particularly in post-industrial and heritage-sensitive urban areas.
8. Urban Policy and Governance Innovation, Research on policy frameworks, institutional arrangements, and governance mechanisms that support sustainable urban transitions and the implementation of proximity-based planning concepts.

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

Dr. Jan Cudzik
Dr. Yu Wang
Dr. Javier Orozco-Messana
Dr. Avar Almukhtar
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.