Urban Spatial Planning for Health 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: 21 February 2026 | Viewed by 12
Special Issue Editors
Interests: health geography; street view images; GeoAI; health city
Interests: health geography; population geography; GIS; longitudinal data analysis; spatial analysis
Interests: modeling 15-minute city scenarios; integrating land use and travel behavior to support sustainable urban and transport planning
Interests: GIS; urban data science; health geography; environmental epidemiology; transportation
Interests: urban morphology; human–environment perception and interaction; GeoAI; spatial equity
Interests: AI-based remote sensing data processing and 3D modeling; spatio-temporal data science and digital twin cities; urban complex systems and uncertainty
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Achieving health and well-being for all, as underscored by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3, 10, and 11), stands as a critical global priority. A substantial body of research unequivocally demonstrates the profound influence of the urban built environment—encompassing housing, transport networks, green spaces, and land use patterns—on population health outcomes and overall human well-being. Consequently, strategic urban spatial planning emerges as a fundamental lever for realizing these health objectives.
The advent of novel geospatial data sources—including high-resolution satellite imagery, pervasive street view data, dynamic GPS trajectories, and pervasive mobile sensing—coupled with transformative advances in Geographical Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI), is revolutionizing the field. This convergence enables a decisive shift from predominantly qualitative approaches towards sophisticated quantitative analysis. Researchers and planners can now measure environmental exposures, model human mobility patterns, assess access to health-promoting amenities, and predict health outcomes with unprecedented precision and scale. These capabilities are essential for generating robust, evidence-based insights to inform effective policy-making and targeted interventions by governments and urban authorities.
This Special Issue calls for interdisciplinary contributions that bridge health geography, urban planning, land system science, and sustainability science. We seek research that positions healthy city strategies at the forefront, critically examining the intersections between built environment design, Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methodologies, and the application of GeoAI. We welcome original research, reviews, and case studies that leverage these innovative data and analytical tools to explore how urban spatial planning can be optimized to foster environments that actively promote physical health, mental well-being, social equity, and overall quality of life for diverse urban populations.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:
- Urban built environment and human mobility;
- Urban regeneration and human health;
- Critical insights into 15-minute health city;
- Quantitative approach of health impact assessment;
- Urban resilience and nature-based solutions;
- Environmental justice and spatial equity;
- Urban food environment and health outcomes;
- Application of large language models in health geography;
- Dynamic environmental exposure, travel behavior, and well-being.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Dr. Shaoqing Dai
Dr. Zhiqiang Feng
Dr. Jiakun Liu
Dr. Yuchen Li
Dr. Cai Wu
Dr. Wufan Zhao
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
- remote sensing and street view image
- spatio-temporal statistics and disease mapping
- GeoAI and LLM
- health impact assessment
- urban spatial planning
- nature-based solution
- walkability and bikeability
- sustainable development goal
- urban built environment
- 15-minute city and well-being
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