Climate Adaptation, Urban Regeneration, and Regreening Processes: Challenges and Opportunities for Contemporary Cities

Dear Colleagues,

Contemporary cities are facing crucial challenges in responding to climate adaptation policies and urban regeneration and regreening processes, and the phenomena of climate change and climate resilience are being increasingly taken into consideration at the EU level, with the adoption of different regulations and policies to restore nature and biodiversity in cities. As a consequence, a huge number of local administrations and governments have started to emphasise these policies introducing and adapting their planning regulations and policies into more operative actions at the local level. These activities are bound to a combination of different elements such as (i) the combination of natural elements and nature-based solutions for climate adaptation and resilience in urban contexts; (ii) the decision-making processes and citizens’ participation and engagement, with a specific attention towards co-creation processes and testing activities (e.g., living labs), (iii) the use of digital technologies (e.g., e-participation tools or digital twin) to integrate spatial development and scenarios.

This Special Issue welcomes all contributions that discuss and provide insights from different perspectives such as the methodological, technological (e.g., e-participation tools and digital twins), and operational (e.g., living labs, NBS implementation, and planning instruments). It will also welcome contributions of best practices and case studies, focusing on the challenges and opportunities that cities have to face in dealing with climate change, renaturing policies, EU regulation acceptance and contextualisation, and experience replicability.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Land focused on “Climate Adaptation, Urban Regeneration, and Regreening Processes: Challenges and Opportunities for Contemporary Cities”.

With increasing EU-level attention on climate resilience and urban regeneration, many local governments are adapting their planning regulations to align with these policies and this Special Issue seeks to to explore how cities are integrating nature-based solutions, fostering citizen participation, and leveraging digital technologies to enhance spatial planning and climate adaptation strategies.

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

• Digital Technologies for a Sustainable Transformation of Cities;
• Urban Nature-Based Solutions;
• Climate Adaptation;
• Urban Regeneration;
• Spatial Planning;
• Urban Land Use Planning.

Submissions may present methodological insights, technological advancements, operational approaches, as well as case studies highlighting challenges and best practices in tackling climate change, implementing renaturing policies, and contextualising EU regulations.

We believe your expertise in this field would make a valuable contribution to this Special Issue, and we would be delighted to include your research. Please let us know if you are interested in participating, and feel free to reach out should you have any questions regarding the submission process.

We look forward to your valuable contributions and collaboration.

Prof. Alessandro Deserti
Dr. Beatrice Maria Bellè
Dr. Manuel Alméstar
Prof. Dr. Fabian Dembski
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.

• nature-based solutions
• urban planning and governance innovation
• digital platforms for decision-making
• digital twin and urban simulations
• climate resilience
• land use planning
• systemic innovation