Urban Regeneration for a Sustainable and Inclusive Transition: Concepts, Methods and Policy

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental sustainability, the optimal use of land resources, improved urban space quality, social inclusion, and the active participation of local communities in city transformation processes are concepts increasingly associated with urban regeneration.

However, a universally accepted definition of the term remains elusive.

Is urban regeneration an urban planning technique, a set of best practices, a collection of projects, or a scientifically analysable phenomenon with measurable outcomes?

This Special Issue aims to gather contributions that help clarify the meaning of urban regeneration and explore how it is implemented across different territorial contexts—through theoretical reflections, empirical analyses, and practical experiences.

According to its early definition, urban regeneration, by focusing on sustainable urban transformations, community involvement, and multi-scalar governance, involves integrated interventions and planning as well as grassroots innovation (Moulaert, F. et al. 2005) to address physical decay, economic decline, and social fragmentation in urban areas (Roberts, 2000; Couch,  et al. 2003; Porter, et al. 2009). However, its forms in different spatial and institutional contexts—and its implications, including the risk of gentrification and displacement, conflicts between economic growth and social equity, and difficulties in measuring its environmental impact—deserve further exploration.

The variety of conditions encompassed by urban regeneration makes it difficult to establish a universally accepted definition—an issue that becomes even more controversial when examined either as a global phenomenon or as a locally driven, challenge-specific process embedded in political and institutional contexts (Kuyucu, 2018; Li et al., 2020).

The lack of a comprehensive overview of  urban regeneration experiences (Leary & McCarthy, 2013) underscores the necessity to investigate how—and under which conditions—urban regeneration can be conceived as a process for revitalizing cities; which planning tools are being tested to address issues such as socio-spatial inequality, economic decline, sustainable growth, and climate change; and how unintended consequences are assessed and managed. This investigation also aims to identify measurable outcomes associated with these processes.

This Special Issue aims to collect original research articles and review papers that provide insights into urban regeneration processes that affect global urban transformation.  It addresses several experiences that are crucial to determine the forms and uses of urban land, as well as their broader social, economic, and political consequences.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts on theoretical reflections, empirical analyses, and practical experiences that link the following themes:

• The recovery of vacant spaces and industrial brownfields for increasing land use efficiency, improving key ecosystem services provision, and strengthening the link between urban fabric, open and green spaces, and rural environments.
• Densification processes vs. urban sprawl.
• The redevelopment of public spaces and solutions supporting active and sustainable mobility
• The improvement of services, local amenities, and land-use diversity (mixité)
• Policies addressing housing deprivation, land management,
• climate urbanism, and land use change.

 Interventions to address socio-demographic transformations (migration, demographic aging…) and land use change

• The revitalization of villages and small towns in inner and rural areas.
• Impacts on the real estate market (e.g., gentrification and related dynamics).
• Governance tools for supporting urban regeneration policy, including the interplay of legal frameworks, public funding schemes, physical planning instruments, partnerships, and governance arrangements.

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

Prof. Dr. Sebastiano Carbonara
Prof. Dr.  Paola Pucci
Dr. Giovanni Vecchio
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.

• urban regeneration
• densification and compact development
• land-use mix
• sustainable and inclusive mobility
• real estate appraisal
• xmin city
• urban fringe area regeneration
• energy efficiency and climate resilience
• participation and governance