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Challenges and Future Trends of Sustainable Urban Development and Transition

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 2318

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo 102-8554, Japan
Interests: urban and regional planning; industrial ecology; sustainability science; sustainable behavior; social system

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Guest Editor
College of Sustainability and Tourism, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu 874-0011, Japan
Interests: urban ecology; industrial ecology; climate change; resource management; environmental policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Economics, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing 211815, China
Interests: green economic transition; environmental economy; carbon haze synergistic governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the acceleration of global urbanisation, urban areas have become major sites for human activities and resource use. However, urban development also faces many challenges, including population growth, environmental pollution, resource scarcity, and social inequality. In particular, driven by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is widespread public awareness of the potentially catastrophic and irreversible social and environmental impacts of urban development, making sustainable urban transition a policy priority and an increasingly challenging management task. An in-depth discussion of the challenges and future trends in urban transition and sustainable development is therefore necessary and may contribute to long-term environmental and social sustainability. However, achieving urban sustainability can be seen as a thorny issue: there is no right or wrong solution, the needs are constantly changing, complex interdependencies come into play [1], there is little opportunity for learning through iterative experimentation, and each implemented solution requires significant investment and entails high risk, resulting in an urban transformation process characterised by challenges and uncertainty [2,3].

Against this backdrop, this Special Issue aims to delve into all aspects of sustainable urban development, exploring its problems and challenges from a variety of perspectives, including urban planning, resource management, social equity, science, technology, and innovation, and seeking solutions to drive urban development in a more sustainable, liveable, and prosperous direction. The research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • sustainable urban planning and design;
  • innovations in urban mobility and transport;
  • urban resource management and circular economy;
  • social inclusion and urban equity;
  • application of new technologies in urban development;
  • urban climate change adaptation and mitigation;
  • urban ecosystems and green infrastructure;
  • urban health and well-being;
  • urban governance and participatory decision making.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References:

1. Ernst, L.; Dinther, R.d.G.-V.; Peek, G.; Loorbach, D. Sustainable urban transformation and sustainability transitions; conceptual framework and case study. J. Clean. Prod. 2016, 112, 2988–2999, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.136.

2. Næss, P.; Vogel, N. Sustainable urban development and the multi-level transition perspective. Environ. Innov. Soc. Transitions 2012, 4, 36–50, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2012.07.001.

3. Greene, M.; Mora, R.I.; Figueroa, C.; Waintrub, N.; Ortúzar, J.d.D. Towards a sustainable city: Applying urban renewal incentives according to the social and urban characteristics of the area. Habitat Int. 2017, 68, 15–23, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.03.004.

Prof. Dr. Xuepeng Qian
Prof. Dr. Ji Han
Dr. Liang Peng
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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

  • sustainability goals
  • urban planning
  • transport innovation
  • resource management
  • urban ecosystems
  • urban governance

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 4930 KiB  
Article
Indoor Environmental Quality in Aged Housing and Its Impact on Residential Satisfaction Among Older Adults: A Case Study of Five Clusters in Sichuan, China
by Siqi Yang, Taoping Bai, Lin Feng, Jialu Zhang and Wentao Jiang
Sustainability 2025, 17(11), 5064; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17115064 - 31 May 2025
Viewed by 117
Abstract
Current research on aged housing prioritizes community planning and environmental enhancement over older adults’ needs, creating a retrofit mismatch amid population aging. To investigate the relationship between indoor environmental quality and residential satisfaction among elderly occupants, this study examines 72 households in aged [...] Read more.
Current research on aged housing prioritizes community planning and environmental enhancement over older adults’ needs, creating a retrofit mismatch amid population aging. To investigate the relationship between indoor environmental quality and residential satisfaction among elderly occupants, this study examines 72 households in aged residential buildings, analyzing four environmental indicators (thermal, lighting, acoustic environments, and air quality). The environmental measurements reveal that 81.9% of thermal environment parameters fall below the ASHRAE-55 comfort range, with winter average temperatures reaching only 13.94 °C. Insufficient illumination exists in kitchen and bedroom areas. Lifestyle patterns including infrequent air conditioning use (87%) and window ventilation substituting range hoods (32%) may deteriorate thermal comfort and air quality. An ordered logistic regression analysis demonstrates significant correlations between all four environmental indicators and elderly satisfaction levels. Thermal comfort emerges as the priority focus for aging-adapted retrofitting. Air quality improvement shows particularly significant potential for enhancing residential satisfaction. Although prolonged window opening (73%) exacerbates low-temperature/high-humidity conditions and noise exposure, it still contributes positively to overall satisfaction. This research provides crucial insights for aligning aged residential retrofitting with home-based elderly care requirements, promoting housing development that better accommodates the lifestyle patterns of older populations, thereby improving quality of life for aging-in-place residents. Full article
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24 pages, 1159 KiB  
Article
Road to Resilient Cities: The Power of Education Investment from China’s Cities
by Silu Chen and Liang Peng
Sustainability 2025, 17(7), 3213; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17073213 - 4 Apr 2025
Viewed by 439
Abstract
Educational investment is important for resilient city shaping. Based on the perspective of education resource input, this paper empirically examines the effect and mechanism of urban education investment on urban resilience construction with a sample of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 [...] Read more.
Educational investment is important for resilient city shaping. Based on the perspective of education resource input, this paper empirically examines the effect and mechanism of urban education investment on urban resilience construction with a sample of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2023. The study finds that urban education investment can significantly promote urban resilience governance. In terms of the effect mechanism, urban education investment mainly enhances urban resilience through two paths: science and technology innovation and industry upgrading. The heterogeneity test reveals that the differences in economic level, administrative level, education input preferences, and geographic location of cities lead to the heterogeneous performance of the incentive effect of education investment on resilience shaping. Based on this, policy recommendations are put forward in terms of strengthening the stability and continuity of urban education investment; improving the level of innovation and industrial structure; and emphasizing the problem of unbalanced education development. Full article
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21 pages, 260 KiB  
Article
Navigating Urban Transformation: The Impact of Green Innovation on Sustainable Development Performance
by Zihao Zhen, Jiabei Chen, Ya Zhang and Jie Qin
Sustainability 2025, 17(2), 576; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17020576 - 13 Jan 2025
Viewed by 959
Abstract
This paper examines the influence of green innovation on the sustainable development performance of Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares market between 2010 and 2021. Utilizing manually collected green innovation patent data from the National Intellectual Property Administration, this paper [...] Read more.
This paper examines the influence of green innovation on the sustainable development performance of Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares market between 2010 and 2021. Utilizing manually collected green innovation patent data from the National Intellectual Property Administration, this paper finds that green innovation can enhance corporate sustainable development performance by improving the corporation’s reputation and increasing resource utilization efficiency within metropolitan areas. Heterogeneity analyses show that the impact of green innovation on sustainable development performance is more pronounced when the urban commercial credit environment is better, following the enactment of the new Environmental Protection Law, and during the implementation of digital transformation processes in cities. This paper enriches the research related to the economic consequences of green innovation and the influencing factors of sustainable development performance, offering theoretical support for policy refinement by regulatory authorities and the optimization of investment decisions by investors. Full article
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