Sustainable Urban Planning and Regional Development: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Overcoming social, economic, political, and cultural disparities between rural and urban areas could facilitate the implementation of sustainable development on a global scale. The urban–rural divide impacts all aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); addressing it is crucial for achieving a form of sustainable development that is territorially balanced, inclusive, and resilient, integrating economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Urbanization and counter-urbanization are constantly transforming territorial structures and spatial patterns of land use, both in developed and less developed anthropic regions (Serra et al., 2014; Bencardino and Nesticò, 2017; Chen et al., 2018; United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018; Pan et al., 2023; Qian et al., 2025). Since the second half of the 20th century, urbanization has accelerated rapidly; it is predicted that by 2050, approximately two-thirds of the world's population will live in urban areas (UN-HABITAT, 2024), a shift that necessitates the development of policies and tools capable of governing its dynamics and addressing its repercussions.

From a geographical perspective, discourse tends to focus on how these processes can hinder development cycles in rural areas and how they develop and interact, highlighting the dynamics between urban and rural regions and the Global North and Global South of the world and the related implications in terms of territorial organization. In many parts of the world, the growing polarization between urban and rural areas is one of the most complex challenges that besets regional development (Liu, 2021; Delgado-Viñas and Gómez-Moreno, 2022). There is a continuing debate on whether rural areas subject to depopulation can be economically and socially refunctionalized, even in regions where urbanization tends to be slower and more dispersed. Moreover, in the Global South, urbanization tends to be a complex and heterogeneous process, distinct from that of more developed countries where more socio-economic transformations have historically been observed; this fuels the debate on the traditional urban–rural dichotomy (Randolph and Storper, 2023; OECD et al., 2025; Turok and Visagie, 2025).

This Special Issue aims to explore the urban–rural divide in depth, discussing its dynamics, the challenges its presents, and potential strategies for integrating rural and urban areas or rebalancing territorial development. It seeks contributions that integrate theoretical reflections, practical experiences, and case studies based on territorial evidence, fostering dialogue between different disciplines and methodological approaches on various topics. These include, among others, the depopulation and marginalization of rural areas; urban and territorial planning; urban–rural connections; physical and functional interdependencies between cities, suburban and rural municipalities; spatially targeted strategies; spatial approaches to measure subnational inequality; digital technologies and artificial intelligence for territorial development; and tourism, culture, and landscape as tools for rebalancing and enhancing territories.

References

• Serra, P.; Vera, A.; Tulla, A.F.; Salvati, L. Beyond Urban–Rural Dichotomy: Exploring Socioeconomic and Land-Use Processes of Change in Spain (1991–2011). Geogr. 2014, 55, 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.09.005.
• Bencardino, M.; Nesticò, A. Demographic Changes and Real Estate Values. A Quantitative Model for Analyzing the Urban-Rural Linkages. Sustainability 2017, 9, 536. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040536.
• Chen, C.; LeGates, R.; Zhao, M.; Fang, C. The Changing Rural–Urban Divide in China’s Megacities. Cities 2018, 81, 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.03.017.
• United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, pp. 9–31; United Nations: New York, NY, USA, August 2019. https://doi.org/10.18356/cd4eece8-en.
• Pan, W.; Wang, J.; Li, Y.; Chen, S.; Lu, Z. Spatial Pattern of Urban–Rural Integration in China and the Impact of Geography. Sustain. 2023, 4(4), 404–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.08.001.
• Qian, J.; He, S.; Smith, D. Rural-Urban Interfaces and Changing Forms of Relational and Planetary Rurality. J. Rural Stud. 2025, 116, 103614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103614.
• UN-HABITAT. World Cities Report 2024: Cities and Climate Action; United Nations Human Settlements Programme: Nairobi, Kenya, 2024. https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/2024/11/wcr2024_-_full_report.pdf.
• Liu, Y. Urban–Rural Transformation Geography; Springer: Singapore, 2021.
• Delgado-Viñas, C.; Gómez-Moreno, M.-L. The Interaction between Urban and Rural Areas: An Updated Paradigmatic, Methodological and Bibliographic Review. Land 2022, 11, 1298. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11081298.
• Randolph, G.F.; Storper, M. Is Urbanisation in the Global South Fundamentally Different? Comparative Global Urban Analysis for the 21st Century. Urban Stud. 2022, 60(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211067926.
• OECD et al. Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2025: Planning for Urban Expansion, West African Studies; OECD Publishing: Paris, France, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1787/2a47845c-en.
• Turok, I.; Visagie, J. Striking Disparities in Employment across South Africa: Evidence from a New Spatial Database. South. Afr. 2025, 42(3), 383–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2025.2456252.

Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Bencardino
Dr. Angela Cresta
Dr. Vincenzo Esposito
Guest Editors

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• urbanization
• urban–rural disparities
• territorial planning
• urban planning
• spatial inequalities
• urban and regional development policies
• sustainable development goals (SDGs)
• urban growth models
• land use planning
• sustainable development
• smart cities
• rural–urban linkages
• urban regeneration
• tourism planning
• spatial planning
• place-based policies

• Sustainable Urban Planning and Regional Development in Sustainability (13 articles)