Designing Resilient Cities: Landscape-Based Architecture and Green Space Strategies for Urban Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas are increasingly recognized as critical arenas for addressing sustainability and climate resilience. With their populous and rapidly growing agglomerations facing increasing exposure to extreme climate-related stresses, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss, urban areas—especially in fast-growing cities and transforming peri-urban regions across the Global South—are on the frontline of climate change impacts. Urban spaces offer immense potential for innovation in sustainable design through integrative and landscape-based approaches to reimagine urban sustainability and enhance socially inclusive climate resilience. This Special Issue seeks to explore how landscape architecture, green space planning, and urban nature can contribute to climate-responsive, sustainable, and equitable urban development.

We welcome conceptual frameworks, reviews, empirical studies, and interdisciplinary research that showcase historical trajectories, pilot initiatives, and prospects for aligning the built and natural environments to foster social equity, environmental justice, and long-term urban resilience. We particularly encourage contributions engaging with green–blue infrastructure, adaptive landscape design, restorative ecology, participatory planning, and policy innovations to address pressing urban challenges such as: (1) urban climate extremes, (2) pollution and microclimate interventions, (3) multi-hazard adaptations through landscape-based solutions, and (4) climate justice and green space equity.

In tandem, we highlight the importance of the  novel analytical and design techniques reshaping urban sustainability research and practice, including (1) earth observation monitoring, urban digital twins, dynamic simulation models, and urban climate visualization tools; (2) machine learning, deep learning, GeoAI, and predictive modeling; and (3) participatory mapping and citizen science approaches.

This Special Issue will cover a broad range of topics related to climate-resilient development that span local and regional scales, incorporate diverse methodological approaches, and offer actionable insights for science, practice, and policymaking with a particular focus on, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:

• The monitoring of green spaces and urban environmental change using remote sensing and GIS;
• Urban vulnerability in the context of climate change;
• Nature-based solutions for heat mitigation, drought and flood control, and biodiversity;
• The design and implementation of green–blue infrastructure for climate resilience;
• Urban energy demand, energy-efficient landscapes, and the integration of passive cooling and renewable strategies into urban forms;
• Urban ecological networks and biodiversity conservation;
• Digital platforms and urban informatics for sustainability planning;
• Green space equity, ecosystem services, accessibility, and health co-benefits;
• Informality and green urbanism;
• Co-design and community-driven governance;
• Mainstreaming landscape architecture and climate adaptation in urban planning;
• Indicators, tools, and metrics to assess landscape resilience;
• Interdisciplinary methods and comparative case studies across the Global South and North.

By addressing these themes, this Special Issue seeks to contribute to the ongoing global dialog on urban sustainability. Along with the forthcoming IPCC Special Report on Cities and Climate Change, it can complement and enrich the international agenda by offering concrete evidence, innovative tools, and field-based lessons to advance climate resilience and sustainability in the urban Anthropocene.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Can Trong Nguyen
Dr. Nigel Downes
Dr. Olabisi S. Obaitor
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• urban climate resilience
• landscape architecture
• green–blue infrastructure
• nature-based solutions
• sustainable urban development
• spatial justice
• urban adaptation
• emerging cities