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Sustainability Planning and Assessment in Urban Settings with Innovative Spatial Analytic Methods

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 5516

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jaekyung Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Urban Design and Planning, Hongik University, Seoul 04066, Republic of Korea
Interests: urban shrinkage; urban resilience; land use planning; geospatial big data
Dr. Minkyu Park

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Urban Design and Planning, Hongik University, Seoul 04066, Republic of Korea
Interests: climate change; urban resilience; sustainability; built environment; urban greening

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas are increasingly exposed to complex sustainability challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, urban inequality, and land-use inefficiencies. In response to these interconnected issues, spatial analysis, and geospatial technologies are becoming central tools for urban sustainability planning and assessment. Integrating advanced spatial techniques allows for a more comprehensive understanding of urban systems, supporting evidence-based policies and strategies.

This Special Issue invites theoretical and empirical contributions that focus on innovative applications of spatial analysis in the context of urban sustainability. We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics: spatial decision support systems, geospatial data integration for smart cities, spatial modeling for climate adaptation and resilience, environmental justice mapping, spatial equity assessment, sustainable land-use planning, and monitoring frameworks using spatial indicators. Studies utilizing GIS, remote sensing, spatial statistics, agent-based modeling, or machine learning-based spatial approaches are particularly encouraged.

This Special Issue aims to fill a significant gap in the existing literature, where spatial methodologies and sustainability frameworks are often discussed separately. By highlighting integrative approaches, the collection will offer new insights into how spatial thinking can be embedded within sustainability assessment frameworks. It seeks to promote interdisciplinary dialogue between urban planning, environmental science, and geoinformatics, providing readers with both conceptual advances and applied case studies. Through this lens, the issue aspires to support the development of spatially informed planning practices that are adaptable, equitable, and grounded in real-world complexity.

We encourage scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines to contribute to this timely discussion, offering perspectives that extend the boundaries of current sustainability research.

Prof. Dr. Jaekyung Lee
Dr. Minkyu Park
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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

  • geospatial analysis
  • sustainable land use
  • climate adaptation planning
  • smart cities
  • environmental justice
  • GIS and remote sensing
  • urban resilience
  • urban sustainability

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3266 KB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Assessment and Prediction of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Urban Green Spaces Using Landsat Remote Sensing and CA–Markov Modeling
by Ali Reza Sadeghi, Ehsan Javanmardi and Farzaneh Javidi
Sustainability 2026, 18(9), 4259; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18094259 - 24 Apr 2026
Viewed by 662
Abstract
Urban green spaces are increasingly threatened by rapid urban expansion, making their continuous monitoring and prediction essential for sustainable urban management. This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban garden landscapes in Shiraz, Iran, by integrating multi-temporal Landsat imagery, GIS analysis, and CA–Markov [...] Read more.
Urban green spaces are increasingly threatened by rapid urban expansion, making their continuous monitoring and prediction essential for sustainable urban management. This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban garden landscapes in Shiraz, Iran, by integrating multi-temporal Landsat imagery, GIS analysis, and CA–Markov modeling. Landsat data from 2003, 2013, and 2023 were processed to derive the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which was classified into four vegetation-density categories to quantify land-cover transitions. A CA–Markov framework implemented in IDRISI TerrSet (Version 20.0) was then employed to simulate spatial dynamics and predict vegetation changes for 2033. Results reveal a significant expansion of non-vegetated areas from 711.93 ha in 2003 to 976.66 ha in 2023, accompanied by a decline in dense vegetation from 403.68 ha to 382.64 ha. Model projections indicate a further reduction in dense vegetation to 239.35 ha by 2033, suggesting ongoing fragmentation of urban green infrastructure driven by development pressures. By combining time-series remote sensing, GIS-based spatial analysis, and predictive modeling, this study provides an integrative framework for detecting, interpreting, and forecasting urban land-cover change. The findings offer evidence-based insights to support sustainable urban planning, green infrastructure protection, and climate-resilient city management in rapidly growing urban environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Planning and Assessment in Urban Settings with Innovative Spatial Analytic Methods)
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20 pages, 578 KB  
Article
Do Smart-Growth-Related Built Environments Promote Housing Affordability? A Case Study of Three Counties in the Portland Metropolitan Area
by Jongho Won
Sustainability 2026, 18(2), 1056; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18021056 - 20 Jan 2026
Viewed by 528
Abstract
This paper focuses on whether smart-related built environments are associated with improved housing affordability for economically disadvantaged groups. Smart growth is a planning theme that aims to address the unintended negative consequences of urban sprawl through combining diverse dimensions across land-use diversity, housing [...] Read more.
This paper focuses on whether smart-related built environments are associated with improved housing affordability for economically disadvantaged groups. Smart growth is a planning theme that aims to address the unintended negative consequences of urban sprawl through combining diverse dimensions across land-use diversity, housing diversity, accessibility, and compact development. Focusing on Clackamas County, Multnomah County, and Washington County within the Portland metropolitan area, the analysis uses census-tract-level data to assess both contemporaneous associations in 2013 and changes in affordability between 2013 and 2019. Overall, the findings suggest that smart-growth tools exhibit both potential and limitations with respect to housing affordability. Greater housing-type diversity and lower reliance on single-family residential land use are consistently associated with higher shares and subsequent increases in affordable housing units for low-income groups. In contrast, other smart-growth features—such as land-use mix and accessibility—show weaker or uneven relationships. These findings suggest that smart growth can contribute to expanding affordable housing supply primarily through housing-related components, while other dimensions of smart growth appear to play a limited role. The results underscore that housing-focused strategies play an important role in shaping affordability outcomes under smart growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Planning and Assessment in Urban Settings with Innovative Spatial Analytic Methods)
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17 pages, 3488 KB  
Article
The Assessment of the Impact of the Subway Stations Opening on Urban Vibrancy in Warsaw
by Andrii Polishchuk, Monika Maria Cysek-Pawlak and Aleksander Serafin
Sustainability 2025, 17(22), 10142; https://doi.org/10.3390/su172210142 - 13 Nov 2025
Viewed by 1113
Abstract
This study investigates how the expansion of Warsaw’s metro system—specifically the opening of the second underground line (M2)—affects urban vibrancy, defined as the diversity and intensity of social, economic, and cultural activities. Using a spatial panel Difference-in-Differences (DiD) model with two-way fixed effects, [...] Read more.
This study investigates how the expansion of Warsaw’s metro system—specifically the opening of the second underground line (M2)—affects urban vibrancy, defined as the diversity and intensity of social, economic, and cultural activities. Using a spatial panel Difference-in-Differences (DiD) model with two-way fixed effects, the analysis examines changes in local vibrancy, proxied by the density of small catering businesses (SCB), across four years (2019–2023). Our results show that while built environment features such as building footprint, parking area, and street furniture positively correlate with vibrancy, the short-term effect of new metro stations is negative: areas within a 15 min walking distance of new stations experienced a relative decline in local activity compared to control areas. This pattern likely reflects a behavioral shift, as residents and consumers increasingly use the metro to access amenities in central, already vibrant districts. However, the effect attenuates over time, suggesting that neighborhoods gradually adapt to new mobility conditions. The findings highlight that large-scale transport investments may generate temporary disruptions before fostering long-term equilibrium and renewed urban vitality, underscoring the need for adaptive urban policies that mitigate transitional impacts and support local socio-economic resilience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Planning and Assessment in Urban Settings with Innovative Spatial Analytic Methods)
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20 pages, 3030 KB  
Article
Street Trees’ Obstruction of Retail Signage and Retail Rent: An Exploratory Scene Parsing Street View Analysis of Seoul’s Commercial Districts
by Minkyu Park, Junyoung Wang, Beomgu Yim, Doyoung Park and Jaekyung Lee
Sustainability 2025, 17(15), 6934; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156934 - 30 Jul 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2458
Abstract
Urban greening initiatives, including the incorporation of street trees, have been widely recognized for a variety of environmental benefits. However, their economic impact on retail, in particular, the impact of street trees on the visibility of signs, has been underexplored. Street trees can [...] Read more.
Urban greening initiatives, including the incorporation of street trees, have been widely recognized for a variety of environmental benefits. However, their economic impact on retail, in particular, the impact of street trees on the visibility of signs, has been underexplored. Street trees can obscure retail signs, potentially reducing customer engagement and discouraging retailers from paying higher rents for such locations. This paper investigates how the blocking of retail signage by street trees affects monthly rent in developed commercial districts in Seoul. It identifies, through Google Street View and state-of-the-art deep-learning-based semantic segmentation methods, environmental elements such as street trees, sidewalks, and buildings; quantifies their proportions; and analyzes their impact on rent using OLS regression, controlling for socio-economic variables. The results reveal that rents significantly diminish when street trees blocking views of retail signs increase. Our findings require more nuanced consideration by planners and policymakers in balancing both environmental and economic demands toward sustainable street design and planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Planning and Assessment in Urban Settings with Innovative Spatial Analytic Methods)
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