Green Landscape and Ecosystem Services for a Sustainable Urban System

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit your latest research in this Special Issue of Sustainability “Green Landscape and Ecosystem Services for a Sustainable Urban System”.

The relationship between cities and urban green spaces has been at the centre of scientific and political debate for several years, as the international community recognises the importance of the ecosystem services provided by natural capital.

Too often, the quality of urban and territorial planning and related decision-making processes is not measured in terms of the effects they produce regarding the ecosystem services generated or removed.

Often, these processes are not capable of supporting the objectives of various European and international agendas, such as those proposed by the United Nations Global Agenda for Sustainable Development (which takes up the orientations of the Rio+20 Final Report), i.e., the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.

Among the various targets identified, of particular interest for cities and their governments are the 2030 Goals:

• Ensure universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green spaces and public spaces that support people’s health and well-being;
• Improve the sustainability of the current urban development model and planning tools;
• Ensure universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green spaces and public spaces;
• Support and strengthen measures to mitigate and combat climate change;
• Achieve a land degradation-neutral world (LDN) as an essential element in maintaining ecosystem functions and services over a given period of time, halting and reversing land degradation and halting biodiversity loss;
• Promote partnership between stakeholders in support of sustainable development.

The natural capital present in urban areas, the urban green system, can therefore take on the role of an instrument for redevelopment, continuity and integration between building renovation and natural and agricultural environments, creating and integrating ecological corridors or networks on a larger scale. Furthermore, it can contribute to reducing the vulnerability of the urban system through the fundamental ecosystem services, indispensable for human life and for the quality of life itself, and for nature itself.

Economic, as well as environmental and social, assessment of the impact of planning on ecosystem services could help public decisionmakers to identify those processes that aim to achieve sustainability goals.

New planning and evaluation models, new decision-making tools, new partnerships that are increasingly inclusive of all social actors involved, and new management models must be identified in order to promote that integration between the natural, urban, human, political and economic heritage that is capable of supporting coordinated and sustainable development between the different systems.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome and research areas may include, but are not limited to:  

• Ecosystem services;
• The urban green system;
• The resilient city;
• The inclusive city;
• Resilient urban development;
• Urban system sustainability;
• Urban gardens;
• Green urban landscapes;
• Urban and peri-urban agriculture;
• Green infrastructure;
• Nature-based solutions;
• The evaluation of ecosystem services;
• Ecosystemic inefficiencies;
• Green urban planning;
• The Sustainable Development Goals;
• Urban planning processes;
• Collaborative governance;
• Multi-level governance;
• Citizen participation;
• Landscape management;
• Environmental planning;
• Land use;
• Economic evaluation of the benefits of ecosystem services;
• Social multi-criteria evaluation;
• Multi-criteria decision aid.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Luisa Sturiale
Prof. Dr. Maria Rosa Trovato
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.

• ecosystem services
• urban green system
• green urban landscapes
• resilient and inclusive city
• sustainable development goals
• urban planning processes
• evaluation of ecosystem services
• ecosystem service economic evaluation
• social multi-criteria evaluation
• multi-criteria decision aid