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Sustainable Development of Urban Planning, Urban Design and Land Use

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 686

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, NB Haifa School of Design, Haifa 3502350, Israel
Interests: urban and rural design; new cities and neighborhoods planned by the state; ideology in planning; brutalist architecture; heritage preservation; urban regeneration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on land use planning and urban planning and design grounded in the principles of sustainability. Such approaches are becoming increasingly central to the professional practice of urban planners, city designers, and planners.

Sustainability—defined as the preservation of the Earth’s resources—can be interpreted in various ways within physical planning. One interpretation views sustainable planning as limiting the outward expansion of cities or rural settlements undergoing urbanization into surrounding natural or agricultural areas. Another perspective emphasizes urban planning that is designed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, rely on clean energy sources, and prevent or effectively mitigate urban heat islands as far as possible. Sustainable planning may also focus on enabling groundwater recharge, even in the presence of extensive road networks, paved surfaces, and large-scale urban construction. A broader perspective includes social and human dimensions. Planning and design that allow for flexibility and adaptability—particularly in response to social change—can also be regarded as sustainable planning. Such planning—which anticipates and effectively addresses future physical and social challenges that may not yet be known during the planning and construction stages—is more likely to endure over time and reduce the need for future demolition and reconstruction.

In this context, for this Special Issue, ‘Sustainable Development of Urban Planning, Urban Design and Land Use’, we seek to highlight the diverse facets of sustainable planning. We aim to examine existing solutions, propose innovative approaches, and advance methodologies that support informed decision-making. We also welcome contributions that link sustainable planning with social dynamics, enabling a deeper understanding of the cultural diversity underlying typical sustainability challenges and the varied ways in which different societies address them.

Dr. Hadas Shadar
Guest Editor

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

  • sustainable planning
  • sustainable urban design
  • sustainable land use
  • adaptive long-term planning
  • socially sustainable planning
  • sustainable mobility-oriented planning
  • resource-preserving planning

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 7183 KB  
Article
Urban Sustainability, Urban Morphology, and New Cities: On the Triadic Relationship in Two Western Grid Cities of a Quarter Million Inhabitants
by Hadas Shadar
Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 4832; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18104832 - 12 May 2026
Viewed by 488
Abstract
This article examines sustainable urban morphological principles for new large cities, given that it may take decades for them to reach their target population and attain economic viability. Its novelty lies in the integration of these three fields of knowledge. It examines the [...] Read more.
This article examines sustainable urban morphological principles for new large cities, given that it may take decades for them to reach their target population and attain economic viability. Its novelty lies in the integration of these three fields of knowledge. It examines the grid model based on a comparative analysis of two new cities: Milton Keynes in the UK and Modi’in in Israel. The twenty years separating them embody a conceptual shift in urban development: from a modernist city to one that strives for premodern urban principles. Despite these divergent paradigms that pertain to the urban fabric, the comparison reveals significant similarities regarding state-level motivations, the grid’s advantages, the externalization of uses, and green qualities. The findings suggest that sustainable planning of new cities should incorporate three key components: (1) an initial infrastructure for human interaction through meeting points, not necessarily in commercial streets, despite their importance in established cities; (2) integrating urban elements to maximize connectivity, rather than planning each independently; and (3) adopting a green city concept, which provides not only ecological and psychological benefits but also planning flexibility, which is particularly crucial for new cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development of Urban Planning, Urban Design and Land Use)
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