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Adapting Cities: Ecological Resilience and Urban Renewal

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 1165

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Through urban renewal, the spatial structure of cities can be optimized, urban functions enhanced, residents’ quality of life improved, and urban safety strengthened, thereby creating a more livable urban environment. A livable city is a concept of human settlements that integrates high social civilization, economic prosperity, environmental beauty, resource carrying capacity, affordable living costs, and public safety, serving as an ideal place for habitation and a crucial spatial framework for pursuing a better life. Urban renewal is a key strategy and approach to building livable cities. The enhancement of ecological resilience is beneficial for the construction and development of livable cities. This theme focuses on ecological resilience and urban renewal, dedicated to addressing the following issues:

  • Developments in and reviews on the relationship between ecological resilience and urban renewal;
  • Analysis of planning actions that focus on promoting ecological resilience and urban renewal;
  • Impact assessments on issues such as green areas, mobility, ecological resilience, and urban renewal associated with sustainable development;
  • Cases on how scientific findings can be translated into prevention strategies and sustainable policies;
  • Theoretic explorations or case studies on the governance of ecological resilience and urban renewal;
  • Theoretic or empirical analysis of ecological resilience and urban renewal.

Dr. Qian Zhou
Dr. Tao Shi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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

  • ecological resilience
  • urban renewal
  • livable city
  • environmentally friendly
  • impact path

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 5959 KB  
Article
High-Resolution Urban Wind Risk Assessment for Emergency Management Using UAV–CFD Integrated Modeling
by Fang Pei, Xiantao Chen, Yongzhong Mu, Cheng Pei and Jiadong Zeng
Sustainability 2026, 18(7), 3268; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18073268 - 27 Mar 2026
Viewed by 464
Abstract
Coastal cities exposed to extreme wind events are facing increasing challenges in emergency management under climate change. Accurate and high-resolution wind environment information over complex urban terrain is essential for disaster risk assessment and evidence-based emergency planning; however, such information is often unavailable [...] Read more.
Coastal cities exposed to extreme wind events are facing increasing challenges in emergency management under climate change. Accurate and high-resolution wind environment information over complex urban terrain is essential for disaster risk assessment and evidence-based emergency planning; however, such information is often unavailable in conventional management practices. This study proposes an integrated UAV–CFD framework to support urban wind risk assessment by combining multi-source geospatial data and high-resolution numerical simulation. A refined urban terrain model with a spatial resolution of 0.5 m was constructed through the fusion of Google Earth data and UAV oblique photogrammetry, and subsequently coupled with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to analyze the urban wind environment. Field measurements obtained from a 50 m wind observation tower were used to validate the simulation results. The results reveal significant wind speed amplification caused by complex terrain and building configurations, with a maximum amplification factor of 1.95 due to the canyon effect. The relative errors between simulated and measured wind speeds and turbulence intensity were generally within 15%, demonstrating the reliability of the proposed framework. By providing high-resolution and spatially explicit wind risk information, this study offers practical decision-support for emergency management, urban planning, and resilience-oriented disaster mitigation in coastal cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adapting Cities: Ecological Resilience and Urban Renewal)
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24 pages, 9936 KB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Simulation of Urban Vacant Land Dynamics in Chongqing Using the PLUS Model
by Zi-Xuan Wang and Wei Zhang
Sustainability 2026, 18(6), 3001; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18063001 - 18 Mar 2026
Viewed by 370
Abstract
Addressing the governance dilemmas of urban vacant land (UVL) has become a major challenge in the process of global urban sustainable development. Taking Chongqing as a case study area, this paper employs Kernel Density Analysis, Bivariate Spatial Autocorrelation, and the PLUS model to [...] Read more.
Addressing the governance dilemmas of urban vacant land (UVL) has become a major challenge in the process of global urban sustainable development. Taking Chongqing as a case study area, this paper employs Kernel Density Analysis, Bivariate Spatial Autocorrelation, and the PLUS model to explore the quantitative characteristics and spatial distribution patterns of UVL. Three scenarios—the Baseline Development Scenario, Incremental Development Scenario, and Stock Development Scenario—are constructed to simulate the evolutionary trends of UVL and investigate the regulatory effects of different urban development models. The results are as follows: (1) From 2021 to 2025, the scale of UVL shows an expanding trend. The number of UVL plots increased from 1393 to 2308, and the total area rose from 5127.73 hectares to 11,842.43 hectares, with its proportion in the built-up area increasing from 7.37% to 16.98%. (2) The spatial scope of UVL continued to expand, and the agglomeration correlation between different land types was enhanced. The spatial distribution pattern of UVL was significantly influenced by policy factors. (3) Scenario simulations show that the growth rate of UVL in 2030 is ranked as follows: Incremental Development Scenario (95.93%) > Baseline Development Scenario (69.52%) > Stock Development Scenario (43.12%). The stock development model can effectively resolve the urban contradiction between “development and protection” and represents the optimal path for future urban development. This study has clarified the evolutionary patterns of urban vacant land and their compatibility with urban development models, providing a reference for optimising vacant land management and sustainable development in similar cities. However, certain limitations exist in data acquisition and the scope of the research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adapting Cities: Ecological Resilience and Urban Renewal)
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