Special Issue "Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Future Urban and Spatial Planning"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Simona Tondelli
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Bologna 40136, Italy
Interests: urban and rural regeneration; urban densification; strategic environmental assessment; adapting to climate change in urban areas; sustainable urban mobility
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Elisa Conticelli
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Bologna 40136, Italy
Interests: sustainable urban regeneration
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The recent pandemic that has been affecting the entire global community has already altered several dimensions of our urban life. Even if spatial planning has not been considered among the most critical spheres during the COVID-19 emergency, urban planners should become key players for guiding the future of our cities, by redefining old practices and assumptions, capitalizing innovative approaches developed during the emergency by stabilizing them in the long term, and proposing innovative methods and tools.

This Special Issue intends to investigate several dimensions of urban and spatial planning and policies that could be significantly affected by a concrete change following the outbreak.

One pressing question that should be reconsidered is the tensions between densification and the spreading of cities. Dense cities are widely considered as more energy and transport efficient, but intensification could undermine the cities’ livability and resilience by reducing the presence of green areas and urban ecosystems and increasing traffic congestion and overcrowding. Following the lockdown, the search for more public space to respect social distancing measures and also the increased acknowledgment of the importance of living near green areas by the people suffering from different degrees of lockdown have emphasized the need to find a balance between the competing demands of green spaces and compact cities. The question for the future is therefore how to assess and ensure the limit of density by balancing compactness and ecosystem services benefits. This means to rethink new forms of urban ecosystems and the related supply and demand flows within the city and to reconsider urban and close rural contexts and their mutual relationships.

Social distancing and the health measures imposed by the COVID-19 emergency have also been changing the way people use public spaces and services within the city, their workplace, and housing spaces in terms of sizes needed and performance, with underlying old and persistent shortcomings and the necessity of structural changes. Healthcare, education, public transport, and the organization of work are the spheres of urban life that have been mostly affected by the pandemic and should be reshaped and redefined according to the post-pandemic situation. Particular attention should be dedicated to urban mobility and how to make this COVID-19 recovery phase a game-changer for planning, implementing, and financing more sustainable urban transport systems and solutions, instead of returning to and amplifying the old habits of using individual, motorized transport solutions that pollute and congest urban spaces.

Another potential impact of coronavirus may be an intensification of the digitalization in cities and rural areas, boosting the exploitation of big data and digital infrastructures not only to better control and organize urban systems and services but also to monitor people’s habits and data. The challenge is to define what is worth capitalizing to better support public authorities in data-driven planning and to overcome the digital divide affecting rural and remote areas, vulnerable groups (such as older adults and migrants), etc.

The territorial unbalance that frequently characterizes cities and their peri-urban and rural contexts in terms of land use, ecosystem services, resources, and economic chains, such as food and tourism, has progressively changed, generating new impulses of cooperation between rural and urban stakeholders. The newly found interest for rural settings, made possible by the boost in remote working capabilities, could lead to a possible migration from urban to peri-urban and rural areas that offer cheaper properties and higher environmental quality. This process should also be further explored by considering the conditions that allow such a transition (e.g., access to basic services in rural areas such as health and education) and supporting decision-making processes in local planning to avoid possible future gentrification issues.

Research and review articles are therefore invited for submission to this Special Issue to contribute to and highlight the future of our cities and rural areas after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Prof. Dr. Simona Tondelli
Dr. Elisa Conticelli
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 papers will be 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 1900 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

  • post-COVID-19 planning
  • urban densification
  • urban–rural linkages
  • public spaces and services
  • digitalization

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Home Range in a Suburban City in the Osaka Metropolitan Area
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8974; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168974 - 11 Aug 2021
Viewed by 261
Abstract
This study aims to clarify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home range. The home range is the area that individuals traverse in conducting their daily activities, such as working and shopping. In Japan, the central government declared the first state of [...] Read more.
This study aims to clarify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home range. The home range is the area that individuals traverse in conducting their daily activities, such as working and shopping. In Japan, the central government declared the first state of emergency in April 2020. This study analyzed the panel data for mobile phone GPS location history from April 2019 to April 2020 in Ibaraki City, Osaka Metropolitan area. The study applied the minimum convex polygon method to analyze the data. The results show that the home range decreased significantly between April 2019 and April 2020. Specifically, the home range in 2020 decreased to approximately 50% of that in 2019 because of COVID-19 infection control measures, preventing people from traveling far from their homes and only allowing them to step outside for the bare minimum of daily activities and necessities. The results suggest that the emergency reduced people’s home ranges to the neighborhood scale. Therefore, it is necessary to consider designing new walkable neighborhood environments after the COVID-19 pandemic era. Full article
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Article
Changes in Walkable Streets during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Suburban City in the Osaka Metropolitan Area
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7442; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137442 - 02 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 467
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the walkable streets where traffic behavior changed according to each residential cluster during the COVID-19 pandemic. By elucidating the changes, it is possible to identify streets that should be redesigned following the changes in traffic [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study was to identify the walkable streets where traffic behavior changed according to each residential cluster during the COVID-19 pandemic. By elucidating the changes, it is possible to identify streets that should be redesigned following the changes in traffic behavior in relation to human mobility. This study analyzed Ibaraki City, a suburban city located in the Osaka Metropolitan Area. The analysis compared the panel data of the GPS Location History for April 2020 and April 2019. The analysis method used was Empirical Bayesian kriging. The results show that the speed significantly increased in the dense, sprawl, mountain, and old NT clusters. It was also found that the number of cyclists increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest a need to design walkable streets according to each residential cluster for the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. For example, some car lanes need to be converted to bike lanes in the main neighborhood to create walkable streets in the clusters. Full article
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Article
Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and Health Security
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4403; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084403 - 15 Apr 2021
Viewed by 576
Abstract
The topic of sustainable mobility is now a priority at the urban level. Today’s cities are often very busy, polluted, and dangerous. Therefore, to encourage sustainable mobility is important; it brings territorial development, environment, health, society, and economy benefits. The corona virus disease-19 [...] Read more.
The topic of sustainable mobility is now a priority at the urban level. Today’s cities are often very busy, polluted, and dangerous. Therefore, to encourage sustainable mobility is important; it brings territorial development, environment, health, society, and economy benefits. The corona virus disease-19 (COVID) emergency, which occurred at the beginning of 2020, highlighted the already critical situation in many cities and how our mobility habits were not, even before, so sustainable. Within sustainable mobility, the concept of safety and security is important to consider. In the literature, safe mobility is often associated with the theme of accidents. The pandemic has highlighted the need to consider safety also from a health point of view. Municipalities, as known, also according to European guidelines, have a specific tool at their disposal to promote sustainable mobility: the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). This paper intends to propose a methodological approach aimed at integrating the health security aspect in the SUMP. In this research, in order to promote safe mobility, different aspects were considered: accidents, risk perception, and health emergencies. For each aspect, specific indicators and good practices were proposed for the achievement and monitoring of the expected results. The paper refers to the European context with particular attention to Italy; La Spezia was chosen as a case study. Full article
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