Special Issue "Sustainable Cities in the Pandemic Era: Rethinking Transportation, Land Use, and Health"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sumeeta Srinivasan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University, Medford MA 02155, USA
Interests: transportation; land use; health; equity; access; spatial models; sustainable cities; public health; developing countries
Dr. ChengHe Guan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Urban Science and Policy, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai 200122, China
Interests: smart mobility; urban big data; sustainable environment
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current COVID-19 pandemic may be a glimpse into our future as biodiversity loss exposes human beings to animal-borne diseases more rapidly. As countries and cities react to COVID-19, they face unexpected challenges in economic development, inequity of access, and loss of livelihoods. For example, many cities depend on tourism and hospitality services to generate employment. These may no longer be viable when all travel is restricted between and within cities, states, and countries. Many cities also face challenges in housing, transit services, and inequities in food distribution as residents become unemployed or underemployed. Many urban residents are vulnerable to poor health outcomes due to both their frontline jobs and their lack of transportation and housing choices.

This Special Issue entitled “Sustainable Cities in the Pandemic Era: Rethinking Transportation, Land Use, and Health” will approach a wide range of topics that will help readers to understand the impact of the current and future impact of pandemics on cities. This Special Issue welcomes papers on the likely effects of the pandemic on transportation, land use, and infrastructure planning. Papers examining inequities within cities in housing, transportation, food, and health access due to the pandemic are also welcome. Contributions related to the future of food systems, infrastructure, and land use planning will also be useful. Papers examining the ways in which cities evolve to meet sustainability goals in the context of the pandemic are especially welcome. Papers looking at the data and methodology challenges in addressing policy and planning for pandemic-affected cities would also help to round out the issue. We also invite papers that outline the processes related to the interdisciplinary collaboration necessary for planning for sustainable cities in this new era. These papers may represent case studies from any part of the world, but the challenges of the Global South would be especially welcome.

Dr. Sumeeta Srinivasan
Dr. ChengHe Guan
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

  • transportation
  • land use
  • urban planning
  • sustainable cities
  • food systems
  • equity
  • housing
  • public health
  • climate change
  • data; mobility
  • pandemic

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Mental Health and the City in the Post-COVID-19 Era
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7533; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147533 - 06 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 488
Abstract
The article describes the risks for the mental health and wellbeing of urban-dwellers in relation to changes in the spatial structure of a city that could be caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A year of lockdown has changed the way of life in [...] Read more.
The article describes the risks for the mental health and wellbeing of urban-dwellers in relation to changes in the spatial structure of a city that could be caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A year of lockdown has changed the way of life in the city and negated its principal function as a place of various meetings and social interactions. The danger of long-term isolation and being cut-off from an urban lifestyle is not only a challenge facing individuals, but it also creates threats on various collective levels. Hindered interpersonal relations, stress, and the fear of another person lower the quality of life and may contribute to the development of mental diseases. Out of fear against coronavirus, part of the society has sought safety by moving out of the densely populated city centres. The dangerous results of these phenomena are shown by research based on the newest literature regarding the influence of COVID-19 and the lockdown on mental health, urban planning, and the long-term spatial effects of the pandemic such as the urban sprawl. The breakdown of the spatial structure, the loosening of the urban tissue, and urban sprawl are going to increase anthropopressure, inhibit access to mental health treatment, and will even further contribute to the isolation of part of the society. In addition, research has shown that urban structure loosening as a kind of distancing is not an effective method in the fight against the SARS-COV pandemic. Creating dense and effective cities through the appropriate management of development during and after the pandemic may be a key element that will facilitate the prevention of mental health deterioration and wellbeing. It is also the only possibility to achieve the selected Sustainable Development Goals, which as of today are under threat. Full article
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