Journal Menu
► Journal MenuJournal Browser
► Journal BrowserSpecial Issue "Sustainable Urban Water Landscapes and Blue-Green Infrastructure"
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 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable blue-green infrastructure; urban biodiversity and design; nature-based solutions
Interests: land use change modelling; urban ecosystem services; green infrastructure; nature-based solutions
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Interests: urban landscape ecology; nature-based solutions; ecosystem services; urban green infrastructure; environmental health research
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In this Special Issue, the questions which can be discussed range from urban hydrology and coastal urban ecosystems and their resilience to climate change to the design of sustainable waterfronts, restoration and conservation of urban rivers, lakes, streams, and marine ecosystems as well as innovative approaches, such as water-sensitive design and low-impact design that can help to create a new generation of sustainable urban landscapes. In addition to these questions, other areas could be covered—for example, integrated sustainable planning and design and management of blue-green infrastructure. We also welcome papers that analyze environmental and socioeconomic benefits of blue-green infrastructure and nature-based solutions promoting sustainable green and blue urban areas.
Prof. Dr. Maria Ignatieva
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Haase
Dr. Diana Dushkova
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
- Urban water landscapes
- Sustainable blue-green infrastructure
- Urbanization
- Design
- Sustainable waterfronts
- Climate change
- Coastal urban ecosystems
- Restoration of urban water landscapes
- Nature-based solutions
- Coastal resilience
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Economy and ecology in a sustainable seascape: strengths and gaps in trans-domain integration
Authors: B. Hay Mele, L. Russo, D. D'Alelio
Abstract: Ecological and economical sciences contribute to defining sustainability criteria, since these scientific domains are reciprocally entangled by all fluxes linked to the exploitation of the sea’s resources at any level. At the same time, the sustainable use of the seascape, especially at the waterfront, that is more accessible to multiple sea-users, requires the integration of ecological and economical investigations within a coherent and unifying view, primarily by facilitating the transfer of knowledge among different sectors related to sea economy, marine ecology, or both. To evaluate the degree of conceptual integration between ecology and economy fields in coastal marine ecosystems, we applied systems science approaches (i.e., topic modelling and network analysis) and studied a significant subset of the pertinent scientific production (about 500 Isi-WoS papers, and about 5,000 Scopus papers). We classified topics of interest in the literature, explored their distribution among the papers, and evaluated the extent of complexity of trans-dominion integration. In the synthesis got herein, main strengths are: (i) the role of marine protected areas as a link between classical and ecologically-oriented economics themes and (ii) the evident social-ecological connotation of coastal fishery sectors. The main gaps are the widespread conceptual fragmentation between ecological and economical investigation in the seascape, e.g. the weak communication flow between coastal aquaculture implementation and bio-hazards monitoring along the coast, and the under-exploitation of eco-tourism as an integration node between ecology and economy-driven initiatives at the waterfront.
Title: Water Sensitive Design in Cities: Global Approach Versus Local Interpretation
Authors: M. Ignatieva1, D. Haase2, D. Dushkova3, I. Melnichuk4
Affiliations: 1University of Western Australia; 2Humboldt University, Berlin and Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ; 3Humboldt University Berlin and M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University; 4St.Petersburg State Forest Technical University
Abstract: In times of urbanisation and a tremendous growth of urban areas and impermeable surfaces, there appears a new generation of ecological approaches to managing stormwater such as Low Impact Design (LID), Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD). The main goal of LIDs is to manage stormwater locally at place, to imitate natural water flows and cycles and provide multiple ecosystem services including biodiversity enhancement using native vegetation. The key elements of such ecological devises are detention ponds, rain gardens, swales, permeable pavement and vegetated roofs. Landscape architects are widely involved in designing new places based on understanding and use of ecological and hydrological processes and, what is more, going for dynamic ecological aesthetics. Another important part of water-sensitive design is the restoration and protection of wetlands, which play a crucial role in regulating local as well as regional hydrological cycles and also influence the quality of urban ground waters. New ecological water-sensitive designs can work in any urban environment; however, each case it should be adjusted according to particular climatic as well as economic and social context. This article provides a critical overview of principles and peculiarities of water- sensitive design approaches from Europe (Germany, Sweden, Finland and Russia), USA and Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand and Australia) based on realized case studies.