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Challenges and Future Trends in Integrating Adaptation to Climate Change...
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Challenges and Future Trends in Integrating Adaptation to Climate Change and Green Infrastructure in Planning Practice

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 12 July 2025 | Viewed by 3066

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Antonio Ledda

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: adaptation to climate change; landscape fragmentation; landscape planning; rural buildings; rural landscape analysis and planning; spatial planning; strategic environmental assessment; green infrastructure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Andrea De Montis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: adaptation to climate change; landscape fragmentation; landscape planning; rural buildings; rural landscape analysis and planning; spatial planning; strategic environmental assessment; green infrastructure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Vittorio Serra

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: adaptation to climate change; landscape fragmentation; landscape and spatial planning; rural buildings; rural landscape analysis and planning; strategic environmental assessment; green infrastructure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, institutions and the scientific community have shown a growing interest in climate change, which has become relevant and worrying, as people’s lifestyles—as well as ecosystem balance—are affected by increasingly frequent floods and droughts.

In 2013, the European Commission adopted—and in 2021, updated—the strategy on adaptation to climate change (ACC), which aims to make European Member States more climate-resilient. This concept implies an increased capacity of human and natural systems to address severe and unexpected climate events while minimizing damage or maximizing benefits. The adequate promotion of sustainable ACC practice relies on efficient landscape and spatial planning systems. Spatial planning and green infrastructures (GIs) are recognized as key to facilitate ACC in various anthropized settings.

The Special Issue aims to collect contributions concerning ACC and GIs in the context of regional or subregional landscape and spatial planning, with a focus on the rural dimension. It will provide an international audience with an overall picture of the current innovations in research on ACC and GI planning, design, and guidelines to make rural landscapes more climate-resilient.

Authors are invited to submit original research articles concerning innovative approaches for (though not exclusively) the governance of ACC and GIs in rural contexts; ACC and GIs in rural landscapes; ACC and GIs in marginal areas (e.g., areas characterized by limited accessibility to essential services, affected by depopulation, etc.); ACC and GI guidelines; ACC and GI planning and design; and the integration of ACC and GIs in planning tools.

Dr. Antonio Ledda
Dr. Andrea De Montis
Dr. Vittorio Serra
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 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 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 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

  • environmental sustainability
  • green infrastructures
  • landscape and spatial planning
  • environmental assessment
  • adaptation to climate change
  • rural landscapes and buildings
  • regional and sub-regional planning
  • marginal areas
  • inner areas

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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21 pages, 960 KiB  
Article
Green Infrastructure and Adaptation to Climate Change in Marginal Areas: A Reference Scheme for Implementation Guidelines in Italy
by Andrea De Montis, Antonio Ledda, Vittorio Serra and Giovanna Calia
Sustainability 2024, 16(19), 8641; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198641 - 6 Oct 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1975
Abstract
Marginal areas (MAs) can show scarce disaster resilience in the context of climate change. Proactive adaptation to climate change (ACC) based on green infrastructure (GI) has the potential to increase the disaster resilience of the MAs. The scientific literature has scarcely addressed research [...] Read more.
Marginal areas (MAs) can show scarce disaster resilience in the context of climate change. Proactive adaptation to climate change (ACC) based on green infrastructure (GI) has the potential to increase the disaster resilience of the MAs. The scientific literature has scarcely addressed research on methods and guidelines for promoting ACC and GI to increase the resilience of MAs. No previous research has focused on a method to set a reference scheme for implementation guidelines concerning the use of GI as an ACC approach to deal with the effects of a changing climate in Italian MAs. In this regard, this study aims to provide planners and public administrations with an appropriate scheme to foster the mainstreaming of ACC and GI into the planning of MAs. To do so, we proposed and applied a methodological approach consisting of the scrutiny of the scientific and grey literature with the purpose of distilling a set of key elements (KEs) that need to be considered as a reference scheme for implementation guidelines. As main findings, we identified ten KEs relevant to drafting guidelines for integrating ACC and GI into planning tools, e.g., a clear definition of GI, participative approaches, public–private cooperation, and others, that will be tested in ongoing research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Trends in Integrating Adaptation to Climate Change and Green Infrastructure in Planning Practice)
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23 pages, 1821 KiB  
Systematic Review
Livestock Buildings in a Changing World: Building Sustainability Challenges and Landscape Integration Management
by Daniela Isola, Stefano Bigiotti and Alvaro Marucci
Sustainability 2025, 17(12), 5644; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17125644 - 19 Jun 2025
Viewed by 222
Abstract
The awareness of global warming has boosted research on methods to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Livestock buildings, although essential for food production, represent a sustainability challenge due to their high maintenance energy costs, GHG emissions, and impact on the [...] Read more.
The awareness of global warming has boosted research on methods to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Livestock buildings, although essential for food production, represent a sustainability challenge due to their high maintenance energy costs, GHG emissions, and impact on the environment and rural landscapes. Since the environment, cultural heritage, and community identity deserve protection, research trends and current knowledge on livestock buildings, building sustainability, energy efficiency strategies, and landscape management were investigated using the Web of Science and Scopus search tools (2005–2025). Research on these topics was found to be uneven, with limited focus on livestock buildings compared to food production and animal welfare, and significant interest in eco-sustainable building materials. A total of 96 articles were selected after evaluating over 5400 records. The analysis revealed a lack of universally accepted definitions for building design strategies and their rare application to livestock facilities, where passive solutions and insulation prevailed. The application of renewable energy was rare and limited to rural buildings, as was the application of sustainable building materials to livestock, agriculture, and vernacular buildings. Conversely, increased attention was paid to the definition and classification of vernacular architecture features aimed at enhancing existing buildings and mitigating or facilitating the landscape integration of those that diverge most from them. Although not exhaustive, this review identified some knowledge gaps. More efforts are needed to reduce environmental impacts and meet the milestones set by international agreements. Research on building materials could benefit from collaboration with experts in cultural heritage conservation because of their command of traditional materials, durability-enhancing methods, and biodeterioration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Future Trends in Integrating Adaptation to Climate Change and Green Infrastructure in Planning Practice)
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