Sustainable Cities: Smart Resilience against Natural Hazards

Dear Colleagues,

Urban resilience can be defined as “the measurable ability of any urban system, with its inhabitants, to maintain continuity through all shocks and stresses, while positively adapting and transforming toward sustainability” [1]. A resilient city “valuates, plans and acts to prepare and respond to threats – natural and human-made, sudden and slow-onset, expected and unexpected – in order to protect and improve the lives of people, secure development gains, foster an investible environment, and drive positive change” [2,3]. Technology, data-driven decision-making, and citizen engagement can provide a substantial contribution to building resilient cities that can withstand and recover from challenges effectively. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) defines a smart city as “An inclusive, safe, resilient, sustainable and connected city for All” [4].

This Special Issue aims to highlight and promote the concept that resilience, sustainability and smartness are strictly interconnected features that are all essential for urban systems. Resilience, sustainability and smartness must be measurable via key performance indicators (KPIs), allowing the detection and addressal of existing gaps, to quantify and monitor progress. Resilience, sustainability and smartness must be democratized, i.e., the concepts, KPIs and data underpinning them must be comprehensible and accessible to all, allowing both citizens and stakeholders to be aware of and fully understand the current situation and the benefits that resilience enhancement activities and investments can provide, so that anyone can actively engage and participate in decision-making processes.  

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Methods and technologies to build awareness and foster knowledge on possible impacts posed by natural and human-made hazards and the great opportunities that resilience strategies can bring:

• Opportunities posed by the digital transition to digitally empower cities with low-cost sensors, smart collaborative technologies, and interoperable platforms;
• Open-science algorithms and applications, allowing the democratization of access to data and information and supporting aware and informed decision-making processes;
• Smart city services that are also instrumental in supporting resilience enhancement.

People-centered approaches to resilience, sustainability and smartness:

• Need assessment approaches for smart and resilient city initiatives addressing equity, environmental and social justice;
• Multi-stakeholder approaches allowing the government, private sector, civil society and community organizations to proactively collaborate in resilience building;
• Evaluating smart city technologies using an equity lens, checking their ability to serve clearly specified public interests.

Life cycle assessment frameworks and approaches to assess tangible and intangible impacts and benefits of sustainable resilience strategies for the built and/or natural environments within cities.

Standards and policies for jointly building and addressing resilience, sustainability and smartness:

• Revision of existing standards, policies, and frameworks and identification of synergies;
• Pathways to innovative and agile frameworks, guidelines.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References

1. UN-HABITAT, Resilience and Risk Reduction. Available online: https://unhabitat.org/topic/resilience-and-risk-reduction (accessed on 28 August 2023).
2. UN-HABITAT, Smart sustainable cities and smart digital solutions for urban resilience in the Arab region Lessons from the pandemic, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia E/ESCWA/CL2.GPID/2021/TP.3
3. Ramirez Lopez, L.J.; Grijalba Castro, A.I. Sustainability and Resilience in Smart City Planning: A Review. Sustainability 2021, 13, 181. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010181.
4. UNECE, People-Smart Sustainable Cities, United Nations publication issued by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, ECE/INF/2020/3, ISBN 978-92-1-117256-0.

Dr. Sonia Giovinazzi
Prof. Dr. Paolo Nesi
Dr. Maria Luisa Villani
Dr. Marco Fanfani
Guest Editors

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• resilience
• smart cities
• natural hazards
• climate change
• Agenda 2030
• Sendai framework
• ISO 37120
• ISO 37122
• ISO 37123