Health Geography—Human Welfare and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Sustainability calls for research that focuses on the intersection of human welfare and sustainability in the context of health geography. The relevance of human health to broader notions of sustainability—encompassing ecological, social, and economic dimensions—is increasingly clear, as is the vulnerability of humankind to catastrophes from pandemics to extreme events. Geographic perspectives are urgently needed to connect concerns about anthropogenic environmental impacts with questions about the health, well-being, and very survival of human societies. Distance has reasserted itself as a fundamental barrier to human interaction, even as we are saturated with connections in the virtual world. Our need for social support is greater than ever, but the dangers of being physically close are acute. Addressing the public health crisis of Covid-19 through widespread social distancing has demonstrated our collective ability to at least temporarily curb emissions of greenhouse gases and local air pollutants. Stock market volatility thus coincides with a glimmer of hope about our prospects for addressing the climate crisis through collective action. Burgeoning research on resilience seeks to identify ways that communities can coalesce in times of crisis and endure in spite of significant shocks to the system. Since health and environmental risks are disproportionately felt in marginalized communities that are already economically vulnerable, efforts to achieve global sustainability require the communication of reliable information and provision of resources that help to empower local communities and dismantle structural disparities. Complex systems science approaches are well suited to untangle these interactions and reveal what causes patterns of human behavior and health outcomes in the geographic landscape. Contributions are especially welcome that consider feedback mechanisms underlying the spatial dynamics of health and wealth in the Anthropocene.

Prof. Sara S Metcalf
Guest Editor

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.

• health equity
• geographies of care
• environmental health
• human development
• diffusion processes
• information feedback
• collective action
• community resilience
• extreme events
• spatial systems science