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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2022.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: natural hazards; urban sustainability; digital innovation; regional economic development
Interests: land ownership and rights; political ecology; ecological politics; circular economy; labor and regional economy; value theory; organizational form and institutional analysis; urban design
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent years, it has become clear that climate change represents an existential crisis for our planet. In this Special Issue of the journal Sustainability, we explore the implications of that reality in the urban context.
Cities are increasingly defined by digital mechanisms, platforms, and services—referred to collectively as ‘urban technologies’—many of which promise to address the global environmental crisis. However, deploying those technologies raises far-reaching questions about issues such as finance, public control, privacy, and the allocation of physical space.
We solicit papers that address urban technology and the climate crisis in four cross-cutting domains: urban (1) economics, (2) governance, (3) form/development, and (4) data. Papers should not focus specifically on ecological science, technical models, or abstract agendas. Rather, we seek contributions that focus on real-world implementation and implications of urban technologies and environmental policies.
The issue is topical—as climate collapse accelerates, sustainability is becoming a mainstream focus in political agendas. Furthermore, post-pandemic recovery will demand critical decisions and investments at municipal, federal, and international levels that could mark a new phase of urban technology and climate politics. This Special Issue will elevate urgent discussions, bring an academic lens to real-world crises, and illuminate new pathways to a more sustainable future.
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Fink
Dr. Matthew Claudel
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
- cities
- urban ecology
- natural assets
- data
- community engagement
- circular economy
- commons
- real estate
- governance
- risk
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: Urban intelligence for climate actions: Data, analytics, and socio-technical implementations for achieving carbon neutral cities
Authors: Yuan Lai
Affiliation: MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Abstract: Large volume, velocity, and variety of data generated in cities provide new resources for quantifying, analyzing, and visualizing complex environmental-social-technical dynamics in urban systems. Such data intelligence supports more responsive, precise, and proactive planning, policy, and management for achieving Carbon Neutral Cities (CNC). This paper articulates key aspects of CNC urban intelligence that involve data sharing, integration, analytics, and implementations to leverage data from heterogeneous sources with different spatial granularity and temporal frequency. It identifies critical datasets and analytical pipelines for CNC, and discusses uncertainties involving data biases, algorithmic injustice, as well as socio-technical controversies in data-driven climate actions.
Title: Project Eclipse: The Design and Implementation of a Hyperlocal Air Quality Sensing Network
Authors: Madeleine I. G. Daepp 1, Scott Counts 1, Asta Roseway 1, Alex Cabral 2, Paul Johns 1, Gavin Jancke 1, Vaishnavi Ranganathan 1, Vikram Iyer 3, Tracy Tran 1, Tiffany Werner 4, Charlie Catlett 5
Affiliation:
- Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA 98052
- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
- University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98915
- The Environmental Law and Policy Center, Chicago, IL 60601
- University of Illinois Discovery Partners Institute, Chicago, IL 60606
Abstract: Climate-smart cities require dense networks of sensors that can monitor environmental hazards at hyperlocal scales. This article describes a real-world initiative to address public health concerns in the city of Chicago through the deployment of over 100 low-cost air quality sensors. We developed a cellular-connected and solar-powered device that could be mounted on bus shelters across the city for long-term monitoring. In collaboration with city, university, and community partners, we allocated devices using a network design that prioritized two key criteria: (1) citywide coverage and (2) equitable allocation with community-selected sites in environmental justice neighborhoods. Additional sensors were co-located with EPA stations to evaluate accuracy and support data calibration over time. Data were made available to local stakeholders both through an open-data API and a web-based visualization tool. We observed differences in air quality between and within neighborhoods, highlighting the value of dense, low-cost sensing deployments as a complement to sparse regulatory networks. Through this research, we show how multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary stakeholders can collaborate to implement hyperlocal sensing technologies that monitor and support urban health equity priorities.
Title: Energy performance of Local Climate Types: Application of an integrated microclimate-energy demand simulation method in a Dutch context
Authors: Daniela Maiullari, Marjolein Pijpers-van Esch, Arjan van Timmeren
Affiliation: Department of Urbanism, TU Delft
Abstract: In order to investigate the influence of urban form attributes on space cooling consumption in urban climates, this study uses microclimate simulation results as input to a district-scale energy demand model to assess the performance of different urban typomorphologies in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The study identifies urban types based on geometrical building characteristics and morphological context characteristics, through an unsupervised classification technique. For the selected 25 archetypes, energy simulations in City Energy Analyst are carried out for a Baseline scenario, employing rural climate data, and for a Microclimate scenario, employing microclimate results from ENVI-met. The results demonstrate that in the urban environment air temperatures are higher than in the rural environment in a range of 3◦C, leading to an average increase in cooling demand between 24% and 32%. However, it was observed that cooling loads increase according to the sensitivity of building type to urban overheating. Comparing the microclimate scenario to the baseline scenario, low-rise buildings are found to have the highest cooling demand increase in a range of 31% and 58%. On average, mid-rise buildings increase their energy load between 30 and 34%, while high-rise buildings have higher loads of 9-12%. Additionally, dense and high-rise contexts decrease the impact of day-time urban temperatures on energy demand for all building types considered.
Title: Urban Sustainability and Climate Issues: The Effect of Physical Parameters of Streetscape on the Thermal Comfort in Urban Public Spaces
Authors: Ali Reza Sadeghi; Mahsa Sholeh; Yasaman Bahadori
Affiliation: Faculty of Art and Architecture, Shiraz University
Abstract: One of the most important issues in urban studies relates to climate and environmental sustainability is the analysis of the thermal conditions of urban public spaces, especially urban streets, since this issue seems to affect the comfort of citizens using such spaces. Thus, the main aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of streetscape parameters on the thermal comfort of citizens using urban streets in hot summer and in hot and dry climates. For this purpose, Karimkhan-e Zand Street in Shiraz, Iran was selected as the case study. The selected street is a historical and popular public space of Shiraz. In the present study, using physical and micro-climatic data analyzed in ENVI-met software, the thermal comfort conditions of Karimkhan-e Zand in Shiraz on July 10 were simulated as the hottest day of the year. Furthermore, the relationships between physical street parameters and micro-climatic parameters and their effects on thermal comfort index (PMV) were investigated through regression tests and analysis of ENVI-met output maps. The results of present study show that the thermal comfort of the citizens, which is determined by the PMV index values, is in very poor condition in almost all the studied hours, and the air temperature has the greatest effect compared to other micro-climatic parameters on the PMV index. The results of present study also showed a significant relationship between the sky view factor and mean radiant temperature and between the surface albedo and relative humidity, and the type of vegetation and the ratio of street dimensions affect the level of increase in thermal comfort on the street.