Special Issue "Transition towards Sustainable Urban Settlements"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ortzi Akizu-Gardoki
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graphic Design and Engineering Projects Department, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Interests: energy footprint; energy transitions; input–output analysis; sustainability; well-being; life cycle assessment
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Jukka Heinonen
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainable Built Environment, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
Interests: sustainable built environment; life cycle assessments; carbon footprinting; greenhouse gas mitigation; sustainable urban development; built environment; life cycle economics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Sanna Ala-Mantila
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainable Urban Systems, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) & Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Interests: sustainable cities; urbanization; climate change mitigation; well-being; socioeconomic segregation
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current globalized world has generated massive trade exchanges between nations. This exchange of goods and services tends to be polarized between developed and developing countries, and between rural and urban areas. The consumption-oriented lifestyles in developed countries, especially in the cities or urban areas within, means that these areas are dependent on resources from outside their boundaries, both from rural areas as well as from other countries.

The current globalized consumption system has proven to be unsustainable due to its uneven social impacts, economic crises and environmental impacts, materialized, for instance, in ever-proceeding climate change and consequent biodiversity loss. Therefore, especially in the last decade, several social movements, research groups or policy makers, have underlined the need for a rapid transition towards sustainable models based on socio-ecological resiliency and even self-sufficient systems.

This special issue aims to capture the novel proposals for achieving restructured, resilient and sustainable cities, based on, for example, energy sovereignty, low carbon emission systems and circular economy. We would like to open a discussion in analyzing the following: current existing low impact exemplary cities, pathways to 1.5 degree warming compatible living, theoretical modelling of energy-efficient urban environments, and simulations of sustainable urban environments and their dialog with other areas. Also, contributions to contemporary urban sustainability concepts discussing the relationships and interdepency between different sustainability aspects, especially ecological and social, are welcomed.

Likewise, this special issue opens a discussion about the roles between developed and non-developed countries to better understand energy and other consumption dependency dynamics. In this context, the calculation of footprints (e.g. carbon footprint, energy footprint, water footprint, social footprint, etc) will allow to quantify the hidden consumptions that developed cities and countries are outsourcing to less regulated nations, and the respective environmental and social impacts of this consumption. The main goal is to share the responsibility of the generation of socio-environmental impacts in order to start out on the path to avoiding them.

We propose as a reference the following topics in order to guide the authors and trigger a better-orientated discussion of the scientific works that could partake in this challenge:

  • Low-energy/low-carbon cities;
  • Energy transition in low-carbon urban areas;
  • Low-energy/low-carbon urban ecosystems;
  • Footprint assessments of all aspects of sustainability;
  • 1.5 degree warming compatible living;
  • Resilient urban area modelling;
  • Sustainable cities;
  • Drivers and barriers for low-energy/low-carbon solutions; and
  • Socio-ecological sustainability in cities.

Papers presenting research results with sound academic contributions and high societal impact potential are particularly welcomed.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ortzi Akizu-Gardoki
Prof. Dr. Jukka Heinonen
Assistant Prof. Dr. Sanna Ala-Mantila
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

  • greenhouse gas mitigation
  • sustainable urban development
  • built environment life cycle economics
  • sustainability
  • footprint
  • energy transition
  • input-output analysis
  • well-being
  • life cycle assessment

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Residential Location and Travel in the Reykjavik Capital Region
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6714; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126714 - 13 Jun 2021
Viewed by 517
Abstract
This article presents findings from a mixed-methods study on residential location and travel in the Reykjavik capital region, Iceland, drawing on a combination of a tailor-made questionnaire survey and in-depth qualitative interviews, including cross-sectional and before–after analyses. A residential location close to the [...] Read more.
This article presents findings from a mixed-methods study on residential location and travel in the Reykjavik capital region, Iceland, drawing on a combination of a tailor-made questionnaire survey and in-depth qualitative interviews, including cross-sectional and before–after analyses. A residential location close to the main city center of Reykjavik contributes to shorter travel distances and lower shares of car travel. The effect of proximity to the city center is particularly strong for commuting but exists for non-work travel and overall car-driving distances too. There are also effects of proximity to a main second-order center and local centers and of local-area population density, but these effects apply to fewer aspects of travel. The rationales for location of activities and travel mode choice identified in the qualitative interviews explain why travel distances and modes tend to depend more on proximity to the main city center than on neighborhood-scale built environment characteristics. The main patterns found in the Reykjavik area are in line with findings in several earlier studies in the Nordic countries and elsewhere. However, through its methodological approach, the investigation adds to the few studies on the topic where results are underpinned by combined qualitative and quantitative methods and inclusion of before–after analyses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transition towards Sustainable Urban Settlements)
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