Urban and Regional Environmental Planning: New Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Urban Science entitled ‘Urban and Regional Environmental Planning: New Perspectives’.

Cities and regions face climate disruption, escalating disaster risk, biodiversity loss, water stress, reduced food security, widening inequality, rapid urbanisation, and a fast-moving energy/digital transitions, which have rendered traditional environmental planning for single projects, static inventories, and siloed jurisdictions increasingly inadequate when it comes to addressing these intertwined pressures. Almost 40 years since ‘Our Common Future’ became a global priority [1], more holistic approaches have become necessary to manage the environmental and human limitations to, and opportunities for, sustainable development.

One influential tradition that has long sought to address these challenges is ecological urban planning. Ecological urban planning, rooted in Ian McHarg’s seminal ‘Design with Nature’, offers a foundational lens for integrating natural systems into urban and regional planning. Building on this legacy, recent scholarship has advanced a more holistic paradigm, termed urban consonance, which views cities as dynamic socio-ecological systems and promotes planning approaches that are transdisciplinary, place-based, and resilient [2]. This conceptual shift aligns with increasing practices of community-based practices and cross-sectoral collaborations, which contribute to the coordination and integration between urban and regional settings, between urban, peri-urban, and rural areas, and between technological advancements and Indigenous/local knowledge [3].

Alongside these developments, health-oriented planning has also gained prominence, emphasising the role of urban environments in shaping physical, mental, and social well-being [4,5]. Proximity to nature, access to green space, and ecological design interventions have been shown to reduce stress, improve air quality, encourage physical activity, and foster community. The strategic reintroduction of nature, often referred to as renaturing cities, leverages nature-based solutions to maximise ecosystem services and reintegrate human and ecological systems [6]. This approach supports the creation of high-quality, accessible green spaces that contribute to both environmental resilience and public health [6].

Yet, despite these advances, significant gaps remain. Existing research often remains fragmented across disciplines, scales, and governance levels, limiting its capacity to address the complex, interconnected crises cities and regions face. Many frameworks prioritise either environmental resilience or social equity, but few effectively integrate both dimensions. Furthermore, while digital technologies and artificial intelligence are rapidly reshaping urban systems, their application in environmental planning often lacks ethical grounding, justice orientation, and meaningful integration with Indigenous and local knowledge [7].

We are pleased to invite you to share your work in this Special Issue of Urban Science, which aims to bring together innovative approaches that will be instrumental in steering cities and regions toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals throughout the 21st century and beyond.

With this goal in mind, this Special Issue invites contributions that turn original perspectives into methods and tools applicable in urban and regional environmental planning to meet today’s crises and deliver resilient, equitable futures.

In particular, areas that this Special Issue aims to explore include the following topics:

• Ecosystem services and natural capital valuation;
• Social and environmental frameworks for disaster risk reduction;
• Nature-based design and nature-positive cities;
• Green infrastructure and nature-based solutions;
• Edible green infrastructure, food systems, and logistics;
• Growth management and land development;
• Resource and biodiversity conservation;
• Mobility and sustainable infrastructure;
• Decarbonisation and climate mitigation;
• Solar radiation management and climate adaptation;
• Urban ecosystem governance;
• Multi-level climate governance;
• Multi-level biodiversity governance;
• Justice in energy and housing;
• Wildland–urban interface;
• Geographic information systems and modelling;
• Smart data and artificial intelligence;
• Strategic urban and regional planning;
• Urban–rural divides and their coordination;
• Ecological, water, and carbon footprints;
• Indigenous and local knowledge;
• Cultural and spiritual ecology;
• Environmental impact assessment;
• Social impact assessment;
• Cumulative impact assessment;
• Ecological urban planning and design;
• Urban planning and health;
• Health impact assessment;
• Urban coastal adaptation planning.

References

[1] WCED. 1987. Our Common Future. World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

[2] Heymans, A., Breadsell, J., Morrison, G. M., Byrne, J.J., & Eon, C. 2019. Ecological Urban Planning and Design: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 11(13), 3723. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133723.

[3] Cash, D.W., Clark, W.C., Alcock, F., Dickson, N.M., Eckley, N., Guston, D.H., Jäger, J., & Mitchell, R.B. 2003. Knowledge systems for sustainable development. PNAS, 100(14), 8086–8091. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.123133210.

[4] Rydin, Y., Bleahu, A, Davies, M., Dávila, J.D., Friel, S., De Grandis, G., Groce, N., Hallal, P.C., Hamilton, I., Howden-Chapman, P., Lai, K., Lim, C.J., Dipla, A.A., Martins, J., Osrin, D., Ridley, I., Scott, I., Taylor, M., Wilkinson, P., and Wilson, J. 2012. Shaping cities for health: complexity and the planning of urban environments in the 21st century. The Lancet,  379(9831), 2079-2108. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60435-8.

[5] UN Habitat and WHO. 2020. Integrating health in urban and territorial planning: a sourcebook. Geneva: UN-HABITAT and World Health Organization. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. ISBN 978-92-4-000317-0.

[6] Russo, A. 2024. Renaturing for Urban Wellbeing: A Socioecological Perspective on Green Space Quality, Accessibility, and Inclusivity. Sustainability, 16(13), 5751. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135751.

[7] Baresi, U. 2025. Neo-colonial intelligence: How AI risks reinforcing spatial injustices in a digitally divided world. Cities, 166, 106232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2025.106232.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Umberto Baresi
Dr. Alessio Russo
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. Urban Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1600 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.

• climate mitigation and adaptation
• ecological planning
• urban sustainability
• environmental assessment
• environmental technology
• smart cities
• artificial intelligence
• geographic information systems
• urban ecosystem governance
• cultural integration