Building Urban Resilience Through Cultural Heritage: Digital Innovations, Social Inclusion, and Sustainable Futures
A special issue of Urban Science (ISSN 2413-8851).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 November 2026 | Viewed by 45
Special Issue Editors
Interests: digital technologies; heritage conservation; social inclusion; urban resilience; integration of artificial intelligence; machine learning; BIM/HBIM; digital twins; sustainability and community engagement; digital heritage; urban regeneration; empower stakeholders in refugee contexts; strengthen cultural identity; housing; heritage protection; built environments
Interests: building rehabilitation; housing; building condition assessment; management and maintenance of existing buildings; energy efficiency; urban resilience; BIM methodology; digital technologies; sustainability enhancement; energy transition; community engagement; Positive Energy Districts (PEDs)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: urban policies; planning institutions; informality; urban design; urban regeneration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Urban resilience increasingly depends on the capacity of cities to preserve, adapt, and reinterpret both tangible and intangible heritage in the face of global challenges such as climate change, migration, rapid urbanisation, and social inequality. Cultural heritage contributes to strengthening collective identity, enhancing community cohesion, and enabling adaptive responses to crises. At the same time, processes of digitalisation are reshaping how heritage is documented, transmitted, and experienced, with significant potential for advancing resilience strategies.
This Special Issue aims to examine how cultural heritage can support the transition towards resilient and sustainable cities, highlighting the intersections between technological innovation, governance, and community engagement. We particularly welcome contributions that investigate the integration of digital tools such as building information modelling (BIM), heritage BIM (HBIM), artificial intelligence, and digital twins for heritage conservation and urban regeneration. Equally relevant are studies that explore the digitalisation of intangible heritage, participatory practices, and heritage-led approaches to urban transformation in diverse social and cultural contexts.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Digital heritage strategies for urban regeneration and conservation;
- Smart cities and the integration of heritage in digital urban ecosystems;
- Climate adaptation and risk management of heritage sites and cultural landscapes;
- Community resilience and heritage-led planning for vulnerable or displaced populations;
- Digitalisation of intangible heritage, including documentation, transmission, and participatory storytelling;
- Artificial intelligence, BIM/HBIM, and digital twins for the management of historic built environments;
- Governance frameworks and policy instruments linking cultural heritage to sustainable urban development;
- Cross-cultural and comparative perspectives on heritage-driven resilience.
Dr. Victoria Andrea Cotella
Dr. Fernanda Rodrigues
Dr. Paulo Silva
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.
Keywords
- artificial intelligence
- HBIM/BIM
- digital heritage
- 3D point clouds
- digital twins
- cultural heritage conservation
- inclusive urban regeneration
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