Research on Plural Values in Sustainable Urban Planning
A special issue of Urban Science (ISSN 2413-8851).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 13
Special Issue Editors
Interests: appraisal and multidimensional evaluations in hybrid, collaborative and interactive decision-making contexts; complex values; evolutionary evaluation; adaptive decision support systems; cultural heritage and landscape assessment; urban regeneration and spatial transformations; multi-criteria and multi-group evaluations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: multidimensional and plural values in sustainable urban and territorial planning; integrated valuation for sustainable urban transformation strategies (e.g., nature-based solutions and urban greening, cultural-led regeneration, circular economy in urban contexts); living lab and co-creation processes for urban policy and planning; decision analysis; multicriteria, multigroup, and spatial analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: collaborative decision-making in sustainable urban regeneration processes; impact assessment; multi-criteria evaluations; public space and cultural heritage reuse; community and values-based processes; co-design and co-evaluation in culture-based processes; hybrid research-action approaches
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The present climate crisis and associated spatial justice issues pose significant challenges to urban planning. The prevailing tendency to prioritise economic or environmental dimensions in addressing these challenges may prove to be counterproductive. Indeed, the recent literature recommends considering the interconnections between climate change and economic, social, environmental, cultural, and public health factors, engaging multiple stakeholders, acknowledging the diverse values, power imbalances and uncertainties that may arise. This necessitates the cultivation of a more profound comprehension of urban sustainability issues across various scales and from diverse perspectives. In this regard, conventional monodisciplinary valuations based on single-value approaches appear to be inadequate, unable to consider complex and inclusive dimensions.
This Special Issue aims to collect practical cases and implementations of plural valuation approaches in urban and territorial planning, reflecting on their evolution and future perspectives. The objective of this Special Issue is to collect innovative valuation approaches that have the potential to enable inclusive decision-making processes and support a sustainable urban and territorial transition.
This Special Issue has been conceived to encompass contributions that explore the potential of a plural values approach in the design and planning of urban strategies and the assessment of the related multidimensional impacts. Such strategies may include, but are not limited to, those employed in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation, cultural-led regeneration, spatial and intersectional justice, and local and situated innovation.
The Special Issue includes the following topics, among others:
(1) The adoption of a transdisciplinary approach to the planning and assessment of urban transformation strategies.
(2) A relational approach to analysing human-nature systems and their interactions.
(3) The inclusion of local values and multiple knowledge systems to prevent the marginalisation of local communities.
(4) The selection of suitable tools to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of policies and projects aimed at improving knowledge of the societal effects and interlinked impacts of urban transformations.
(5) The implementation of methods, techniques and tools for exploring the vulnerability and resilience of urbanised areas and planned urbanisation processes.
Prof. Dr. Maria Cerreta
Dr. Simona Panaro
Dr. Ludovica La Rocca
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
- values
- transdisciplinarity
- place-based adaptation
- spatial justice
- climate justice
- urban transformations
- differential vulnerabilities
- integrated evaluations
- mix-methods approaches
- values elicitation
- values co-production
- value-pluralism
- action-oriented processes
- group decision-making
- collaborative decision-making
- evaluation design
- impacts assessment
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