Sustainable Transformation in the Global South: Context-Driven Urban Design, Livelihoods and Development Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

The New Urban Agenda (NUA) set out by United Nations in 2016, in line with the new Sustainable Development Goals, marks a clear direction of future research, especially in the discourse of urban planning, architecture, construction management, urban governance, urban environmental management and disaster management and resilience. There is also an increasing realisation of the need to promote the exchange of knowledge and share best practices and experiences between North and South. The rise of the Global South has elevated geospatial discourse to new heights demanding new insights into peripheral urbanisation, overexploitation and polarisation of resources, widening environmental vulnerability gap and trends in alienated mega-infrastructure development.

This calls for a revisiting of established theories of growth characteristics within the sociopolitical, economic and environmental realities of the Global South. Focusing on such vital development scenarios that characterise the Global South, this Special Issue aims to explore advanced and alternative theses around production and management of the sustainable built environment in the Global South. The issue will facilitate the generation of knowledge through innovative transdisciplinary approaches and alternative solutions to enable good governance, policy, regulations, codes, design criteria and, most importantly, emancipated voices and debates among global stakeholders of development in the South.

We are inviting submissions for the Special Issue “Transformation in the Global South: Context-Driven Urban Design, Livelihoods and Development Challenges”, which explores advanced and alternative theses around development and urbanisation in the Global South. This Special Issue is expected to widen our knowledge by exploring innovative transdisciplinary approaches and alternative solutions to enable innovative urban design, good governance and development and partnerships in the Global South to deliver sustainable livelihoods by addressing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Special Issue will include a collection of original research articles, discussion papers or technical notes and review papers on (but not limited to) the following topics:

• Sustainable urban and regional development;
• Urban informality;
• Food security and sustainable livelihoods;
• Sustainable consumption and waste management;
• Development partnerships and governance;
• Post-COVID-19 development challenges.

Dr. Atiq Zaman
Dr. Mohammad Swapan
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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 1800 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.