Urban Risk and Climate Resilience Planning: Tools for Managing Land Use Under Uncertainty

Dear Colleagues,

Urban systems continue to face complex and interconnected pressures, including climate change, land degradation, social inequalities, and inefficient use of land and resources. One of the most critical challenges of the 21st century is the ability to implement integrated, effective, and resilient urban planning strategies that reduce land take, regenerate brownfields, and support inclusive and sustainable urban development.

The thematic pillars of this Special Issue are aligned with the European Green Deal, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, the Fit for 55 legislative package, and the Urban Agenda for the EU. These policy frameworks emphasize the need for a just and green transition, a zero-pollution urban environment, and the restoration of degraded land and brownfields. In this context, the circular reuse of abandoned urban areas, the application of ESG criteria in project evaluation, and the integration of predictive and digital technologies become essential to guide sustainable urban regeneration.

This Special Issue aims to collect original research articles and review papers that propose tools and frameworks for evaluating the economic, social, environmental, and health-related risks associated with land consumption and urban industrial activities, both from public and private sector perspectives.

We strongly encourage contributions from a broad range of disciplines, including urban planning, environmental science, real estate, public policy, geography, health studies, and data science. This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Environmental and health impacts of land take and industrial activities;
• Brownfield redevelopment and circular reuse of dismissed urban land;
• Sustainable land management strategies toward Net Land Take Zero;
• Multi-criteria and cost-benefit evaluation methods in urban planning;
• Indicators and indices for monitoring land use and urban sustainability;
• Geographic Information Systems and spatial analysis tools;
• Urban compensation schemes and innovative land policies;
• Real estate evaluation and sustainable asset management;
• ESG-based assessment frameworks for land development projects Resilient city indicators and risk-based planning approaches;
• AI and predictive models for land use monitoring and climate risk assessment;
• Smart planning tools and digital twins in sustainable urban governance;
• Post-pandemic effects and recovery dynamics in urban areas.

Dr. Debora Anelli
Prof. Dr. Pierluigi Morano
Dr. Marco Locurcio
Prof. Dr. Francesco Tajani
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land 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 2600 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.