Biophilic Cities and Communities: Human-Environment Interaction and Sustainable Governance

Dear Colleagues,

Biophilic design is a design philosophy that encourages the use of natural and sustainable systems to enhance the built environment on multiple scales (e.g., building, site, city and regional) (Gillis and Gatersleben, 2015). Currently, and with increasing frequency, a host of biophilic programs, policies and initiatives are being developed in many cities, facilitating natural resource conservation and environmental and social sustainability in the built environment. The increasing trend demonstrates that biophilic perspectives on cities and communities have profound connotations worthy of further exploration. Nevertheless, enhancing the built environment to create biophilic cities and communities is still challenging. From April 2023 to April 2024 we conducted work on the topic "Biophilic Cities and Communities: Towards Natural Resources, Environmental and Social Sustainability" (https://www.mdpi.com/topics/KX5WREG227). We are very grateful to have received over 100 submissions on this subject. We consider the biophilic cities and communities to be worthy of further attention and discussion. Furthermore, the intersection of ecology and exposure science with health concerns has led to a gradual infiltration of the topic. Thus, we propose the topic “Biophilic Cities and Communities: Human−Environment Interaction and Sustainable Governance ”. We expect this to bring together researchers who are working on related topics and encourage them to share their latest accomplishments and research findings.

We welcome submissions of original research articles, reports or technical notes, reviews, and mini-reviews covering topics, including, but not limited, to the following:

(i) Biophilic urbanism and processes Smart cities and communities; Land use/cover change; Spatial-temporal trends; Geodesign; Urban landscape pattern; Sustainable urban-rural planning; Built environment assessment.
(ii) Human−Environment Interaction Environmental behavior and local practice; Social and historical sensing; Economic and cultural sustainability; Big data and social computing; Social Equity; Sustainable governance.
(iii) Exposure Ecology Urban/ natural ecosystem; Ecological pattern and process; Ecological exposure; Forest management; Nature-based solutions; Public health and wellbeing.

Gillis, K., Gatersleben, B. A review of psychological literature on the health and wellbeing benefits of biophilic design, Buildings, 2015, 5(3):948–963.

Dr. Xin-Chen Hong
Prof. Dr. BaoJie He
Dr. Guangyu Wang
Dr. Zhaowu Yu
Prof. Dr. Jiang Liu
Dr. Xiong Yao
Topic Editors