Biophilic Cities and Communities: Towards Natural Resources, Environmental and Social Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Biophilic design is a design philosophy that encourages the use of natural and sustainable systems to enhance the built environment at 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 resources 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.

Thus, we propose the topic, “Biophilic Cities and Communities: Towards Natural Resources, Environmental and Social Sustainability”. It is expected 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
• Bioclimatic design
• Sustainable urban-rural planning
• Built environment assessment

(ii) Natural resources conservation and management

• Urban ecosystem
• Ecological pattern and process
• Environmental education and policies
• Protected areas
• Forest management
• Edible landscaping
• Nature-based solutions
• Green sites and regions

(iii) Computational social science and human behavior

• Environmental behavior and local practice
• Experience in multi-sensory interaction
• Social and historical sensing
• Public health and green exercise
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Economic and cultural sustainability
• Big data and cognitive computing

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
Prof. Dr. Jiang Liu
Dr. Jinda Qi
Dr. Guangyu Wang
Dr. Shi Cheng
Topic Editors