“Paving the Way Towards the Development of a Smart and Blue City – Policies and Practices”

SPECIAL ISSUE

"Journal of Urban Planning and Development"
ASCE Library

In today’s globalized, technology-driven and ever-changing world, urban and regional constellations are steadily gaining incisive significance as complex spatial systems and nodes of innovation and wealth generation. In such a continuously evolving decision environment, developmental policy decisions in these constellations need to integrate various decision-making levels and spatial scales, in a variety of strongly interconnected subsystems/sectors, linked to environmental, economic, social and cultural dimensions of urban and regional systems.
The study of linkages and interactions taking place among the structural elements/subsystems of cities and their surroundings; and the complex, multi-scale, multi-dimensional and multi-actor domains these represent are nowadays at the forefront or urban and regional research agenda. This study calls respectively for new, multi-level and more inclusive planning approaches in pursuing developmental objectives as well as new assessment models and processes in order to generate, test and implement policy paths capable of dealing with urban complexity and interactions among different actors (stakeholders, city users, immigrants, etc..) and domains of intervention (e.g. energy production and supply, environmental integrity, social inclusion, economic growth, quality of public space, public services/buildings management). In support of this effort, recent technological advances and their applications in the urban and regional context offer nowadays unique opportunities in the urban and regional development disciplines, establishing a new ground for sketching a smarter, more sustainable, inclusive and resilient future end state of related regions.

Emerging topics are:
- energy supply urban chains and renewable energy management
- public space management and regeneration practices – evidence-based results
- technology-based management of cultural heritage
- sustainable urban development by use of ecosystem-based approaches
- establishment of urban networks promoting integration and social inclusion
- healthy cities in relation to indoor and outdoor air quality

This proposed Special Issue, firmly aligned to the scope of the Journal of Urban Planning and Development, aims at bringing together incisive and critically engaged on such topics international and interdisciplinary research.

Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2019