Integrated urban planning is essential to crafting solutions for one of the world’s most pressing challenges — building sustainable and resilient cities. In recent years, cities have experienced unprecedented growth, with over half of the world’s population now living in urban and suburban areas. This is projected to increase to more than two-thirds by 2050. Increased urbanization brings opportunities for economies of scale at all levels to help boost overall economic growth. This enables efficient service delivery, greater labour productivity, and better infrastructure provision. Nonetheless, rapid urbanization has also led to a variety of problems such as environmental degradation, traffic congestion, and urban sprawl. Among these issues, environmental pollution remains a common problem that all cities currently face.
Ever-increasing pressures in urban areas from reducing emissions to preventing pollution highlight the need to accelerate the uptake of sustainable urban planning practices. Integrated urban planning is a systems-focused approach that seeks to facilitate sustainable urban development through strategic planning and development management. It enables policymakers to effectively balance economic development with the interests of environmental protection and to develop opportunities to achieve multiple urban policy objectives through integrated systems approaches. In light of environmental pressures on urban ecosystems, advancing interdisciplinary research on integrated urban planning is critically important to achieving the United Nations' sustainable development agenda by 2030.
This Research Topic aims to provide a forum for the publication of both academic and industrial research, addressing the state-of-the-art theory and practice in the field of urban and environmental planning. Article Types such as Original Research, Reviews, Case Reports, Perspectives and Opinions are welcome. The themes that we hope to explore include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Urban waste management
• Urban water pollution control
• Urban air quality management
• Urban land-use planning
• Green infrastructure management
• Climate change impact assessment
• Application of systems-focused solutions to integrated urban planning
Integrated urban planning is essential to crafting solutions for one of the world’s most pressing challenges — building sustainable and resilient cities. In recent years, cities have experienced unprecedented growth, with over half of the world’s population now living in urban and suburban areas. This is projected to increase to more than two-thirds by 2050. Increased urbanization brings opportunities for economies of scale at all levels to help boost overall economic growth. This enables efficient service delivery, greater labour productivity, and better infrastructure provision. Nonetheless, rapid urbanization has also led to a variety of problems such as environmental degradation, traffic congestion, and urban sprawl. Among these issues, environmental pollution remains a common problem that all cities currently face.
Ever-increasing pressures in urban areas from reducing emissions to preventing pollution highlight the need to accelerate the uptake of sustainable urban planning practices. Integrated urban planning is a systems-focused approach that seeks to facilitate sustainable urban development through strategic planning and development management. It enables policymakers to effectively balance economic development with the interests of environmental protection and to develop opportunities to achieve multiple urban policy objectives through integrated systems approaches. In light of environmental pressures on urban ecosystems, advancing interdisciplinary research on integrated urban planning is critically important to achieving the United Nations' sustainable development agenda by 2030.
This Research Topic aims to provide a forum for the publication of both academic and industrial research, addressing the state-of-the-art theory and practice in the field of urban and environmental planning. Article Types such as Original Research, Reviews, Case Reports, Perspectives and Opinions are welcome. The themes that we hope to explore include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Urban waste management
• Urban water pollution control
• Urban air quality management
• Urban land-use planning
• Green infrastructure management
• Climate change impact assessment
• Application of systems-focused solutions to integrated urban planning
