Urban Informatics and Planning for Sustainable & Resilient Cities: Data, Design, and Decision

Urban planning is undergoing a profound shift, as urban informatics and urban science fuse data, computation, and design to confront climate risk, inequity, and resource stress. Pervasive geo-informatics, urban sensing, and location-based services (LBS) generate continuous data streams that enable Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (geoAI) and urban simulations to explore scenarios and suggest action. For example, intelligent transport systems (ITS) and transport modelling underpin sustainable mobility systems., while environmental informatics reveal heat, air-quality, and flood vulnerabilities. Social media analytics and citizen science tap into actual stakeholder experience and support inclusive governance, complementing “smart city” infrastructures with community intelligence. This Research Topic situates these capabilities within urban planning practice and higher education, promoting problem-based learning (PBL) and open, reproducible methods that translate evidence into policy and design. The overarching aim of the research is to develop resilient, low-carbon, and socially-just cities with scalable solutions, particularly for data-constrained regions in the Global South.

Cities face intertwined challenges: climate risk, mobility inequities, environmental stress, and fiscal constraints. Yet current practice is fragmented. Data are abundant but under-used; methods are powerful but not reproducible; and evidence rarely translates into policy and design at scale, especially in data-constrained contexts. This Research Topic aims to close those gaps by (1) consolidating open, transferable methods in urban informatics—spanning urban/geoAI, sensing (IoT/LBS), geo-informatics, digital twins, simulation, ITS, and transport modelling—for diagnosing vulnerabilities and opportunities; (2) linking diagnostics to interventions through decision-ready tools (e.g., indicators, playbooks, dashboards) that agencies and communities can deploy; (3) foregrounding inclusion via citizen science, social media analytics, and participatory workflows so that solutions reflect lived experience; and (4) strengthening the education pipeline by showcasing problem-based learning (PBL) modules and “open data + code” teaching assets. Expected outcomes include comparative benchmarks across cities, equity-aware evaluation frameworks, and reusable datasets and code. In addition, implementation templates will help practitioners to prioritize investments, monitor progress toward sustainability and resilience goals, and perform mainstream evidence-based planning in both Global North and Global South settings.

We welcome contributions that connect data-driven analysis to actionable planning and design for sustainability and resilience. Priority themes include:

• Urban science; urban geoAI and urban computing; urban sensing
• Location-based services and social media analytics
• Open data, digital twins, and urban simulation
• Intelligent transport systems (ITS), transport modelling, and sustainable mobility systems
• Environmental informatics for land, heat, air, water, resilient and nature-based solutions
• Equity and inclusion via citizen science, participatory planning, and pedagogy
• Problem-based learning (PBL) and open teaching assets for higher education focusing on university 4.0 and society 5.0
• We particularly encourage cross-city benchmarks, Global South case studies, and reproducible workflows (data/code)

Accepted manuscript types: Original Research, Methods, Systematic Review/Mini-Review, Brief Research Report, Case Study, Technology & Code, Data Note/Resource Report, Perspective, and Policy & Practice Review/Policy Brief. Submissions should specify datasets and evaluation metrics, discuss implementation and transferability to practice, and—where possible—provide open materials to enable reuse.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Urban informatics, Urban Planning, Urban Design, UrbanAI, Urban Science, Urban Computing, Geo Informatics, Sustainable Cities and urban informatics, urban sensing, geoAI, location-based services (LBS), environmental informatics, social media analytics, open data, digital twins, intelligent transport systems (ITS), transport modelling, urban simulation, sustainable mobility systems, resilient cities, smart cities, citizen science, problem-based learning (PBL), higher education, university 4.0, society 5.0

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.