The responsibility of builders, developers, planners, architects and policy makers to promote more sustainable urban environments and buildings is consistently prioritised in nascent European, national and local planning strategies. Yet what counts as ‘sustainable construction’ varies by issue, sector and policy mandate. Proponents of sustainable construction might promote technological shifts ...

the rapid rate of population growth in developing countries leads to imbalances development in various urban levels. the trend of urban sustainability is declined due to these imbalances. this declination increases concerns of urban planners to improve the sustainability of urban environments. being aware of sustainability level of urban intervention areas before doing any action is inevitable....

sustainable transportation with the aim of urban sustainable development aims to improve the environmental quality and the socio-economic condition. one of the most important strategies for achieving sustainable transportation is planning and designing for walking, or in other words increasing urban walkability. therefore, increased walkability has become a key issue in urban planning. understa...

a number of new concepts have emerged in the last two decades whose proponents claim that if achieved, they would deliver more sustainable urban environments. among them, new urbanism and urban village are the ones with the most theoretical support and practical application. both ideas, however, have been criticized in several grounds. but no study has been carried out to show the effectiveness...

The unprecedented wave of global urbanization has exerted increased pressure on urban land and made land-use sustainability an urgent concern. This Special Issue examines patterns, structures, and dynamics of urban land use from the economic, social, and, to a lesser extent, environmental standpoints, in light of the goal of equitable and sustainable development. This introduction discusses the...

Architecture and urban space play an important role among the sociological and psychological factors that influence humans and their well-being. Sociology and psychology analyse the role of architecture in the conscious shaping of urban space in the 21 century. This issue is very important from the point of view of sustainable development, as well as education of civil engineering graduates and...

In a rapidly changing socio-technical environment cities are increasingly seen as main drivers for change. Against this backdrop, this paper studies the emerging Urban Living Lab and Smart City concepts from a project based perspective, by assessing a series of five Smart City initiatives within one local city ecosystem. A conceptual and analytical framework is used to analyse the architecture,...

Urban planning and change in the last century has been guided by concepts of Modernity rooted in the Age of Enlightenment that placed the needs of "rational man" at the core of human endeavors of all kinds. Yet, rather than leading to aesthetically beautiful cities characterized by sustainable resource utilization processes, the anthropocentric approach to urban and economic development has cre...

Cities are perhaps one of the most challenging and yet enabling arenas for sustainable development goals. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the need to monitor each goal through objective targets and indicators based on common denominators in the ability of countries to collect and maintain relevant standardized data. While this approach is aimed at harmonizing the SDGs at the ...