Land Use Planning and Smart City Design

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Contexts and Urban-Rural Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2023) | Viewed by 10917

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CNR IRISS National Research Council, Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, Research Laboratory on Human-Centred, Creative and Circular Cities, 8.80134 Naples, Italy
Interests: circular city; human-centred city; circular tourism; cultural heritage; smart urban planning; impacts assessment

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Management, The Open University of The Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands
Interests: creative industries; urban development; cultural heritage; digital technology; strategic performance management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Management, The Open University of The Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands
Interests: smart cites; quantitative plan evaluation; regional and urban modelling; multicriteria analysis; transport systems analysis; mathematical systems modelling; technological innovation; entrepreneurship; environmental and resource management and sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Land-use planning has a long tradition in geography, urban and regional economics, environmental management, urban architecture, transportation science and physical planning. In recent years, a new concept has come to the fore in the urban field due to the emergence of wealth of scientific publications on the conceptualization, operationalization and technological implementation of smart circular cities/regions. The main challenge of such cities and regions is not the presence of advanced digital technology, but the exploitation of the many benefits of human-centred digital technology for increased urban performance in several dimensions (e.g., social, cultural, economic, well-being, accessibility, safety, participatory, etc.), fostering co-creation and participatory approaches for smart circular city/region development.

One of the prominent fields where digital technology may make a difference is land use planning. In the past years an avalanche of new analysis techniques, planning approaches and citizens’ participatory modes has evolved. At present, urban and territorial land use planning is hardly affective, if it is not supported by advanced human-centred digital technology. It should be added that 2D top-down land use planning is increasingly substituted for 3D and participatory analytical methods which are often even more extensively based on advanced geo-science approaches.

This Special Issue of Land seeks to publish high-quality scientific contributions regarding land-use planning and advanced digital technology in the context of smart circular city/region development concepts and practices. It will contain theoretical/methodological advances and operational and applied studies from both the developed and developing part of the world. This Special Issue covers many disciplinary fields ranging from architecture to computer science, from political science to geo-design, from geography to urban planning, from cultural tourism to circular urban/regional development, etc.

Dr. Antonia Gravagnuolo
Dr. Karima Kourtit
Prof. Dr. Peter Nijkamp
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • digital geo-design methods
  • 3D digital twins in cities
  • computer-controlled urban design
  • GPS data for urban planning
  • advances in urban informatics
  • morphometrics and urban neighborhood planning
  • visualization methods for community planning
  • volunteered geographic information and urban land use
  • BIM models
  • street view imaging techniques
  • resilience and urban land use
  • urban sensing
  • urban big data infrastructure
  • urban microsimulation
  • digital citizen participation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3068 KiB  
Article
Influence of Urban Green Spaces on Quality of Life and Health with Smart City Design
by Abdullah Addas
Land 2023, 12(5), 960; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12050960 - 26 Apr 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3708
Abstract
Publicly available green spaces are great places for people to relax. Currently, the deficiency of such spaces is decreasing daily, especially in urban regions. Urban green spaces (UGSs) have become a topic of great importance in enhancing life expectancy and health. To overcome [...] Read more.
Publicly available green spaces are great places for people to relax. Currently, the deficiency of such spaces is decreasing daily, especially in urban regions. Urban green spaces (UGSs) have become a topic of great importance in enhancing life expectancy and health. To overcome these issues, the current research highlights the importance of UGSs for the residents’ living quality and urban health. UGSs are relevant for analyzing and investigating better urban lifestyles and development. To perform the experimental work, a green laboratory (GL) in a smart city (SC) area was involved in the investigation. The GL was made of wood, and different types of green infrastructure were analyzed. The research investigation resulted in upgrading the locality. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to enhance the quality of the research. Interviews with residents, occupants of offices, and government experts were conducted. Special survey questions, i.e., quantitative and qualitative, were developed while considering the current demands of the residents. A total of 500 responses were recorded, and by using the MAXQDA software, an analysis was carried out. The results showed that there was a dire requirement for UGSs in terms of size and quantity because of security and opportunities. The proposed research results will provide an opportunity for open spaces to be created in this local district. To fully improve residents’ living style and health, the necessity of deploying UGSs became more apparent. Finally, it became clear that green spaces are necessary to improve the country’s economy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use Planning and Smart City Design)
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21 pages, 9349 KiB  
Article
Fractal Organization of Chilean Cities: Observations from a Developing Country
by Francisco Martínez, Bastian Sepúlveda and Hermann Manríquez
Land 2023, 12(2), 296; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020296 - 20 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1686
Abstract
Urban forms are human-made systems that display a close connection with fractal objects, following organisation patterns that are not as random as believed. In this context, fractal theory can be seriously considered as a powerful tool for characterizing land-use planning. By applying the [...] Read more.
Urban forms are human-made systems that display a close connection with fractal objects, following organisation patterns that are not as random as believed. In this context, fractal theory can be seriously considered as a powerful tool for characterizing land-use planning. By applying the box-counting method and image-processing methods, the morphology and fractal metrics of urban networks of Chilean cities were measured. This dimension shows a close correlation with area, population and gross domestic product of each entity, revealing significant asymmetries regarding their distribution throughout the country. Such asymmetries have influenced the current shape of cities, issues concerning economic and social inequalities of urban development that still remain in the territory and explained by social segregation process and the historical evolution of cities. Additionally, some interesting allometric scaling laws obtained from these urban forms are also reported. Our results suggest that the use of fractal metrics can be a meaningful and cheap tool for characterizing the complexity of urban networks, providing useful and quick information about the organisation and efficiency of urban planning in developing countries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use Planning and Smart City Design)
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23 pages, 7891 KiB  
Article
Delimitation of Urban Hot Spots and Rural Cold Air Formation Areas for Nocturnal Ventilation Studies Using Urban Climate Simulations
by Florian Steigerwald, Meinolf Kossmann, Heike Schau-Noppel, Saskia Buchholz and Oleg Panferov
Land 2022, 11(8), 1330; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11081330 - 17 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1815
Abstract
Due to global warming, the conservation or enhancement of urban ventilation during synoptically calm and hot weather conditions is receiving increasing attention in climate resilient urban and regional planning. The transport of cool air from rural surroundings into the city by local winds [...] Read more.
Due to global warming, the conservation or enhancement of urban ventilation during synoptically calm and hot weather conditions is receiving increasing attention in climate resilient urban and regional planning. The transport of cool air from rural surroundings into the city by local winds during nighttime is important for the alleviation of the urban heat island intensity and heat load in particular. A simple statistical method, which objectively identifies urban thermal hot spots and areas of rural cold air formation from thermodynamic urban climate model simulations is described and applied to Aschaffenburg, a medium-sized town located in hilly terrain in south-central Germany. The delimitated hot spots and nocturnal cold air formation areas are influenced by local land cover, and also by the surrounding landscape heterogeneity, surface energy exchange and atmospheric mixing processes. The results illustrate limitations of hot spot or cool spot estimation methods based purely on the analysis of classified land cover data. Nocturnal backward airflow trajectories from thermal hot spots in the city and forward trajectories from rural areas with substantial cold air formation are calculated to determine which cold air formation areas are contributing to ventilation and advective cooling of thermal hot spots. It is found that nocturnal ventilation mechanisms are not bound to municipal boundaries, which highlights the need for regional cooperation in urban climate adaptation. The described method provides guidance to urban and regional planners in order to protect important cold air formation areas, e.g., from urban sprawl, and it can be applied to study impacts of planning scenarios. Options for improvement or extension of the method are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use Planning and Smart City Design)
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25 pages, 17793 KiB  
Article
Spatial Dynamic Models for Assessing the Impact of Public Policies: The Case of Unified Educational Centers in the Periphery of São Paulo City
by Pedro Bueno Rocha Campos, Cláudia Maria de Almeida and Alfredo Pereira de Queiroz
Land 2022, 11(6), 922; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11060922 - 16 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1844
Abstract
Cities continuously evolve and dynamically organize themselves in unbalanced ways and by means of complex processes. Efforts to minimize or solve the problems resulting from spatial inequalities tend to fail when relying on traditional public policies. This work is committed to analyzing the [...] Read more.
Cities continuously evolve and dynamically organize themselves in unbalanced ways and by means of complex processes. Efforts to minimize or solve the problems resulting from spatial inequalities tend to fail when relying on traditional public policies. This work is committed to analyzing the context for implementing public policies and their impacts on the periphery of São Paulo, Brazil. São Paulo is a city characterized by territorial and social heterogeneity and inequality. The materialization of these public policies involves the construction of unified educational centers in peripheral neighborhoods that, in addition to education, offer sports, leisure, and entertainment activities not only to enrolled students but to the wider residents’ community. The adopted methodology was based on cellular automata models driven by remotely sensed images designed to investigate land use and land cover patterns in the surroundings of these educational centers before and after their construction. The achieved results demonstrate that the initial land use and land cover configurations have a great influence on the land use and land cover spatial arrangements after the construction of the educational centers. However, in all the test sites of this research, it was observed that these social infrastructure facilities favored the reproduction of real estate market logic, marked by socially exclusive differentiation and an uneven appreciation of the urban environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use Planning and Smart City Design)
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