Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue entitled “Smart City and Well-Being” in Urban Science, an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal of urban and regional studies, published quarterly online by MDPI. More information about the journal can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/urbansci.

For much of the last decade, the smart cities movement has received increasing attention from policymakers due to the promise of improving the efficiency, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of city services by optimising data management. However, doubts remain as to whether all promises of radical improvements to enhance life in cities have been fulfilled. In particular, it is not clear whether optimisation and efficiency were reached following the application of smart city solutions, and whether they have made life easier, healthier, or more sustainable for urban communities.

Nowadays, these questions are pivotal to dealing with the phenomenon of urbanization, which is taking place on a global scale, specifically in the densely built urban environment. This latter represents the living space for a growing number of individuals, with estimates stating that 60% of the world’s population is destined to live in medium-to-large cities by 2050.

As individual and collective health is linked to the general and local policies establishing the strict dependence between the morphological and functional organization of the urban context and public health, the smart cities movement could play a leading role in protecting and promoting health.

This Special Issue looks to publish evidence and observations in the field regarding the built environment and health, smart cities and well-being, and environmental and urban health, among other related topics.

We welcome the submission of reviews, original research articles, short communications, editorial letters, systematic reviews, case studies, and other kinds of articles targeting any of these core research questions and beyond.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Sustainability.

Dr. Ginevra Balletto
Dr. Marco Dettori
Dr. Antonella Arghittu
Dr. Mara Ladu
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. Urban Science is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1600 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.

• urban planning
• urban health
• environmental health
• built environment
• sport city
• proximity and 15-minute city