FrontiersSustainableCities

From mapping to alliances: practice-informed entry points for stakeholder engagement in EU mission cities
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1658127

Stakeholder engagement and co-creation are essential components of urban planning and implementation processes. There is growing awareness that engagement throughout the project lifecycle is crucial for successful implementation and ownership. While several methodologies are available, further progress is needed on how to leverage each stage of engagement to build consensus and foster partnerships. Several EU-funded projects demonstrating how sustained engagement can be implemented within the context of the European Green Deal and the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities have been analyzed to understand current practices. As a working resource for city practitioners and other projects, this article provides perspectives, practical tools and case studies from cities, (...)

#Perspective

Human dimension of urban flood risk and informal resilience in Peshawar, Pakistan
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1725174

The study aimed to systematically assess community-level risk perceptions and informal resilience capacities concerning urban fluvial hazards within Peshawar, Pakistan. The research addresses the global acceleration of urban flood hazards, a phenomenon increased by unregulated urban expansion and anthropogenic climate change. Methodologically, the study adopted a qualitative inquiry and the study was framed in an Interpretive Phenomenological Approach, utilizing the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework as its theoretical construct. The SES framework operationalizes the local context by integrating the core components of risk (hazard, vulnerability, and exposure) and resilience (defined by anticipatory, adaptive, and restorative capacities) within the paradigm of the (...)

#Original_Research

Barriers to fuel cell cargo bike adoption in urban logistics: a multi-level transition analysis
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1701390

European municipalities are increasingly pivotal in advancing sustainable urban freight systems. This paper examines the potential of Fuel Cell Cargo Pedelecs (FCCPs) as innovative alternatives to diesel and battery-powered logistics vehicles. Despite growing technological promise and policy interest in zero-emission logistics, the widespread integration of hydrogen-powered cargo bikes remains limited and underexplored in academic research. Addressing this gap, the study applies a dual framework combining the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory to analyze both structural and behavioral factors shaping FCCP adoption. Drawing on a mixed-methods assessment of FCCP deployment in multiple cities within the Interreg North-West Europe project, the study (...)

#Original_Research

Strategic co-creation and synergistic partnerships in digital budgeting reform: strengthening public governance for sustainable cities in Makassar, Indonesia
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1716088

BackgroundDigital budgeting reforms increasingly hinge on collaborative governance. This study examines how strategic co-creation and synergistic partnerships shape Makassar’s e-budgeting and strengthen public governance for sustainable cities.MethodsA qualitative single-case design triangulates a five-year fiscal series (2019–2023), a regulatory hierarchy, internal documents, and 15 semi-structured interviews (government, DPRD, civil society, academia, banking/technology).ResultsMakassar has established strong procedural rails—standardised workflows, KKPD non-cash instruments, bank integrations, and interoperable audit trails—enhancing transparency and control. Execution remains uneven: transfers realise ≈97–98%; PAD fluctuates ≈80–94%; total expenditure fell to ≈76% (2021–2022) before (...)

#Original_Research

A footprint of UHI in India: a #Systematic_Review of causative factors, impacts and mitigation strategies
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1649138

Urban heat island (UHI) is the phenomenon where urban areas possess higher temperature than its surrounding rural areas. The present review examines the factors contributing to the UHI effect and the challenge faced by Indian cities in the context of environmental sustainability and health by referring to the literature of more than 40 cities between 2005 and 2023. The present study reviewed already available research which utilizes remote sensing techniques to study the UHI. This study mainly includes satellite data studies; while some fixed station studies, field observations and instrument measurement studies were also incorporated. The current scenario of UHI research in India highlights that the larger cities are studied the most and the smaller but developing cities still need (...)

Challenges and opportunities of clean air zone planning: a case study of Amman, Jordan
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1696698

IntroductionResearch has highlighted the importance of addressing air pollution in cities. Despite the emergence of various environmental strategies in developed contexts, implementation and research related to air quality management frameworks and clear air action plans in the Global South, and in the Arab region, is limited. In Jordan, current air quality management efforts are primarily constrained to monitoring ambient air quality. Accordingly, this research examines the barriers to implementing Clean Air Zones (CAZs) in Amman, Jordan.MethodsThe methodology utilizes document analysis and semi-structured interviews with city planning and air quality management stakeholders in the city.ResultsAn assessment of current environmental, urban, and transportation action plans indicates (...)

#Original_Research

Computational sustainability in rural home-based healthcare: circular resource routing and community-embedded service management in China
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1672256

IntroductionSustainable and equitable home-based healthcare in rural areas requires service systems that balance efficiency, fairness, and responsible resource use, particularly under constraints of limited personnel and dispersed populations.MethodsThis study proposes a computational sustainability framework for optimizing multi-cycle routing and scheduling of nursing staff in rural China. A bi-objective model is developed to minimize operational costs and maximize equitable service accessibility. A service-time-prioritized greedy algorithm, a customized genetic algorithm, and a tabu search procedure are applied and evaluated using publicly available datasets.ResultsCompared with classical and random heuristics, the proposed methods achieve approximately 10–15% reductions in (...)

#Original_Research

Unveiling the impact of green infrastructure on children’s play in primary school open spaces an empirical pilot case study from Leipzig, Germany
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1743481

In an era of increasing urbanization and sealing, green and open spaces are being displaced at an accelerated rate. However, it is precisely these spaces that contribute to the liveability of a city for its inhabitants, including a significant number of schoolchildren. Concurrently, urban green infrastructure is strategically integrated into the city’s structures with a view to providing ecosystem services that support human well-being. The prevailing assumption is that green infrastructure exerts a significant influence on the play behavior of children in school yards, with certain green elements being hypothesized to foster increased creativity. The present pilot study, which was conducted in the city of Leipzig, Germany, examined the importance of green infrastructure on children’s (...)

#Original_Research

Financing the net-zero transition of Mission Cities: governance barriers and enablers to the use of innovative financing instruments
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1665973

As CO2 emissions continue to rise and the impacts of climate change reach unprecedented levels, cities must accelerate the net-zero transition through rapid and effective action. The EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities has made strong commitments to lead this transition, but securing the necessary resources increasingly requires leveraging innovative financing instruments (IFIs). This paper provides an exploratory empirical assessment of governance barriers and enabling conditions shaping innovative finance in Mission Cities, drawing on qualitative analysis of cities’ Climate Investment Plans and in-depth interviews with six Mission Cities (Barcelona, Münster, Parma, Pécs, The Hague, and Thessaloniki). The results reveal a high level of interest but limited uptake of IFIs, (...)

#Original_Research

Car dependence in England and Wales: spatial inequalities and implications for a just transition
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1719495

This paper explores the nuances of car dependence in England and Wales by identifying four distinct archetypes that span structural and conscious forms. Employing the 2011 England and Wales Census, archetype prevalence is mapped across the study area at the LSOA level, and a demographic analysis is performed. We find that while dependence exists across the study area, structural dependence is found more in rural areas, particularly the east coast of England and Wales, while conscious dependence is more prevalent in and around urban centers. The demographic makeup of each archetype differs significantly, with disability, socio-economic class, and ethnicity arising as notable significant indicators. This work highlights that an equitable transition to a sustainable transport system (...)

#Original_Research

Spatial transfer from urban to rural areas? Characteristics and evolutionary drivers of urban–rural spatiotemporal clusters of peer-to-peer accommodation
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1721902

With the urbanization and transformation of consumption styles, the peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) industry has emerged to provide more convenient and efficient options for tourists and to inject new vitality into urban economies. This study investigates the spatiotemporal clustering and evolutionary drivers of P2PA in urban and rural areas of Shanghai. Spatial autocorrelation techniques and the Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) model are adopted to analyze the Airbnb data from 2016 to 2021 to identify the spatial characteristics of P2PA. The results indicate that high-value P2PA clusters in the city center are gradually breaking apart and shifting to rural areas especially in Pudong New Area. The shift from urban to rural areas makes great contributions to form (...)

#Original_Research

Scalable hexagonal modular units for green and adaptive infrastructure
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1706667

IntroductionUniversity campuses in Central Europe, like elsewhere, are under increasing pressure to adopt flexible, climate-responsive, and ecological infrastructure that improves both environmental performance and student experience. In this study, we introduce a hexagonal modular unit (HEXA unit) designed to revitalize underused campus spaces through green infrastructure.MethodsWe combined a survey of 190 campus users, statistical tests for reliability and associations, and a Life Cycle Assessment.ResultsThe survey revealed that students strongly prefer natural materials like wood and vegetation and favor multifunctional module configurations that enhance social interaction and collaborative learning. Reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) supported consistency in our attitudinal measures; (...)

#Original_Research

Urban design climate workshop: toolkits to bridge climate science, governance, and community needs
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1666752

Despite expanded municipal climate commitments, many cities continue to struggle with translating carbon-neutrality, resilience, and equity goals into coordinated implementation. Persistent governance fragmentation, institutional inertia, and limited technical capacity undermine the development of integsrated climate strategies. This article evaluates the Urban Design Climate Workshop (UDCW) methodology—developed within the UCCRN network—as a structured, multi-scalar approach to bridge these gaps. UDCWs couple interoperable Simulation and Facilitation toolkits to support evidence-based, participatory co-design processes. We draw on eight case studies across Europe, Africa, and South America to examine how UDCWs operate within diverse governance and planning contexts. Findings show that (...)

#Original_Research

Inconsistent light measurement protocols in animal studies hinder wildlife-adapted LED illumination applications for natural habitats
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1710192

Urbanisation is leading to an increase in outdoor lighting technologies in cities, which can disrupt wildlife habitats in urban greenery and alter their natural biological, physiological, and behavioural rhythms. Despite the flexibility of LED lighting technology, it is not being used effectively in practise to minimise ecological disturbances while providing sufficient illumination for people. A PRISMA review of 31 papers on lighting using contemporary LED sources and wildlife species revealed that lighting parameters were inadequately described to (1) characterise the relationship between assessed ecological impacts and light properties and (2) adjust properties of contemporary lighting technologies to reduce such impacts on animals. The authors suggest strengthening (...)

#Mini_Review

How green does a dense city need to be? Functional urban biodiversity for dense cities
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1722129
#Opinion

Spatial temporal evolution of tourism destination competitiveness and its coordination with ecological environment in coastal areas of China
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1629222

It’s an important basis to clarify the coordination between the spatiotemporal evolution of tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) and the ecological environment for promoting the sustainable development of tourist destinations. This study used the entropy weight method, spatial analysis method and the center of gravity model to evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of tourism competitiveness and ecological environment in China’s coastal areas from 2005 to 2020. It also used the coupled coordination model to analyze the coordination relationship between the two. The results show that the overall level of tourism competitiveness along China’s coastal areas is on the rise, with significant spatial differences between different provinces, and the center of gravity of (...)

#Original_Research

The many faces of China’s Sponge City Initiative
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1688283

The Chinese Sponge City Initiative (SCI) seeks to reconcile the tension between urban development and environmental protection by prioritizing nature-based solutions to urban water management. As might be expected, the existing literature on the SCI is predominantly technical and engineering based. There is a dearth of writing on how this broad reaching green policy shapes people and place. This paper explores the SCI through hydrosocial and place-based lenses, revealing the importance of the local scale in this national policy. It is at the local scale that the conversation about the SCI enables contestation of infrastructure, economic and environmental values. The SCI is concerned with the environment, but at the same time is clearly being leveraged to support new business and a (...)

#Original_Research

Margins of habitability. A qualitative study on housing and marginalization in México
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1700078

IntroductionIn middle-income countries such as Mexico, housing adequacy remains a central challenge, particularly in relation to the physical conditions of dwellings and the provision of essential services, including potable water, drainage, and electricity. This study examines how the quality of living spaces, access to basic services, and conditions of vulnerability are perceived across municipalities with different levels of marginalization.MethodsThe study involved a literature review, the development of a sampling strategy based on the Municipal Marginalization Index (IMM), and the conduct of 235 semi-structured interviews. The data were coded using thematic analysis and interpreted through an analytical framework that integrates material and subjective dimensions of (...)

#Original_Research

Spatial optimization of green hydrogen infrastructure for sustainable urban mobility: a grid-based framework for Germany
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1712578

IntroductionThe decarbonization of urban transportation is a central pillar of sustainable city development. While hydrogen offers a promising pathway, its integration into urban and regional infrastructure faces significant spatial and safety challenges.MethodsTo address this, we developed a novel geospatial optimization model that designs hydrogen supply chain networks (HSCNs) for clean transportation. The model’s key novelty is its grid-based optimization framework, which integrates real pipeline and station data to simultaneously optimize hub locations for both proximity to refueling stations and access to the main pipeline network. Applied to Germany’s Hydrogen Core Network (HCN), the model was formulated with distance-minimizing objective functions and solved using a clustering (...)

#Original_Research

The tipping point: financial fragility of a property-led model of transit-oriented development in an emerging economy
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1700900

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is increasingly adopted in emerging economies to manage urbanization, but the financial models underpinning these projects often face significant institutional and market risks. This study addresses a gap by using a financial model not merely as a predictive tool, but as a diagnostic lens to critique the implementation of Indonesian TOD policy. We argue that the dominant model being built is not an integrated transport system but a financially fragile, property-led real estate project. This paper conducts an in-depth, quantitative single-case study of the Poris Plawad TOD project in Greater Jakarta. A Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model was developed to assess the project’s Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) over a 25-year (...)

#Original_Research

Prospects, constraints, and barriers to the efficient delivery of human settlements in South Africa—the case for professionalisation
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1659981

The South African polity, since democracy, has witnessed significant shifts in state policy calling for the increasing professionalisation of the civil service in general through the National Development Plan (NDP) and the National Professionalisation Framework (NPF) for the public service. The rationale behind these has been to build a capable and efficient state. This article presents a critical review of literature pertaining to professionalisation of the civil service as it relates to the human settlements sector in South Africa, with a particular focus on the major causes of inefficiencies in service delivery. The article argues that beyond the calls for overall professionalisation, the human settlements professional project has a more specific history which has been a systemic (...)

#Original_Research

Eco-industrial parks construction and industrial chain resilience
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1663273

This article explores the impact of eco-industrial park construction from the perspective of industrial chain resilience. Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) help reduce environmental pollution and make the industrial sector more environmentally friendly, representing the direction of sustainable industrial development. Based on panel data from 285 cities from 2006 to 2023, this article uses the difference in differences method to explore the impact of the construction of national eco-industrial demonstration parks on industrial chain resilience. Research has found that in pilot cities, EIP has made a positive contribution of 1.56 to 2.75% in improving industrial chain resilience. Considering the exclusion of provincial capitals and other policy factors, the impact of EIP is robust. Compared (...)

#Original_Research

Smart and sustainable city Baghdad
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1723083

IntroductionThe Smart Sustainable City Baghdad (SSCB-App) initiative advances a novel, multi-sectoral framework for urban transformation in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Conceived as both a technological innovation and a governance instrument, the SSCB-App operationalizes the principles of resilience, sustainability, and inclusivity within a city marked by protracted conflict, infrastructural collapse, and institutional fragmentation. Through the integration of real-time data analytics, interactive dashboards, and scenario-based simulations, the application systematically engages critical urban domains—energy, water, transportation, healthcare, education, security, environment, and governance—while linking them to the global normative architecture of the United Nations (...)

#Original_Research

Assessing GFRP for sustainable concrete reinforcement in high-rise buildings
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1685718

This study explores the use of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) as a sustainable reinforcement alternative to counteract ramifications caused by steel corrosion in coastal high-rise Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings subjected to both static and dynamic loads. The paper focuses on the vertical load bearing elements, particularly highlighting the performance of GFRP bars in columns, spanning structural, environmental, and economic extents. Two models of a 12-story reinforced concrete residential building were created for traditional steel and GFRP, respectively. The structural performance of the two models was assessed under static and dynamic conditions using ETABS software. Wind loads were calculated in accordance with the ASCE standards, the equivalent static seismic loads were (...)

#Original_Research

Integrating geospatial mapping and stakeholders’ perception on sustainable flood solutions in a typical coastal megacity of Nigeria: a SWOT-AHP approach
▻https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2025.1663269

The study involved the identification of urban flood-prone areas, followed by surface inundation mapping and the development of strategic flood solutions using an integrated approach. Digital elevation modeling of the satellite images and Sentinel-2 data, along with spatial rainfall data, was integrated for assessing spatial flood vulnerability using a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach. In addition, questionnaires were administered to participants on 40 elements outlined in the SWOT survey instrumentation, and responses were analyzed. The findings revealed high flood vulnerability in the study area, particularly the densely populated metropolitan areas with inadequate drainage infrastructure. Rainfall patterns during the June–July–August (JJA) and September–October–November (...)

#Original_Research