Cities are the areas where most of us live, work, and play, and they will continue to be centers of human activity into the future with population growth and increased urbanization. Consequently, cities have an important role in delivering sustainable development. Most of the cities of today will be the cities of the future. To meet the challenge of improving the sustainability of where we live now, we must understand the current state of our cities, articulate a vision of their sustainable future, and chart a path between where they are now and where we wish them to be. Transparent and robust metrics are necessary to measure out cities’ progress. This Special Issue focuses on novel research and real-world case studies from which insights can be drawn on the fundamental components of a sustainable city, including: buildings; movement of goods and people; generation of power and heat; integrated planning; natural resources; resilience; habitat; governance; policy-making; and so on. Authors should clearly identify: Their vision of a sustainable city and proposed metrics to measure progress; The novelty of their approach; The scale of the impact, including a discussion of sensitivity and uncertainty; How unintended consequences and problem shifting may be accounted for and mitigated; Gaps in technology or policy necessary to deliver the research outcomes; and The relevance of the research outcomes to other cities.
Keywords: sustainability and sustainable development; human health and well-being; buildings and materials; integrated planning; natural environment; movement of goods and people; natural resources; ecological footprint; resilience; governance and policy-making.