Call for paper: Isobenefit urbanism

Isobenefit urbanism

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3 – Good Health & WellbeingSDG 09 – Industry, innovation and infrastructureSDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communitiesSDG 15 – 15 Life on land.

More than half the global population currently resides in cities. By 2050, this is expected to rise to nearly 80%, meaning 6 billion people will be living in cities and urban areas. Rather than thinking of cities as efficient spaces in which to “pack” as many people at high densities, there is an increasing need to develop concepts of urban planning that provide liveability, individual welfare and collective diversity, as well as mitigate current urban problems like urban heat island effects, pollution and urban sprawl. Isobenefit Urbanism (IU) is a relatively new approach to urban-territorial development that shapes urban form and functions through a straightforward code. Its implementation creates “isobenefit” cities, where residents can easily walk to most daily destinations, including central hubs with theatres, restaurants, schools, offices, promenades, and shops. Additionally, everyone, regardless of their location or the size of the city, should have close access to continuous green spaces.

Isobenefit Urbanism can be summarised by these 10 points: 1) Uniform dislocation of centralities, 2) Hyper-connected archipelagos of walking units, 3) Uniform dislocation and proportion of natural land, 4) Urban form shaper, 5) Semi self-organized, 6) Limitless growth, 7) Algorithmic growth, 8) Borrowing centrality size, 9) Horizontal centralities network, 10) Fluid morphogenesis.

This Collection aims to explore IU and its multilevel impacts over a range of disciplines. Articles discussing explicit links with IU are welcomed. Authors may consider, but are not limited to, approaches from the following subjects:

  • Urban Forestry and Urban Greening: examining aspects of IU related to its particular attention to natural areas and parks, both equally spread at walkable distance regardless the urban size.
  • Biodiversity: the physical interconnectedness of natural areas and parks within the entire isobenefit city creating favourable conditions for urban and territorial biodiversity.
  • Housing and land values: facing aspects of IU related to its land use and amenities distributions (specifically: natural amenities and urban centralities at walkable distances);
  • Transport: IU transportation methods which occur via walking, bikes, sky-trains, urban gondolas, underground rail, etc.
  • Engineering: the specific transportation system (e.g. sky trains) of an isobenefit city require use of advanced engineering to combine design, safety and efficiency.
  • Urban morphology: a clear tenet of IU due to the near infinite urban shapes it could generate.
  • Cellular automata, multi-agent based simulation: IU implementation, in virtual or real cases, could benefit from simulations based on cellular automata or multi-agent to test growth or transformation scenarios.
  • Utopia: IU proposes scenarios which can seems utopian and visionary, stimulating potential discussions among utopians.
  • Urban climate and Climate change: IU features ideas that would dramatically reduce urban CO2 emissions.  Specific relations between green and built land can also drastically reduce urban heat island effects and improve natural water absorptions with related reduced flooding risks.
  • Pandemics: Covid-19 experiences reminded us how factors such as urban size, density, green areas and walkability can affect pandemics.
  • Inequalities: A main aim of IU is to provide equal proximity to amenities and green spaces regardless of social status and wealth of urban dwellers.
  • Environmental Psychology: IU provides a new urban life concept where people are in daily contact with natural land and carless cities, both enabling specific aesthetics and sensorial experiences.
  • Urban Planning: the semi self-organised IU growth offers inputs for debate about planning approaches.
  • Happiness studies: the enhanced urban quality of life experienced by dwellers of isobenefit cities are expected to induce happier and more satisfied urban lives.
  • Rural studies: IU multi-scale implementations range from small villages to megacities; this would promote the connection and valorisation of abandoned rural, countryside, mountain hamlets and villages into a bigger net enabling their population counter-exodus.

Editors

Submitting a paper for consideration

 

To submit your manuscript for consideration at Humanities & Social Sciences Communications as part of this Collection, please follow the steps detailed on this page. On the first page of our online submission system, please select your article type from the drop down menu. When on the “details” tab, you will be presented with the option to select which Collection your article should be submitted to. Authors should also express their interest in the Collection in their cover letter.

Accepted papers are published on a rolling basis as soon as they are ready.

Submission status:- Open
Submission deadline:-
For more details refer here
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