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Introduction
Armed conflicts are reshaping cities at an unprecedented scale, affecting infrastructure, governance, economies, ecosystems and communities. While considerable attention has been devoted to documenting urban destruction, much less research has explored how cities can anticipate, absorb, adapt to and recover from conflict while simultaneously advancing sustainability, resilience and long-term development.
This Special Issue seeks to establish a new research agenda on conflict-resilient cities by bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from engineering, urban planning, architecture, geography, environmental science, public policy, digital technologies, economics and the social sciences. It aims to move beyond rebuilding damaged assets towards understanding cities as complex socio-technical systems capable of transformation through resilient planning, digital innovation, inclusive governance and community-centred recovery.
The Special Issue aims to advance scientific understanding and practical implementation of conflict-resilient urban development by:
• developing new conceptual and methodological approaches for understanding conflict-affected cities;
• integrating engineering, urban planning, governance, economics, digital technologies and social sciences into holistic recovery frameworks;
• exploring how resilience, sustainability and liveability can be embedded throughout reconstruction rather than treated as post-conflict objectives;
• promoting evidence-based approaches for recovery planning using digital technologies, AI, digital twins, remote sensing and geospatial analytics;
• examining governance, financing, stakeholder engagement and participatory approaches that enable effective reconstruction;
• identifying lessons from international experiences that can inform future urban resilience policies.
The Special Issue will achieve these aims by publishing original interdisciplinary research, review papers, methodological advances, policy analyses and international case studies from diverse conflict contexts.
The frequency, duration and intensity of armed conflicts have increased significantly over the past decade, with devastating impacts on urban areas. The destruction of critical infrastructure and housing in Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, Sudan and other regions has demonstrated that urban conflicts create cascading failures across transportation, energy, healthcare, water, communications, governance and economic systems.
At the same time, international initiatives—including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the New Urban Agenda and recent recovery programmes supported by governments and international financial institutions—have highlighted the need for resilient, sustainable and inclusive reconstruction.
Rapid advances in digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, digital twins, satellite remote sensing, geospatial analytics and urban data platforms, provide unprecedented opportunities to support recovery planning and evidence-based decision making. However, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding how these technologies can be integrated with governance, community participation and long-term resilience objectives.
The Special Issue addresses these timely scientific and societal challenges by providing an interdisciplinary platform that bridges engineering, urban studies, planning, digital innovation and policy.
List of topic areas
- Conflict-resilient urban planning and governance
- Systems resilience of critical infrastructure and urban services
- Digital twins, AI and smart technologies for damage assessment and conflict recovery
- Urban resilience metrics, indicators and decision-support systems
- Community resilience, social equity and participatory planning
- Climate adaptation and conflict interactions in cities
- Heritage protection and cultural resilience
- Urban mobility and resilient transport systems
- Circular economy and sustainable reconstruction
- Comparative international lessons from conflict-affected cities
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here: ScholarOne Manuscripts
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/fc
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else while under review for this journal.
Key deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 10/08/2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/12/2026
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