New Insights into Resilient Cities under New Urban Crises

Dear Colleagues,

We are all aware that we are living in an urbanizing and rapidly changing world, where massive disruptive, extreme urban crises and shocks have become increasingly commonplace. Abrupt events and changes occurring in recent years, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, global climate change, financial and energy crisis, and social protests, are different from meanwhile much more diverse, frequent, and intensified than their counterparts in the past few decades. In face of these unexpected events and natural and man-made disasters (e.g., heavy floods, heat waves, and pollution), local institutions and urban planners seek to undertake many countermeasures to save lives and reduce economic losses and identify the key fundamental characteristics and elements of cities and societies that help themselves get back on track and even flourish afterward. On the other hand, the development of new-generation information technologies, especially big data and smart devices, offers powerful tools that enable us to capture, monitor, and understand the near real-time dynamics of cities and human behavioral changes and to facilitate policy-making so as to ensure that urban systems and dwellers are prepared for crisis events.

Hence, there is a pressing need to delve into the adaptation and resilience of individuals, communities, societies, and city systems in response to the wide-ranging and long-standing impacts of these new urban crises that may be occurring now and in the near future. In particular, more efforts are needed to rethink and fully address the fundamental questions of “what is urban resilience and how to measure it in different dimensions and across spatial and temporal scales?” and “how can these conceptualizations and measurements inform adaptation strategies for urban planning and design?” The answers could benefit the development of planning theories, methodologies, and practices for building resilient cities.

We are seeking original reviews and research papers to enrich the scope of resilient cities, to measure urban resilience with novel approaches or data, and to inform urban planning and design from new perspectives. This Special Issue is open to call for papers covering but not limited to the following topics:

1. New concepts, perspectives, or theoretical discussions of resilient cities under the context of new urban crises (e.g., pandemics, climate extremes, and financial and energy crisis);
2. New measurements of urban resilience from different dimensions (e.g., social, economic, and environmental) using new methods or big data (e.g., human mobility and social media data);
3. Examination of the spatial and temporal patterns of urban residence within urban areas across scales;
4. Unequal vulnerability and resilience of socioeconomic population groups in unexpected events and disasters;
5. Challenges and opportunities for developing the alleviation and adaptation strategies to inform urban planning and design.

Dr. Chang Xia
Dr. Huagui Guo
Dr. Qingsong He
Dr. Anqi Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• resilience
• urban planning
• unexpected events
• disasters
• vulnerability
• big data