Dear Colleagues,

The health emergency of COVID-19 after the occurrence of the subprime crisis of 2007 has highlighted the economic, social and environmental shortcomings of urban systems. The most difficult challenge of the 21st century is the ability to carry out effective interventions in cities to mitigate urban genetic anomalies (urban sprawl, urban sprinkling, etc.) and  avoid land consumption. It can be noted that, in this context, the active industrial sites subject to reclamation interventions, including the reconversion of plants and monitoring of the effects on health and the environment, which are of national interest and play a crucial role in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the Agenda 2030. In particular, articles number 8, 9, 11 and 12 focus on ensuring sustainable models of industrialisation, production, consumption, urban development and economic growth.

Since the "Stockholm Conference" of 1972, the European Union has brought to the attention of the government the need to plan actions aimed at reducing the negative effects caused by impactful land use. The 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda,  the recent financial recovery instrument, "NextGenerationEU", and the New Green Deal targets represent the current global effort developed by the European Union to improve the future of urban development. It is, therefore, imperative to pursue the efficient management of existing real estate assets and adequate regulation of the new building according to the maximization of the quality and extension of the green area, which is also in consideration of the current relevance of the ESG’s criteria (Environmental, Social and Governance).

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights on the assessment and evaluation frameworks concerning the risks of economic-financial, social, health and environmental issues generated by land consumption or industrial and production activities in the urban environment where both public and private subjects are involved.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Health and environmental effects of industrial and production activities;
• Cost-benefit analysis;
• Brownfield redevelopment;
• Indicators and indices-based systems;
• Real estate evaluation models;
• Geographic information systems;
• Brownfield redevelopment;
• Urban planning compensation schemes;
• Sustainable building management;
• Urban and land economics, transport economics;
• COVID-19 effects on urban dynamics;
• Resilient cities assessment;
• Sustainable public-private partnerships.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Land. 

Dr. Debora Anelli
Prof. Dr. Pierluigi Morano
Dr. Marco Locurcio
Dr. Francesco Tajani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• land use policy
• land deal
• land market
• land take
• ecological indicators
• urban policy
• sustainable development and finance
• decision support tools
• risk assessment
• real estate assessment models
• index and indicator-based system