Conservation of the Socio-Ecological Environment in Urban Areas: From Theoretical Investigations to Novel Technological Solutions

A special issue of Conservation (ISSN 2673-7159).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 14391

Special Issue Editors

Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Polytechnic of Turin, I-10129 Turin, Italy
Interests: air quality; air pollution and urban environmental conservation; climate change mitigation; odors; biomethane; health impact assessment; carbon footprint; waste management; wastewater treatment plants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Polytechnic of Turin, I-10129 Turin, Italy
Interests: air quality; pollutant dispersion modelling; air pollution and urban environmental conservation; GHG emissions; odors; biomethane; health impact assessment; carbon footprint
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics (DICATAM), University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Interests: water, hygiene and sanitation in low-income contexts and humanitarian aid; sanitation planning; wastewater treatment; waste management; renewable energy
Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Turin 10153, Italy
Interests: environmental sociology; environmental policy; sustainability; green criminology; citizen participation; urban governance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas are complex systems in which multiple social, environmental and economical interactions coexist. All urban areas worldwide are facing great challenges for the conservation (or restoration) of their socio-environmental equilibria. Multiple factors are pushing the world population to concentrate in cities, causing profound transformations in social textures, and enormous changes in the exploitation and use of natural resources. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) aims to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Social inequalities, environmental pollution and climate resilience are aspects that must be comprehensively addressed to achieve these sustainability goals.

This Special Issue of the journal Conservation welcomes interdisciplinary submissions (original research papers or reviews) that bring novel contributions to the analysis of the urban environment and related interactions at social, ecological and technological levels. The conservation of the urban environment means guaranteed adequate environmental quality (air, drinking water, etc.), services (open spaces, transportation, waste and wastewater management etc.), and housing. Moreover, climate change is bringing additional challenges to administrations, which must ensure measures for both preventing its impacts and protecting citizens and infrastructures.

The urban environment, providing a place for citizens to live, work and communicate, should be assessed from a human-centered perspective, including social equity, welfare, culture and heritage, social relations and education, with specific attention paid to poor and vulnerable groups. The vulnerability and resilience of different individuals and groups to a changing environment and climate need to be reflected in the urban governance and policies. Urbanization facilitates mobilization, because it creates the proximity of large masses of people, where rapid socio-technical innovations can produce social disorganization and disparity that facilitate social conflicts. In other words, the socio-political implications of the ecological crisis are most evident in urban contexts, both on a global and territorial scale. Mitigation and conservation policies, for instance, are overly complicated in countries associated with socio-economic vulnerability, where the effects of environmental degradation and global heating are already evident. On the other hand, in the most advanced countries, policies based on urban sustainability can produce profoundly unequal effects on urban inhabitants, especially around the distribution of environmental goods and burdens.

This Special Issue is open to theoretical investigations and modeling on the multidisciplinary interactions within the urban context, as well as experimental studies or virtuous experiences concerning the application of novel technological solutions, and their impact on the social sphere. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Modeling and theoretical investigations on human–technology–environment interactions;
  • Energy and environmental planning and design for urban areas;
  • Environmental management and human health interactions;
  • Technological solutions towards sustainability and resource consumption optimization, and their social acceptance;
  • Environmental and social sustainability and accessibility of public services;
  • Climate change adaptation actions, and their social acceptance;
  • Urban sustainable policies, inequalities, and environmental and social injustice;
  • Conservation, “greening” or “greenwashing”: policy/governance failure in relation to the environment, environmental deregulation and the privatization of commons.

Prof. Dr. Deborah Panepinto
Dr. Marco Ravina
Dr. Marta Domini
Dr. Vittorio Martone
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. Conservation is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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.

Keywords

  • sustainable cities
  • urban pollution
  • urban design
  • climate change adaptation
  • sanitation planning
  • environmental justice
  • urban governance

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 3143 KiB  
Article
Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) Systems: Is the Conservation of Water in Colombo Urban Areas Worth It?
by Chamika M. Ranasingha and Premachandra Wattage
Conservation 2024, 4(1), 23-35; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/conservation4010002 - 08 Jan 2024
Viewed by 453
Abstract
In Sri Lanka, the wet zone of Colombo and other urban areas usually experience urban flooding situations. Furthermore, the urban setting is rapidly changing. The community perceives flood control and water conservation relatively poorly. Rainwater harvesting is a low-impact development (LID) method to [...] Read more.
In Sri Lanka, the wet zone of Colombo and other urban areas usually experience urban flooding situations. Furthermore, the urban setting is rapidly changing. The community perceives flood control and water conservation relatively poorly. Rainwater harvesting is a low-impact development (LID) method to control urban flash flood situations. However, considering people’s interest in and awareness of rainwater harvesting (RWH), it was found that RWH is a lost factor in urban conservation. Therefore, using economically attractive choices, this study estimated the trade-off of residents practicing RWH in urban areas affected by high surface water runoff. The study’s selected area was the Thimbirigasyaya Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD) flooding spots, an ideal location to estimate the preferences/trade-offs of individuals regarding rainwater harvesting practices. This estimation was calculated using a choice experiment (CE) method, which is an economic valuation method. Under this method, the conditional logit model was used to analyze people’s preferences. The results showed that people are motivated and prefer to use RWH due to selected attributes in the field survey. This promising result implies that individuals prefer to use the RWH system as a method of stormwater management and water conservation. Moreover, most residents are willing to adopt these systems looking at their monthly water bill reduction and as promoters of green building concepts. Full article
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22 pages, 13597 KiB  
Article
Leveraging Ecosystem Services and Well-Being in Urban Landscape Planning for Nature Conservation: A Case Study of Peri-Urban Dynamics
by Fiona Nevzati, Martti Veldi, Joanna Storie and Mart Külvik
Conservation 2024, 4(1), 1-22; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/conservation4010001 - 04 Jan 2024
Viewed by 889
Abstract
Within peri-urban landscapes, this research investigated the complexity of the balance between urban development and green infrastructure preservation, with a specific focus on Harku municipality, Estonia. This study aimed to understand the interplay between cultural ecosystem services (CESs) and residents’ well-being. Aligned with [...] Read more.
Within peri-urban landscapes, this research investigated the complexity of the balance between urban development and green infrastructure preservation, with a specific focus on Harku municipality, Estonia. This study aimed to understand the interplay between cultural ecosystem services (CESs) and residents’ well-being. Aligned with the EU Nature Restoration Law, this research explored long-term dynamics in peri-urban areas’ CES conservation. The methodology included creating scenarios by combining new secondary data with the author’s prior studies, which covered landscape belts, CES values, and residents’ perceptions of satisfaction with the environment and recreation opportunities collected through a municipal survey. While residents expressed satisfaction in coastal and green spaces, a distinct decline was evident near villages with industrial and agricultural features, highlighting the landscape’s impact on well-being. This study identified case-study-specific threats related to rapid urbanisation and put forward constructive policy recommendations. The goal was to develop effective and sustainable strategies for preserving nature through ecosystem service-based frameworks, enhance community well-being, and account for landscape dynamics through scenario planning. Full article
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14 pages, 2383 KiB  
Article
Effect of Pre-Germinative Treatments on Eight Priority Native Species for Reforestation in the Tropical Deciduous Forest
by Juan De Jesús-Velázquez, Alejandro Cisneros-Villaseñor, Ricardo Armando Tamayo-Bustamante, Dioseline Girón-Gutiérrez, Hugo Luna-Soria and Víctor Hugo Cambrón-Sandoval
Conservation 2023, 3(2), 277-290; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/conservation3020019 - 19 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1788
Abstract
Increasing the germination percentages from chemical and/or mechanical processes in native species is vital for the conservation of the species. The objective was to evaluate the effect of different treatments on the germination process of species belonging to the tropical deciduous forest (TDF) [...] Read more.
Increasing the germination percentages from chemical and/or mechanical processes in native species is vital for the conservation of the species. The objective was to evaluate the effect of different treatments on the germination process of species belonging to the tropical deciduous forest (TDF) in a forest nursery. Eight species of trees and shrubs reported to be native to the TDF were selected; the seeds were collected from various sites of the state of Queretaro, Mexico. A randomized design of four replicates with 25 seeds was used, for which three pre-germinative scarification treatments were evaluated for each species: (1) thermal scarification (TS), (2) mechanical scarification (MS), and (3) chemical scarification (CS). Germination was considered as the protrusion of cotyledons onto the substrate and was recorded every 48 h for 60 days. A significant difference was observed between treatments (p ≤ 0.05). The mechanical treatment (MS) obtained the highest germination percentage and the least variation, in contrast to the thermal, chemical, and control treatments, which presented the lowest amount of germinated seeds. The MS treatment was the most effective for all the species studied because it allowed for 100% of the germination to be achieved. Full article
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12 pages, 6936 KiB  
Article
Urbanization and Vulnerability of Architectural Heritage: The Case of Dar es Salaam CBD
by Swai Ombeni, Dorothea Mbosha and Simon Mpyanga
Conservation 2021, 1(3), 216-227; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/conservation1030017 - 01 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3802
Abstract
The architectural heritage present in Dar es Salaam Central Business District (CBD) spans across Arab, German, British, and post-colonial eras. The city is rich in buildings with combined architectural styles. Over the past few decades, Dar es Salaam has been experiencing considerable pressure [...] Read more.
The architectural heritage present in Dar es Salaam Central Business District (CBD) spans across Arab, German, British, and post-colonial eras. The city is rich in buildings with combined architectural styles. Over the past few decades, Dar es Salaam has been experiencing considerable pressure from urbanization. This has resulted in a boom of contemporary construction approaches, yet little concern has been given to the existing old buildings and historical fabric in general. Although urbanization is an unstoppable reality due to the forces it carries with it, it is necessary to find ways to strike a balance between urbanization and its impact on the original urban setting which is less explored in Dar es Salaam. This study investigated the relationship between urbanization and architectural heritage with the intention to balance the two, and set to answer questions about how the two can co-exist. Through a case study approach, changes such as physical transformation, elimination, and replacement of architectural heritage buildings were investigated and analyzed through maps, graphs, and charts. The results have indicated that the driving forces of urbanization such as population, policies, and economy have been influencing each other in physical transformation and demolition of architectural heritage buildings throughout the period between 1967 and 2020. The study suggests that activities such as ecotourism which will enhance social economic benefits should be promoted to support both the urbanization process and architectural heritage conservation. Full article
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Review

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15 pages, 539 KiB  
Review
Potential of Canna indica in Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment: A Review
by Petro Novert Karungamye
Conservation 2022, 2(3), 499-513; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/conservation2030034 - 11 Aug 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6048
Abstract
This article reviews investigations in which Canna indica was utilized in constructed wetlands (CW) for wastewater treatment of a variety types. It is strongly urged that ornamental flowering plants be used in CWs as monoculture or mixed species to improve the appearance of [...] Read more.
This article reviews investigations in which Canna indica was utilized in constructed wetlands (CW) for wastewater treatment of a variety types. It is strongly urged that ornamental flowering plants be used in CWs as monoculture or mixed species to improve the appearance of CWs whilst still treating wastewater. Plants play important roles in CWs by giving the conditions for physical filtration of wastewater, a large specific surface area for microbial growth, and a source of carbohydrates for bacteria. They absorb nutrients and integrate them into plant tissues. They release oxygen into the substrate, establishing a zone in which aerobic microorganisms can thrive and chemical oxidation can occur. They also provide wildlife habitat and make wastewater treatment system more visually attractive. The selection of plant species for CW is an important aspect during the CW design process. Canna indica’s effectiveness in CWs has shown encouraging results for eliminating contaminants from wastewater. There is still a scarcity of information on the mechanisms involved in removal of specific contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, hormones, pesticides and steroids and their potential toxicity to the plants. Therefore, this paper reviews some published information about the performance of Canna indica in wastewater treatment, as well as potential areas for future research. Full article
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