Dear Colleagues,

Urban areas have improved over the years to pursue increased sustainability, livability status, and resilience, as well as better economic and social dimensions, aided with the context of the digital revolution. Unsurprisingly, smart cities have been put under scrutiny, and have led to numerous debates regarding their technological biases, their (un)sustainability, or their (in)ability to cope with social issues. The COVID-19 pandemic has further fragmented societies and accelerated technological adoption in cities, which is now seen as a necessity. This calls for reinforcing discussions about the necessity of re-designing cities that promote a better quality of life through technological setups.

An emerging urban concept which advocates for the use of technology for sustainability, resilience, and place identity is that of the “15-minute city”, which also gained traction during the pandemic. The concept, riding on proximity-based planning ideals, encourages urban neighborhoods to accommodate an optimal density with access to basic essential services within a 15-min walking or cycling distance. The concept envisions that residents will thus be able to experience a higher quality of life, as they will be required to travel less to access basic facilities such as public spaces, with increased time and opportunities to interact with other members of the community and accomplish other social functions, which are increasingly important but which have been lacking as a core function of contemporary urban planning models. This Issue thus welcomes contributions that explores the concept of the “15-minute city” across the intersecting themes of urban theory, smart cities and urban sustainability, and relating to urban concepts of hyper-proximity, topophilia, chrono-urbanism, and further calls for contributions that dwell into proximity-based planning ideals within urban technological milieus. We are particularly interested in welcoming submissions that approach both theory and practice, including case studies and best practices, and support full articles, short communications, and perspective papers.

Prof. Dr. Carlos Moreno
Prof. Dr. Didier Chabaud
Dr. Florent Pratlong
Dr. Zaheer Allam
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• 15-minute city
• sustainable cities
• urban economics
• smart cities
• urban resilience
• place identity