Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme events that impact the built environment. The definition of high-resolution scenarios and the assessments of vulnerability and risk of the built environment are essential to identify and analyze the main impacts of climate change. It is also fundamental to consider a holistic perspective that includes technical, social, environmental, cultural, and economic aspects of the built environment, both for the individual element and the assets as a whole. In-depth multidisciplinary analyses that consider relevant specificities of cities can lead to a good understanding of the current and future situations, including policy frameworks and governance structures in place, and support the subsequent decision making in interventions.

Current climate scenarios call for the implementation of adaptive actions in order to achieve resilient environments and societies able to withstand and recover from the impact of extreme events. Nevertheless, adaptive solutions must be integrated with disaster risk management, spatial and urban planning, adaptive management, and climate change policies. An adequate selection of effective, low-carbon solutions that are compatible with the built environment will minimize the vulnerability and risk and lead to sustainable conservation of the urban areas. Furthermore, any potential intervention must follow the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As urban planning, building systems, and climate evolution operate on different temporal horizons and spatial scales, the development of comprehensible, manageable, accurate, predictive, low-cost models that can link various fields and facilitate the representation and understanding of their interactions has become fundamental, as has the use of multicriteria decision making (MCM) methodologies with an objective, integrated, holistic perspective.

Hence, the numerous technical challenges in integrating multidisciplinary, multiscale, and multi-temporal approaches should be addressed in order to achieve a sustainable and resilient built environment.

Dr. Leire Garmendia
Dr. Alessandra Gandini
MsC. Gemma Garcia Blanco
Guest Editors

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• natural hazards
• climate scenarios
• vulnerability assessment
• risk assessment
• adaptation
• resilient design