Dear Colleagues,

It is well known that development models adopted to date are not practicable and usable anymore, since they were shown to be extremely resource-demanding. In this context, sustainable development, intended as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the possibility of future generations to meet their needs, is a worldwide need and priority involving economic, social, and environmental components. On the other hand, the transition to a new, more sustainable development will require both new technical solutions and reliable sustainability indicators to properly identify the most effective interventions. Zero-impact or at least low-impact technical solutions should become the imperative.

In the general field of infrastructures, green infrastructures could play a major role, directly impacting progress on achieving several of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations. The adoption of green infrastructures can help to improve building energy use and stormwater managing, can attract investment, help to revive distressed neighborhoods, and encourage redevelopment, provide recreational and social opportunities, and help to achieve several other social, economic, public health, and environmental goals such as the reduction of air pollution in urbanized areas boosting ‘green mobility’. Green Infrastructure can offer solutions for both the prevention of farmland abandonment and for minimizing the negative impacts when farmland is already abandoned.

In recent years, applications such as green roofs, green walls, parking gardens, rain gardens, pocket parks, parkways, greenways, have increasingly attracted attention due to the wide range of benefits they provide. Green infrastructure offers a promising pathway and can contribute to making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

In this context, the role of researchers is fundamental, as we are responsible for the dissemination of results that could have a direct effect on society, policy decisions, and urban and rural management plans.

In this Special Issue, we are inviting contributions in which green infrastructures are used as a sustainable solution in both urban and rural contexts, supporting a transition to sustainable development models, from environmental, economic or social points of view. Although green infrastructure is already relatively well established in climate adaptation strategies, further contributions focusing on the link between green infrastructure and integrated landscape planning, long-term investments, and urban and rural planning and sustainability in decision making are strongly encouraged. Experimental tests, monitoring evidence, frameworks, examples of good green infrastructure design for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and viewpoints but also numerical analyses in the study, development, and application of green infrastructures, in addition to their environmental impact quantification, will be considered.

Prof. Carlo Bibbiani
Dr. Marco Bovo
Guest Editors

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• sustainable development
• resilient infrastructure
• urban and rural planning
• sustainability assessment
• sustainability indicators
• LCA
• ecological footprint
• green infrastructure
• green roofs
• green walls