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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 28914

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Daniel Jato-Espino

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, Science and Technology, Universidad Internacional de Valencia, 46002 Valencia, Spain
Interests: Water management; Multi-criteria decision-making; Stormwater modelling; Flood risk assessment; GIS; Environmental analysis; Urban drainage; Statistical testing; Sustainability indicators; Slope stability; Air quality; UHI effect
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Luis A. Sañudo-Fontaneda

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Guest Editor

Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering Group, Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33600 Mieres, Spain
Interests: ancient stormwater engineering; civil engineering heritage; green stormwater infrastructure; highway engineering; low-impact development; sustainable drainage systems; stormwater control measures; sustainable construction; teaching innovation; urban and territorial planning; water-sensitive urban design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban surfaces reflect the economic, environmental, and social idiosyncrasy of cities, playing a crucial role in the sustainable development of modern civilizations. Pavements and roofs cover about 30%–45% and 20%–25% of these urban surfaces, respectively. Therefore, their management provides an opportunity to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), since they can play a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of urban areas against two of the greatest challenges in the coming years: urbanization and climate change.

The suitable management of pavements and roofs and other urban surfaces through the so-called urban ecosystem services (UES) is a branch of investigation that needs to be studied more in depth, since it can contribute to palliating these threats and providing multiple benefits in terms of sustainability according to the four categories into which they are divided: provisioning services (food, water, medicinal plants, and other resources), regulating services (focused on ensuring air and soil quality, preventing floods, and controlling diseases), habitat supporting services (safeguard of biodiversity), and cultural services (psychological and cognitive benefits such as recreation and aesthetics).

This Special Issue aims to produce knowledge about how urban surfaces, especially in the form of permeable pavements and green roofs for being the most complete and multifaceted types of urban landscape systems, can provide diverse UES and thus increase the sustainability of cities. Contributions concerning other nature-based Solutions (NBS) such as bioretention areas, filter drains, infiltration trenches or vegetated swales are also welcome. Therefore, investigations related to the multiple roles that can be played by these systems, including but not limited to stormwater management, materials and design, carbon capture, urban planning and regeneration, thermoregulation, biodiversity and agricultural productivity, thermal and acoustic control, aesthetics and recreation, and life cycle assessment or structural properties, are within the scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Daniel Jato-Espino
Dr. Luis Angel Sañudo-Fontaneda
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.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 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

biodiversity
bioretention areas
climate change
ecosystem services
evapotranspiration
flood management
filter drains
green infrastructure
green roofs
infiltration trenches
life cycle assessment
low impact development
nature-based solutions
permeable pavements
recreational spaces
stakeholder perception
stormwater quality
structural and mechanical properties
sustainable materials
urban agriculture
urban heat island effect
urban planning and regeneration
vegetated swales

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 1377 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Willingness to Pay for Urban and Suburban Green

by Dimitrios Kalfas, Fotios Chatzitheodoridis, Efstratios Loizou and Katerina Melfou

Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2332; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14042332 - 18 Feb 2022

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 3584

Abstract

Peri-urban and urban green are considered among the basic priorities of the local government’s regional policy agenda, in line with the principles of spatial planning. This agenda is promoted at both the national and European levels through a variety of technical and institutional measures. Green spaces in urban and suburban areas are directly linked to the quality of life of urban residents and their environment. In this context, the purpose of this study is to investigate and identify the characteristics and factors that influence the residents of a small Greek city in terms of the value they attach to urban and suburban green spaces. These factors are identified through the residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) using the contingent valuation method (CVM). In general, the analysis aims to document the value of environmental economic methods as a tool in the management of natural heritage. According to the research, income and knowledge of environmental issues (global and local) as well as the benefits of green spaces (urban and suburban) are the key factors that drive residents to place a higher value on them. Future work may explore whether or how the COVID-19 pandemic affected city residents’ willingness to pay for green spaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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15 pages, 2515 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Experimental and Numerical Approach to Multifunctional Urban Surfaces through Blue Roofs

by Carlos Rey-Mahía, Felipe Pedro Álvarez-Rabanal, Luis Angel Sañudo-Fontaneda, Mario Hidalgo-Tostado and Antonio Menéndez Suárez-Inclán

Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1815; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14031815 - 05 Feb 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2290

Abstract

Uncontrolled urban growth causes a number of problems associated with land use, stormwater management and energy generation. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are positioned as an alternative to traditional constructive solutions, contributing towards the generation of multifunctional urban spaces for efficient stormwater management and energy consumption reduction. Nevertheless, this combined goal calls for a deeper understanding of the heat transfer processes that govern the temperature performance in SUDS in order to be further validated as infrastructure to house renewable energy elements. This study intends to determine the thermal properties of two types of blue roofs under extreme conditions of performance (wet and dry), depicting the operation features of their layers and comparing their performances based on the materials used. With this aim, a hybrid experimental methodology, combining laboratory and numerical modelling, was designed using standardized equipment (ISO 8990:1994 and ASTM C1363-05), improving previous methods proposed in the study of the thermal properties of SUDS. The section with expanded clay improved the hydraulic capacity by 4.8%. The section without expanded clay increased its thermal transmittance value by 64.9% under wet conditions. It was also found that the presence of water increased the equivalent thermal conductivity in both sections by 60%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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22 pages, 2129 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems in Spain: A Diagnosis

by Ignacio Andrés-Doménech, Jose Anta, Sara Perales-Momparler and Jorge Rodriguez-Hernandez

Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2791; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13052791 - 05 Mar 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6642

Abstract

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) were almost unknown in Spain two decades ago; today, urban drainage in the country is transitioning towards a more sustainable and regenerative management in a global context where green policies are gaining prominence. This research establishes a diagnosis of SUDS in Spain and examines the extent to which the country is moving towards the new paradigm in three dimensions: (a) the governance and social perception of the community, (b) the regulative background, and (c) the implementation and the technical performance of SUDS. The diagnosis identifies barriers that hinder the change. Then, we define the challenges that Spain has to face to overcome obstacles that delay the transition. Barriers to the governance sphere are related to the lack of involvement, knowledge, and organisational responsibilities. Within the regulative framework, the absence of national standards hinders the general implementation at the national scale, although few regional and local authorities are taking steps in the right direction with their own regulations. From the technical perspective, SUDS performance within the Spanish context was determined, although some shortcomings are still to be investigated. Despite the slowdown caused by the hard recession periods and the more recent political instability, SUDS implementation in Spain is today a fact, and the country is close to reaching the stabilisation stage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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17 pages, 2379 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Water Resources in the Haridwar Region of Uttarakhand, India

by Shray Pathak, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha, Rahul Dev Garg, Min Liu, Daniel Jato-Espino and Rajendra Prasad Singh

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8449; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12208449 - 14 Oct 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2854

Abstract

Watershed management plays a dynamic role in water resource engineering. Estimating surface runoff is an essential process of hydrology, since understanding the fundamental relationship between rainfall and runoff is useful for sustainable water resource management. To facilitate the assessment of this process, the Natural Resource Conservation Service-Curve Number (NRCS-CN) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were integrated. Furthermore, land use and soil maps were incorporated to estimate the temporal variability in surface runoff potential. The present study was performed on the Haridwar city, Uttarakhand, India for the years 1995, 2010 and 2018. In a context of climate change, the spatiotemporal analysis of hydro meteorological parameters is essential for estimating water availability. The study suggested that runoff increased approximately 48% from 1995 to 2010 and decreased nearly 71% from 2010 to 2018. In turn, the weighted curve number was found to be 69.24, 70.96 and 71.24 for 1995, 2010 and 2018, respectively. Additionally, a validation process with an annual water yield model was carried out to understand spatiotemporal variations and similarities. The study recommends adopting water harvesting techniques and strategies to fulfill regional water demands, since effective and sustainable approaches like these may assist in the simultaneous mitigation of disasters such as floods and droughts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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13 pages, 2841 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Green Roofs on Energy Demand for Cooling in Egyptian Buildings

by Ayman Ragab and Ahmed Abdelrady

Sustainability 2020, 12(14), 5729; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12145729 - 16 Jul 2020

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4002

Abstract

Energy consumption for cooling purposes has increased significantly in recent years, mainly due to population growth, urbanization, and climate change consequences. The situation can be mitigated by passive climate solutions to reduce energy consumption in buildings. This study investigated the effectiveness of the green roof concept in reducing energy demand for cooling in different climatic regions. The impact of several types of green roofing of varying thermal conductivity and soil depth on energy consumption for cooling school buildings in Egypt was examined. In a co-simulation approach, the efficiency of the proposed green roof types was evaluated using the Design-Builder software, and a cost analysis was performed for the best options. The results showed that the proposed green roof types saved between 31.61 and 39.74% of energy, on average. A green roof featuring a roof soil depth of 0.1 m and 0.9 W/m-K thermal conductivity exhibited higher efficiency in reducing energy than the other options tested. The decrease in air temperature due to green roofs in hot arid areas, which exceeded an average of 4 °C, was greater than that in other regions that were not as hot. In conclusion, green roofs were shown to be efficient in reducing energy consumption as compared with traditional roofs, especially in hot arid climates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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21 pages, 2238 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Selection of Additives and Fibers for Improving the Mechanical and Safety Properties of Porous Concrete Pavements through Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis

by Eduardo-Javier Elizondo-Martínez, Valerio-Carlos Andrés-Valeri, Jorge Rodríguez-Hernández and Cesare Sangiorgi

Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2392; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12062392 - 19 Mar 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2312

Abstract

Despite the number of environmental advantages that porous concrete (PC) pavements can provide, they are mainly used in light-traffic roads, parking lots and sidewalks due to their low mechanical strength. This research focuses on the common additives employed in PC pavements, according to a literature review, with the aim of increasing their mechanical strength while maintaining an acceptable infiltration capacity. The results demonstrated that the combination of superplasticizers and air-entraining additives can provide indirect tensile strength values over 2.50 MPa, with an infiltration capacity over 0.40 cm/s. In addition, polypropylene fibers were seen to provide very good safety properties, preserving some structural integrity in the case of failure. All mixtures studied obtained outstanding skid resistance results under both dry and wet conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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Review

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19 pages, 2591 KiB

Open AccessReview

Using Recycled Aggregates from Construction and Demolition Waste in Unbound Layers of Pavements

by Sajjad Pourkhorshidi, Cesare Sangiorgi, Daniele Torreggiani and Patrizia Tassinari

Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9386; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12229386 - 11 Nov 2020

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 6014

Abstract

Pavements are an expensive part of transportation infrastructures, as their construction and maintenance require large amounts of resources and materials every year and all over the world. A sustainable solution for considering environmental concerns about roads and pavements, in general, is utilizing recycled materials for their construction. This has been shown to lower the carbon footprint of the construction sector and to result in natural resource conservation, in reduction of harmful emissions and in minimization of overall costs for pavement construction and maintenance. One of the main groups of recycled materials which has attracted much attention since the end of the last century is construction and demolition waste aggregates (CDW). This paper reviews the completed studies referring to the use of the construction and demolition waste aggregates in unbound layers of pavements and compare the in-hand results from various engineering assessments of these aggregates and mixes. A number of tests and evaluations are applied in order to enhance the required quality and durability of the pavements under given traffic volumes traffic loads and climate actions. Today, unbound recycled aggregates (RA) are mainly used in the lower layers, such as subgrade, capping, sub-base and base, but in rural roads they can be adopted also for bound layers, towards the surface of the structure and may be constituents of bound layers and of novel surfacing applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Surfaces)

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