Dear colleagues,

The importance of sustainable urban open space governance and management has become more apparent with the increasing pressure on urban open spaces to provide high-quality ecosystem services and multiple functions from both social and ecological perspectives. Urban open space management concerns how these spaces are developed and maintained over time, where participatory approaches are of major importance. More explicitly, various governance approaches (involving several user groups, actors, and relations in the steering or through participation) have been introduced in order to rethink traditional management approaches. While user participation has become mainstream in many countries, governance approaches in urban open space management are often challenged by ,e.g., lack of political prioritization, funding, trust, or documentation. The institutional and organizational perspectives often need development, due to a lack of cooperation across administrative borders (silo effects).

This Special Issue addresses the need for governance approaches that include both a wide spectrum of users/citizens and internal cross- and transdisciplinary arrangements across organizational silos. Governance and management approaches can be a way to include sustainable, long-term, inclusive and collaborative thinking. Such approaches look beyond silos of professions like city planning, design, landscape architecture, gardening, management, maintenance or (urban) forestry, with sustainable development for urban open spaces through, e.g., strategic management, nature-based solutions/thinking, and new governance approaches.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to gather contemporary examples and cases providing insights into how governance and management approaches in various types of urban open spaces are contributing to aspects of sustainable urban development. We particularly encourage submissions with the focus on new governance structures or approaches, as well as those combining empirical studies with the theoretical development of urban open space governance and management.

Dr. Märit Jansson
Prof. Dr. Thomas Randrup
Dr. Geovana Mercado
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 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.

• strategic management
• governance structures
• user groups
• urban open spaces