Call for papers: Inclusive cities and sustainable built environment

As cities grow and evolve, the dual imperatives of creating sustainable built environments and ensuring inclusivity have become increasingly intertwined. Increasing environmental pressures, social inequality, and unplanned population growth challenges harmoniously integrating sustainability within the built environment and ensuring inclusivity across all facets of urban life. Finding strategies for balancing current population growth with sustainable and inclusive urban development is imperative. Increased demand for solutions to pressing global challenges requires professionals that recognize that design and planning interventions, sustainability, inequality, and segregation are strongly connected. This Call for Papers aims to explore the intersection and individual contributions of planning, policy and design interventions that 1) advance sustainable infrastructure and 2) promote inclusive urban development. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Intertwined Themes of Sustainability and Inclusivity: Studies that explore the integration of sustainable urban design with inclusive practices, demonstrating how environmental initiatives can seamlessly incorporate the diverse needs of all community members.
• All Dimensions of Inclusivity in Cities: Research that addresses strategies for enhancing accessibility and inclusivity for marginalized groups, focusing on socioeconomic, cultural, underrepresented, gender, age, and ability considerations.
• Sustainable Design and Construction: Investigations into the development of green infrastructure that contributes to ecological resilience, along with innovations in building technology that reduce urban carbon footprints and their impacts on urban dwellers.
• Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Transportation Solutions: Studies focused on innovations in building technology that reduce urban carbon footprints and their implications, as well as examinations of transit solutions that enhance connectivity while minimizing environmental impact.
• Behavioral Interventions: Research on the application of behavioral nudges to encourage sustainable and inclusive urban behaviors.
• Technology and Smart Approaches: Explorations of how smart technologies and high-tech solutions can be leveraged to enhance urban sustainability and inclusivity.
• User-Centered Strategies: Studies that prioritize user-centered approaches, emphasizing the 'Right to the City' and fostering social connectedness among urban residents.
• Policy-Making: Critical analyses of urban policies and their effectiveness in promoting sustainable and inclusive urban environments.
• Urban Risk, Disasters, and Resilience: Research on urban risk management, focusing on how cities can enhance resilience against disasters while ensuring safety and inclusivity for all residents.

This Call For Papers serves as a platform for established scholars and emerging researchers, including student researchers, to present their work to a global audience, and to contribute to shape the discourse on how urban environments can evolve to become more sustainable and inclusive.

Deadline: 15th July 2026