Blending Old and New: Re-imagining Urban Planning for a Climate-Resilient Future - Evolutionary Trends, Emerging Discourse, and The Way Forward

Cities are significant contributors to climate change, accounting for approximately 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, largely through activities in the building and transportation sectors. Although urbanization drives socioeconomic development, future urban growth amid climate change poses threats to the resilience of cities. The vulnerability of cities to current and projected climate-related hazards, such as floods, extreme heat, rising sea levels, and storm surges, is widely documented. Beyond these vulnerabilities, city governments must urgently adopt and implement forward-thinking resilience approaches. Studies have consistently emphasized the importance of prioritizing resilience principles within urban planning and design processes. In this context, integrating climate adaptation measures into urban planning is crucial to enhancing the capacity of vulnerable populations to withstand and recover from climate impacts. A critical examination of historical urban planning practices that emphasized green infrastructure, sustainable mobility, and adaptive design offers valuable lessons for contemporary climate action, helping to mitigate the repetition of past planning failures. By exploring these historical approaches, cities can develop context-specific strategies that enhance adaptive capacity and advance transformative urban resilience. Consequently, a blend of traditional urban planning techniques with modern transdisciplinary strategies offers transformational pathways to advancing inclusive, livable, sustainable, and climate-resilient cities. Going forward, substantial research is needed to generate comprehensive insights into how traditional and contemporary urban planning approaches can be integrated to enhance urban climate resilience, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions. This Research Topic aims to bring together current transdisciplinary studies on recent trends, emerging ideas, innovations, and future pathways for integrating traditional and modern elements of urban planning to support the transition to more sustainable and resilient urban futures.We welcome interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary contributions focused on: 1. Case studies highlighting the successful integration of traditional and modern urban planning strategies in the context of climate change2. Emerging paradigms and theoretical perspectives to advance inclusive and equitable urban planning amid climate vulnerabilities, particularly in rapidly growing cities3. New methods and frameworks to support the integration of inclusive and equitable climate actions into the common urban planning paradigms. 4. Evaluating the socio-economic impacts of the integration of traditional and modern urban planning strategies for enhancing adaptive capacity among marginalized populations.5. Exploring the evolutionary trends and pathways in urban planning and design to advance climate resilience in Global South cities6. Tools and approaches for scenario modeling to support sustainable urban transitions Topic editors: Prince Dacosta Aboagye, Abbas Ziafati Bafarasat, Jhon Ricardo Escorcia Hernandez Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/75455/blending-old-and-new-re-imagining-urban-planning-for-a-climate-resilient-future---evolutionary-trends-emerging-discourse-and-the-way-forward