Designing Hybrid Green–Blue Infrastructure for Integrated Water, Energy, and Climate Resilience

Urban water management is at a critical juncture as cities worldwide face intensifying pressures from climate change, rapid urbanisation, rising energy demands, and environmental degradation. Traditional grey infrastructure, while essential, often fails to address the complex interdependencies between water, energy, and climate resilience. Recent research highlights that hybrid green–blue infrastructure, which integrates engineered and nature-based approaches, offers promising pathways to manage water sustainably while enhancing urban liveability and reducing carbon emissions. Green roofs, permeable surfaces, wetlands, and stormwater harvesting systems demonstrate multiple benefits, including flood mitigation, urban cooling, and renewable energy potential. However, persistent gaps remain concerning system integration, quantification of co-benefits across diverse climates, scalability, and the long-term performance of such solutions. Furthermore, the need for advanced modelling, digital optimisation, and cross-sectoral governance mechanisms underscores an area requiring deeper investigation to translate innovation into widespread implementation.This Research Topic aims to advance interdisciplinary understanding and application of hybrid green–blue infrastructure systems that simultaneously support water security, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation. It seeks to elucidate how the integration of natural processes with technological innovation can yield resilient and circular urban water systems. Specifically, the Research Topic will explore how these solutions reduce environmental footprints and enable cities to adapt to the multifaceted risks of climate change. It encourages contributions that apply analytical, modelling, and empirical approaches to assess system performance, quantify resource recovery, and evaluate economic, environmental, and social co-benefits. Central objectives include unravelling the interactions within the water–energy–carbon nexus, showcasing technological and governance innovations, and identifying strategies to accelerate the transition toward sustainable and low-carbon infrastructure systems.This Research Topic focuses on hybrid infrastructure approaches within urban and regional water systems, emphasising their design, performance, and contribution to long-term climate and resource resilience. It encourages interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral studies that bridge engineering, environmental science, and urban sustainability to drive practical innovation and policy relevance. To gather further insights in this field, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Stormwater capture, reuse, and decentralised urban water solutions- Integration of renewable energy and resource recovery within water networks- Urban heat mitigation and thermal regulation through green–blue infrastructure- Carbon accounting, life cycle assessment, and sustainability performance metrics- Predictive modelling, optimisation, and smart digital monitoring for adaptive water management- Policy frameworks and governance strategies for resilient infrastructure adoptionAccepted article types include original research, reviews, modelling studies, case studies, and interdisciplinary assessments. Topic editors: Arezoo Boroomandnia, Babak Zolghadr-Asli Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81633/designing-hybrid-green-blue-infrastructure-for-integrated-water-energy-and-climate-resilience