Grand Challenges in Sustainable Cities

Note: Only Specialty Grand Challenge articles from the journals Specialty Chief Editors are being accepted for this topic.Cities are where the sustainability transition will be won or lost. Rapid urbanisation, climate change, resource constraints, and deepening social inequality are converging in urban systems at a pace that outstrips the capacity of conventional planning, governance, and infrastructure to respond. Addressing this challenge requires more than incremental fixes. It requires a fundamental rethinking of how cities are designed, built, governed, and lived in, drawing on urban planning, environmental science, engineering, public health, social science, and technology together.This Research Topic invites the Specialty Chief Editors of Frontiers in Sustainable Cities to set out the Grand Challenges facing their respective specialties. Each Specialty Grand Challenge article should offer a critical, forward-looking assessment of where the field stands today, the fundamental problems that remain unresolved, and the research directions most likely to move the specialty forward over the next decade.These articles will serve as a reference point for the journal’s editorial community and the wider field, framing the questions that matter most and helping researchers, funders, and policymakers prioritize where effort and investment should go next.Each contributing Chief Editor will address, within the scope of their specialty:• Unresolved scientific and technical problems that limit progress in the field, including gaps in current data, models, methods, or technology for understanding and managing urban challenges• Systemic and structural barriers, such as fragmented governance, siloed research communities, funding gaps, or lack of standardization, that slow translation of research into policy and practice.• Emerging risks and disruptions, including climate volatility, resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, geopolitical instability, AI, political fragmentation and the social and economic pressures of rapid urban growth or decline.• Equity, accessibility, and inclusion challenges in how cities are planned, resourced, and governed, including the risk that sustainability interventions deepen existing inequalities if poorly designed.• Cross cutting and interdisciplinary opportunities, where conceptual and technological advances in urban modelling, digital twins, nature-based solutions, circular economy approaches, or smart city technologies could unlock progress across multiple domains of city life.• A forward-looking research agenda: the specific questions, methods, or breakthroughs the author sees as priorities for the next five to ten years.This is not a call for original research, reviews, or case studies. Consistent with the Specialty Grand Challenge format, we are exclusively seeking opinion led, vision setting articles from the journal’s Chief Editors, each speaking with the authority of their editorial role about the future of their specialty.Together, these contributions will provide a coherent, journal wide statement of purpose, defining what “sustainable cities” research must solve, and why it matters, for the decade ahead.Note on scope and submissions: as this Research Topic is restricted to invited Specialty Chief Editors, uninvited submissions will not be considered for publication. Topic editors: James Evans Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84321/grand-challenges-in-sustainable-cities