New frontiers in evaluation, management, and technologies for sustainable cities

The processes to achieve sustainable cities require the adoption of strategic actions with the aim to reduce the most impactful human activities on the environment, at all territorial scales (e.g., from sub-urban to national ones), and by guaranteeing an equitable economic and social long-term development. In this context, references to urban metabolism and circular economy concepts can be applied in the combination of energy efficiency, waste management, and environmental preservation criteria within the refurbishment and enhancement process of existing property assets and degraded urban areas. Thus, economic, environmental, and social sustainability can be achieved by identifying new frontiers to improve digitization, livability, and integration of urban areas. According to Eurostat data and the United Nation estimates, 75% of Europeans lived in cities in 2020 and by 2050, 70% of the world's population will do so, therefore cities produce 70% of CO2 emissions and a significant share of energy usage. With this perspective in mind, the need to work on existing building stock in cooperation between public and private is crucial in achieving sustainable cities, as recently promoted by the European directive which will lead to having only zero-impact buildings by 2050.

Implementing appropriate evaluation models to verify that urban projects can contribute to the creation of sustainable cities is fundamental. The use of adequate assessment tools and decision support systems is required for the identification of the current changing needs of the populations, according to which the urban planning projects should be calibrated and selected. Thus, the evaluation discipline should address the decision-making processes towards specific urban transformation and management solutions, in line with the urban Sustainable Development Goals, by providing useful models to be applied for supporting the governance choices.

This Special Issue is dedicated to, but not only limited, to developing and disseminating knowledge and innovations related to the most recent methodologies applied in the fields of architecture, environmental and territorial engineering, that can support the creation of sustainable cities. Suitable works include studies on:
- Econometric models;
- Sustainable building management;
- Building costs, risk management, and real estate appraisal;
- Mass appraisal methods applied to real estate properties;
- Urban and land economics, transport economics;
- Real estate economics and financial techniques;
- Economic valuation of real estate investment projects and building transformations;
- BIM applications;
- Ecosystem services approaches;
- Analysis of COVID-19 effects on real estate market dynamics;
- Resilient cities assessment;
- Sustainable public-private partnerships.