Frontier Research of Environmental Sustainability: Green Infrastructure and Rural Landscape Planning

Excessive and uncontrolled urbanization and transport and mobility infrastructure are causes of landscape fragmentation, degradation of urban, rural, semi-natural, and natural habitats, and loss of endemic biodiversity and ecosystem services that are relevant to the survival and wellbeing of people and other living beings. On the other hand, such phenomena are exacerbated by extreme weather events due to climate change. Restoration, conservation, and sustainable use of ecosystems; sustainable forest management; restoration and combat against desertification of degraded land and soil; and conservation and protection of biodiversity are some targets of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has been adopted by all United Nations Member States. Sustainable development is at the core of the 2030 Agenda and lies on three pillars: economic, social, and environmental sustainability. This Special Issue focuses on environmental sustainability. In this regard, green infrastructure can be considered useful for promoting environmental sustainability with the purpose of improving environmental conditions, enhancing biodiversity, and positively affecting people’s lives. Rural landscape planning has the potential to promote the use of Green Infrastructure through strategies, plans, programs, and projects from a regional to subregional (local) scale. The Special Issue aims at collecting scientific contributions concerning environmental sustainability and the use of green infrastructure, in the context of regional or subregional landscape planning, with focus on the rural dimension. The Special Issue aims at providing the international audience with an overall picture of the current innovations in research fields about (i) green infrastructure planning and design and (ii) rural landscape planning, with emphasis on environmental sustainability. Authors are invited to submit original research articles concerning innovative approaches for (though not exclusively) governance of green infrastructure and rural landscape planning; green infrastructures as defragmentation measures in fragmented rural landscapes, sustainable rural buildings and green infrastructure, design of sustainable rural buildings through building information modeling and integration of green infrastructure, planning rural contexts by stressing the role of green infrastructure through geographic information systems, integration of green infrastructure in rural landscape planning with the purpose of promoting adaptation to climate change and environmental sustainability, environmental sustainability in rural landscapes through green infrastructure, planning and design of green infrastructure in rural landscapes, and integration of green infrastructure into strategic environmental assessment for rural landscape planning.