Urban Form and Climate Hazards: Advancing Data, Methods, and Justice in Urban Planning

Nowadays, urban transformations are occurring in a context of intensifying climate change, growing socio-spatial inequality, and rapid digitisation of urban systems. Urban form—understood as the spatial configuration of networks, densities, fabrics, and built typologies—reflects critical data regarding climate exposure, social vulnerability, and the adaptive capacity of cities. However, planning instruments often remain grounded in fragmented data, segmented methods, and models that fail to adequately address spatial justice. This thematic issue proposes to explore new theoretical approaches, analytical methodologies, and emerging data sources that contribute to more informed, inclusive, and fair planning decisions. Contributions that integrate urban morphology, spatial data science, artificial intelligence, multiscale analysis, urban climate models, space syntax, digital twins, digital citizen participation, and socio-environmental vulnerability indicators are particularly welcome. This issue aims to bring together research linking urban form and climate performance (such as urban heat islands, heatwaves, and flood risk), as well as studies examining how different morphological patterns influence equity in access to green infrastructure, sustainable mobility, and urban services. Comparative approaches between the Global North and South, hybrid quantitative-qualitative methodologies, and studies aimed at transferring knowledge to public policy are highly valued. By promoting interdisciplinary dialogue among urban planning, geography, architecture, data science, and climate studies, this thematic issue aims to advance a planning paradigm grounded in robust evidence, methodological innovation, and an explicit commitment to spatial justice and the climate transition.

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Urban Planning is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

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