The 15th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability addresses all aspects of the urban environment and aims to provide solutions leading towards sustainability. The Sustainable City 2022 conference follows a series of very successful meetings that started in Rio (2000), followed by Segovia (2002), Siena (2004), Tallinn (2006), Skiathos (2008), A Coruña (2010), Ancona (2012), Kuala Lumpur (2013), Siena (2014), Medellin (2015), Alicante (2016), Seville (2017), Valencia (2019) and online in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Urban areas result in a series of environmental challenges varying from the consumption of natural resources and the subsequent generation of waste and pollution, contributing to the development of social and economic imbalances. According to current trends, the population is concentrating in urban areas that continue to grow all over the world. Old and new problems tend to become more acute and require the development of innovative solutions to create liveable urban areas without endangering our common future.

The task of researchers is to improve the capacity to manage human activities, pursuing welfare and prosperity in the urban environment. Any investigation or planning in a city ought to consider the relationships between the parts and their connections with the living world. The dynamics of its networks (flows of energy-matter, people, goods, information and other resources) are fundamental for an understanding of the evolving nature of today’s cities.

Coastal areas and coastal cities will be an important issue at the conference as they have some specific features. Their strategic location facilitates transportation and the development of related activities, but this requires the existence of large ports, with the corresponding increase in maritime and road traffic and all of the inherent negative effects, and can be directly affected by the rise in sea level. This requires the development of well-planned and managed urban environments, not only for reasons of efficiency and economics but also to avoid inflicting environmental degradation that causes the deterioration of natural resources, quality of life and human health.

Urban agriculture and food sovereignty are crucial issues that have been included in this latest edition of the conference due to their impact on city life. The scale of modern food production has created and exacerbated many vulnerabilities and the feeding of cities is now infinitely more complex. In the last few years, there has been a rapid expansion in initiatives and projects exploring innovative methods and processes for sustainable food production. The majority of these projects are focused on providing alternative models that shift the power back from the global food system to communities and farmers improving social cohesion, health and wellbeing. These initiatives have demonstrated that urban agriculture has the potential to transform our living environment towards ecologically sustainable and healthy cities.

Large cities represent a fertile ground for architects, engineers, city planners, social and political scientists, and other professionals able to conceive new ideas and time them according to technological advances and human requirements. Their works are essential in order to help public policies progress and become more committed to environmental challenges.

The meeting always attracts a substantial number of contributions from participants from different backgrounds and countries. The variety of topics and experiences is one of the main reasons behind the success of the series.

Since 1993 all published papers are archived in the Wessex Institute eLibrary (www.witpress.com/elibrary), where they are easily and permanently available in Open Access format to the international community.