Green Infrastructure for Health, Global Equity, and Urban Recovery: Contributions from the 12th World Green Infrastructure Congress (WGIC26)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Green Infrastructure for Health, Global Equity, and Urban Recovery: Contributions from the 12th World Green Infrastructure Congress (WGIC26)

Journal: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

Publisher: Elsevier

Submission Opens: 15 July 2026

Submission Deadline: 30 September 2026

This Special Issue is open to WGIC26 Congress Participants only.

Introduction

Green infrastructure has gained remarkable momentum in recent years — finding its way into urban planning agendas, nature restoration policy, sustainable development frameworks, and initiatives like the New European Bauhaus. Nature in cities is not a luxury but a necessity.

Yet beyond its well-documented direct benefits, green infrastructure creates broader societal opportunities that often remain underexplored — for knowledge generation and social capacity building, for more participatory and just forms of urban governance, for public health and well-being, and for new green economic development.

This Special Issue engages with three critical questions:

• How can the health, wellness, and medical sectors become genuine partners in harnessing what nature offers to urban populations?

• How do we move from a world where knowledge flows predominantly from the Global North to the Global South toward genuine co-creation and equitable partnership?

• How can green infrastructure support the rebuilding of communities affected by conflict or disaster — in a world where such situations are becoming increasingly frequent?

Scope & Significance

This Special Issue gathers peer-reviewed contributions from WGIC26 that engage with these questions across the full breadth of the congress — spanning technical, ecological, governance, health, and social dimensions of green infrastructure research and practice.

All congress participants are encouraged to submit regardless of theme or disciplinary background. Contributions from researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and industry professionals are equally welcome.

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

1. Technical and ecological research on urban greening systems — including vertical greening, green roofs, urban forests, and building- and landscape-integrated solutions

2. Integration of green infrastructure into urban planning, nature restoration policy, and sustainable development frameworks — including the New European Bauhaus initiative

3. The role of green infrastructure in supporting public health, wellness, and well-being — and opportunities for deeper collaboration with health and medical sectors

4. Participatory and just forms of urban governance placing equity and social inclusion at the centre of green infrastructure planning and implementation

5. Decision support frameworks and policy-informing tools that translate research findings into actionable guidance for planners, policymakers, and urban managers

6. Knowledge co-creation and capacity building — shifting from one-directional knowledge transfer toward genuine equitable partnership between the Global North and Global South

7. Green infrastructure to support post-disaster and post-conflict reconstruction and community rebuilding

8. Green economic development and the role of nature-based solutions in fostering sustainable economic opportunities in urban contexts

Guest Editors

Prof. Dr. Bert Belmans University of Antwerp & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium 📧 bert.belmans@uantwerpen.be / bert.belmans@vub.be

Prof. Dr. Elaise Gabriel Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil 📧 elaise.gabriel@ufsm.br

Dr. Oleksandra Strashok Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland & National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine 📧 oleksandra.strashok@upwr.edu.pl

Prof. Dr. Silvia Solé Universitat de Lleida, Spain 📧 silvia.sole@udl.cat

Key Deadlines

📅 Manuscript Submission Opens: 15 July 2026 ⏰ Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 September 2026

Submission Guidelines

⚠️ This Special Issue is for WGIC26 Congress Participants only.

Submissions are made through Editorial Manager, the official online submission system for Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.

When prompted for 'Select Article Type', select: 'VSI:WGIC26: GI for Health, Global Equity, and Urban Recovery'

For author guidelines and submission instructions, visit the official Urban Forestry & Urban Greening journal page on the Elsevier website.

⚠️ Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review for this journal.

ServiceSetu Academics — Premier Platform for Academic Opportunities & Research Collaboration

Visit official website of the publisher