Urban Design as a platform for accessibility, environmental management, and cultural background for cities: bridging the gap between Tangibles and Intangible values in contemporary cities

The growing body of knowledge on the research (and practice) of urban design and planning has lately revolutionized the way we think and engage as scholars on collaborative planning approaches and engagement with local communities affected by our decisionmaking processes. This is in part because cities nowadays are exponentially exposed to several challenges related to environmental pressures, socio-economic disparities between global south and global north (Castaldo et al., 2025) and cultural preservation (Salama, 2025). On the other hand, the current landscape of research on the quality of life in urban areas is majorly affected by the socio-spatial implications of COVID-19 measures (Salama, 2023) in accessibility, amenities, grey-green-blue infrastructures, housing and residential services, among others. This issue of urban design and planning builds on these multifaceted urbanism challenges to examine and advance ways through innovative practices such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in developing tools and methods to respond to noise pollution problems (El-Bardisy, 2025). The issue features articles that commit to addressing questions related to context and shapes of American and European cases (Abusaada et al., 2025), as well as accessibility and residential complexities in the African context (Mugah et al., 2025).