From the editors

Abstract

Our settlements are under constant threat, struggling to keep up with a changing world, a world with everchanging demands, both from our citizens and from our ideals of what a successful settlement should be. Specifically, geopolitical forces and factors including migration, war and civil unrest, pandemics, and the throes of climate change have come to affect human settlements in multiple ways. Prof. Greg Clark (Future Cities and New Industries, HSBC), explains: “In the recent past, we thought a successful city was a city with a major cluster of office jobs in the centre, suburban housing on the fringes, and an attractive set of amenities, facilities, services and public space” (Goodman, 2023: online). However, the priorities of citizens and town and regional planners are changing; we are setting a new standard for our settlements, expecting more from it, for this living organism to deliver more, be more...