Envisioning sustainable urban areas through integrative physical systems and governance frameworks

Cities and urban areas present important opportunities for advancing toward sustainability and resilience goals. From a systems perspective, various targets and indicators of key outcomes reflect sustainability of urban areas, motivating consideration of local and regional context. We explore four key themes for creating sustainable urban areas: (1) urban areas are complex systems linked with diverse rural areas across the urban-rural gradient, (2) data and modeling of physical and non-physical systems can aid decision making for sustainability, (3) creating sustainable urban-rural systems requires collaboration with partner communities, and (4) change requires adaptive and transformative governance frameworks. These themes guide sustainability innovations through co-production of knowledge among communities, authorities, managers, and researchers. The sustainability of urban areas strongly depends on urban-rural connectivity regarding both physical systems and governance frameworks.