Urban Snow and Ice Removal and Storage (USIRS) presents an intricate challenge for cold-climate cities, impacting mobility, environmental quality, public safety, and confidence in municipal services. Prior research frequently isolates operational elements like plow routing, snow disposal, or de-icing environmental impacts. Consequently, less attention has been paid to the structural interplay of these aspects within an integrated system. This study maps the diverse factors influencing USIRS and evaluates how their cross-domain interdependence might facilitate a shift to system-based urban winter management. A comprehensive review of 81 peer-reviewed articles was performed utilizing structured coding, text analysis, and network visualization techniques. The findings indicated that snow management outcomes depended less on isolated factors and more on the interplay of resource availability, operational procedures, urban design, environmental limitations, and community effects. By employing a structured methodological approach that integrates structured coding with network analysis, the research identified potential leverage points where specific interventions suggest advantages across several dimensions and indicated that USIRS operations are likely most successful when integrated into comprehensive urban plans, including resilience, smart-city technologies, and circular economy initiatives. The results offer a conceptual framework to aid academics, policymakers, and practitioners in developing more efficient, sustainable, and resilient winter city operations, transitioning from reactive operations to system-based management.

Since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, there has been a growing interest in localizing SDGs through co-designed and participatory approaches. However, the implementation of SDGs in Arctic towns and cities has been the subject of limited research. The unique environmental, economic, and social conditions of these cities raise questions about the suitability of applying generalized approaches and indicators. To shed light on the unique challenges faced by Arctic cities and to gain insight into local urban development professionals’ perspectives and priorities regarding sustainable urban development, we employed a multidisciplinary approach based on Q-methodology. We focus on towns and cities in the Nordic plus Greenland Arctic. The results reveal seven distinct factors representing both shared perspectives and areas of disagreement on sustainable development. The findings indicate that tailored approaches are necessary for the successful implementation of the SDGs in Arctic cities.

Urban Snow and Ice Removal and Storage (USIRS) is an essential and demanding component of urban management in areas experiencing harsh weather during the winter. This present study offers a systematic review of the literature in the USIRS field of study through analyzing 81 peer-reviewed academic papers listed in Scopus and Web of Science (published between 1960 and mid-2024). The pertinent research was thoroughly synthesized using content analysis by manual coding in ATLAS.ti software (to assist textual analysis), network visualization, and co-occurrence analyses (including temporal and geographical distributions). The results shed light on regional and temporal trends, links, and patterns across USIRS goals and strategies, and snow/ice reuse and deposit/dumping forms. These patterns also revealed common and not well-known connections in the literature. The findings indicate that the literature has divided USIRS goals into four categories: traffic, economic, human safety, and environmental. The most often discussed goals are connected to traffic (37%), with cost-efficiency coming in second (29%). Mechanical snow removal (41.96%) and de-icing (30.36%) are the most used USIRS strategies. While most defined snow/ice deposit or dumping forms are categorized as central (22.08%) or local (19.48%) deposits, emerging innovative practices like storing snow for cooling highlight the possibility of energy savings as the most prevalent type of snow/ice reuse outlined in literature. This study provides a beneficial resource for urban planners, academics, and policymakers by highlighting several hotspots and gaps within USIRS research. It aims to strengthen urban resilience to deal with winter difficulties and maximize the benefits of USIRS practices. 

Arctic cities are often perceived as exceptional and uniquely challenged by extreme conditions, leading to their treatment as special cases in urban planning and development. However, this perception overlooks the reality that Arctic cities share similar issues common to many small and medium-sized urban centers globally, such as mobility, climate adaptation, and aging populations. By recognizing Arctic cities as ordinary cities, we can better address their needs and foster effective solutions. This article reflects on the results of a fourth-year Master-level course in Sustainable Urban Development, where students researched urban sustainability aspects (e.g., mobility, green infrastructure, energy, public spaces) in northern regions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. It analyzes pedagogical approaches, highlighting challenges in integrating sustainability perspectives into architecture and planning curricula. Findings hold relevance for educators seeking to address similar challenges in the Arctic or other ordinary cities worldwide, contributing to more resilient and sustainable urban development across diverse environments.

Arctic cities are at the forefront of climate change, experiencing distinctive obstacles in their endeavors to pursue green transitions and attain sustainability objectives. These cities are marked by high energy consumption, primarily driven by activities related to resource extraction and the demanding climate. Moreover, they rely heavily on natural resources for growth, have limited infrastructure, and experience significant external and internal remoteness. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of urban sustainability in Arctic cities, focusing on key themes, trends, and challenges. Through a systematic review of extant literature, this study examines current research on urban sustainability in the Arctic and identifies crucial gaps, delineating a path to sustainability. Using VOSviewer software, six thematic clusters were identified: climate change and environmental adaptation, SDGs and smart urban planning, sustainable development and urban governance, sustainable economic development, social sustainability, and green energy transition. These clusters provide valuable insights into the dominant themes and evolving discourse in Arctic sustainability research. The findings show that the literature focuses predominantly on Russian Arctic cities, signaling an imperative for a more inclusive strategy encompassing a broader spectrum of Arctic cities. Additionally, sustainability is inherently site‐specific and necessitates a nuanced understanding that incorporates different stakeholders’ perspectives and considers particular regional traits to create a more effective and meaningful approach to measuring and achieving sustainability in Arctic cities. This article contributes to the ongoing discourse on sustainability in Arctic cities by advocating for a comprehensive framework that accommodates unique challenges and opportunities of Arctic urban environments.

Throughout history, small village communities in the Arctic have developed several strategies to ensure their survival. Along the Torne River, some fishing communities have produced specific architectures, landscapes, and social strategies to support their communities and survive for centuries. However, depopulation, aging, climate change, and the expansion of the extraction industry are threatening these villages. The hypothesis is that traditional fishing villages situated alongside rivers possess architectural, urban, and social attributes that can enhance outdoor activities linked to water and green spaces and enable the long-term social sustainability of Arctic villages. The innovative approach of the paper involves combining a mapping methodology of green and blue infrastructure with the architectural, urban, social and historical values of a place to identify design strategies for improving attractiveness demonstrating its efficacy, particularly in small, local-scale villages. The paper investigates the villages of Kukkola and Korpikylä taken as emblematic examples and explores the architectural and landscape value in relation to the green–blue infrastructure.

Urban sprawl in Latin America is described as one of the major problems of ‘the growth machine’. As a reaction, most planning policies are based on anti-sprawl narratives, while in practice, urban sprawl has been thoroughly consolidated by all tiers of government. In this paper – and using the capital city of Chile, Santiago, as a case study – we challenge these anti-sprawl politics in light of the emerging environmental values and associated meanings of the interstitial spaces resulting from land fragmentation in contexts of urban sprawl. Looking at the interstitial spaces that lie between developments becomes relevant in understanding urban sprawl, considering that significant attention has been paid to the impact of the built-up space that defines the urban character of cities and their governance arrangements. We propose that looking at Santiago’s urban sprawl from the interstitial spaces may contribute to the creation of more sustainable sprawling landscapes and inspire modernisations beyond anti-sprawl policies. Finally, it is suggested that a more sustainable urban development of city regions might include the environmental values of suburban interstices and consider them as assets for the creation of more comprehensive planning and policy responses to urban sprawl.