As we welcome the new year, the editorial team of Urban-Regional Ecology (URE) extends our sincere gratitude and warmest wishes to the global community of scholars, practitioners, and partners who have supported the journal throughout 2025.

We are deeply thankful to our Editorial Board and our international network of peer reviewers—ecologists, urban planners, geographers, environmental scientists, and policy researchers—whose expertise, thoughtful feedback, and commitment to interdisciplinary rigor ensure that URE remains a trusted platform for high-quality, socially relevant scholarship.

To our authors: thank you for sharing your innovative research with us. Your work—spanning urban green infrastructure, land-use governance, socio-ecological resilience, biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes, and climate-adaptive planning—exemplifies the journal’s mission: advancing integrated knowledge for sustainable urban–regional futures. It is your insights that give URE its purpose and impact.

We also appreciate all readers and collaborators who engage with our open-access content. In a time of accelerating urbanization, climate instability, and ecological transformation, your interest affirms the critical role of transdisciplinary research in shaping more resilient and equitable environments.

Looking ahead to 2026, Urban-Regional Ecology reaffirms its core commitments:

• To uphold the highest standards of peer review, academic integrity, and ethical publishing;
• To publish original, interdisciplinary research that deepens understanding of ecological dynamics in urban and regional contexts;
• To support policy-relevant science that informs sustainable planning, environmental justice, and ecosystem management;
• To remain a fully open-access journal, ensuring free and equitable access to knowledge for researchers, practitioners, and communities worldwide.

We believe that bridging ecology, spatial planning, and social equity is essential to navigating the complex challenges of the 21st century. Therefore, we warmly invite researchers from all regions and disciplines to submit your manuscripts to Urban-Regional Ecology. Whether your study focuses on urban heat mitigation, green-blue networks, institutional arrangements for conservation, or community-based ecological monitoring—we welcome contributions that connect science with real-world solutions.

Wishing you a healthy, inspiring, and ecologically mindful 2026—filled with collaboration, discovery, and positive change.

With gratitude and best wishes,
The Editorial Office
Urban-Regional Ecology (URE)