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Land
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Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and...
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Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and Management Solutions

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land Planning and Landscape Architecture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 5467

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Richard Smardon

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Studies, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
Interests: visual resource management; landscape assessment; cultural ecosystem services; wetland assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Maria Ignatieva

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Design, The University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth 6009, Australia
Interests: urban ecology; urban biodiversity and design; landscape architecture; garden history; garden restoration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Landscape architecture and design research is becoming increasingly popular due to rapid urbanization and its impacts on the urban and peri-urban environment. Constant mitigation and sprawl of urban areas is an imperative and it is important to know which natural and designed landscapes are most suitable and can be used as an inspiration for sustainable solutions. Such knowledge is crucial to achieving sustainable urbanization while maintaining and improving urban and peri-urban areas as well as providing a healthy and biodiverse environment for urban residents.

Thus, innovative research that is supported by computational approaches, field studies and spatial analysis to expand the knowledge on sustainable urbanization is in high demand. In this Special issue, we invite researchers to share their state-of-the-art work on landscape architecture and design combined with sustainable maintenance and management solutions, and other research fields such as urban blocks, urban green-blue infrastructure, public places, and architectural and design amenities related to urban and peri-urban environmental engineering to better cope with the urbanization phenomenon.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights about sustainable urban and periurban landscape planning, design and management.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  • Peri-urban landscape restoration;
  • Sustainable architecture, design and, management of open and public spaces;
  • Design and management of green and blue urban infrastructure spaces;
  • Sustainable urban design;
  • Planning and maintenance of peri-urban areas;
  • Enhancement of environment and human health and psychological benefits.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Richard Smardon
Prof. Dr. Maria Ignatieva
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • planning
  • landscape design
  • management
  • urban
  • peri-urban

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

42 pages, 1414 KB  
Article
Measuring People–Place Relationships in Residential Environments: Framework Development and Pilot Testing in Damascus
by Rahaf Yousef, Anna Éva Borkó and István Valánszki
Land 2026, 15(4), 665; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15040665 - 17 Apr 2026
Viewed by 365
Abstract
Conceptual ambiguity in People–Place Relationships (PPR) research limits consistent operationalization and cross-context comparability, particularly in under-represented cultural settings. This study develops an integrated, context-sensitive framework for assessing PPR in residential environments and empirically examines its measurement structure. The framework is applied in Damascus [...] Read more.
Conceptual ambiguity in People–Place Relationships (PPR) research limits consistent operationalization and cross-context comparability, particularly in under-represented cultural settings. This study develops an integrated, context-sensitive framework for assessing PPR in residential environments and empirically examines its measurement structure. The framework is applied in Damascus as a pilot context to assess its structural validity, internal consistency, and applicability. The methodological approach comprised two stages: conceptual development and empirical validation. First, two rounds of case-study analysis derived from a prior systematic literature review synthesized environmental (social and urban) and relational (cognitive, affective, attachment) dimensions into a coherent framework. Second, the framework was operationalized and tested using survey data from 1610 residents across Damascus districts. Six first-order indices and one composite PPR index were constructed and evaluated using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha with item–total correlation analysis. Results demonstrate a stable multidimensional structure that integrates evaluative environmental conditions with relational processes, moving beyond emotion-dominant interpretations of attachment. The framework advances existing approaches by linking theoretical constructs to empirically tested measurement dimensions. While further validation in diverse contexts is required, the results indicate that the model provides a coherent and adaptable basis for assessing residential PPR in socio-culturally complex urban environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and Management Solutions)
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26 pages, 28555 KB  
Article
Landscape Route Sharing Ratio in Nature-Integrated Community: Cross-Boundary Features and Design Implications
by Tingying Lu, Chenghao Xu and Zhenyu Li
Land 2026, 15(3), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15030519 - 23 Mar 2026
Viewed by 450
Abstract
Amid rapid urbanization in China, widespread gated residential districts have created physical and visual isolation from surrounding nature, undermining environmental benefits and daily accessibility. The emergence of a twenty-first-century “sharing” paradigm reshapes how buildings and landscapes are used and experienced, opening new opportunities [...] Read more.
Amid rapid urbanization in China, widespread gated residential districts have created physical and visual isolation from surrounding nature, undermining environmental benefits and daily accessibility. The emergence of a twenty-first-century “sharing” paradigm reshapes how buildings and landscapes are used and experienced, opening new opportunities for diversified sharing between communities and natural systems. Yet, despite mature research on city-scale landscape sharing, micro-scale tools to balance sharing versus exclusive route allocation—and to operationalize cross-system sharing-route design—remain limited. This study examines nature-integrated community design through the Landscape Route Sharing Ratio (LRSR), a metric derived from the Length and Density of Sharing Landscape Route (Ls/Ds), the Length and Density of Non-shared Landscape Route (Lns/Dns). It analyzes eight cases using a mixed-methods approach (field surveys, spatial mapping, planning-document review and quantitative measurement), and identifies five core cross-system features through typological analysis: extension to surrounding landscapes (ENL), cross-boundary landscape axes (CBLA), multi-scale hierarchy (MSH), multi-elevation systems (MES), and non-motorized priority (NMP). This study demonstrates that higher LRSR values significantly enhance landscape integration and pedestrian experiences. By establishing actionable target ranges (0.50–0.70), the research provides a practical decision-support tool for nature-integrated community design, advancing the methodological understanding of how shared routes foster ecological and social vitality in contemporary urban environments. The framework effectively bridges the gap between quantification with design guidance for nature-integrated communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and Management Solutions)
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30 pages, 5621 KB  
Article
Driving Mechanisms of Blue–Green Infrastructure in Enhancing Urban Sustainability: A Spatial–Temporal Assessment from Zhenjiang, China
by Pengcheng Liu, Cheng Lei, Haobing Wang, Junxue Zhang, Sisi Xia and Jun Cao
Land 2026, 15(2), 233; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15020233 - 29 Jan 2026
Viewed by 454
Abstract
(1) Background: Under the dual pressures of global climate change and rapid urbanization, blue–green infrastructure as a nature-based solution is crucial for enhancing urban sustainability. However, there is still a significant cognitive gap regarding the synergy mechanism between its blue and green components [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Under the dual pressures of global climate change and rapid urbanization, blue–green infrastructure as a nature-based solution is crucial for enhancing urban sustainability. However, there is still a significant cognitive gap regarding the synergy mechanism between its blue and green components and its nonlinear combined impact on sustainability. (2) Method: To fill this gap, this study takes Zhenjiang, a national sponge pilot city in China, as a case and constructs a comprehensive assessment framework. The framework combines multi-source spatio-temporal big data (remote sensing images, point of interest data, mobile phone signaling data) with spatial analysis techniques (geodetectors, Getis-Ord Gi*) to quantify the synergistic effects of blue–green infrastructure on environmental, economic, and social sustainability. (3) Results: The main findings include the following: (1) urban sustainability presents a spatial differentiation pattern of “high in the center, low in the periphery, and multi-core”, and there is a significant positive spatial correlation with the distribution of blue–green infrastructure. (2) The economic dimension, especially daytime population vitality, contributes the most to overall sustainability. (3) Crucially, the co-configuration of sponge facility density and park facility density was identified as the most influential driving mechanism (q = 0.698). In addition, the interaction between the blue infrastructure and the green sponge facilities showed obvious nonlinear enhancement characteristics. Based on spatial matching analysis, the study area was divided into three priority intervention zones: high, medium, and low. (4) Conclusions: This study confirms that it is crucial to view blue–green infrastructure as an interrelated collaborative system. The findings deepen the theoretical understanding of the synergistic empowerment mechanism of blue–green infrastructure and provide scientifically based and actionable policy support for the precise planning of ecological spaces in high-density urbanized areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and Management Solutions)
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22 pages, 2560 KB  
Article
Challenging the Norm of Lawns in Public Urban Green Space: Insights from Expert Designers, Turf Growers and Managers
by Maria Ignatieva, Michael Hughes, Fahimeh Mofrad and Agata Cabanek
Land 2025, 14(9), 1814; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14091814 - 5 Sep 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1625
Abstract
Lawns have evolved from medieval European grasslands into globally accepted urban green surfaces, serving recreational, aesthetic and cultural purposes. Today lawn surfaces are essential components of public urban green space (PUGS), fulfilling ecosystem services such as urban heat mitigation, carbon sequestration and social [...] Read more.
Lawns have evolved from medieval European grasslands into globally accepted urban green surfaces, serving recreational, aesthetic and cultural purposes. Today lawn surfaces are essential components of public urban green space (PUGS), fulfilling ecosystem services such as urban heat mitigation, carbon sequestration and social well-being. However, their ecological and resource-intensive disservices, particularly in dry climates, have prompted growing concerns among environmental scientists, urban planners and landscape designers. In water-scarce regions like Perth, Western Australia, traditional lawns face increasing scrutiny due to their high irrigation demands and limited ecological diversity. This study contributed to the transdisciplinary LAWN as Cultural and Ecological Phenomenon project, focusing on the perspectives of professionals, landscape architects, park managers, turf producers and researchers responsible for the planning, design and management of urban lawn in PUGS. Using qualitative methods (semi-structured in-depth interviews), the research explores expert insights on the values, challenges and future trajectories of lawn use in a warming, drying climate. The interviews included 21 participants. Findings indicate that while professionals acknowledge lawns’ continued relevance for sports and active recreation, water scarcity is a major concern influencing design and species selection. Alternatives such as drought-tolerant plants, hard landscaping and multifunctional green spaces are increasingly considered for non-sporting areas. Despite growing concerns, the ideal lawn is still envisioned as an expansive, green, soft surface, mirroring entrenched public preferences. This study underscores the need to balance environmental sustainability with public preference and cultural expectations of green lawns. Balancing expert insights with public attitudes is vital for developing adaptive, water-conscious landscape design strategies suited to future urban planning and environmental conditions in Mediterranean climates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and Management Solutions)
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27 pages, 9426 KB  
Article
Unpacking Park Cool Island Effects Using Remote-Sensed, Measured and Modelled Microclimatic Data
by Bill Grace, Julian Bolleter, Maassoumeh Barghchi and James Lund
Land 2025, 14(8), 1686; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14081686 - 20 Aug 2025
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1658
Abstract
There is increasing interest in the role of parks as potential cool refuges in the age of climate change. Such potential refuges result from the Park Cool Island (PCI) effect, reflecting the temperature differential between the park and surrounding urban areas. However, this [...] Read more.
There is increasing interest in the role of parks as potential cool refuges in the age of climate change. Such potential refuges result from the Park Cool Island (PCI) effect, reflecting the temperature differential between the park and surrounding urban areas. However, this study of different park typologies in Perth, Australia, illustrates that while surface temperatures are 10–15 °C lower in parks during summer afternoons (much less than at other times), air temperatures are generally no different from the adjacent streetscape for the smaller parks. Only the largest park in the study had 1–2 °C lower morning and mid-afternoon air temperature differentials. The study illustrates that while the PCI is a real phenomenon, the magnitude in terms of air temperature is small, and it is of less relevance to the conditions felt by humans in average summer daytime conditions than the direct effects of solar radiation. Many studies have assessed the PCI effect, an indicator that has shown a wide range across different studies and measurement techniques. However, this novel paper utilises satellite remote-sensed land surface temperatures, on-ground measurements of surface temperatures, air temperatures, and humidity, as well as modelling using the microclimatic simulation software ENVI-met version 5.0. A reliance on land surface temperature, which in isolation has a marginal correlation with human experience of thermal comfort, has led some researchers to overstate the PCI effect and its influence on adjoining urban areas. The research reported in this paper illustrates that it is the shade provided by the canopy in parks, rather than parks themselves, that provides meaningful thermal comfort benefits. Accordingly, adaptation to increasing temperatures requires the creation of a continuous canopy, ideally over parks, streetscapes, and private lots in an interconnected network. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Peri-Urban Environment: Searching for Sustainable Planning, Design and Management Solutions)
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