Search Results (682)

Children’s everyday routes to school are increasingly recognised as important environments shaping physical and mental well-being. Yet, their emotional dimension remains insufficiently integrated into health-oriented urban design research, particularly in cities without formalised School Street policies. This study examines how children in Belgrade perceive and emotionally experience their everyday school routes and how such evidence can inform context-sensitive urban design. A mixed-method, child-centred participatory approach was applied with primary school pupils, combining participatory evaluation boards, cognitive route mapping, photo documentation, and facilitated classroom discussion. The material was analysed through qualitative coding, triangulation, and a health-oriented reinterpretation of the SCORELINE framework (h_SCORELINE). The findings reveal recurring stress nodes associated with traffic-dominated streets, complex crossings, obstructed sidewalks, and poorly legible route segments, which children linked to fear, discomfort, and insecurity. By contrast, greenery, recognisable landmarks, visually calm environments, and wider pedestrian spaces emerged as joy nodes associated with comfort, enjoyment, and emotional ease. These patterns suggest that children’s emotional-spatial evidence can enrich the assessment of school-route environments beyond conventional traffic indicators alone. By linking children’s lived experiences with health-oriented urban design, the study provides evidence-based support for the gradual introduction of School Streets in Belgrade. It offers a transferable framework for integrating child-centred experiential knowledge into healthier street design. Full article

Children’s affinity for natural elements, or biophilic preferences, has gained increasing recognition as a cornerstone of family-centered sustainability. This study examines how parental factors, specifically environmental attitudes and in-home biophilic design plus guidance, directly shape children’s preference for nature-infused environments. A cross-sectional survey (N = 397) for parents collected data on household greenery, animal care, parental attitudes toward environmental responsibility, and the degree of child involvement with natural elements. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the analysis identified proactive parental mindsets and frequent biophilic home modifications as significant predictors of stronger child affinity for plants, water features, and other nature-inspired components. The findings highlight several key parental and environmental factors that contribute to the development of children’s biophilic preferences, underscoring the importance of coordinated efforts among families, communities, and policymakers to nurture children’s environmental consciousness. By highlighting how indoor greenery, small-scale animal care, and intentional parental support can foster early engagement with nature, this research offers fresh insights into the synergy between biophilic design and sustainable family practices. Emphasizing the potential role of home-based natural elements in enhancing children’s environmental awareness, the study concludes that nature-rich living spaces and holistic sustainability interventions are essential for empowering the next generation to shape a more sustainable future. Full article

Mountainous Mediterranean rivers provide essential ecosystem services but are increasingly affected by land-use change, hydraulic works, and inadequate wastewater management. This study investigates the links between geomorphological transformation and river water quality in the Central Eurytania drainage basin (Greece) over the past two decades, within the institutional framework of European and Greek environmental legislation, with emphasis on the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems. Georeferenced satellite imagery from 2003/2010 and 2023, Google Earth Engine (GEE, Python Earth Engine API: 1.7.20)-based spatial analysis, high-resolution UAV orthomosaics, and seasonal spectrophotometric analyses were integrated to assess spatial and temporal dynamics. Results indicate that land-use changes, including the construction of solar parks, expansion of tourism infrastructure, and partial agricultural abandonment, reflect ongoing socio-economic shifts influencing fluvial processes. Water-quality analyses further showed that channel alteration and wastewater inputs jointly degrade ecological conditions. The findings highlight the need for integrated watershed management focused on riparian buffer restoration, improved wastewater control, and systematic monitoring of hydromorphological change. The proposed interdisciplinary framework contributes to the assessment of environmental resilience in Mediterranean mountainous watersheds, which are increasingly vulnerable to climatic and socio-economic pressures. Full article

In the context of urban renewal, the spatial interface of historic commercial districts functions as both a carrier of historical character and a key setting for commercial activity, public life, and local cultural expression. To address the limitations of conventional studies that rely heavily on field observation and qualitative description, this study takes Xiaohe Zhijie in Hangzhou as a case and develops a multi-level street-view recognition framework for the quantitative analysis of spatial interface characteristics. Based on street-view image collection and standardized preprocessing, a sample database was established at the sampling-point scale. Semantic segmentation, automated commercial object detection, and manual interpretation were combined to identify interface elements, including buildings, sky, greenery, pavement, vehicles, pedestrians, and commercial objects, while commercial content was assessed in terms of locality and homogenization. The results show that Xiaohe Zhijie exhibits a building-dominated and relatively enclosed interface pattern, with greenery and pavement forming the basic environmental ground, weak vehicle interference, and localized enhancement of vitality through commercial objects and pedestrian activities. Significant differences were found among street segments in openness, commercial coverage, and local expression. Three interface types were identified: commercial–cultural composite, local life-oriented, and waterfront landscape–cultural composite. The main challenge lies not in commercialization itself, but in stronger visual locality than content locality and increasing homogenization, resulting in a pattern of “localized form but homogenized content.” Full article

University students face sustained academic, employment, and social pressures. Campus pathways, as central linear spaces in daily routines, hold significant potential to influence well-being, yet existing research has largely overlooked how their environmental characteristics affect multidimensional health. Using Shenyang Jianzhu University as a case, this study identified frequently used pathways through GPS tracking and surveys, and quantitatively analyzed how environmental features affect walking willingness, emotional experience, and social interaction. By comparing high- and low-benefit groups, the key environmental thresholds were identified to inform health-oriented design. Beyond verifying some established understandings (e.g., daily commuting paths prioritize efficiency, while leisure paths focus on experiential quality), the study further revealed several mechanisms through quantitative analysis. For example, “road accessibility”—an indicator of convenience—showed a significant negative correlation with emotional experience. The study established quantifiable prediction models and identified design thresholds for campus pathways. A high aesthetic greenery was key to achieving high overall benefits, while low building enclosure and vegetation complexity promoted social interaction. This achievement transforms health-oriented campus pathway design from qualitative principles into a measurable and optimizable scientific practice, thus providing an empirical basis and practical guidance for the construction of health-supportive campus environments. Full article

The integration of vertical greenery systems (VGSs) into existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings raises questions regarding interface kinematics and the permanent displacement of soil-retaining elements under seismic excitation. This study experimentally investigates the residual displacement of façade-mounted living walls and rooftop planter pods anchored to a deficient RC frame under shake table excitation. A 1:3 scale reinforced concrete frame was tested in two distinct phases: initially as a deficient, unretrofitted structure (Phase A), and subsequently as a retrofitted system integrated with vertical greenery elements (Phase B). High-precision terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) was employed before and after successive seismic excitation stages to generate dense three-dimensional point clouds. Cloud-to-cloud comparison techniques were used to quantify global structural displacement and local kinematic behavior of greenery components, while results were validated against conventional displacement sensors. The RC frame exhibited millimeter-scale permanent displacements consistent with draw-wire measurements. In contrast, planter pods demonstrated configuration-dependent behavior, including up to 8 cm translational sliding and rotational responses reaching 13° under repeated excitation, whereas living wall panels remained stable. Notably, a 95% reduction in point cloud density reproduced global deformation patterns with an RMSE of 3.03 mm and quantified peak displacements with only ~2% deviation from full-resolution results. The findings demonstrate the capability of TLS-based monitoring to detect differential kinematic behavior of integrated VGSs, while highlighting the variability in performance of friction-based rooftop anchorage utilizing different robust planter pod fixing systems. Full article

This study presents the vegetation of a Mediterranean area in Croatia, abandoned by the military three decades ago after two centuries of use. From 2023 to 2025, 97 phytosociological relevés were taken using the Braun–Blanquet approach. Based on numerical classification, we identified seven plant associations, two subassociations, and two communities within nine floristically and ecologically distinct vegetation classes. Military presence shaped the landscape in several ways. Large parts of the peninsula remain near-natural, covered by high maquis with minimal disturbance. Plateau shooting ranges, formerly grasslands, now represent rare habitats due to ongoing succession. Within former barracks, plantings included low-maintenance species providing rapid greening and visual screening. Evergreen conifers were favored for year-round greenery, while deciduous trees and ornamental shrubs provided shade and aesthetic value. Given current neglect and ongoing successional trends, the site requires a carefully planned management program aimed at habitat restoration, control of shrub encroachment, and maintenance of open and semi-open vegetation to preserve biodiversity and landscape heterogeneity. Full article

Urban street greenery plays a crucial role in enhancing biodiversity, environmental quality, and human well-being. However, how different street greening strategies shape urban plant diversity across functional urban contexts remains insufficiently understood. Taking Jinan, a rapidly urbanizing city in China, as a case study, this research investigates the spatial patterns, compositional differences, and driving mechanisms of plant diversity between Green Streets (GS) and Non-Green Streets (NGS) across various Urban Functional Units (UFUs). A 1 km × 1 km grid was used to delineate UFUs, combined with field-based plant surveys, linear regression analyses, and the public space assessment framework of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.7.1. Results indicate that plant diversity is strongly dependent on urban functional types, with higher species richness observed in residential and recreation/leisure districts, and lower levels in industrial, commercial, and transportation districts. The ecological effects of GS exhibit clear context dependence, being more pronounced in residential, educational, and public service areas, but limited in commercial and industrial zones. NGS recorded a significantly higher total number of plant species (346) than GS (116), with NGS dominated by native spontaneous species and GS characterized by introduced cultivated plants, reflecting the filtering effects of different management intensities. Management variables, particularly watering (positive) and fertilization frequency (negative), is primarily positively associated with plant diversity in GS, whereas diversity in NGS is more closely associated with socio-economic and spatial factors such as UFU area and housing prices. Furthermore, the current SDG 11.7.1 indicator emphasizes the quantity and accessibility of public spaces but insufficiently captures their ecological quality. This study highlights the need to integrate biodiversity and vegetation structural complexity into public space assessments, providing scientific support for quality-oriented urban green infrastructure planning and sustainable urban development. Full article

Vertical greenery systems (VGS), including vertical gardens (VG) and green façades (GF), are increasingly promoted as nature-based solutions for sustainable urban development. Despite their environmental benefits, economic evaluation remains fragmented, particularly within a life-cycle cost (LCC) perspective. This study conducts a systematic literature review to examine the structural configuration of cost-related research on VGS within an LCC framework. Following the PRISMA protocol, 136 peer-reviewed articles published between 2021 and 2025 were identified through a structured search of the ScienceDirect database and retained as the analytical dataset. Bibliometric mapping, thematic classification, and co-occurrence analysis were applied to assess publication patterns, the distribution of cost components, and reporting structures. Five principal cost categories were identified: Installation and Operation, Maintenance, Consumables, Materials and Manufacturing, and Design. The results reveal a pronounced concentration on installation and maintenance costs, while design-phase economics and comprehensive LCC integration remain marginal. Most studies address only one or two cost categories, indicating structural fragmentation. In addition, heterogeneous reporting units and inconsistent contextual descriptors constrain cross-study comparability and cumulative synthesis. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that although cost research on VGS is expanding, it has not yet achieved methodological maturity within a standardized LCC framework. Advancing harmonized cost-reporting protocols and integrated life-cycle modeling is therefore essential to support robust economic evaluation and informed implementation of VGS in sustainable built environments. Full article

Urban green infrastructure plays a crucial role in enhancing environmental resilience in cities, particularly in arid regions characterized by water scarcity, soil salinity, and high climatic stress. However, arid coastal cities remain insufficiently studied with regard to spatially explicit assessments of the structure and dynamics of green infrastructure. This study evaluates the state and spatial organization of urban green infrastructure in Aktau, Kazakhstan, over the period 2015–2025, with the most recent satellite observations obtained in June 2025. Sentinel-2 satellite imagery was used to calculate seasonal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) values, and zonal statistics were applied to assess intra-urban differentiation across functional zones. In addition, inventory-based indicators—Green Planting Density (GPD), Structural Composition of Greenery (SCG), and Protective Green Infrastructure (PGI)—were integrated to complement the remote sensing analysis. The results indicate a moderate overall increase in mean NDVI values (from 0.21 to 0.28), with the most significant growth observed in central and coastal areas (ΔNDVI = +0.12; ΔSAVI = +0.21), while industrial and newly developed zones exhibit only limited changes. Despite these localized improvements, the spatial configuration of green infrastructure remains fragmented, reflecting a persistent center–periphery asymmetry in urban greening. These results underline the importance of irrigation practices and spatially targeted greening strategies for improving vegetation conditions in arid urban environments. The proposed integrated approach combining satellite-derived vegetation indices and inventory-based indicators can serve as a useful tool for monitoring urban green infrastructure and supporting evidence-based planning in arid coastal cities. Full article

Integrating greenery into built environments plays a significant role in enhancing indoor space, nurturing mental health, and reinforcing overall well-being. Yet, many indoor settings lack direct access to natural greenery, raising questions whether nature-derived visual alternatives, such as chromatic properties or visual complexity could evoke neural responses comparable to those induced by natural greenery. Four indoor window-view stimuli were presented: White Color (control), Green Color, Natural Greenery, and Shadows of Greenery. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor brain electrical activity, with a particular focus on frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) as an indicator of approach/withdrawal motivation and affective engagement. Natural Greenery showed the strongest asymmetry, with the most negative FAA values. Natural Greenery was also rated highest in comfort and likability. Additionally, a two-way repeated measures ANOVA indicated significantly greater right-frontal engagement in the Natural Greenery view. No comparable neural response was observed for Green Color or Shadows of Greenery. Full article

As urbanization intensifies, improving street thermal comfort has become a critical issue in urban renewal. While existing studies generally assume that increasing the Green View Index (GVI) linearly improves pedestrian thermal comfort, this study identifies a significant “Decoupling Effect” in high-density commercial areas through field measurements and numerical simulations of three typical street types (commercial–service, ecological–recreational, and historical–cultural) in Shenyang. Integrating DeepLab V3 semantic segmentation with ENVI-met version 5.1.1 microclimate simulation, the results demonstrate a robust monotonic negative correlation between GVI and Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) in ecological streets (Spearman’s ρ = −0.692, p < 0.001), confirming the consistent cooling benefit of greenery in nature-dominated environments. However, a distinct “Threshold Effect” was identified in commercial streets using Piecewise Linear Regression (PLR). A critical breakpoint was detected at GVI = 22.08%. Below this threshold, visual greenery effectively contributes to cooling (slope = −0.454); yet, once GVI exceeds 22.08%, the cooling efficacy diminishes significantly (slope = −0.109), marking the onset of a “decoupling” phase. Specifically, despite Wenhua Road achieving a GVI of ~24.5% with a complex “three-board, four-belt” structure, its PET peak reaches 46.15 °C, approximately 5.5 °C higher than ecological streets. Mechanism analysis reveals that under peak thermal stress (Traffic Heat ≈ 75 W/m²), the high-intensity anthropogenic heat and hardscape radiation exceed the evaporative cooling threshold of vegetation. This study reveals the non-linear relationship between visual greenery and the physical thermal environment, suggesting that simply pursuing visual green quantity is ineffective in commercial canyon renewal; instead, a threshold-based synergistic optimization of canopy shading and pavement thermal performance is required. These findings provide a quantitative basis for sustainable street landscape planning and urban climate adaptation strategies in high-density cities. Full article

Spatial technologies play a key role in documenting and analyzing landscape components. The Landscape Information Model (LIM), deriving from the Building Information Model (BIM), is a digital representation of a landscape, which should support planning, design, management, and analysis throughout a landscape’s lifecycle. In the literature, the applications of BIM technology in landscape planning focuses on the design and the construction of 3D and 5D LIMs. The aim of this paper is to develop the concept of 7D LIMs for the purposes of managing greenery based on the example of the university campus and model implementation based on BIM-GIS technology. The specific objective is to develop the UML diagrams of the model that would be dedicated to the needs of the unit responsible for maintaining the university’s infrastructure. The source of data was a point cloud obtained by laser scanning, which was then processed to map the terrain, small architectural objects, and infrastructure in the Revit 2024 software. The developed method indicated the value of modern technologies in landscape processes and their potential use in public institutions. The proposed diagrams that describe the semantics of landscape forms and greenery maintenance activities can be developed by adding further ontological aspects of the landscape model. Full article

Mitigating heat stress in high-density historical districts remains a critical challenge in urban renewal due to complex morphological heterogeneity. Existing research often relies on isolated intervention measures, lacking systematic, multi-strategy assessments driven by high-precision spatial data. This study addresses this gap by establishing a quantitative framework that couples thermal infrared remote sensing with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to optimize microclimate responses in Beijing’s Liulichang Historic District. Remote sensing data were utilized to retrieve high-resolution Land Surface Temperature (LST), providing accurate thermal boundary conditions for micro-scale wind-thermal simulations. A baseline scenario (S0) and seven renewal strategies (S1–S7)—integrating varying configurations of greenery, water bodies, and permeable pavements—were evaluated using pedestrian-level comfort indices. Results reveal that single-factor interventions yield marginal improvements or thermodynamic trade-offs; specifically, adding greenery (S1) in narrow street canyons increased aerodynamic roughness, thereby obstructing ventilation and inducing localized warming. Conversely, composite strategies significantly enhanced microclimatic quality. The “greenery-water-permeable pavement” strategy (S4) achieved optimal synergistic effects, characterized by substantial cooling and spatial homogenization. Regression analysis identified water bodies as the dominant cooling driver, where a 10% increase in water coverage resulted in a temperature reduction of approximately 5.17 °C. Conversely, greenery alone showed no statistically significant cooling contribution (p > 0.05) without the synergistic presence of water or pavement modifications. This research suggests that urban renewal in high-temperature zones (>36 °C) should prioritize composite cooling networks. Furthermore, vegetation layouts near wind corridors must be precisely regulated to prevent ventilation degradation. These findings provide a scientific basis for the climate-adaptive sustainable regeneration of culturally significant, high-density urban blocks. Full article

The intensification of Global Warming and Urban Heat Island phenomena necessitates advanced, computationally effective tools for evaluating outdoor thermal comfort and microclimatic dynamics by means of Mean Radiant Temperature assessment. However, existing high-resolution physical models often suffer from prohibitive computational costs. This research proposes LUCIDiT (Lean Urban Comfort Intelligent Digital Twin), a physically based modeling framework implemented for a quick mean radiant temperature assessment inside complex urban morphologies. The method integrates a simplified balance of mutual radiative heat exchanges with recursive time-series filtering to account for the thermal inertia of different urban materials, alongside greenery heat exchange due to evapotranspiration. This architecture creates an operational urban comfort digital twin that reduces computational times by orders of magnitude for large-scale mappings, without sacrificing physical accuracy. Validation against drone-acquired thermographic data and the established Urban Multi-scale Environmental Predictor model demonstrates high reliability and coherence with the real physical phenomena and context. The application to an urban pilot site in Florence reveals that strategic interventions, such as substituting impervious surfaces with irrigated greenery and arboreal canopies, can mitigate radiant loads by up to 20 °C. Findings show that the proposed urban comfort digital twin can be a robust, scalable instrument for designing evidence-based climate adaptation strategies and quick testing mitigation scenarios to enhance urban resilience. Full article