Search Results (895)

Rapid urbanization of the human population and the escalating threat of climate change are the main global crises of the 21st century. When cities densify to accommodate the growth, they face critical shortage of urban space and intense competition between gray infrastructure, ecological preservation, and the urgent need for renewable energy generation, calling for effective urban planning as well as management. Traditionally, urban planning operates in isolated departments without cooperation; they simply separate nature into parks, energy into peripheral power plants, and water into underground pipes, leading to more and more vigorous competition for space utilization. This perspective argues that such a fragmented approach is no longer viable, while a new paradigm of spatial synergy integrating blue–green infrastructure (BGI) and renewable energy sources (RES) possesses encouraging potential and is gaining increasing attention. After discussing the mechanics, the planning methodologies, and the operational frameworks of the spatial synergy, the critical challenges and specific barriers in the synergistic integration are summarized in the dimensions of spatial planning, operation and techniques, socio-economics and governance, and the interconnected pathways, spanning good planning, honest financing, and inclusive governance are proposed to provide a clear roadmap for achieving tangible sustainable urbanism. Full article

Urban cycling is increasingly recognised as a key component of sustainable urban mobility, yet many medium-sized cities lack integrated analytical tools to support evidence-based cycling infrastructure planning. This study proposes a GIS-based decision-support framework integrating a relative cycling impedance (Bike Cost) model, GIS-based network analysis, Origin–Destination (OD) Cost Matrix analysis, frequency-based corridor identification, and sensitivity analysis to evaluate cycling accessibility and prioritise cycling investments. The framework was applied to the central district of Burdur, Türkiye, using neighbourhood centres as origins and primary schools, middle schools, high schools, the university, parks, and tourism destinations as six destination categories. The results reveal that Burdur’s compact urban structure provides relatively high cycling accessibility within the urban core. In contrast, peripheral neighbourhoods experience lower accessibility because of fragmented network connectivity and higher cycling impedance. Spatial comparison with the existing cycling infrastructure revealed that the identified high-priority corridors do not overlap with the current cycling network, highlighting a clear mismatch between existing infrastructure and the corridors of greatest strategic importance. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that the priority corridors remained highly stable under alternative Bike Cost weighting scenarios, demonstrating the robustness of the proposed framework. These findings indicate that improving network continuity and connectivity is as important as expanding cycling infrastructure. The proposed framework provides a transferable and reproducible methodology for supporting evidence-based cycling infrastructure planning and sustainable urban mobility in medium-sized cities. Full article

Urban waterfront spaces play an increasingly important role in mitigating urban heat and supporting climate-resilient urban development. However, previous studies have primarily focused on individual waterfront sites or local microclimatic simulations, with comparatively limited understanding of how waterfront morphology is associated with land surface temperature across different urban functional districts and spatial scales. This study evaluates the thermal characteristics of fifty representative waterfront samples in Chengdu, China, covering five urban functional districts: commercial, office, residential, park, and suburban areas. Land surface temperature (LST) data for the period from 1 June to 30 September 2023 were integrated with GIS-derived morphological indicators, including river width, water area ratio, green space ratio, building density, and distance to water. Thermal conditions were analysed within the 200 m waterfront zone and across 500 m, 1000 m, and 2000 m buffer zones. Correlation analysis, standardized multiple linear regression, and spatial autocorrelation analysis were used to assess bivariate relationships, independent predictor effects, and the robustness of the statistical results. The results show significant thermal differences among waterfront typologies. Commercial waterfronts exhibited the highest LST, whereas suburban waterfronts showed the lowest temperatures within the immediate waterfront zone. Standardized multiple regression analysis confirmed building density as the strongest independent positive predictor of LST across all spatial scales after accounting for intercorrelations among predictors, with adjusted R² values ranging from 0.384 to 0.582. River width and the water area ratio were negatively associated with LST mainly within the immediate waterfront zone, whereas the green space ratio showed no statistically significant independent association with LST. Cooling-related thermal contrasts also varied among waterfront typologies across buffer distances; however, inter-typology differences at the 2000 m scale were not statistically significant and should therefore be regarded as preliminary. Spatial autocorrelation analysis further indicated that the principal morphology–LST relationships remained broadly stable after accounting for spatial dependence. These findings suggest that waterfront thermal conditions are strongly associated with the combined configuration of blue, green, and built-environment characteristics rather than with water-body size alone. The multi-scale analytical framework provides a practical basis for evaluating waterfront thermal conditions, while the planning implications should be interpreted as directional rather than as fixed design thresholds. Full article

Immersive technologies support heritage interpretation and management, yet research remains divided between cultural and archaeological heritage and urban planning. This systematic review, reported according to PRISMA 2020, aimed to examine the design, application, and evaluation of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality systems in archaeological parks, historic districts, and urban-planning contexts. Peer-reviewed English-language journal articles and full conference papers published from 2010 to 15 July 2026 were eligible; museum-only, artifact-only, non-immersive, and methodologically insufficient reports were excluded. Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and SpringerLink were searched through 15 July 2026. A five-domain, study-type-adapted rubric was used for critical appraisal, and findings were synthesized narratively by spatial scale, delivery mode, technology pipeline, and evaluation. Of 10,790 records, 21 studies were included: 17 direct applications, three enabling methods, and one foundational survey. Twelve reported user or stakeholder evaluations, but only ten reported numerical sample sizes, precluding calculation of a pooled participant total. Evidence was heterogeneous, predominantly descriptive, and rarely longitudinal. The original screening, data extraction, and critical appraisal were performed by a single reviewer. Following peer review, all 21 included reports and the key coding and appraisal variables underwent retrospective independent verification and reconciliation. No supplementary hand-searching or citation searching was conducted. The urban dimension of ancient cities remains underexplored, while communication of uncertainty in city-scale reconstructions remains unresolved. The review proposes a cross-domain taxonomy, core evaluation outcomes, and an integrated research agenda. No external funding was received. The review was not registered, and no formal protocol was prepared. Full article

Ground deformation associated with rapid urbanization has emerged as a common global challenge facing cities. However, identifying its contributing mechanisms remains difficult because multiple factors, including groundwater management, engineering loads, and extreme weather events, are often superimposed in space and time. This study proposes a scale-aware analytical framework that integrates Small Baseline Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR), Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT), and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to separate deformation signals by spatial scale and statistical structure, and then support the interpretation of their potential drivers. The original deformation field is first decomposed into a large-scale background component and a small-scale local component using SWT. ICA is then applied to the large-scale background component to extract two statistically separated deformation modes with distinct spatiotemporal characteristics. These modes are further examined using Least-Squares Cross-Wavelet Analysis (LSCWA) and ancillary hydrological information to evaluate their associations with groundwater-related processes. We applied and validated this framework in Zhengzhou, China, as a representative case. Results show that Zhengzhou exhibits a clear “central uplift and peripheral subsidence” pattern. The large-scale component contains two statistically separated modes. The first mode shows a long-term uplift pattern that is spatially consistent with the groundwater no-take zone and temporally associated with confined-aquifer water-level recovery. The second mode shows an annual oscillation that is coherent with groundwater storage anomaly, with an estimated deformation lag of approximately 1–2 months. The small-scale local component highlights subsidence bowls that are spatially and temporally associated with engineering and land-use features, including newly constructed transportation corridors, high-density building areas, landfills, and waterfront park projects. The proposed framework provides a scale-aware pathway for interpreting complex urban deformation fields and may support more targeted geohazard monitoring and urban planning in areas affected by coupled hydrological and anthropogenic pressures. Full article

Urban blue–green spaces (UBGSs) are critical for biodiversity, yet our understanding of how plant diversity in these spaces responds to urbanization across different UBGS types remains limited. Here, we investigated plant communities in four sampled UBGSs along an urban gradient in the Minjiang River Basin, China. Because each blue–green space type is represented by a single site, all comparisons are site-specific and descriptive. Using species richness (S), the Shannon–Wiener index (H′), Pielou’s evenness index (J′), frequency (F), and importance value (I.V.), we described whether taxonomic composition and diversity patterns differed among the four sampled sites. Across all sites, based on 615 species records, angiosperms dominated (92.6%), and cosmopolitan families (e.g., Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae) were ubiquitous, consistent with a strong regional species pool influence. However, our cross-site comparison showed a contrasting pattern: the near-natural Baihetan National Wetland Park showed the highest S (12.87) but low evenness (0.49), whereas the intensively managed Huoshui Park, with the lowest richness (9.67), achieved the highest evenness (0.68). Further, a discordance between F and I.V. rankings was observed in the managed site, where ornamental species showed high spatial coverage but low I.V. ranks. We report this rank discordance only as an observational finding, not as a proven metric or indicator. This discordance suggests that richness alone may not fully capture community structure, though its diagnostic value remains unverified. We interpret these contrasting richness–evenness patterns from the four sampled sites. Because site identity is confounded with management intensity, habitat area, and landscape context, no causal attribution to ecological or anthropogenic factors can be made. Evenness and species richness showed different site-to-site patterns, but this association remains observational. We hypothesize that a resilient urban biodiversity network could combine complementary nodes, with large natural wetlands as species-rich sites and constructed parks as structurally balanced units, rather than pursuing a single diversity target. This study provides preliminary insights that may inform planning considerations under Chengdu’s Park City initiative, but these suggestions should be viewed as hypotheses requiring further validation rather than as established management guidelines. The proposed network approach, while conceptually appealing, requires empirical testing through replicated studies before it can be considered for broader application. Full article

Urban green space supply (UGSS) is a core component of territorial spatial planning, and the advancement of the park city initiative has been temporally associated with a systematic transformation. Differentiation in UGSS is a comprehensive issue concerning ecological environment, public welfare, and high-quality urban development, and it is closely related to the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.7. This study employs a comprehensive approach combining spatiotemporal dynamic analysis (Mann–Kendall trend test and Theil–Sen slope estimation), differentiation measures (Gini coefficient and Theil index), and the explainable machine learning SHAP model to conduct a large-sample empirical analysis of 1760 towns in China from 2015 to 2024. The findings show the following: First, park city construction corresponds to notable spatiotemporal evolution of UGSS in China’s towns, with approximately 85% of towns showing a significant rise. Second, park city construction coincides with a reduction in differentiation in both the outcomes and processes of UGSS in China’s towns, with both the Gini coefficient and Theil index declining to varying degrees. An analysis of the Theil index further confirms that the observed changes in the Theil index are more pronounced in disadvantaged towns, and the differentiation in UGSS originates more from intra-regional disparities than from inter-regional gaps. Third, the differentiation in UGSS shows deep structural correlates, with the associations of socio-economic and natural ecological factors exhibiting various complex nonlinear associations such as inverted U-shape, arc shape, U-shape, and wave shape. These associations are specifically manifested as mixed directionality of associations, hierarchical intensity of associations, threshold-based evolutionary pathways, geographic spatial heterogeneity, and interactive relationships among factors. This study recommends that the policy design of park city construction and green space system planning should promptly establish a new model combining situational response, threshold management, and collaborative governance. The nonlinear and interpretable analytical paradigm constructed in this study holds significant value for achieving precise supply and equitable sharing of green space resources. Full article

Although fire service accessibility has been extensively studied for urban public facilities such as hospitals and parks, it remains largely unexplored for high-risk industrial facilities such as fireworks manufacturers. In this study, fire risk and transportation network conditions are jointly considered, and a dynamic risk-weighted fire service accessibility evaluation framework is developed. An empirical study was conducted using 35 fire stations and 410 fireworks manufacturers in Liuyang City, China. Fire truck travel times were simulated via online map application programming interfaces (APIs) at 10–30 min intervals over a continuous three-day period, generating 193 evaluation scenarios and 158,260 data samples. The results indicate that the total average travel time of different types of fire trucks to demand points with varying risk levels was found to range from 570.33 to 1362.18 s, and risk-weighted fire service accessibility ranges from 16.84 to 57.26, reflecting a generally poor level of fire service accessibility within the current transport network. To resolve these constraints, it is recommended to optimize the spatial configuration of micro fire stations, promote the collaborative planning of shared enterprise-based fire units, and cross-integrate accessibility metrics into regional industrial land-use planning. These spatial measures are expected to significantly enhance the spatial resilience of transportation systems serving peripheral high-risk industrial clusters. Full article

Planning emergency assembly areas, which are vital in the first hours after a disaster, is a critical decision problem, especially in metropolitan areas with high population density and urbanization pressure. This study comprehensively evaluates the capacity adequacy, population pressure, and spatial imbalances of existing assembly areas in the Eyüpsultan district of Istanbul. A two-stage hybrid model is proposed: in the first stage, assembly areas are clustered based on geographical proximity using the K-means algorithm; in the second stage, an improvement is implemented for clusters falling below the per capita area target (3 m²/person), based on the reallocation of parks from neighboring clusters with excess capacity through administrative assignment. As a result of trials with different cluster numbers, the five-cluster configuration was selected as the preferred solution when the Silhouette score (0.568), minimum per capita area (3.21 m²), and spatial continuity criteria were evaluated together. Thanks to the proposed hybrid model, the per capita space in all clusters has been kept above the 3 m² threshold. These findings demonstrate that capacity gaps can be addressed solely through the rational optimization of service assignments, without increasing the urban open space stock. Consequently, the proposed approach offers a more equitable, accessible, capacity-balanced decision-support structure for disaster management for local governments. Full article

Understanding how urban park landscape features are associated with service population and service radius can inform park planning and management. In Changsha, China, this study measured both indicators for 29 parks on one weekday and one weekend day in spring 2025 using mobile signaling data, quantified landscape features from multisource data, and examined their associations. Service population and service radius were not highly correlated. The adjusted R² values for the two indicators were 71.8% and 84.5%, respectively. Park area and the number of parking lots within the park were significantly associated with both indicators in the same direction. Percent vegetation cover and the number of stores within the park were significantly associated with the two indicators in opposite directions. Elevation, presence of large-scale flower landscapes, distance to the nearest subway station, number of surrounding bus stops, distance to the city center, slope, percent water body, edge density of vegetation patches, number of public restrooms, and number of surrounding residential quarters were significantly associated with only one indicator. These findings reveal synergistic, trade-off, and indicator-specific association patterns between landscape features and urban park recreational services, and may inform differentiated urban park planning and management. Full article

Urban construction often involves root cutting, which can affect tree stability and disrupt physiological processes. However, studies assessing the impacts of root cutting on urban trees remain limited. Our objective was to quantify the physiological responses of mature trees four years after root cutting of increasing severity, applied on one side of the tree or on two perpendicular sides. Stomatal conductance, net photosynthesis at the light saturation point and predawn leaf water potential were measured in Tilia cordata Mill. (n = 26) and Acer platanoides L. (n = 26), across six municipal parks in Québec City (Canada). No significant differences in stomatal conductance were observed among treatments. A general effect of root cutting on photosynthesis was detected, but no significant decline was observed with trench severity. Moreover, the predawn leaf water potential values suggest that trees maintained adequate overnight rehydration despite root disturbances. These results suggest the presence of compensatory root mechanisms and physiological resilience in both species under urban park conditions, even when trenching was performed closer to the trunk than the recommended distances, based on the International Society of Arboriculture Standards. This study can provide municipalities with valuable information to support root trench planning, assess associated risks, and implement effective measures to preserve mature trees in urban parks. Full article

The design of urban pedestrian–cycling routes is of great importance for the sustainable development of cities. Properly designed routes encourage the use of sustainable modes of transport. They also bring numerous environmental and social benefits. The study examines how greenery and spatial characteristics influence citizens’ aesthetic perception of pedestrian and cycling corridors. The Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) method was used to assess visual landscape quality based on users’ subjective evaluations. A total of 301 participants evaluated 20 photographs taken in Lublin, Poland, depicting different types of urban routes, including sidewalks, cycling paths, and park pathways, using a five-point rating scale. Statistical analyses (ANOVA, post hoc tests, and composite and differential variable analyses) were conducted to identify patterns in preferences. The results indicate that greenery is the dominant factor shaping landscape preferences across all age and gender groups. Age plays a stronger role than gender in differentiating evaluations: younger participants prefer more natural and greener environments, whereas older participants favor more ordered and less green spaces. Gender effects are limited and primarily relate to preferences for natural landscapes. An additional finding concerns the role of benches, which were most preferred by younger and middle-aged women, suggesting a broader social and functional interpretation of this element. Overall, the results highlight the importance of greenery in shaping the perceived attractiveness of urban routes. They also indicate the key spatial features that encourage people to use these routes, which affects the use of sustainable modes of transport as well as residents’ health. They also demonstrate the usefulness of the SBE method in planning, design and managing user-friendly and sustainable urban routes. Full article

Fine-scale site selection of urban parks serves as a core measure to guarantee spatial equity of public service spaces for residents and advance the sustainable development of urban ecological spaces. Among relevant tasks, balancing the supply and demand of green spaces stands out as an essential foundation for maintaining long-term stability of urban human well-being and ecosystems. Green-space supply is defined as the stock of various existing urban parks within the city, while green-space demand is quantified via grids generated based on residential communities in Changsha. Existing research on urban park site selection lacks a full-process coupled framework, fails to accommodate differentiated layout demands for multi-level parks, and struggles to reconcile the sustainable operation and long-term ecological empowerment of urban green-space systems. Taking the main urban area of Changsha as the research scope, this study divides the study area into grid units to analyze the spatial differentiation of green-space accessibility and identify service blind zones. The XGBoost model is adopted to predict areas suitable for green-space construction, and the NSGA-III algorithm is applied to realize collaborative multi-objective optimization covering service efficiency, ecological benefits, and land development costs. The results reveal that the 15-min walking coverage of community parks in central Changsha only reaches 57.29%. Respectively, 34.52% and 41.04% of residential communities record accessibility levels below the municipal average of urban parks and forest parks, with prominent shortages of green-space supply in peripheral urban areas. This study optimizes and screens twenty-eight candidate sites for community parks, twelve candidate sites for urban parks, and eight candidate sites for forest parks. The proposed scheme effectively narrows the gap in green-space accessibility across the whole city and coordinates ecological conservation with land development costs. Compared with research relying on a single model or two-stage coupling frameworks, this paper constructs a systematic workflow spanning supply–demand status assessment to multi-objective layout decision-making, enabling differentiated optimized layout of multi-tiered parks. The integrated framework effectively enhances the spatial resilience and resource utilization efficiency of urban green-space systems, facilitates high-quality and sustainable upgrading of urban living environments, and provides a referable innovative approach for multi-level urban park arrangement and refined multi-objective planning. Full article

Shopping malls have become major retail and lifestyle destinations that influence travel demand, mode choice, traffic congestion, private vehicle dependence, and transport-related environmental impacts. However, research connecting shopping mall visitation with sustainable urban mobility remains fragmented across transport, urban planning, retail, consumer behaviour, and environmental sustainability. This study uses bibliometric analysis to investigate publication patterns, intellectual structures, international collaboration, thematic clusters, and emerging trends in this interdisciplinary field. A total of 567 English-language articles and reviews published between 1 January 2000 and 7 May 2026 were retrieved from Scopus and analysed using descriptive indicators and VOSviewer-based document co-citation, country-level co-authorship, and keyword co-occurrence analyses. The findings indicate that publication activity has grown considerably since 2017, with China emerging as the most productive contributor and as a central hub for international research collaboration. Document co-citation analysis revealed six intellectual clusters related to parking and traffic congestion, online and in-store shopping behaviour, the built environment and land use, consumer value and retail experience, retail attractiveness and sustainable community planning, and retail revitalisation and urban regeneration. The keyword analysis revealed five main themes: urban transport, carbon emission, travel behaviour, shopping mall, and shopping activity. More recently, carbon emissions, sustainable development, online shopping, energy efficiency, and data-driven solutions have attracted increasing research attention. This study synthesises the fragmented knowledge base and suggests future research directions for low-carbon shopping mobility and sustainable access to retail destinations. Full article

The paper investigates the integration of permeable pavements into sustainable urban mobility planning in Bologna, Italy. The study evaluates stormwater management benefits under the current and future climate conditions through hydrological and hydraulic modeling with EPA SWMM. A residential catchment of about 50 hectares was analyzed, with potential permeable pavement implementation on pedestrian paths and parking areas. Results show a 40% reduction in stormwater volumes under the current climate and 38% under future scenarios, confirming the resilience and effectiveness of green infrastructure. Findings support Bologna’s Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility, highlighting permeable pavements as a strategy to enhance resilience and sustainability. Full article