Search Results (4,048)

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have emerged as a key strategy to address complex and intensifying urban sustainability challenges, yet empirical assessments of regulatory frameworks that operationalize these strategies remain limited. This study addresses that gap through an empirical evaluation of the Green Area Ratio (GAR), a hybrid performance-based zoning regulation for sustainable landscapes in Washington, DC, using more than a decade of regulatory implementation data. Regulatory plan approval records from 1329 private properties subject to GAR between 2015 and 2025 were analyzed to examine trends in landscaping Best Management Practice (BMP) selection, relationships with parcel characteristics, and interactions with stormwater management requirements. Over this period, approximately 184 ha of multifunctional NBS were approved through GAR plans primarily consisting of landscaping areas, plantings, and tree planting and preservation, often combined through BMP stacking and amplified by a native plant bonus. BMP selection varied significantly according to zoning district, lot area, and GAR Score Requirement. Importantly, GAR requirements influenced BMP selection differently than stormwater requirements. The findings suggest that simplicity, flexibility, and adaptability of the GAR make the regulation a versatile policy instrument for DC and a useful model for cities seeking to expand NBS through performance-based zoning regulation. Full article

Rapid peri-urban sprawl is intensifying flood risk by replacing natural landscapes with dense, impervious residential developments. Thailand’s land use regulations require a 5% minimum green space allocation for new housing developments as a measure to promote livability and well-being. Green space also has the potential to sustainably manage stormwater runoff, but for Thailand’s peri-urban development, the question remains whether 5% green space is sufficient to reduce flood risk. As such, this study critically evaluates whether this 5% green space guideline is sufficient for peri-urban runoff and flood management in peri-urban Pathum Thani, particularly given the acceleration of Bangkok’s urban sprawl over the past 30 years. Using a multi-scalar framework, we integrated GIS spatial analysis of 164 gated communities (1995–2025) with site-specific PCSWMM hydrologic modeling to test baseline conditions and Nature-based Solution (NbS) interventions against 5-, 10-, 50-, and 100-year design storms. Findings reveal developers generally adhere to the 5% guideline, thereby addressing policy while maximizing salable land space. PCSWMM simulations show the 5% baseline alone does not adequately manage runoff, with localized residential flooding expected for a 5-year design storm under current baseline conditions. Scenario testing indicates a hybrid grey–green infrastructure approach would optimally manage flooding. Given economic barriers to expanding open space, converting roads to permeable pavements offers a possible optimization strategy. Ultimately, static area-based regulations remain insufficient; policies must transition to performance-based volumetric retention targets to mitigate downstream flooding and foster resilient communities. Full article

Global water scarcity is mainly due to climate change, population growth, excessive use of water resources and inadequate water management. Alternative sources such as reusing greywater are promising in urban environments. In this context, phytoremediation, the direct use of plants to remove soil and water pollution, could be an encouraging alternative nature-based solution to traditional reuse methods. While constructed wetlands are the most common method for greywater phytoremediation, their limited feasibility in cities makes green roofs and walls a practical urban alternative. This review examines studies conducted over the last 20 years. The combination of greywater treatment through phytoremediation with urban greenery would help close the water cycle as well as make cities more sustainable. However, for this solution to be viable, several challenges must be addressed, including limited roof or wall surface area compared to traditional systems, the precise volume of water to be managed, and the selection of suitable substrates and plants essential for effective phytoremediation. This work reviews the main mechanisms and factors that drive the phytoremediation process in constructed wetlands, and based on this knowledge, delves into the challenges of applying this process to the urban context through green roofs and facades on buildings. Full article

Urban expansion directly reduces vegetation via impervious surface growth, though indirect urban environmental effects may partially offset these losses. This study examines the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from 2000 to 2025 by integrating multi-source remote sensing and socioeconomic data to investigate the effects of urban expansion on vegetation greenness (NDVI) and productivity (NPP). The results show that impervious surfaces expanded from 21,747 km² to 33,688 km². Yet NDVI and NPP did not decline in tandem. Instead, they responded differently. NDVI exhibited broad increases—particularly in the northwest ecological zones. NPP was more sensitive to impervious surface expansion. Further analysis reveals that impervious surface coverage is the primary driver of NPP, while per capita GDP dominates NDVI. Correlation analysis confirms these relationships are consistent in direction. The combined contribution of socio-economic variables (GDP, per capita GDP, and population) substantially exceeds that of impervious surface area. This suggests that economic development, as a whole, is the dominant force shaping vegetation greenness in the region. These findings challenge the conventional trade-off narrative between urban growth and vegetation health. They demonstrate that urban expansion and ecological improvement can advance in parallel. This requires sustained greening investments and coordinated regional planning. The results offer actionable insights for carbon-sensitive land-use regulation in rapidly urbanizing regions. Full article

In response to the growing demand for sustainable regeneration and efficient operation of urban spaces, the adoption of digitalised facility management (FM) has emerged as an effective strategy. FM facilitates data-driven planning and optimised resource use, contributing to more sustainable and resilient urban environments. This research combines Building Information Modelling (BIM) with Visual Programming Languages (VPLs) to support the regeneration and optimisation of an urban park. Autodesk Revit is employed to develop an LOD 300 semantic and geometric model, while Dynamo enables the implementation of two parametric scripts: Script A, governing on/off control of monitored systems based on environmental, temporal and contextual conditions, and Script B, providing continuous operational monitoring, fault diagnosis and color-coded visual feedback directly within the BIM environment. The framework is tested at Parco Gioeni, an 8.6-hectare historically and geologically urban park in Italy, across three management systems: irrigation, nebulization and green area monitoring. A total of 28 what-if scenarios are conducted across systems, indicating the framework’s functional consistency and contextual adaptability under the tested conditions. The proposed approach is built on accessible open software tools, making it transferable to public administration contexts, and is designed to be scalable and replicable across different urban green space typologies. Full article

In high-density urban areas, pedestrian route choice behavior is influenced differently by the attributes of the objective environment, depending on the purpose of the trip. To explore this issue, this paper first constructs the traditional Path Size Logit (PSL) model to perform baseline estimation of the effects of objective attributes such as path distance, intersections, number of lanes, greenery, and commercial facilities. It then introduces a hierarchical Bayesian framework to build the Hierarchical Bayesian Path Size Logit (HB-PSL) model, using the No-U-Turn Sampler (NUTS) for posterior sampling to quantify parameter uncertainty and capture inter-group heterogeneity. The model achieves inter-group information sharing through a hierarchical prior structure and uses Automatic Differentiation Variational Inference (ADVI) to provide rapid approximate estimation. An empirical analysis shows that different importance is given to objective environmental attributes for different travel purposes. Furthermore, this paper proposes the “Equivalent Distance (ED)” index, which transforms the preference of different groups for different environmental attributes into an actionable spatial length. For shoppers, the greening level increases by one level for every 100 m, which is equivalent to shortening the path by about 31.31 m; commercial facilities increase by one for every 100 m, which is equivalent to shortening the path by about 76.63 m. The results provide behavioral support for the formulation of differentiated walking strategies in high-density urban areas: priority should be given to strengthening the green coverage and commercial facility layout in commercial blocks to synergistically improve walking efficiency, safety, and comfort. Full article

Cities are confronted with heat, drought, and pluvial flooding, highlighting the need for renovation strategies that enhance climate resilience while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. This research developed an integrated assessment framework to quantify the mitigation potential of urban and building surface components using five area-based key performance indicators (KPIs): Surface Heat Contribution (SHC), Flood Mitigation Factor (FMF), Water Storage Capacity (WSC), Evaporation Volume (EVA), and Global Warming Potential (GWP). The framework combines simplified life-cycle assessment with biophysical models for heat, water storage, and evaporation, designed as an accessible complement to 3D microclimate tools. Applied to an exemplary residential area in Daegu, South Korea, the method benchmarks existing surfaces and evaluates renovation scenarios targeting heat reduction, flood mitigation, and drought resilience. Results show that surface renovation measures improve mitigation potential. The performance varies across KPIs, involving trade-offs with embodied emissions. Optimal outcomes arise from balanced hybrid strategies integrating complementary measures. Selective greening combined with low heat capacity, high-conductivity materials (e.g., metal façades) effectively reduces heat stress but increases embodied GWP and structural demands. Permeable and greened surfaces improve WSC and EVA, supporting short-term flood mitigation, yet reveal limitations under prolonged rainfall. The proposed framework supports transparent and low-carbon climate-resilient renovation decision-making. Full article

As an emerging form integrating digital finance and green finance, Green Digital Finance (GDF) serves as a critical driving force for consumption structure upgrading (CSU) and coordinated regional development. Based on panel data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2011 to 2023, this paper systematically investigates the enabling effect of GDF on CSU from the dimensions of spatial spillover effects, transmission mechanisms, income thresholds, and urban-rural heterogeneity. The empirical results show that the local effect of GDF on CSU is 0.057 and the spatial spillover effect is 0.094, with the spillover effect exerting significant impacts only in the short run. GDF functions by raising residents’ income, advancing industrial structure upgrading and easing credit constraints. A single income threshold exists at the income level of 23,414.25 yuan; after crossing this threshold, both the local driving effect and spatial spillover effect are significantly strengthened. Furthermore, GDF generates more pronounced driving effects on developmental consumption and rural areas. This study provides empirical evidence and implications for optimizing the allocation of regional financial resources and formulating differentiated policies. Full article

Public spaces are essential for urban well-being, social interaction, environmental quality, and territorial equity; however, their presence does not necessarily ensure adequate quality, accessibility, or multifunctionality. Although previous research has emphasized the importance of green and public spaces, fewer studies have integrated multidimensional quality assessment, GIS-based spatial analysis, and multicriteria prioritization in intermediate Latin American cities. This study aimed to evaluate spatial inequalities in the quality of urban public spaces in Loja, Ecuador, through a GIS-based multi-attribute composite index. A total of 183 public spaces were assessed using structured field observation of observable conditions and organized into six dimensions: functional, environmental, cultural, recreational, safety, and economic. The data were cleaned, validated, integrated with spatial layers, and analyzed through descriptive, inferential, multivariate, spatial autocorrelation, and multicriteria procedures. The results showed that public space quality was mainly concentrated at low and medium levels, with functional and safety dimensions playing a stronger role in the global index, while cultural, recreational, and economic components showed weaker performance. Spatial analysis revealed significant territorial differences, local clusters, and spatial outliers. The proposed framework provides a replicable tool to diagnose observable public space quality, identify priority intervention areas, and support evidence-based urban planning in other intermediate cities. Full article

Faced with both global climate change and rapid urbanization, understanding how the built environment affects surface runoff is essential for strengthening urban hydrological resilience. However, elucidating the nonlinear and interactive effects of three-dimensional buildings and two-dimensional green spaces on surface runoff potential in urban blocks remains a scientific challenge for precise flood-mitigation spatial planning. Using six typical waterlogging-prone blocks in Shenyang as case studies, this study constructs a morphological index system for urban gray–green spaces and reveals the nonlinear effects of each index on surface runoff potential using an interpretable Random Forest (RF)–SHAP model. The results indicate that the RF model reliably captures the complex spatial patterns of simulated local surface runoff potential (R² = 0.723–0.825). At the block scale, the surface runoff response exhibits a dual character: it is predictively dominated by three-dimensional morphological dominance and two-dimensional base regulation. Three-dimensional building morphology generally demonstrates pronounced unidirectional thresholds and high-value saturation in model prediction. In particular, when the core indicator, building spatial congestion degree (B_SCD), crosses a critical threshold, surface runoff potential rises sharply. The coefficient of variation in building height (B_HVC) shows a “V-shaped” reversal in areas of extreme surface runoff potential, whereas two-dimensional green space indicators display clear asymmetric critical points. Significant reductions in surface runoff potential appear only when green space scale (G_LPI), boundary complexity (G_LSI), or fragmentation (G_PD) exceed specific model-identified thresholds. Furthermore, the study demonstrates marked interactive effects between the morphologies of gray–green spaces. High surface runoff risk from dense, large buildings can be substantially offset by large green space patches (G_LPI) with highly complex boundaries (G_LSI). The advantage of vertically staggered buildings (B_HVC) requires a green space base with low fragmentation (G_PD) to realize a gray–green synergistic mitigating effect. These findings provide theoretical and methodological support for enhancing the hydrological resilience of urban blocks. Full article

China’s forest ecological security (FES) system is currently undergoing a transformative phase characterized by the synergy between quantitative expansion and qualitative improvement. Against the backdrop of advancing ecological civilization, China has particular difficulties juggling economic expansion with ecological preservation. Improving forestry green total factor productivity (FGTFP) is regarded as a crucial pathway to achieving the dual objectives of “sustaining forestry growth without deforestation and ensuring ecological security without compromising output.” This study employs panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2004 to 2018. The entropy weight method and super-efficiency SBM-GML index model are utilized to quantitatively measure FES and FGTFP, respectively. This empirically examines the underlying mechanisms and threshold effects governing their relationship. The results indicate that FGTFP significantly improves FES, with urbanization exerting a positive moderating effect. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that FES dividends derived from FGTFP are more pronounced in southern collective forest regions and economically developed areas. Further threshold testing uncovers distinct patterns: once economic agglomeration surpasses specific thresholds, FGTFP triggers a stepwise surge in its positive effect on FES. While crossing its respective threshold, the tertiary industry share exhibits an inverted U-shaped trajectory. This research elucidates the stage-specific patterns of China’s green forestry transition, offering differentiated policy insights for fostering high-quality forestry development and strengthening the national ecological security barrier. Full article

Fine-grained classification of urban green spaces (UGSs) is important for urban ecological assessment and management but remains challenging because of spectral similarity among vegetation types and inaccurate object delineation in complex urban environments. This study proposes a pixel-to-object framework that combines semantic segmentation-guided object construction with multi-periodic phenological modeling. A semantic green-space mask derived from 0.27 m very-high-resolution imagery constrains superpixel segmentation to generate spatially coherent, boundary-aware green space object-level patches (GSOPs). Pixel-level temporal representations are then derived from Sentinel-2 normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series using TimesNet, aggregated into GSOP-level phenological features, and combined with spatial attributes to classify urban trees, grasslands, and farmlands. Applied to the built-up area of Chengdu, China, the framework achieved an overall accuracy of 91.6%, with F1-scores of 92.5%, 91.9%, and 87.6% for urban trees, grasslands, and farmlands, respectively. Ablation experiments showed that removing phenological features reduced overall accuracy by 13.1 percentage points and decreased the F1-scores of grasslands and farmlands by 16.0 and 23.0 percentage points, respectively. These results demonstrate that semantically constrained object delineation and phenological information jointly reduce boundary fragmentation and improve the discrimination of spectrally similar urban vegetation types. Full article

Urban green-space carbon sinks can contribute to reducing urban carbon emissions and supporting carbon-neutrality goals. This study examined the associations between urban green-space landscape patterns and above-ground carbon storage (AGCS) in Shenyang. The spatial distribution of estimated AGCS was mapped using ArcGIS and remotely sensed imagery. Pearson correlation analysis, geographically weighted regression, and an exploratory data-binning approach were used to evaluate associations between landscape pattern metrics (LPMs) and AGCS and to identify their thresholds. At the study-area scale, AGCS exhibited strong positive correlations with class area (CA) and largest patch index, weak negative correlations with patch density and landscape division index, and a weak positive correlation with Connectivity Index (CONNECT). These relationships varied among the three ring zones. Spatially, CA was positively associated with AGCS throughout the study area, whereas positive local coefficients for CONNECT occurred in 51.8% of the study area. The low- and high-carbon-storage thresholds were 7.26 and 10.79 for CA and 8.33 and 12.08 for CONNECT, respectively. Higher CA and CONNECT values above their low-carbon-storage thresholds were associated with a lower probability of a low-carbon-storage zone. These findings provide context-specific evidence that may inform urban green-space planning in Shenyang and offer a methodological reference for comparable case studies. Full article

This paper explores how green finance policies influence the sustainability and resilience of urban areas, particularly those operating under tight fiscal budgets. By treating China’s Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone as a quasi-natural experiment, we examine a comprehensive panel of 299 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2024. The analytical framework integrates traditional difference-in-differences (DID) estimations with machine-learning-driven text analysis. To quantify governmental foresight regarding sustainability risks, the authors employ Word2Vec semantic expansion and NLP tokenization. Additionally, a TextCNN classifier is utilized to group cities by their digital-economy readiness, allowing for a nuanced assessment of heterogeneous policy impacts. The results demonstrate that implementing green finance pilots not only tangibly boosts sustainable productive capacities but also noticeably sharpens official textual focus on sustainability governance. Furthermore, mechanism analyses suggest that these positive outcomes are driven by structural industrial upgrades, enhanced technological expenditures, and the easing of local fiscal burdens. The study’s conclusions—reinforced by rigorous robustness checks like PSM-DID, CS-DID, and spatio-temporal mapping—indicate that green finance functions as a vital governance mechanism capable of stabilizing local finances and driving long-term, low-carbon transitions. Full article

Accurate greenspace quantification underpins sustainable urban greening management. Remote sensing (RS)-derived green quantity is a core urban planning indicator, yet its capability to reflect actual urban green supply lacks systematic verification, inevitably affecting planning formulation and decision-making. Taking Shanghai as the study area, this study integrates remote sensing and Baidu Street View (BSV data) to compare the two-dimensional planar green coverage derived from satellite imagery with pedestrian-level perceived visual green coverage. The Mask2Former model was adopted for high-precision semantic segmentation of BSV images to extract vegetation, building, sky and hard pavement proportions. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), hotspot analysis and transition mapping were applied to identify divergent regions, while the XGBoost-SHAP framework was employed to explore deviation mechanisms. The results reveal distinct spatial pattern differences between the two green quantity datasets. RS-derived green quantity exhibits strip-like agglomeration, whereas BSV-perceived green quantity is more fragmented, with a correlation coefficient of only 0.240. Single RS quantification fails to reflect street-level green supply. Divergent areas are classified into accurate, overestimated and underestimated zones. RS underestimates green quantity in central urban areas and overestimates that in northwest suburbs. BSV-based sky ratio, building ratio, hardscape ratio and Road 1 density are core influencing factors with obvious nonlinear threshold effects. This study clarifies the quantitative deviation patterns and mechanisms between RS and BSV green quantity, providing scientific support for precise urban green planning and sustainable perceived visual green construction. Practically, the dual RS–street view assessment framework proposed in this paper can be embedded into routine urban green infrastructure auditing, help planners distinguish systematically overestimated suburban green belts and underestimated central urban micro-green spaces, and deliver targeted optimization strategies for vertical greening, street tree renovation and pocket park construction under high-quality urban renewal demands. Full article