Search Results (46)

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

Against the global imperative to address climate change and accelerate energy transitions, the rapid growth of the electric vehicle (EV) industry has turned public charging infrastructure into a key foundation of urban operations, driven by carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. However, effective supply depends not only on scale but on deep association with urban functional spaces. This study compares Gusu District (a historic preservation district) and Industrial Park District (a new development district) in Suzhou. The goal is to reveal how public electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSes) associate with functional spaces under different urban development models. The study employs Standard Deviational Ellipse (SDE), Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), Bivariate Spatial Autocorrelation, and Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD) models to compare layout patterns, clustering features and functional association. The research findings are as follows: (1) The EVCS layout in Gusu District shows strong dependence on roads and administrative boundaries, while EVCSes in Industrial Park District show clear planning intervention, less constrained by its administrative boundary. (2) KDE analysis confirms that Gusu District has continuous clustering centered on the ancient city, but Industrial Park District shows a multi-center layout. (3) Bivariate Spatial Autocorrelation reveals different priorities in facility allocation. In Gusu District, spatial association is mainly driven by high-mobility nodes, while in Industrial Park District, EVCSes are more deeply embedded in social services and daily life scenarios. (4) CCD analysis reveals that the coordination in Gusu District forms a monocentric, spatially continuous gradient centered on the ancient city, whereas in Industrial Park District it displays a polycentric but fragmented pattern, with high coordination areas confined to planned cores. This comparative study reveals the EVCS spatial layout, which is shaped by both administrative boundaries and policy constraints, and the heterogeneity in spatial association between two districts. It provides scientific evidence and decision support for different spatial governance and facility optimization in various types of urban areas. Full article

Building inclusive, high-density cities requires understanding vulnerable groups’ public space usage. While green exposure significantly impacts urban health, existing research frequently overlooks females’ specific needs regarding streetscape visual quality, green space structures, and daily travel experiences. To address this, the study investigates spatial disparities in Suzhou’s historic district. Utilizing multi-source data and mixed modeling strategies, including Partial Least Squares and Ordinary Least Squares (PLS-OLS) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), the research analyzes how streetscape perceptions and green space characteristics affect female life satisfaction and expressed sentiment. Results indicate three main findings. (1) Streetscape visual features fundamentally drive subjective evaluations. Safe significantly enhances well-being, whereas boring and lively negatively impact life satisfaction, reflecting females’ acute sensitivity to environmental oppressiveness during daily travel. (2) Park diversity elevates expressed sentiment, while patch density positively influences life satisfaction, demonstrating the vital value of fragmented greenery for daily public space usage. (3) Boring precipitously diminishes life satisfaction after surpassing a specific threshold, while park diversity elevates expressed sentiment only after crossing a critical interval. The study establishes an integrated analytical framework linking visual perception, green space structure, emotional response, and satisfaction. These findings provide targeted strategies for enhancing inclusive urban design and optimizing green space allocation to improve streetscape safety and alleviate visual oppressiveness, thereby advancing gender social justice for vulnerable groups in historic districts. Full article

Urban industrial heritage is increasingly embedded in urban regeneration, public space provision, and community governance, yet existing studies have insufficiently examined how heterogeneous publics perceive its value through everyday digital discourse. Taking the Guangzhou Iron and Steel Plant industrial heritage site (hereafter, the Guanggang industrial heritage site) as a case study, this study used user-generated content from Rednote posts and local WeChat public-account comments to identify platform-mediated expressions of public value perception. A corpus of 745 valid samples comprising 51,459 Chinese characters was constructed after data collection, screening, and text preprocessing. Word-frequency analysis, semantic network analysis, and sentiment analysis were conducted using ROST CM 6.0. The results show that the two retrieved platform-contextual corpora foregrounded different concerns. Rednote discourse foregrounded ruin landscapes, industrial aesthetics, photography-based check-ins, and exploratory experiences, whereas WeChat comments emphasized park construction, public facilities, governance responsiveness, safety, and the residential environment. At the corpus level, lexicon-based sentiment classification indicated that Rednote texts were dominated by positive and neutral categories, while WeChat comments contained a higher proportion of texts classified as negative. This study conceptualizes dual foregrounding as a bounded selection process through which platform affordances, user self-selection, and users’ relationships with the site influence which concerns become visible in each corpus; it does not treat the observed differences as a causal platform effect. It argues that industrial heritage regeneration must translate historical, technological, and aesthetic values into public values that are interpretable, accessible, usable, and trusted by local communities. Full article

In response to environmental degradation and social inequities exacerbated by automobile-dependent urban sprawl, this study proposes a framework for dynamic delineation and vitality assessment of 15-min walkable neighborhoods, using Baohe District, Hefei, China as a case study. Static service catchments were constructed using POI and road network data, then refined using one week’s mobile phone signaling trajectories calibrated to actual walking behavior, yielding 143 validated living circles (out of 156 initially delineated). These circles are classified into five typologies: commercial-residential, industrial-residential, educational-residential, predominantly residential, and public-service-oriented. A dual-index system—Facility Vitality Index (FVI) and Population Vitality Index (PVI)—is developed and synthesized into a Composite Vitality Index (VI) through normalization and weighting. Results show that only 27.3% of living circles achieve high vitality in both dimensions, indicating widespread service–demand misalignment. Conversely, 61.5% exhibit low or very low vitality, forming a “vitality depression” around the urban periphery—a pattern of service poverty with significant socioeconomic implications. High-vitality circles cluster along the Binhu New District corridor, while low-vitality circles concentrate in industrial parks (e.g., Feinan Industrial Park) and transport hubs (e.g., Hefei South Railway Station). The historic core lacks micro-infrastructures, whereas new districts—despite high-standard amenities—suffer from weak pedestrian activity. To address these deficiencies, we propose a differentiated zoning strategy: retrofitting micro-infrastructures in legacy neighborhoods, applying Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) principles in new urban extensions, and integrating community-serving functions within industrial peripheries. This framework provides actionable protocols for data-informed governance of 15-min living circles. Full article

Global urban development has fully entered the stage of stock renewal, and the synergy between public health and historic heritage conservation has become a core issue of urban sustainable development in the post-pandemic era. As special spatial units carrying urban cultural memories, historic districts generally face problems such as chaotic traffic functions, a lack of slow traffic spaces, and insufficient public health support. Existing studies lack a public health-oriented special evaluation system and a sustainable renewal path adapted to their characteristics. This paper systematically sorts out eight core impact paths of street built environment elements on public health and constructs a healthy street evaluation system for historic districts, including six dimensions (transportation facilities, green squares, ancillary facilities, street-front commerce, urban furniture, and street network) and 30 core elements combined with the spatial and cultural characteristics of historic districts. Taking five typical streets in the Liuhe Area of Hankou Historic District as an empirical case, a comprehensive evaluation is carried out using a combination of quantitative surveys, questionnaire surveys, and spatial analyses. The results show that the overall health performance of street space in the study area is low, with extremely unbalanced development across dimensions. The core shortcomings are concentrated in incomplete slow traffic systems, lack of public spaces, prominent parking chaos, and fragmented historic styles, and the health problems of streets with different functional types show significant typological differentiation characteristics. Based on this, this paper proposes five systematic renewal strategies, transportation system optimization, public space improvement, landscape system perfection, historic style activation, and long-term mechanism construction, for achieving the synergistic goals of historic culture conservation, public health promotion, and urban sustainable development. This study not only enriches the theoretical system of research on healthy spaces in historic districts but also provides a referable evaluation framework and practical approach for modern historic districts in China and other similar historic districts with comparable spatial textures and functional characteristics. Full article

Urban parks derived from historical forest fragments represent important refugia for biodiversity in rapidly expanding cities. The wood cricket, Nemobius sylvestris, was surprisingly found in a park in the northern part of Bucharest, Romania, an area under exponential residential development. The species was confirmed by calling song analysis and molecularly confirmed through DNA-barcoding. The acoustic analysis revealed substantial geographic variation in the signals of N.sylvestris across its European range, with the Romanian population exhibiting the most distinctive acoustic characteristics. A median joining network was constructed using available COI sequences from public databases, showing moderate genetic variability within European samples. This flightless, woodland-specialist cricket is highly sensitive to habitat fragmentation and its persistence in this urban park demonstrates the conservation value of retaining semi-natural forest structure within city green spaces. Our findings highlight the importance of urban parks as biodiversity refugia, particularly for habitat specialists with limited dispersal abilities. This discovery underscores the need for the integrative conservation management of urban forest remnants, emphasizing the retention of natural structural elements such as leaf litter and heterogeneous canopy cover to support diverse invertebrate communities. Full article

Since children spend a significant portion of their developmental years in educational settings, the environmental quality of these institutions—specifically, the extent to which they expose their occupants to green space and heat stress—is a critical determinant of well-being and academic performance. This study assesses the green environmental quality of 121 educational institutions (kindergartens, and elementary and secondary schools) in Debrecen, Hungary. The main objective of the research is to identify educational institutions that require immediate intervention to address their lack of green spaces, improve the green environment, and mitigate the urban heat island (UHI) effect. A further aim of the study is to understand how different urban planning practices over the past century have led to the current situation. Therefore, we utilized high-resolution geospatial data (specifically, WorldView-2 imagery) to classify schoolyard vegetation; Landsat data to derive Land Surface Temperature (LST); and the Hoover index to quantify institutions’ spatial concentration. We developed a composite indicator to categorize green environmental quality and heat stress exposure. Our results reveal deep spatial and institutional inequalities. 47.5% of students attend institutions with low environmental quality. While kindergartens typically offer green-rich environments, secondary schools with significant student populations—which are primarily concentrated in the dense historical downtown—are trapped in “grey” zones possessing poor environmental quality. Furthermore, we identify a “green paradox” in socialist housing estates: despite abundant surrounding greenery, schools here record high LST values due to the heat-trapping morphology of vertical concrete structures. The study also highlights institutional maladaptation, such as converting schoolyards into parking lots and using rubber pavements for safety reasons, which contributes to the deterioration of environmental quality. We conclude that current urban planning and school architecture must shift paradigms, treating schoolyards as integral components of the public green infrastructure network through climate-adaptive design. In addition, stakeholders should develop the green environment of educational institutions comprehensively, taking into account both on-site and surrounding green spaces. Full article

Urban parks are essential to sustainable cities, providing climate regulation, supporting biodiversity, and offering vital spaces for recreation and overall well-being. At the same time, their soils can act as long-term reservoirs for persistent organic pollutants (POPs), reflecting decades of atmospheric deposition, diffuse urban emissions, and historical land-use practices. This review synthesises current knowledge on the occurrence, sources, and environmental behaviour of priority POPs, including OCPs, PCBs, PCDD/Fs, PBDEs, PFAS, and PAHs, in the soils of urban parks and gardens worldwide. Evidence from multiple regions reveals consistent patterns: urban parks accumulate complex mixtures of legacy and emerging contaminants, reflecting both historical inputs and ongoing urban activities. These contaminants primarily contribute to scenarios of chronic, low-level exposure through the ingestion of soil and dust, inhalation of resuspended particles, dermal contact, and, in some cases, dietary intake when food is cultivated in contaminated park soils. While such exposure pathways have been associated with a range of adverse health outcomes in toxicological and epidemiological studies, the presence of POPs in park soils does not imply that urban parks represent hazardous environments. Instead, it emphasises the importance of proportionate, evidence-based assessments within spaces that yield substantial net benefits to public health. Despite growing research interest, significant gaps remain, including limited understanding of mixture toxicity, insufficient data on temporal trends, a lack of harmonised monitoring strategies, and the absence of exposure scenarios specifically tailored to recreational soils. This review also examines major international and European regulatory frameworks and soil-quality guideline approaches relevant to urban and recreational soils, identifying mismatches between scientific evidence and regulatory practice. By integrating perspectives from environmental chemistry, toxicology, urban ecology, and policy, this review highlights the importance of targeted monitoring and context-specific management strategies to ensure that urban parks remain safe, healthy, and equitable components of increasingly complex urban landscapes. Full article

In urban design, public open spaces (POS) are essential for enhancing health and well-being across the lifetime. High-quality public open spaces facilitate the maintenance of optimal physical and mental health in older individuals by encouraging activities like physical exercise and social engagement. Preserving the physical and mental well-being of elderly individuals is a fundamental concern for aging policy. Nevertheless, urbanization presents considerable problems with the provision of public open spaces for activities aimed at the elderly. South Korea has more significant issues than other nations globally. This study, based on data from 477 valid questionnaires collected in and around Tapgol Park in Jung-gu, Seoul, employed a decision tree approach to identify key factors and paths that influence overall satisfaction. The goal was to identify decision paths that improve satisfaction while ensuring interpretability, thereby providing a scientific basis for urban space design and renovation. The results show that: (1) The decision tree of this study presents a hierarchical logic of quietness first, then accessibility and cleanliness, and finally price and vitality, which is consistent with the high frequency of use of Tapgol Park by the elderly and the diverse facilities in the surrounding area. (2) The key to improving the management and satisfaction of Tapgol Park in Seoul is the quietness of the site. (3) When the park is not quiet, users are most sensitive to bottom-line factors, such as commercial supply, evacuation safety, transportation accessibility, price perception, barrier-free, and anti-slips. (4) When the park is quiet, basic comfort factors such as smooth walking, all-day opening, sunlight, and no odor constitute the minimum condition set for entering the comfort zone. (5) Water experience, waterfront accessibility, proximity to cultural resources, and moderate business and community-oriented leisure facilities are key plus points. Methodologically, this study is among the first to apply a decision tree approach to low-income elderly using a small public open space in a historic city center, clarifying the nonlinear and hierarchical relationships among environmental factors within these low-income elderly groups. This provides empirical support and reference for the aging-friendly urban space in world heritage cities and other historical and cultural cities. Full article

Urban health, well-being, and equity—core objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3, 10, and 11)—have become key themes in contemporary urban planning research and landscape research. While existing studies focus predominantly on quantitative assessment, environmental exposure, and human mobility, the historical origins of health-oriented urban green space planning remain insufficiently explored. Focusing on Lingnan area as a representative case, this research investigates the emergence of public green space in late Qing cities and its early contributions to urban health and spatial governance. Through a systematic examination of American and British Gardens at the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou, the planned public green space system of the Shameen concession, and the municipal greening practices of neighboring Hong Kong and Macao, the study further analyzes Zhang Zhidong’s tree-lined boulevard project along Changdi avenue as a key instance of localized institutional adaptation. Drawing on late-Qing and Republican newspapers, nineteenth-century Western travelogs and reports, historical and contemporary studies and photo albums, the study finds the following: (1) the American and British Gardens marked the earliest emergence of health-oriented urban green space in Lingnan area; (2) the systematically planned green space network of the Shameen concession constituted a prototypical form of health-oriented urban green space planning; (3) the botanical gardens, street-tree systems, public parks, and institutionalized management practices in Hong Kong and Macao exerted a strong regional demonstrative influence on Guangzhou; (4) the street-tree planting along Changdi Avenue represented a localized absorption of foreign planning paradigms and marked the institutionalization of municipal greening in Guangzhou. Although these early practices did not yet form a modern healthy city planning framework at that time, they played a crucial role in improving urban sanitation, enhancing public space quality, and shaping urban order. By tracing the historical trajectory from transnational demonstration to local adaptation and institutional consolihdation, this study provides new insights into the historical foundations of health-oriented urban planning in China and contributes a long-term perspective to contemporary debates on healthy cities and nature-based urban interventions. Full article

Innovation is the core driving force behind the high-quality development and global competitiveness of cities. The spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of innovation are of significant value in optimizing the allocation of innovation resources. This study focuses on Harbin, utilizing 46,057 patent application data from 2004 to 2022, and employs spatial analysis methods such as KDE, ESDA, and DBSCAN to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution patterns of innovation space. Through the MGWR model, this study investigates the factors influencing the spatial agglomeration of innovation from five dimensions: innovation subjects, infrastructure support, public service support, population and market, and spatial carrier. The findings are as follows: (1) In terms of spatiotemporal patterns, Harbin’s innovation space distribution shows a “one core, four cluster” spatial structure, with innovation activities clustering primarily around universities as the core and new districts as key support, gradually evolving toward a multi-center agglomeration development model. (2) Regarding influencing factors, the geographic proximity of universities is significantly associated with higher innovation density. Among infrastructure, metro stations show a positive association with innovation agglomeration, potentially reflecting the role of transport accessibility. Public service support displays significant spatial heterogeneity across different regions. (3) The Historical Area requires policy guidance for urban renewal; the New Town Area forms exogenous-driven innovation clusters; the Industrialized Park Area achieves endogenous development through industrial collaboration. Full article

Guided by the “Healthy China” initiative, understanding the impact of the built environment on running behavior is essential for encouraging regular physical activity and advancing public health. This study addresses a critical gap in healthy city research by examining the spatial heterogeneity in how urban environmental contexts affect residents’ running preferences. Focusing on two contrasting areas of Suzhou, namely the historic Gusu District and the modern Industrial Park District, we developed a 5Ds-based analytical framework (density, accessibility, diversity, design, and visual) that incorporates Suzhou’s unique water networks and street features. Methodologically, we used Strava heatmap data and multi-source environmental indicators to quantify built-environment attributes and examined their relationships with running-space selection. We applied linear regression and interpretable machine learning to reveal overall associations, while geographically weighted regression (GWR) was used to capture spatial variations. Results reveal significant spatial heterogeneity in how the built environment influences running-space selection. While the two districts differ in their urban form, runners in Gusu District prefer dense and compact street networks, whereas those in Industrial Park District favor open, natural spaces with higher levels of human vibrancy. Despite these differences, both districts show consistent preferences for spaces with a more intense land use mix, stronger transportation accessibility, and larger parks and green spaces. The multi-dimensional planning strategies derived from this study can improve the urban running environment and promote the health and well-being of residents. Full article

By combining social, ecological, and communal elements, urban parks significantly improve the quality of urban life. This paper explores the revitalization proposal for Areos Park in Tripoli, Greece, viewing it as an urban palimpsest reflecting layers of history, culture, and nature. While historically evolving from exclusive enclaves to vital public spaces fostering social equity and well-being, many urban parks, including those in Greece, suffer from neglect and underfunding, diminishing their landscape value and necessitating revitalization. Areos Park exemplifies these challenges, making it an ideal case study for exploring effective urban park revitalization strategies and demonstrating how urban areas can host critical landscape functions. Utilizing a design-based research (DBR) methodology, a design plan is proposed. The architectural concept focuses on revamping key areas, restoring historical features, adding small constructions, and repurposing existing buildings for community and educational uses. Concurrently, the landscape concept emphasizes biodiversity enrichment and ecological restoration through permeable surfaces and native Mediterranean vegetation, contributing to urban resilience to climate change. The overall design prioritizes accessibility and spatial connectedness to create an inclusive, resilient, and adaptable urban park addressing contemporary sustainability challenges and biodiversity loss. The project aims to establish Areos Park as a model for sustainable urban park regeneration in small cities, blending ecological enhancement with historical preservation. Full article

Historic urban public parks have evolved into multifunctional spaces that integrate cultural heritage and contemporary urban life. Understanding public perception of their heritage value is crucial for sustainable management. This study proposes a novel method combining grounded theory with Python-based analysis of textual and visual social media data to evaluate public perception of cultural heritage value in 12 historic urban public parks in Shanghai. The constructed system includes four dimensions, eleven criteria, and thirty-five indicators. Results show significant differences in perceived values: social and ecological values gain the highest recognition, while historical and spiritual values are underappreciated due to limited narrative continuity and static displays. Parks such as Luxun, Changfeng, and Zhongshan demonstrate outstanding comprehensive value, whereas Nanyuan and Jing’an show weaker performance. Based on perception indices, the parks were classified into four hierarchical management tiers, guiding targeted conservation and renewal strategies. The findings highlight the potential of social media data for revealing public attitudes toward cultural heritage and offer a replicable framework for adaptive management of historic urban parks in Shanghai and other metropolitan contexts. Full article