Rural landscapes, such as Italian Inner areas, hold rich cultural, ecological, and heritage values. Yet, these peculiar landscapes are characterised by isolation, demographic decline, and limited access to essential services. These conditions present a unique challenge for landscape valuation and traditional assessment methods based on their spatial characteristics. Spatial analysis provides both conceptual and operational tools to navigate the complexity of landscapes. However, current approaches still face significant methodological and theoretical challenges in effectively capturing and representing inner areas’ tangible and intangible values. The heterogeneous nature of existing spatial approaches makes it difficult to directly compare results, while the integration of perceptual data remains difficult due to the limitations of current GIS tools and models. These challenges highlight the need for more comprehensive assessment frameworks capable of overcoming existing limitations and providing a holistic understanding of landscape values.

To address these gaps, this study conducts a comparative analysis of three key landscape valuation frameworks–Ecosystem Services (ES), Landscape Services (LS) and Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). Through a semi-structured literature review, this contribution explores how these frameworks assess landscape values, and examines their respective criteria. Results show that ES and LS frameworks primarily value landscapes based on the benefits they provide to people, while LCA emphasises qualitative aspects such as perception and identity, recognising the intrinsic value of landscapes beyond their functional use. The analysis highlights critical gaps in current approaches, including their predominantly anthropocentric perspective and limited integration of multiple values into decision-making processes. We need for a more inclusive and spatially explicit valuation framework that places landscapes, especially in marginalised areas, at the centre of valuation processes and recognises their multiple, interconnected values. ... Read more

The Garden City concept, first presented by Howard and further developed by Patrick Geddes, was adapted in his 1925 plan for Tel Aviv, where built form and green space were conceived as interdependent elements—green-built relations. While Garden City planning has been recognised as urban heritage, how its principles are interpreted in contemporary metropolitan planning remains underexplored. This study investigates how planning documents across the Tel Aviv metropolis address the attributes of Geddes’ plan that underpin the UNESCO World Heritage inscription of the White City, and whether these attributes extend beyond the core heritage area. The research analyses strategic plans, conservation frameworks, and master plans, by means of a workshop held during the 2024 Livable Neighbourhoods in the 21st Century Garden City conference. Eighteen participants reviewed six municipal planning documents against thirty-one predefined attributes to contemporary green-built relations. Findings reveal that attributes from Geddes’ plan, which underpin to Outstanding Universal Value, extend beyond the World Heritage area but are unevenly recognised, with variation across municipalities and document types. Results demonstrate green-built relations as a useful lens for linking heritage management with metropolitan planning and for supporting Nature–Culture governance approaches. ... Read more

As urban transformation processes grow more complex, traditional real estate valuation methods struggle in addressing rapid socio-economic, cultural, spatial, and environmental shifts. Although spatial data and analytics have advanced significantly, key challenges persist in terms of usability, transparency, and integration into practice. This study seeks to identify the most widely used and impactful spatial methods in real estate valuation, tracing their evolution over the past two decades. Employing a semi-systematic literature review grounded in the PRISMA protocol, the research analyzes peer-reviewed articles retrieved from Scopus to map the development of spatial valuation approaches. The findings highlight a growing reliance on Spatial Hedonic Approaches and Spatial Econometric techniques, which incorporate spatial dependencies and improve the accuracy of value estimates. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) emerges as the most commonly used GIS-based method for capturing geographic variations in property values. While traditional hedonic pricing models remain foundational, Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) are gaining momentum due to their scalability and ability to handle large datasets. The review also points to an increasing interest in spatial-temporal models, which support real-time monitoring and forecasting of property values. These trends suggest a shift toward more data-driven, spatially explicit valuation practices that bridge multiple disciplines. However, significant gaps remain, particularly in data accessibility, methodological clarity, and the incorporation of social and environmental values. Enhancing spatial intelligence in valuation frameworks could play a crucial role in shaping more sustainable urban development and informing evidence-based policy-making. ... Read more

The short-term reuse of vacant real estate has demonstrated to be able to generate multiple benefits (Bishop, 2015; Madanipour, 2017; Oswalt et al., 2012; Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung Berlin, 2007), and being a quick solution to prevent abandonment risks, providing opportunities to access low-cost space. Research has demonstrated that short-term non-profit projects have the potential to drive innovation and generate social value (Mangialardo & Micelli, 2017; Pinard, 2020; Saleh, 2022). In fact, temporary initiatives can establish transient communities, test new land-use models, and inform real estate transformations (Lepik, 2012). Mostly, creative, artistic, and informal occupations (Andres, 2011; Honeck, 2017; McArdle, 2022; Shaw, 2005; Vivant, 2022) gained attention over the last 25 years, because they have demonstrated capacities for placemaking (Camerin, 2024; Hernandez-Santin et al., 2020; Karachalis, 2021) and urban regeneration (Darchen & Simon, 2022; Martin et al., 2019). For these and other reasons, temporary use projects have been increasingly integrated in urban studies (Chang, 2021) and in urban planning (Lehtovuori & Ruoppila, 2012), despite that the seduction of short-term solutions can hide unfair dynamics (Ferreri, 2015). In this context, Temporary Uses (TU) have been observed critically, considering issues as gentrification risks (Assiter, 2022), benefit distribution (Ferreri, 2020; Mens et al., 2023; Vivant, 2022), negotiations among actors (Zhang, 2018), and outcomes in co-production (Jaspers & Steen, 2019). However, we still don’t have models to measure the economic impact of real estate TU in their urban contexts. Thus, we ask: 1) What are the economic impacts that the social value of a TU produces on urban context? 2) What factors describing urban changes and TU of vacant buildings correlate? And, consequently, 3) how does TU social value contribute to urban dynamics? To address this gap, this study aims at defining and test a methodological framework to measure the economic impacts generated by the social value of temporary uses on the urban context, with a focus on some non-profit initiatives1. The objective is to understand how social value generates effects and impacts on the urban context (street or neighbourhood) improving the place quality, considering both space (urban context) and effects (observing its changes over the years). A mixed method analysis is applied to a set of case studies first at the urban scale and then at the real estate scale. We consider multiple cases of temporary use in the Region of Brussels (Occupation Temporaire OT), that have been mapped and monitored by temporary.brussels. First, we conduct an urban analysis of the neighbourhood place quality (Carmona, 2019) to observe the characteristics and the trends of main socio-economic indicators, land use functions, presence of services and amenities, and ongoing transformations in the area together with local policies. Then, we will assess the impact of each temporary use case measuring a set of quanti-qualitative indicators with data from direct observations, project reports, and interviews2. The TU assessment framework has been developed based on literature review and qualitative analysis of cases in the Netherlands, in Belgium and in France. Finally, we’ll carry out a correlation analysis applying the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) (Fotheringham et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2019) in GIS (running R packages). Findings from this research contribute to the ongoing discourse on temporary urbanism by discussing how temporary uses support not only communities but also long-term urban development. The proposed framework for defining, measuring, and analysing temporary use provides insights for scholars, policymakers and urban planners interested in leveraging these initiatives considering a fair resource distribution for sustainable and inclusive urban regeneration. ... Read more

Industrialization in the PRD has brought about great economic growth and contributed to the rise and consolidation of this deltaic region as a key global player. However, it also generated severe environmental imbalances and pollution of vital and non-renewable resources, such as soil, water and air. Nowadays, the increasing shift towards service-oriented and innovation-driven sectors makes abandoned and decommissioned industrial areas available for transformation. However, to make the most of the potential of these areas to achieve sustainable urban development, novel approaches in planning and design practise are needed to tackle the complexity arising from the challenges posed by climate change and urbanization. This contribution provides a landscape-based approach to adaptive industrial transformation that looks at the spatio-temporal dimension, leveraging the intrinsic and relational qualities of these sites. The approach is tested through two applications in the Chancheng district (Foshan) and Haizhou (Guangzhou). ... Read more

In his book, 'The sense of style', the cognitive scientist Steven Pinker argues that the categories of grammar reflect the four building blocks of thought: time, space, causality, and matter. Coincidentally, these building blocks are the same ones that dictate the grammar of spatial design. In them being absolute categories, they describe well the way architects, designers, planners and landscape architects perceive, investigate and intervene in the reality around them. ... Read more

Wildfires are widely viewed as key evolving inputs of Mediterranean ecosystem. But anthropogenic climate changes and other socioecological recessions have transformed normal wildfire into megafire. The paradigm shift is needed since the suppression capacity has been increasingly overcome from the fire department. This research is aiming to integrate diverse landscape dynamics and fire regimes, to interpret the interactions between them and identify a series of heterogeneous fire typologies in the Mediterranean region in order to support the application of landscape-based approaches. By classifying the land system dynamics into meteorologic, physiographic, biological and anthropogenic indicators (in relation with wildfire ignition and propagation), geographic information system based approaches and statistic analysis are applied to create diagnostic mappings. The results establish 10 types of landscape-based fire typologies which can be used as the decision support tool to prioritize risk mechanism and then lead to mitigate wildfire risk by changing contextual territorial elements in landscape system in order to create an integral long time territorial design. ... Read more

Deltaic areas are among the most promising regions in the world. Their
strategic location and superior quality of their soils are core factors supporting both human development and the rise of these regions as global economic hubs. At the same time, however, deltas are extremely vulnerable to multiple threats from both climate change and the rush to urbanization. These include an increased flood risk combined with the resulting loss of ecological and social-cultural values. The urbanization of deltas can be understood as a set of complex social-ecological systems (and subsystems), each with its own dynamics and speed of change. To ensure a more sustainable future for these areas, spatial strategies are needed to strengthen resilience, i.e. help the systems to cope with their vulnerabilities as well as enhance their capacity to overcome natural and artificial threats. In this article we elaborate a landscape based regional design approach for the adaptive urban transformation of urbanizing deltas, taking the Pearl River Delta as a case study. Based on an assessment of the dynamics of change regarding the transformational cycles of natural and urban landscape elements, eco-dynamic regional design strategies are explored to reveal greater opportunities for the exploitation of natural and social-cultural factors within the processes of urban development. Furthermore, adaptive transformational perspectives are identified to ensure reduced flood risk and inclusive socio-ecological design. ... Read more

Deltaic areas are among the most promising regions in the world. Their strategic location, combined with the superior quality of their soils, constitute the main factors that have been supporting both human development and the rise of these regions as global economic hubs. At the same time, however, deltas face extreme vulnerability due to multiple threats related to both climate change and urbanization. These threats include an increasing amount of flood risk, combined with the loss of ecological and social-cultural values as a result. The urbanization of deltas can be understood as a set of complex social-ecological systems (and subsystems), each with its own dynamics and speed of change. To ensure a more sustainable future for these areas, spatial strategies that strengthen resilience are needed that can assist the systems to not only cope with their vulnerabilities, but also to strengthen their capacity to face natural and artificial threats. Therefore, this article elaborates a landscape based regional design approach for an adaptive urban transformation in urbanizing deltas, using the Pearl River Delta as a case study. Based on an assessment of the dynamics of change regarding the transformational cycles of natural and urban landscape elements, eco-dynamic regional design strategies are explored in order to provide more opportunities for natural and social-cultural aspects within the processes of urban development. Furthermore, adaptive transformational perspectives are identified to ensure water safety and inclusive socio-ecological design. 针对气候变化和城市化对富饶的三角洲地区带来的洪涝风险、生态、社会—文化价值流失等威胁，提出将三角洲城市化进程视为一系列具有独立动态特征和速率变化的复杂社会—生态系统（子系统），急需为保障该类型区域的可持续发展提供空间战略，以协助修复系统漏洞并增强应对自然和人工威胁的能力，以珠江三角洲为例，针对城市化进程中三角洲区域的适应性城市转型，提出基于景观的区域设计方法。通过对自然和城市景观要素转型性循环的各类动态变化进行评估，得到生态动力型区域设计战略，为城市化进程中的自然和社会—文化发展提供更多机遇。提出保障水安全和全纳性社会—生态设计的适应性转型视角。 ... Read more

With the wave of globalization, many countries have witnessed the same trend within which the traditional government-cantered urban management mode is changing. The participation of various non-governmental organizations, private institutions and citizens has made the network of urban governance more complicated than before. In the meanwhile, various departments, organizations and groups show their different demands and interests. How to meet the needs of various participants and deal with this complexity has become an important challenge in urban development. This workshop hopes to understand this trend through the discussion of important aspects of urban development（i.e. the transformation of old cities, social welfare distribution and planning and design projects）.Future directions for urban management and development are also discussed. ... Read more

The concept of risk has become increasingly complex, and has been used not only in relation to the natural features of a region, but also to its socio-economic context. In this conceptualization, the latter directly influences the capacity of a community to cope with, recover from, and adapt to natural hazards. Conceiving vulnerability as a measure of a socio-ecological system's resilience, and at the same time, as a multidimensional variable that changes in space and time, makes the study of the different ways in which natural hazards impact on society all the more urgent. This is particularly true for developing countries, where risk related to natural hazards affects populations and areas that must deal with stress conditions, such as humanitarian, social and military emergencies. This article presents a methodology for the analysis of social vulnerability, defined and experimented in the context of the international cooperation project "Estudio de la amenaza sísmica y vulnerabilidad física del Gran Santo Domingo". The methodology, implemented through the employment of a Geographic Information System, led to the elaboration of a "Social Vulnerability Index" and a "Social Vulnerability Map". These seek to describe the current condition of vulnerability of the city of Santo Domingo de Guzmán (Distrito Nacional) in the Dominican Republic (DR), and are used to define context-related vulnerability scenarios, as well as to indicate the adequate set of mitigation objectives and actions. The results highlight the importance of using social vulnerability study as the point of departure for defining seismic-risk mitigation policies, emergency management, and territorial planning in order to reduce the impacts of disasters. ... Read more