Historic urban areas (HUAs) are visually and culturally sensitive environments where blue-green infrastructure (BGI) plays an increasingly important role in shaping spatial identity and environmental quality. While BGI's ecological functions are well documented, its influence on human visual perception, particularly within HUAs, remains largely unexplored. Addressing this gap, this paper proposes an integrative framework to assess how BGI affects visual experiences in heritage contexts, bridging methodological, perceptual, and user-group dimensions. By combining UAV-based photogrammetry with a three-layered perception model, the research integrates spatial analysis and empirical methods across seeing (eye-tracking), feeling (questionnaire), and understanding (interviews) layers. Street-level BGI exposure was spatially quantified and used to inform perception experiments involving both expert and general public groups. This multi-methodological, multi-layered, cross-group approach extends existing research by providing a comprehensive examination of BGI's visual impact at different cognitive levels, particularly within historic settings. Findings reveal that BGI enhances perceptual diversity, visual preference evaluation, and cognitive engagement across both groups. Although it may slightly divert attention from dominant heritage features, BGI fosters broader visual exploration and higher environmental ratings. Experts interpret BGI through more systemic and functional perspectives, while the public emphasizes emotional, aesthetic, and recreational values. Overall, this study presents a replicable framework integrating digital spatial modeling with layered perception analysis, offering new insights for evaluating and enhancing visual environments in HUAs. It supports more inclusive visual assessments and provides a basis for informed planning and selective design interventions in heritage contexts.

Cultural landscapes are increasingly vulnerable to the compounded effects of potential risks, ecological degradation, and imbalanced heritage value perceptions under intensifying climate change and global urbanization pressures. However, there is a lack of framework that systematically integrates geographical hazards, ecological sensitivity, and both expert and public heritage value perceptions to guide differentiated conservation and development of cultural landscapes. This study proposes a Hazard-Ecology-Perception Landscape Planning (HEPLP) framework to provide a spatially explicit decision-support tool that unifies hazard, ecology, and perception dimensions for cultural landscape planning. HEPLP is evaluated in a case study of Chengde Mountain Resort. A GIS-based methodology is employed to characterize geographical hazards and ecological sensitivity by combining concept of entropy and Analytic Hierarchy Process. Expert scoring and large language model content analysis are used to map heritage value perceptions. Risk-based analysis and three-dimensional clustering revealed nine distinct clusters in cultural landscape, providing spatially grounded evidence for targeted conservation and development strategies. This includes many scenes where previously implemented landscape planning strategies have been designated for complete conservation, as well as clusters where trade-offs between ecological sensitivity and heritage value perception are carefully balanced. Unlike previous frameworks that focused on single or dual dimensions, HEPLP offers an integrative tool for sustainable cultural landscape conservation and development under environmental and social challenges.

Stadsranden vormen dynamische overgangszones tussen stad en land, zonder scherpe grenzen maar als geleidelijke schillen waarin functies, gebruik en ruimtelijke logica vervlochten zijn. Deze zones staan onder druk door uiteenlopende stedelijke en landelijke ruimteclaims, waardoor zorgvuldig ontwerp, integrale gebiedsontwikkeling en een landschapsbewuste benadering essentieel zijn. Het landschap fungeert hierin als structurerende drager: het bepaalt de ruimtelijke logica, versterkt ecologische en sociale kwaliteiten en biedt kansen voor klimaatadaptatie, biodiversiteit en recreatie. Tegelijk vraagt de complexe verweving van opgaven om co-creatieve processen die draagvlak, kwaliteit en uitvoerbaarheid bevorderen.

In Nederland zijn stadsranden de afgelopen decennia belangrijke ontwikkelingsgebieden geworden voor wonen, werken en recreatie, maar vaak gingen landschap en natuur daarbij verloren door versnippering en standaardoplossingen. Een landschapsbewuste aanpak zet juist in op veerkracht, identiteit en meervoudige waarde—ecologisch, sociaal én economisch. Natuur en landschap verhogen welzijn, versterken biodiversiteit, helpen klimaatverandering opvangen en vergroten bovendien de vastgoedwaarde.

Landgoed Haverleij bij ’s-Hertogenbosch is een sprekend voorbeeld van zo’n landschapsbewuste stadsrandontwikkeling. Hier zijn de afgelopen 25 jaar compacte woonclusters gecombineerd met een parkachtig landschap, natuurontwikkeling, recreatie en water. Het project laat zien hoe ontwerp, samenwerking en lange-termijnvisie kunnen leiden tot een aantrekkelijk en veerkrachtig stad-land continuüm. De casus biedt waardevolle lessen voor toekomstige stadsrandontwikkelingen, juist nu Nederland voor grote ruimtelijke en ecologische opgaven staat.

Population growth and urbanization are straining the limited space in the built environment. The business districts take up a great portion of this built space. These districts face climate change hazards and spatial emptiness due to their profit-driven foundation. Sustainable ambitions and strategic locations offer the potential to rethink business districts and integrate them into the living environment. Understanding business districts as potential workscapes, more socio-ecological inclusive business districts, is a new perspective. This research formulates a method to define the spatial quality of business districts through literature review and spatial analysis. A spatial analysis of forty cases in the Netherlands presents a higher spatial quality on more diverse landscapes. This indicates that diversification of the business districts’ landscape from monotone to multitone is needed to enable workscape development. Landscape-driven urbanism is needed to generate this desired level of quality. The research highlights the strategic location of edge-city business districts, situated between urban and rural areas, showing the potential to strengthen the urban-rural relationship. Further research on and by design is needed to enable workscape development.

Landgoed Haverleij is een eigenzinnige gebiedsontwikkeling op de overgang van stad naar land, waar wonen, natuur en recreatie op een bijzondere manier samenkomen. In een landschap van kastelen, lanen en waterstructuren is een nieuw woonmilieu ontstaan dat afwijkt van de standaard. Wat begon als een gedurfd idee, is 25 jaar later uitgegroeid tot een inspirerend voorbeeld van landschapsbewuste stadsrandontwikkeling.

Landgoed Haverleij laat zien hoe landschap als leidend principe kan functioneren in ruimtelijk ontwerp, en hoe samenwerking, ontwerpkwaliteit en lange adem bijdragen aan ruimtelijke waarde. Deze ontwikkeling vormt een unieke combinatie van ontwerp, gebiedsontwikkeling, landschap en wonen. Met reflecties op ontwerpstrategieën, proces, samenwerking en de praktijk van het wonen, biedt dit boek waardevolle inzichten voor iedereen die betrokken is bij de toekomst van stadsranden – ontwerpers, ontwikkelaars, beleidsmakers en bewoners.

Auteurs, samenstelling en redactie: Steffen Nijhuis, Tom Daamen, Rob Plooij. Met bijdragen van: Eric van Winsen, Aris van Galen, Willem van der Made, Sjoerd Soeters, Paul van Beek, Mariëlle Kok, Jan Nijhof, Jutta Hinterleitner en Paul van den Bragt.

The low-lying, arid coastal regions of the Southern Mediterranean Basin, extending over 4,600 km, face daunting sea level rise and hydroclimatic changes due to shifting weather patterns. The impact of these factors on coastal urban buildings and infrastructure must be better understood. Alexandria, a historic and densely populated port city in Egypt representative of several coastal towns in the Southern Mediterranean, has experienced over 280 building collapses along its shorelines over the past two decades, and the root causes are still under investigation. We examine the decadal changes in coastal and hydroclimatic drivers along the city's coastline using photogrammetric satellite images from 1974 to 2021. We explore the interconnectivity between shoreline retreat, ground subsidence, and building collapses. Our results suggest that collapses are correlated with severe coastal erosion driven by sediment imbalances resulting from decades of inefficient landscape management and urban expansion along the city's waterfront. This severe erosion, combined with sea level rise, increases seawater intrusion, raising groundwater levels in coastal aquifers. Degrading ground stability and accelerating corrosion in building foundations ultimately culminating in collapses. We identified a coastal area of high vulnerability with over 7,000 buildings at risk, surpassing any other vulnerable zone in the Mediterranean Basin. We propose cost-effective and nature-based techniques for coastal landscape adaptation to alleviate these dangers in Alexandria and other Southern Mediterranean cities facing similar climatic challenges.

Urbanization, biodiversity loss, and climate change demand new approaches to sustainable development. This article presents landscape-based regional design as a “landscape first” strategy that places ecological and cultural systems at the foundation of urbanization. By understanding landscape as a dynamic socio-ecological system, this approach integrates design with nature, people, and history across scales. Through transdisciplinary collaboration, research through design, and the use of regional visions, adaptive strategies, and pilot projects, landscape-based regional design enables climate-adaptive, nature-inclusive, and socially equitable urban development, linking long-term regional ambitions with concrete local action

The increasing recognition of the health benefits of blue spaces highlights their crucial role in constructing Healthy Cities and advancing Sustainable Development Goals. Given that promoting recreational running represents a fundamental pathway to harnessing these benefits, integrating it into spatial planning and design is imperative. Nevertheless, this integration process necessitates substantiated evidence, especially concerning variances among population groups. To address this gap, utilising crowdsourced data and a machine learning approach, this study investigates heterogeneous spatial distributions of recreational running across various age demographics in Rotterdam, with a specific emphasis on visual perceptions and built environments. The mapping results illustrate the varied allure of blue spaces for recreational running, exhibiting a trend of increased clustering in running activities with age, extending beyond the city centre. The outcomes of GWR and spatial regression models indicate significant associations between various visual perception factors and built environment indicators with individual running preferences. Crucially, disparities and spatial heterogeneity are evident in the impacts of different environmental factors on running across age groups. Accordingly, tailored planning strategies and patterns are proposed, informed by age-specific environmental perceptions and preferences, contributing to a deeper understanding of the blue-health mechanism and offering practical insights for creating health-promoting blue spaces.

In the context of Chilean Metropolises such as Santiago, Valparaíso, and Concepción, ecological and social fragmentation of cities lead to significant environmental disturbances, including alterations to the urban climate, loss of biodiversity, and the gradual suppression of ecological corridors and native habitats, ultimately heightening current and future risks, and degrading the quality of life for urban residents stemming from excessive urbanisation, ineffective planning, maladaptive design, and environmental management in critical natural areas. Although an abundance of general frameworks and principles already exist, they necessitate a more contextual and integral approach that considers the natural dynamics of the landscape (landscape logic) as a base for social and economic development. This research presented a landscape approach taking the city of Valparaíso, Chile, as a case study. A methodological framework utilising mixed methods, was developed to analyse and diagnose potentialities of the landscape for developing practical knowledge for planning and design, conscious of the community demands and capacities, its ecological system and its complex geomorphology, and the future applications and assessment in biodiversity terms and social impact. A design-related research opens the opportunity as a methodology that will make it possible to incorporate different types of expertise and work on various scales. This research provides a means for developing spatial guidelines and design principles to strengthen Valparaíso’s green/blue infrastructure at multiple scales. It will ensure water security, biodiversity conservation, safer and more inclusive spaces, and better integration of informal settlements while enhancing ecosystem services for the community. Additionally, by incorporating the natural dynamics of the landscape, this approach provides ways to reduce risk, promote adaptation, and build resilience.

This article examines the planning history of Siraf, an ancient port city on the Persian Gulf in Iran, through the lens of water heritage landscape. It argues that Siraf's water infrastructure was not a product of incremental, vernacular adaptation to aridity, but the result of deliberate urban planning rooted in Sassanid imperial policy, religious cosmology, and environmental knowledge. Drawing on archaeological evidence, historical texts, and spatial analysis, it explores how water collection, storage, and distribution systems were integrated into the urban fabric and aligned with settlement growth. The paper reframes five functionally zoned components of Siraf's water landscape as products of early planning rather than passive responses. It also engages with competing historical interpretations and recent revaluations of this infrastructure as heritage. By foregrounding the role of planning in enabling urban life in a water-scarce environment, this study contributes to planning history discourse and offers insights for contemporary planners grappling with sustainability and heritage in dryland cities. Siraf's case exemplifies how ancient urban resilience emerged from engineering ingenuity and coordinated spatial and infrastructural foresight.

Uncontrolled urban sprawl intensifies socio-ecological pressures, demanding planning strategies that measurably enhance urban ecosystem services. Urban agriculture is a promising lever, yet its long-term ecosystem services contributions remain insufficiently quantified. This study addresses two critical questions: (1) How can suitability analysis guide the spatial integration of urban agriculture to optimize long-term ecological benefits? and (2) How can a landscape approach-based urban agriculture planning strategy be designed to align with ecosystem services enhancement goals? We develop a transparent, reproducible pipeline linking machine-learning suitability modeling (XGBoost with SHAP), deep-learning land use simulation, and monetary ecosystem services valuation. Using Rotterdam as a case study, we simulate three development scenarios for 2030 and 2050: Business-as-Usual (BAU), Suitability-Based Autonomous Transformation, and Suitability-Based Landscape Approach Transformation. Suitability-guided scenarios outperform BAU, with the landscape-approach scenario delivering the most stable multi-decadal outcomes for regulating and cultural services. However, provisioning services can plateau or even decline when ecological protection constraints limit intensive production, revealing the limits of land allocation alone. We conclude by offering thresholds and rules that translate suitability and scenario outputs into a transferable urban agriculture planning model, enabling planners to embed urban agriculture within a landscape approach as part of broader sustainable urban transformation.

Rapid urbanization poses major challenges to biodiversity, climate resilience, and social equity, as cities continue to expand into vulnerable natural landscapes. Addressing these pressures requires nature-based solutions that place landscape systems at the core of urban development. A landscape-based and regenerative approach works with natural processes, ecological networks, and cultural landscapes to guide sustainable urban growth. Through regional design, landscape logic is used to integrate nature, people, and history, enabling the regeneration of urban regions that support biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. This approach aligns global sustainability goals with place-specific strategies, fostering resilient and inclusive urban landscapes.

Urban heritage landscapes, with their layered cultural and aesthetic values, require precise visual analysis to support conservation and planning. However, existing visual analysis methods are often fragmented and fail to fully capture their complex visual-spatial characteristics. To address this gap, this paper proposes a combined visual analysis framework that integrates four GIS-based visual analysis methods—cumulative viewshed (CV), visual magnitude (VM), field of view (FOV) analysis, and street-view image (SVI) segmentation. These methods were applied to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of West Lake in Hangzhou, China, to explore lake–city–landscape relationships, classify lakeside landscape types, and interpret the spatial composition of iconic viewpoints. Findings indicate that: (a) four zones with both high CV and VM values coincide with key architectural and scenic landmarks, suggesting intentional spatial design strategies, while half of the “Ten Scenic Places” are influenced by symbolic or experiential factors beyond visibility; (b) 37 landscape types were identified along lakeside roads, revealing areas where vegetation obscures potential lake views and where design trade-offs are evident; (c) only two of ten potential city-to-lake visual corridors remain unobstructed, pointing to unmanaged vegetation as a critical barrier; and (d) these insights inform targeted visual management strategies, including vegetation control, viewpoint activation, and circulation optimization. This study highlights the limitations of single-method approaches, such as SVI's insensitivity to topographic variation, and suggests that a multi-perspective integration of VAMs can yield deeper spatial insights and more actionable guidance for managing urban heritage landscapes.

Landgoed Haverleij laat overtuigend zien hoe een landschapsbewuste benadering stadsranden kan transformeren tot waardevolle overgangsgebieden waar wonen, natuur en recreatie samenkomen. De ontwikkeling bewijst dat een sterk landschappelijk raamwerk, waarin bodem, water en bestaande structuren het ontwerp sturen, niet alleen ruimtelijke kwaliteit oplevert maar ook maatschappelijke en ecologische meerwaarde creëert. Uit Haverleij komen duidelijke lessen naar voren. Allereerst blijkt dat het landschap daadwerkelijk als drager van het ontwerp moet worden ingezet, en niet als sluitpost in de gebiedsontwikkeling. Een helder en onderscheidend concept zorgt vervolgens voor richting en samenhang, en maakt het mogelijk om gedurende langere tijd consistent te blijven in ontwerpkeuzes. Ook blijkt dat langdurige en hechte samenwerking tussen publieke en private partijen essentieel is om ambities overeind te houden, zeker wanneer marktomstandigheden veranderen. Daarnaast laat het project zien dat een ontwerpende manier van werken helpt om complexe belangen te verbinden, om richting te geven en om draagvlak te creëren bij betrokkenen. Ten slotte maakt Haverleij duidelijk dat groen een strategische waarde vertegenwoordigt: het versterkt ecologie, leefkwaliteit en klimaatadaptatie, maar draagt ook bij aan de economische waarde van het gebied. Samen laten deze lessen zien dat stadsranden geen probleemzones zijn, maar juist een grote oplossingsruimte kunnen bieden voor de ruimtelijke uitdagingen van vandaag, mits het landschap vanaf het begin serieus en integraal wordt meegenomen.

Groundwater is a vital resource for ecosystems, with its recharge process influenced by climate change and urbanization. The transformation of natural and urban landscapes and the over-extraction of groundwater contribute to its depletion and degradation. Groundwater recharge and management are intricately linked to land use and the landscape. Despite this close connection, spatially integrating groundwater recharge strategies in the landscape context remains underexplored. This systematic review synthesizes state-of-the-art research at the intersection of spatial planning, landscapes, and groundwater recharge. We employed a combination of bibliometric visualization and thematic analysis and reviewed 126 studies published between 1990 and April 2024 from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Based on their objectives and outcomes, we found four prominent themes in these clusters: groundwater recharge potential studies, groundwater vulnerability studies, design-based studies, and participatory studies. When organized iteratively, these clusters can become potential building blocks of a framework for a landscape-based groundwater recharge approach. With interdisciplinary collaboration, spatial visualization and mapping, a co-creative design, and a feedback mechanism at its core, this approach can enhance stakeholder communication and translate highly specialized technical knowledge into adaptive, actionable insights. This study also highlights that including spatial design can help develop landscape-based groundwater recharge for long-term sustainable regional development.

There are complex landscape pattern and hydrological process (LPHP) interactions, which exhibit different coupling mechanisms across multiple temporal and spatial scales. However, in-depth understanding of the LPHP interactions is currently lacking. This research conducted a systematic review of 198 empirical studies to explore the LPHP interactions. The findings reveal that: 1) global LPHP research was concentrated in temperate regions, with tropical and cold regions underrepresented; 2) LPHP interactions showed temporal and spatial scales differentiation, with the majority of studies occurring at long-term local and regional scales, and the relationship between agricultural land expansion and surface runoff was a key point. This research proposed a dual-path driving model that captures both landscape pattern-driven hydrological processes and hydrological process-reshaping landscape patterns. In natural areas, high cohesion and aggregation patterns should be protected and enhanced. In urban areas, landscape fragmentation should be controlled and green infrastructure should be promoted to strengthen hydrological resilience. Additionally, soil erosion and floods not only alter the landscape composition but may also trigger dynamic changes in landscape configuration, forming feedback loops, which are particularly pronounced at the local scale. Identifying these key pathways enhances the understanding of the coupled human–nature system, facilitating more robust predictions and responses to future changes and challenges.

The development of information technologies and the advent of extensive digital data since the 21st century have enabled more profound explorations and interpretations of the relationship between humans and the urban environment. This study systematically reviews the application of emerging data-driven methods in measuring human-environment interaction in urban spaces. The synthesis of 242 studies reveals a diversified application landscape of data-driven methods, employing street view imagery data, social media data, positioning data, physiological data, and video data, each carrying distinct information and addressing various research inquiries. We also review the new insights generated by their application, which offered evidence for analyzing and evaluating a wide range of established frameworks and classic theories concerning human perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects in urban spaces. Based on these findings, we describe the trends, advancements, and limitations of this rising research field, and make recommendations for future researchers adopting data-driven methods to understand relationships between humans and environments in urban spaces.

Landgoed Haverleij is een stadsrandontwikkeling waarin het landschap vanaf het begin een sturend en structurerend principe vormde. Slechts een fractie van het 225 hectare grote gebied is bebouwd; het grootste deel bestaat uit landgoedbossen, natuurzones, waterstructuren, recreatieve landschappen en een golfbaan. Ontwerpers Sjoerd Soeters en Paul van Beek kozen voor een landscape-based urbanism-benadering: het bestaande landschap – met dijken, waterlopen, openheid, reliëf en historische structuren – werd benut als basis waarop nieuwe ruimtelijke lagen zijn toegevoegd. Niet de bebouwing bepaalde het raamwerk, maar de landschappelijke logica van bodem, water en zichtlijnen.

In deze gelaagde opzet liggen de compacte kastelen als zorgvuldig geplaatste elementen binnen een robuust groen-blauw netwerk. De landschappelijke uitgangspunten sturen de oriëntatie, positionering en beleving van het wonen, terwijl natuurlijke gradiënten zorgen voor ecologische waarde, klimaatadaptatie en een herkenbare overgang van stad naar land. Zo laat Landgoed Haverleij zien hoe ruimtelijke kwaliteit, biodiversiteit en woonmilieus kunnen ontstaan wanneer landschap niet als achtergrond, maar als ontwerpaanleiding en ordenend principe wordt ingezet in stadsrandontwikkeling.

Rapid urbanization and climate change are the driving forces behind changing the urban landscape and affecting natural resources and the environment, particularly in the megacities of arid regions. Many of these cities face an acute water crisis leading to over-exploitation of groundwater resources. This over-exploitation has led to the depletion of aquifers, land infertility, saline intrusion, land subsidence, and harm to hydrological ecosystems. Globally, numerous studies have documented the potential of groundwater recharge (GWR) using GIS and remote sensing techniques. However, its practical application in a landscape context for sustainable urban and regional development is underexplored. In this study, we developed the landscape-based GWR concept by conducting a case study of Karachi city (Pakistan). We took physical landscape (surface and sub-surface) features and groundwater recharge potential as a base for design and planning to improve groundwater recharge and urban landscape. Moreover, we highlighted the added values of this approach besides recharging the depleted ground hydrological conditions and improving the urban landscape condition (i.e., social–ecological inclusiveness, sustainable future development, and interdisciplinary collaboration). The results indicated a negative impact of urbanization on groundwater recharge, especially in the alluvial zones and river valleys, underscoring the need for a spatial approach to safeguard GWR and guide development. Through this study, we propose that landscape-based GWR can be one of the potential solutions not only for the critical water crisis faced by rapidly urbanizing arid megacities but also for improving the overall quality of life and urban landscape. Furthermore, this holistic approach toward groundwater recharge can guide future urban development patterns, preservation of high groundwater recharge potential sites, and evolution toward sustainable development in arid regions where groundwater is the most significant yet vulnerable resource.

Global climate change and rapid urbanization have intensified flood risks worldwide, especially in cross-regional watersheds where jurisdictions often implement mitigation strategies independently. Although grey infrastructure is widely used to address these heightened risks, its fragmented application frequently shifts hazards to adjacent regions and causes adverse ecological impacts. In contrast, green infrastructure (GI), an interconnected network of natural and semi-natural areas, offers a promising nature-based solution, yet variability in terrain, soils, land use, and hydrological connectivity complicates the development of universal GI planning guidelines. Thus, this study addresses two critical questions: (1) How do changes in flood risk management performance (FRMP) in one region affect neighboring regions? (2) How can GI planning be tailored to watershed heterogeneity? Focusing on three contiguous regions in China's Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integration Demonstration Zone, we simulated flood processes using the SCS-MIKE11 hydrological-hydrodynamic model, optimized GI spatial configurations via Simulated Annealing, and applied the TOPSIS to select configurations that balance FRMP across all regions. Results show: (1) significant interregional FRMP correlations, with midstream negatively correlated with upstream (p <0.001) and downstream (p <0.001); (2) dispersed GI spatial configurations better accommodate watershed heterogeneity; (3) prioritizing FRMP at regional boundaries when configuring GI effectively mitigates watershed-wide flood risks; (4) distributive justice, integrated land and water management are essential for cross‐regional flood challenges. This study reveals interregional FRMP coupling and pioneers a heterogeneity-responsive GI optimization, offering planners a novel decision-support tool for coordinated GI planning for cross-regional flood risk management.