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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The concept of historic gardens has gradually expanded to encompass a broader range of landscape meanings. UNESCO's cultural landscape categories have significantly influenced land policy improvements in the context of globalization, with historic gardens being classified as Category 1 cultural landscapes. The other categories are organically evolved landscapes (Category 2) and associative cultural landscapes (Category 3). While existing studies have primarily focused on each of these categories individually, it remains unclear how to characterize a cultural landscape when all three categories coexist and influence each other, as seen in complex cases such as the Chengde Mountain Resort (CMR). Furthermore, strategies for improving sustainable land management based on this understanding are still lacking. This study uses landscape mapping to collect data, digitally reconstruct, and characterize cultural landscapes in the CMR based on four environmental factors: topography, accessibility, visibility, and land use changes. Based on this, we illustrate the evolution of the CMR through reconstruction, capturing four phases detailed in 144 scenes. From this, we identify six distinct groups of scenes with six targeted indicators, each reflecting specific spatial attributes of Category 1. Additionally, statistical and comparative analyses of land use changes illuminate various landscape dynamics of these scenes that correspond to Categories 2 and 3. The discussion presents a systematic sustainable pathway to characterize the interdependencies among UNESCO’s three cultural landscape categories. Based on these findings, this research proposes a three-level management model that connects dynamic authenticity and modern functionality, offering insights for urban policymakers navigating pluralistic cultural 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.

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.

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.

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.

This study aims to present a regeneration process for historical spaces based on the notion of collective memory. We argue for the necessity of simultaneously studying conservation and rehabilitation policies for restoring and continuing the collective memory of historical spaces. This approach can effectively preserve and shape the collective memory of historical spaces by focusing on preservation and valuing the landscape as a major key between place and humans. The historical ChaharBagh Avenue from the Safavid era in Isfahan serves as a case study. Over time, the social and cultural significance and value of ChaharBagh Avenue as a historical public space and collective memory is diminishing due to inconsistent renewal policies. The study employs a qualitative approach, including field studies and interviews with 32 citizens of Isfahan, to suggest a model for sustainable regeneration and conservation of historical urban sites based on collective memory.

[Objective] Water could be regarded as a vital element for human existence, which has shaped cities for centuries. Blue spaces, centred around water bodies, play a pivotal role in urban development by delivering various ecosystem services and influencing the design and planning of urban environments. In addition to the numerous benefits and services provided by water, recent research indicates that blue space exposure and perception could also enhance human health and well-being, especially in urban contexts. However, health benefits are often not or implicitly taken into account in design practices. While an increasing number of researchers acknowledge the importance of applying current health evidence to practice, there is currently a lack of specific methodological support to bridge the gap between evidence and actions. Furthermore, given the growing focus on healthy urban living, the demand for the development of healthy cities, and the requirements of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing this gap is of utmost importance at present. Based on the analysis and synthesis of existing evidence, this research aims to propose a conceptual framework that links the health benefits derived from blue space exposure and perception with spatial design practices. The framework attempts to address the current gap and encourage ongoing exploration in future research and practice. [Methods] This research first searches relevant publications on blue space and human health included in the Web of Science Core Collection and Google Scholar during the past five years, and selects the representative ones for detailed analysis and summary. Based on the analysis results, the key pathways linking blue space exposure and perception with human health are identified. Next, a tailored methodological, conceptual framework linking health evidence and design practices is proposed according to the frameworks and evidence in existing studies. Meanwhile, the results of the literature analysis and several Rotterdam cases at different scales are used to demonstrate the application of the framework and illustrate its feasibility.

[Results] Based on the results of the literature analysis, three main blue space exposure and perception types are summarized, including indirect perception and exposure, accidental perception and exposure, and intentional perception and exposure. Next, four main pathways linking the exposure to or perception of blue space and human health are identified and briefly discussed, including enhancing physical activities, reducing harmful exposure, benefiting psychological outcomes, and promoting social interactions. Subsequently, a four-step conceptual framework that translates the health evidence into practical design knowledge is proposed. The steps comprise extracting critical health evidence, summarizing key design concepts, categorizing core design elements, and translating into design principles, spatial patterns, and evaluation methods. At first, the research extracts key evidence from 57 representative literature. And then, the research summarizes 42 key design concepts. Next, through an analysis of the similarities and differences between the design concepts, five core design elements are identified, including the quantity, accessibility, visibility, spatial quality, and design process of blue space. […]

[Objective] Human perception of landscape and environment is primarily through visual senses, making visual landscape research a central theme in landscape architecture research. Conducting a visual analysis of the spatial characteristics of traditional Chinese gardens and exploring their visual features can provide valuable guidance for inheriting the essence of spatial design. In recent years, many scholars have employed quantitative analytical methods to identify the visual space of traditional gardens. However, few of these studies have used detailed models to analyze the spatial features of traditional garden spaces. Compared to traditional digital models, point cloud models collected through LiDAR (light detection and ranging) offer more detailed spatial information for visual landscape research. Therefore, this research aims to take Jichang Garden in Wuxi as an example to explore the possibilities and applications of in-depth visual and spatial analysis of traditional Chinese gardens using point cloud technology. This aim can be further broken into several components: 1) Establishing analytical methods and selecting analysis indicators; 2) applying these methods and indicators to analyze the visual space of Jichang Garden; 3) uncovering the characteristics and features of traditional Chinese gardens through the interpretation of analysis results. [Method] This research establishes a set of methods for quantifying the analysis of visual space using point cloud data, including three main steps. 1) Establishment of a model based on point cloud for calculating the analysis results of visual space. In detail, this research applies a voxel-based method to build multidimensional digital models for buildings, vegetation, and rockery, and build a digital elevation model (DEM) based on the point cloud data on the ground. Then, the aforesaid two kinds of models are integrated with water surface to finalize the modeling process. 2) Establishment of a visual analysis method (line of sight method) based on the three-dimensional digital model for obtaining visual space information. 3) Proposal of indicators for evaluating visual landscape utilizing the visual space information obtained, including “3D visibility”, “visual spread” and “feature ratio of visual field” indicators. A total of 11 viewpoints (viewpoints 1, 2, 3 ... 11) on the west side of Jinhuiyi Pond are analyzed using the above methods. [Results] This research’ s main findings consist of three parts. 1) 3D visibility calculation results. From the visibility analysis results of 11 viewpoints, it is evident that viewpoints 1, 5, 6, 7, and 10 have a relatively broad visual field, with some line of sight reaching a length of 100 meters. 2) Evaluation results of visual space indicators. The viewpoint with the highest 3D visibility is labeled as viewpoint 1, located at the Xianyuexie water viewing platform, while the one with the minimum 3D visibility is labeled as viewpoint 2. The viewpoint with the highest “visual spread” is viewpoint 10, situated in the plaza at the south of the Jiashutang building, while the one with the minimum “visual spread” is viewpoint 11. Except for viewpoint 1 (dominated by buildings) and viewpoint 10 (dominated by the ground), the highest “feature ratio of visual field” is occupied by vegetation. 3) Interpretation of the calculation results. […]

Riverscapes are a complex and multi-scale socio-ecological and hydrogeomorphic system, which is the result from the interaction between human and nature. The "River Style Framework", based on the principles of hydrogeomorphology, provides a mature learning tool to understand the "form and process". The paper made a systematic review of the main principles, procedures and contents of river style framework. The multi-scale spatial framework, the classification system of river style and geomorphic units provide the basic approach for describing and interpreting river character and behavior. At the watershed scale, the priority of restoration strategy of each reach can be identified after the geomorphological condition assessment and the restoration potential assessment; at the reach scale, with the evolution trajectory analysis of the specific reach, the change trend can be predicted, and providing knowledge evidence for "process-based" riverscape restoration design and actions.