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Beauty has been an important, central concept since ancient times. Over the centuries, its status deteriorated until it became improper for academic discussion. In the last two decades, there has been a call to revisit beauty and aesthetic judgment in some disciplines. However, despite interest in urban design, the integration of beauty in planning theory and practice remains slow and partial. This paper presents the changing relevance of beauty in general academic discourse in four milestones before analyzing literature on planning and follows the changing attitude toward aesthetics. The conclusion points to a possible resurgence of beauty in planning literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review analyzes literature regarding urban heating and urban heat islands (UHIs) in dryland cities. This topic is of widespread importance in the era of climate change since many global cities are in arid, semiarid, or Mediterranean regions. We first analyze the literature on dryland UHIs, finding major differences with those for temperate cities. We then review research on cooling strategies involving vegetation, built form, and materials. Finally, we consider planning dimensions. Overall, we find that the most sustainable cooling approach for dryland cities is likely to combine low-water tree species with dense, shade-producing built form and high-albedo materials.

By fusing land-use theory from urban and rural development, this work builds a new theory based on the urban perimeter as a functional interface important to the health of both urban and rural lands. This new theory has its antecedents in biophysical sciences where studies on structural complexity offer insight into metabolism, growth, and resilience. For example, the structural complexity of a coral reef’s surface is an important indicator of growth and resilience for the reef itself as well as the many organisms that depend upon it. This work concludes with a research and practice agenda allied with the field of ecology.

By fusing land-use theory from urban and rural development, this work builds a new theory based on the urban perimeter as a functional interface important to the health of both urban and rural lands. This new theory has its antecedents in biophysical sciences where studies on structural complexity offer insight into metabolism, growth, and resilience. For example, the structural complexity of a coral reef’s surface is an important indicator of growth and resilience for the reef itself as well as the many organisms that depend upon it. This work concludes with a research and practice agenda allied with the field of ecology.

Precise measurement of urban land (UL) is an essential tool for planning in a world of accelerating change and increasing risk, but analysis has traditionally faced methodological and conceptual challenges. This review traces the evolution of UL measurement in the United States (US) from early attempts at quantification through current innovative approaches that analyze the qualities of UL. Researchers now have tools better suited to multi-scalar and complex conceptualization of urban systems. Given this maturation, critical reflection on research design has become essential to UL research, in particular the alignment of measurement tools with desired outcomes and planning goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It remains common for the city to be treated as an undifferentiated unit in urban theory. This review of literature reveals that extant urban theory has been or can be inflected with a greater sense of intra- and interurban difference registering in implications for planning policy and practice pertaining to different substantive concerns and at different geographical scales. The article argues that we need to continue to pay attention to the spatially differentiated character of the urban if we are to advance urban planning thought and practice under contemporary conditions of extended urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1997, the Journal of the American Planning Association published a pair of point–counterpoint articles now listed by the American Planning Association as “classics” in the urban planning literature. In the first article, “Are Compact Cities Desirable?” Gordon and Richardson argued in favor of urban sprawl as a benign response to consumer preferences. In the counterpoint article, “Is Los Angeles-Style Sprawl Desirable?” Ewing argued for compact cities as an alternative to sprawl. It is time to reprise the debate. This article summarizes the literature on urban sprawl characteristics and measurements, causes, impacts, and remedies since the original debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews empirical scholarship on preventable actual causes of death—namely, physical activity, food, and traffic-induced injury–related built environment interventions that lead to health improvements. A systems perspective built on the ecological health model is offered that addresses social determinants of health- and place-based contexts. In doing so, this article offers examples of upstream approaches to address the actual causes of death and ends with guidance on planning practice, research, and teaching organized around the research divisions of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a literature review of China’s urbanism after the establishment of the communist state in 1949, this article brings into readers’ attention that post-1949 urban China has been characterized by various types of enclosed neighborhoods throughout the Maoist and post-reform eras. The main purpose of this review is to trace the social, economic, and political contexts of diverse practices of enclosure, and analyze how these practices work to consolidate dominant economic and social relations in specific historical periods. This distinct aspect of Chinese urbanism is interwoven with particular sociopolitical institutions and processes of place making and space production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The effect of urban form on residential energy use has attracted much research, but it may be difficult to grasp the conclusions of that research because of inconsistencies in scope and methods employed. This article reviews the literature on how urban form affects residential energy use, particularly energy for space-conditioning (heating and cooling). Climate-responsive design principles are examined first and linked to research on how several factors affect residential energy use: housing type, density (physical compactness and dwelling unit density), community layout (street orientation and building configuration), and planting and other surface coverage. The research on each of these factors is summarized under three categories: experiments, simulation modeling, and statistical analysis of empirical data. Finally, implications for future research are discussed and suggestions for planning are made. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is no consensus as to what exactly constitutes a suburb. This article examines the range of suburban definitions in terms of their structure and the topical issues that they grapple with. Suburbs have been defined according to many different dimensions from location and transportation modes to culture and physical appearance. Given this confusion, one approach is to abandon the term; another is to use it with greater precision. This is more than just an issue of semantics. Rather how people talk and think about suburbs shapes how they can see such areas being developed and redeveloped in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Older adults are a large but very inactive population group. Physical activity, especially walking, has many important health benefits for older adults. This review describes the relationship between walking and health and reviews studies investigating the relationship between the built environment, walking, and health in older adults. Important features of community design for older adults are identified and suggestion for impacting walking behavior is made. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article summarizes and synthesizes empirical research on relationships between youth physical activity and urban form across several disciplines, for a planning audience. It highlights how physical activity is characterized, introduces ecological theories of physical activity behavior, provides a conceptual model of interactions between urban form and other influences on youth physical activity behavior, and discusses implications of new evidence for future research and policy. Further research is needed to address several gaps and inconsistencies across studies and to build on recent methodological developments. Despite the limitations of existing research, it is evident that urban form can either serve to constrain or promote physical activity. Urban form interventions have the potential to result in lasting influences on the behavior of large populations of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstract on planning including a micro-level analysis of the Black voting during the civil rights movement, the influence of land-use planners on flood hazard mitigation and the use on public transport timetable data into health care accessibility modelling.

This article provides an overview on the current debate on evaluation in urban planning. An initial evaluation state of the art is presented in three parts: the evolution of evaluation theory and methods, the contemporary planning debate around different perspectives and paradigms, and the nature and extent of evaluation practice in planning. The second part of the article focuses on the growing emphasis on urban form issues in different planning systems. This comprehensive literature review provides the background to support the authors’ proposal for a set of general principles to evaluate the implementation of urban plans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstracts on city planning-related topics, including visions of waterfront development in postindustrial Philadelphia, the construction of a town planning perception of Colombo, and city planning and the U.S. census.

The article presents abstracts on planning-related topics which include an examination of the popularity of dancing in New Zealand during the 1920s and 1930s, an examination of how religious diversity in community affects church membership in a period of high growth and social change and an examination of child labor in urban industries in the Dutch Republic.

The article presents abstracts on land use planning topics, including "Historical Amnesia: New Urbanism and the City of Tomorrow," "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge" and "Methodology for the Survival Analysis of Urban Building Stocks."

This section presents abstracts of papers on city planning published from 2007 to 2008, including "Streets, Sounds and Identity in Inter-war Harlem," by Clare Corbould, "(Re)making the Other, Heterosexualising Everyday Space," by Kath Browne, and "Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds," by Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder.

The article presents abstracts on planning which include "Labor Unions and Affordable Housing: An Uneasy Relationship," "Smoke and Mirrors: Willy Clarkson and the Role of Disguises in Inter-War England," and "Urbanization and Spatial Organization: Hospital and Orphanage Location in Chicago, 1848-1916."

Abstracts of articles related to state and national planning are presented which include "Analysis of Rail Transit Project Selection Bias With an Incentive Approach," by Wenling Chen, "Urban History for Planners," by Carl Abbott and "Rebuilding the Modern City After Modernism in Toronto and Berlin," by Douglas Young.

The article presents abstracts of planning. They include "The Fall and Rise of the Local Community: A Comparative and Historical Perspective," by Hellmut Wollman, "The Compact Versus the Dispersed City: History of Planning Ideas on Sofia's Urban Form," by Sonia Hirt, and "A Paradigm for Practice," by Ronald D. Brunner.

The article presents abstracts related to planning. They include "Crowds and Leisure: Thinking Comparatively Across the 20th Century," "Time-Series Analysis of Clusters in City Size Distributions" and "The Transnational Contexts of Early Twentieth-Century American Urban Segregation."

Presents several abstracts featured in various journals as of August 2006. "Creating the Public Domain: Nineteenth-Century Local State Formation in Britain and the U.S.," by Alan Digaetano; "The Significance of Color Declines: A Re-Analysis of Skin Tone Differentials in Post-Civil Rights America," by Aaron Gullickson; "Deconstructing the City of Culture: The Long-Term Cultural Legacies of Glasgow 1990," by Beatriz García.

Presents abstracts of articles related to city planning. "Promoting Retail Innovation: Knowledge Flows During the Emergence of Self-Service and Supermarket Retailing in Britain," by Andrew Alexander, Gareth Shaw and Louise Curth; "The Nature of Op Art: Bridget Riley and the Art of Nonrepresentation," by Simon Rycroft; "Was the 1937 U.S. Housing Act a Pyrrhic Victory?," by D. Bradford Hunt.

Presents abstracts of several studies on environment and planning. "Explaining the Growth of British Multiple Retailing During the Golden Age," by Carlo Morelli; "Cities in the Shade: Urban Geography and the Uses of Noir," by Matthew Farish; "Geographers and the Tennessee Valley Authority," by Ronald Reed Boyce.

Presents several abstracts of published studies related to city planning. "Commemorating the Loyalists in the Loyalist City: Saint John, New Brunswick, 1883-1934," by Greg Marquis in the 2004 issue of "Revue d'histoire urbaine"; "Soviet War Memorial in Treptow, Berlin," by Paul Stangl in the 2004 issue of "Geographical Review"; "Multi-level Analysis of Community Coordinating Councils," by Nicole E. Allen in the 2005 issue of "American Journal of Community Psychology."

Recently created policies and programs target urban form as a primary factor in changes in children's travel behavior to school. Unfortunately, little research exists that supports a direct relationship between urban form and a child's trip to school. This article first discusses the transportation and health problems these policies attempt to address. It then reviews the current planning and public health literature on the relationship between urban form and children's travel behavior. Finally, a conceptual framework is outlined that addresses the complexity of the relationship between urban form and a child's trip to school to guide future policy and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several abstracts of studies concerning land use planning. "North American Urban History: The Everyday Politics and Spatial Logics of Metropolitan Life," by Mary Corbin Sies; "The Myth of Liberty Place: Race and Public Memory in New Orleans," by Jacob A. Wagner; "Planned Industrial Districts in Chicago: Firms, Networks, and Boundaries," by Robert Lewis.

Presents the abstracts of several studies on planning. "The Rise (and Decline) of American Regional Science: Lessons for the New Economic Geography?," by Trevor J. Barnes; "Contesting Visions: Hybridity, Liminality and Authorship of the Chandigarh Plan," by Nihal Perera; "Waiting for Geography," by Marcus A. Doel.

This article measures the benefits of the urban forest by examining its effect on housing prices. A geographic information system is used to develop a measure of the urban forest, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, from satellite imagery and to construct other variables from a variety of sources. Spatial hedonic housing price models for the Indianapolis/Marion County area are estimated. The models indicate that greener vegetation around a property has a positive, significant effect on housing price, holding everything else constant. This effect is dominated by measures at the neighborhood level. These findings indicate that property owners value the urban forest, at least in part, by the premium they pay to live in neighborhoods with greener, denser vegetation. These findings also indicate that public action to maintain and enhance the urban forest may be warranted. Planners and urban foresters can use these findings to inform public and policy debates over urban forestry programs and proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]