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The lower reaches of the Jinsha River, serving as a vital ecological barrier in southwestern China and playing a crucial role in advancing targeted poverty alleviation efforts, remain underexplored in terms of the coupling between ecological and economic development, creating a gap in understanding the region's sustainable development potential. This study combines the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) derived from MODIS data and the biodiversity richness index (BRI) based on land use data to create the ecological environment index (EEI) using a weighted approach. It also develops the economic development index (EDI) from economic data using the entropy weight method. By integrating the EEI and EDI, the study calculates key metrics, including the ecological–economic coupling degree (EECD), coupling coordination degree (EECCD), and relative development degree (EERDD), and examines their spatiotemporal changes from 2000 to 2020. Additionally, the study applies a geographic detector model to identify the spatial drivers of the EEI, an obstacle factor diagnosis model to pinpoint the main barriers to EDI, and a neural network model to uncover the underlying forces shaping EECCD. The results indicate that: (I) From 2000 to 2020, the overall improvement rate of the ecological and economic subsystems was greater than that of the ecological–economic coupling system. The entire region is still in the Running-In Stage, and the coordination level has been upgraded from near imbalance to marginal coordination. About 85% of the counties' EERDDs are still in the EDI Behind EEI Stage. (II) The structural composition of the EEI shows a pattern of low Dry Hot Valley Area and high in other areas, mainly driven by natural factors, although human activities had a notable impact on these interactions. (III) Originating from an impact model primarily driven by economic factors and supplemented by ecological factors, both EDI and EECCD exhibit a pattern of high in the south and low in the north, with improvements spreading northward from the urban area of Kunming. The development gradient differences between 24 poverty-stricken counties and 16 non-poverty-stricken counties have been reduced. (IV) For the six types of ecological–economic coupling development zones, it is essential to adopt localized approaches tailored to the differences in resource and environmental characteristics and development stages. Key efforts should focus on enhancing ecological protection and restoration, increasing financial support, implementing ecological compensation mechanisms, and promoting innovative models for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, challenging traditional flood risk assessments. New methods, like InVEST's urban flood risk mitigation model (UFRM), are crucial for assessing flood-prone areas, especially those vulnerable to pluvial flooding. This systematic review examines the utilization and limitations of the UFRM model for identifying flood-prone areas and designing adaptation plans in response to climate change, based on research articles published between 2019 and 2024. The articles were identified through Scinapse and Google Scholar using predefined criteria, including relevance to UFRM applications and publication within the specified timeframe. An analysis of the 21 selected papers using bibliometric techniques reveals geographic concentrations of the case studies that utilized the UFRM model primarily in Italy, Turkey, China, and the United States, with notable research gaps in Central Europe. The journal publication trends highlight the prominence of certain journals, such as the Journal of Land. A network analysis using VOSviewer identifies thematic clusters aligned with the UFRM research areas, including Urban Planning and Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs), Urbanization and Sustainable Development, the Economic and Social Effects of Flood Mitigation, Adaptation and Risk Management, and Resilience and Vulnerability. This review contributes to gaining a deeper understanding of the research landscape regarding the utilization of the UFRM model and provides recommendations for advancing sustainable and resilient urban development practices. The review was not preregistered in a formal registry. The finding reveals that integrating automation and optimization tools to suggest different solutions for problematic nodes in urban areas is crucial for addressing multiple issues simultaneously and optimizing adaptation plans effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing high-speed railways (HSRs) is critical for developing countries to stimulate economic growth and urbanization. This study focuses on the Lao section of the China–Laos Railway (CLR) and employs explicitly spatial remote sensing images to investigate the urban development surrounding HSR stations. Data-driven machine learning and causal inference approaches are integrated to quantify the spatial–temporal evolution and discover its driving factors. The results suggest that the CLR has had positive spatial spillover effects on the development of the surrounding urban space. These spillover effects have exhibited a distance attenuation pattern, reflecting obvious development in 2D rather than in 3D urban space. Meanwhile, the distance to stations and adjacent city centers as well as functional urban characteristics, such as land use patterns and industrialization level, have significantly influences the surrounding spatial development. Specifically, in industrial-dominated cities, the surrounding spatial changes have been most significant under the influence of the HSR. Change related to industrial and residential land use has shown significant land expansion patterns and increased utilization efficiency, reflecting that industrialization and urbanization have been the primary drivers of land demand surrounding the HSR. The findings offer valuable insights and references for developing nations to formulate and implement spatial management policies and initiatives related to HSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing urban ecological resilience (UER) is important in promoting sustainable urban development, and developing new quality productivity (NQP) is an intrinsic requirement to promote industrial change and high-quality development. The coordinated development of UER and NQP can help realize the green transformation and upgrading of various industries. This study considered 30 provinces in China as research objects, quantified their UER from nature, economy, and society, and explored the essential connotation of NQP under the guidance of Marx's productivity theory. The entropy weight-CRITIC method and TOPSIS model were used to comprehensively measure the development levels of the UER and NQP from 2011 to 2022, and their coupling coordination degree (CCD) of UER and NQP was measured by combining the coupling coordination degree model. Consequently, the Global Moran's I index and Geographical and Temporal Weighted Regression (GTWR) model were used to explore the effects of different influencing factors on the CCD from the spatiotemporal variability perspective. The results indicated the following: (1) UER and NQP improved during the study period but with large differences between the regions. (2) The overall CCD evolved from a mild imbalance to primary coordination. The average CCD values ranged from low to high in the northeastern, western, central, and eastern regions. (3) The GTWR results showed that the levels of economic development, urbanization rate, and technological innovation contributed positively to the CCD, with the urbanization rate having the strongest positive effect. Foreign investment, environmental regulations, and industrial structure generally negatively inhibit the CCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living close to green infrastructure (GI) components might be the dream of many people who are often exposed to cities' pollution, congestion, or lack of green amenities. Due to its multiple benefits, green infrastructure plays a significant role in driving people's decisions to leave inner-city areas and move to suburban locations. However, how GI components are used once people move into the suburbs must be better understood. Thus, this study explores residents' rationales for leaving the inner city and moving to the suburbs and how they use suburban GI components. A survey was undertaken in six suburbs from three European cities: Poznań (Poland), Salzburg (Austria), and Bucharest (Romania). We found that people self-reported that green amenities were the main reason for choosing a suburban residence. Furthermore, those residents who moved to the suburbs were more interested in using their private gardens than larger parks and prefer natural green areas with high potential for recreation to agricultural landscapes for leisure. This study advocates for investment in private green spaces in suburban developments due to their deep interweaving with residents' leisure preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of urban systems that allow growth while also maximising ecosystem services is identified as an important priority for creating a Good Anthropocene. An ecosystem service (ES)-based approach to landscape interventions maximises the provision of ESs, and in doing so, repairs and reinforces threatened ecological planetary boundaries. As an urbanising planet, cities are critical frontiers of human interaction with these planetary boundaries, and therefore a critical arena for ES-based intervention. Globally, the predominant pattern of urbanisation is dedensification, an outwardly expanding trend where cities are growing in physical extent at a higher rate than their population growth. We therefore require spatially explicit tools capable of reconciling dedensification and Good Anthropocene visions. We propose a methodology that integrates agroecology and urbanisation and is focussed specifically on the supply of targeted regulating ESs. This 'Agroecology for the City' differs from conventional urban agriculture discourse and its preoccupation with food security. Our research interest is agroecological farm systems' (AFSs) capacity to provide critical life support services in a spatially effective manner to urban systems. Our recent research introduced a new GIS-based model (ESMAX) and a spatial agroecology approach that identified AFS configurations at a 1 ha scale which maximised the supply of three regulating ESs, as well as multifunctional performance across all three ESs combined. In the present research, we apply this process at a larger scale, with 1 ha and 4 ha AFS parcels being integrated with a real-world 200 ha peri-urban residential development. The AFS parcels and built-up areas are configured differently to maximise the supply of ESs identified as critical by the local community. We found that arrangements with AFS parcels interspersed evenly with built-up areas provided the best multifunctionality across the four ESs tested. This supports pathways for a Good Anthropocene that work with the global urbanising reality of dedensification and underpin the need for a hybrid science of rural/urban systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing global climate change, marked by sustained warming and extreme weather events, poses a severe threat to both the Earth's ecosystems and human communities. Traditional settlements that underwent natural selection and evolution developed a unique set of features to adapt to and regulate the local climate. A comprehensive exploration of the spatial patterns and mechanisms of the adaptation of these traditional settlements is crucial for investigating low-energy climate adaptation theories and methods as well as enhancing the comfort of future human habitats. This study used numerical simulations and field measurements to investigate the air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and thermal comfort of traditional settlements in Western Sichuan Plain, China, and uncovered their climate suitability characteristics to determine the impact mechanisms of landscape element configurations (building height, building density, tree coverage, and tree position) and spatial patterns on microclimates within these settlements. The results revealed the structural and layout strategies adopted by traditional settlements to adapt to different climatic conditions, providing valuable insights for future rural protection and planning and enhancing climate resilience through natural means. These findings not only contribute to understanding the climate adaptability of Earth's ecosystems and traditional settlements but also offer new theories and methods to address the challenges posed by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green spaces and blue spaces in cities provide a wealth of benefits to the urban social–ecological system. Unfortunately, urban development fragments natural habitats, reducing connectivity and biodiversity. Urban green–blue infrastructure (UGI) networks can mitigate these effects by providing ecological corridors that enhance habitat connectivity. This study examined UGI connectivity for two indicator species in a rapidly developing city in the southern United States. We mapped and analyzed UGI at a high resolution (0.6 m) across the entire city, with a focus on semi-natural areas in private land and residential neighborhoods. Integrating graph theory and a gravity model, we assessed structural UGI networks and ranked them based on their ability to support functional connectivity. Most of the potential habitat corridors we mapped in this project traversed private lands, including 58% of the priority habitat for the Golden-cheeked Warbler and 69% of the priority habitat for the Rio Grande Wild Turkey. Riparian zones and other areas with dense tree cover were critical linkages in these habitat corridors. Our findings illustrate the important role that private semi-natural areas play in UGI, habitat connectivity, and essential ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative measurement of urban green spaces (UGSs) plays a fundamental role in enhancing their ecological functions and services. Current studies have not adequately analyzed the multifunctional characteristics and the diverse benefits of urban green spaces at the national scale. This study developed a multidimensional indicator system in terms of scale, pattern, and services to measure green spaces in 285 prefecture-level cities in China. The influences of different geographic zones and urban development on UGS characteristics were also investigated. The results showed that per capita area of urban green spaces were significantly different between the two sides of the "Botai Line", and the UGS structure was mainly dominated by woodlands. Urban green spaces in the central and east had higher fragmentation, lower landscape diversity, and weaker connectivity. The spatial accessibility of green spaces exhibited a "low–high–medium" pattern from north to south in China, with central-eastern China experiencing the worst equity in green space supply. Overall, cities with higher integrated benefits of green spaces were mainly located in Northeast and North China. Type I large cities had higher ratings for UGS characteristics compared with the other types of cities. These findings can serve as solid guidance for cities seeking to build green space systems with highly integrated socio–ecological benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in-depth discussion and analysis of the synergistic effect of new-type urbanization, greening and digitalization (NUGD) is important for the achievement of sustainable social, ecological and economic development. Therefore, in this study, an evaluation index system composed of these three subsystems was constructed for Chinese cities from 2011 to 2021. The comprehensive and collaborative development levels of each subsystem were measured by means including the entropy weight method and the coupling coordination model, respectively. Then, methods such as ESDA and the Dagum Gini coefficient were applied to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution and spatial differences in the triple synergy effect of the NUGD system in Chinese cities. Finally, the constraining factors of the triple synergy effect were revealed using the obstacle degree model. The findings demonstrated the following: (1) Overall, the NUGD subsystems and their comprehensive levels were increasing, with moderate overall development levels. (2) The synergistic development of the NUGD system exhibited an upward trend. Spatially, the synergistic development level showed distinct differentiation, being higher in the east and lower in the west. The multidimensional dynamic variation characteristics obtained through kernel density estimation revealed that the triple synergy level exhibits high stability. (3) The differences within the east and between the eastern and western areas were the largest, with the intensity of transvariation as the main source. (4) The five criterion layers, including social and spatial urbanization variables, were the key constraints that affected the triple synergy of the NUGD in Chinese cities, and the restrictive role of factors such as the proportion of urban construction land and the per capita postal business volume should not be ignored. This study provides a valuable reference and decision-making guidance to promote China's acceleration toward a new urbanization path supported by both digitalization and green transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, mill races were part of the urban structure of many towns in Slovakia. As regulated and artificially created waterways, they served to drive mills, rollers, or hammers. With the use of new sources of energy, they lost their functions, and most of them were dried, filled, or buried underground. In our research, we examine the former mill race corridor in Podolínec (Prešov region, Slovakia) and its potential to contribute to urban regeneration strategies. The research steps included the following, namely 1. Identification of the route of the mill race corridor according to historical sources, 2. survey of its current state and its spatial preservation in the urban structure, 3. evaluation of the possibilities of its new uses, which could increase the quality and attractiveness of urban public spaces. The research results show that the fragments of the corridor of the extinct mill race are still identifiable in the urban fabric, and in the cadaster, they are in public ownership and suitable for new uses. The fragments of the corridor of the extinct mill race in Podolínec represent a potential for strengthening the blue and green infrastructure, pedestrian and cycling greenways, and a potential for the presentation of cultural heritage values, which could contribute to the improvement of the qualities of the urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing body of research into the environmental and socio-economic benefits of green infrastructure supports the case for it to be positioned as a form of critical infrastructure, particularly in urban settings. It is broadly recognized that extreme weather and climate change pose significant risks to critical infrastructure systems linked to the provision of services, including electricity, water, communications, and transport, and consequently risk assessments and associated adaptation strategies are common practice. However, although green infrastructure is also at risk from extreme weather and climate change, threatening the realization of benefits that it can deliver in urban settings, associated risks to green infrastructure are not widely understood or assessed in practice. This paper discusses the status of existing research on this topic and uses this as a foundation for a Greater Manchester (UK) case study that assesses the risk of low water availability to grassed areas, which represent a key element of the city-region's green infrastructure. In doing so, the paper demonstrates how risks linked to extreme weather and climate change can be assessed spatially to inform green infrastructure planning. In summary, this paper aims to raise awareness of extreme weather and climate change risk to urban green infrastructure, present an empirical case study and associated methodological approach on this topic, and ultimately support efforts to enhance the resilience of urban green infrastructure to extreme weather and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green infrastructure plays a crucial role in sustainable city development by offering a multitude of benefits, including improved environmental quality, increased social well-being, and enhanced economic prosperity. Evaluation and monitoring of regulatory implementation stand as essential components in the advancement of urban green infrastructure (GI) as they indicate the efficacy of regulatory acts and enable the assessment of their implementation success and adaptability to identified needs. This study identifies barriers and drivers based on the views of 352 professionals surveyed between 2018 and 2023 in Serbia. The primary data collection method employed questionnaire surveys. This study identified a range of barriers within existing legal frameworks, foremost of which include the lack of coordination and coherence between relevant ministries and governmental agencies, insufficient financial and human resources, the lack of transparency in the regulation development process, the need for strengthening technical capacities, and the absence of an adequate urban GI strategy. This research serves as a foundation for conceptualising GI regulatory elements that enhance urban GI development. Addressing these barriers necessitates efforts to improve coordination and collaboration among stakeholders, increase public participation, and enhance transparency in the regulatory process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of ongoing global urbanization, the disparity in urban development, marked by the dual phenomena of urban sprawl and urban shrinkage at the regional level, has become increasingly evident. In this vein, two land-related governance strategies—smart growth (SG) and smart shrinkage (SS)—emerge as potential remedies to these challenges, targeting urban expansion and shrinkage, respectively. This study bridges the gap in the fragmented discourse surrounding SG and SS by conducting a comprehensive comparative review on the respective literatures. Utilizing the Scopus database, our research employs trend analysis, text and topic mining, time node analysis, and regional analysis, augmented by qualitative reviews of seminal papers. The findings reveal a notable shift in research focus, with interest in SS surging around 2010 (the number of SS-related papers published after 2010 accounts for 92.3% of the total number of the entire study period) as attention to SG waned, suggesting an impending paradigm shift in urban sustainability. The analysis indicates that SS research lacks the disciplinary diversity, thematic breadth, and empirical depth of SG studies, underscoring a need for a more robust theoretical foundation to support urban sustainability. Furthermore, while both SG and SS derive from environmental science foundations, SG predominantly addresses the physical and landscape attributes of urban areas, whereas SS focuses more on socio-economic dimensions. Our findings point to an intrinsic link between SG and SS, which could lay the groundwork for their integration into a unified theoretical framework to better advance urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relocation of Indonesia's capital to the IKN (Ibu Kota Negara) Nusantara in East Kalimantan is leading to significant changes in land use, shifting from natural vegetation and agriculture to urban infrastructure. This transition brings about economic diversification and urban expansion, but it also raises concerns about its impact on society, the economy, and the environment. The rapid development affects biodiversity conservation, food security, and the livelihoods of rural and Indigenous communities, leading to conflicts across social and economic dimensions. This research uses qualitative and quantitative data to examine the socio-economic and environmental changes in the IKN Nusantara area from 2003 to 2023. The findings show a notable increase in built-up areas, indicating urbanization and a decrease in agricultural land. The study discusses the implications for local populations and ecosystems, emphasizing the need for inclusive governance, community participation, and conflict resolution. It also proposes a comprehensive policy framework that promotes sustainable land management, recognizes Indigenous and local rights, and fosters inclusive economic growth to respect Indonesia's rich environmental and cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted an extensive literature review spanning from 1950 to 2023, exploring the methodologies in urban geomorphology and urban geoheritage assessment, and the possibility of applying Nature-Based Solutions (NbSs) in order to enhance geomorphological maps. The methodology proposed here is based on a two-step approach: (i) a bibliographic review and methodological investigation and (ii) methodological proposal in order to enhance the traditional geomorphological and geoheritage maps with NbS to reduce the geomorphological risk in urban areas. This paper aims to introduce a methodological framework and illustrated its practical application to provide researchers and practitioners with a clear understanding of its implementation in real-world scenarios. The proposed methodology was applied in the north and northeastern parts of Milan, Italy. The implementation of the proposed methodology demonstrated its effectiveness in urban contexts and its potential for further modification and extension to various urban environments in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the diversity in emotional tendencies and needs toward urban green spaces (UGSs) among people from different cultural backgrounds in the wave of cultural integration. We utilized social media data as research tools, gathering a wide range of perspectives and voices. Utilizing geolocation data from 176 UGSs in Macau, we collected 139,162 social media comments to analyze the emotional perceptions of different cultural groups. Furthermore, we conducted regression analysis on the number of posts and emotional intensity values from four linguistic groups—Chinese, English, Southeast Asian languages, and Portuguese—in UGSs, correlating them with ten locally relevant landscape features. Our findings reveal diverse attitudes, emotional inclinations, and functional and design needs of different linguistic groups toward UGSs, as follows: (1) there were significant differences in emotional intensity and tweet counts across 176 UGSs; (2) Chinese and Portuguese speakers showed a more positive attitude toward plazas and natural ecological areas, whereas English- and Southeast-Asian-language speakers tended to favor recreational areas and suburban parks; (3) Chinese speakers exhibited a more positive emotional intensity toward sports facilities, while English speakers placed more emphasis on green space areas, architecture, sports infrastructure, and plant landscapes; (4) there was no specific landscape feature preference for Portuguese- and Southeast-Asian-language speakers. This research not only deepens our understanding of the emotional perceptions and preferences of UGSs among different cultural groups but also explores the association between these groups and various urban landscape features. This provides important theoretical and practical insights for future UGS planning, construction, and promoting multicultural coexistence for sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to unsustainable land management and climate change, floods have become more frequent and severe over the past few decades and the problem is exacerbated in urban environments. In the context of climate-proofing cities, the importance of nature-based solutions (NBSs), obtaining relevant outcomes in the form of ecosystem services, has been highlighted. Although the role of ecosystem services in building resilience against negative climate change effects is widely recognized and there is an identified need to better integrate ecosystem services into urban planning and design, this has proven difficult to operationalize. A critical limitation is that modeling is a time-consuming and costly exercise. The purpose is to roughly estimate the ecosystem service of water run-off mitigation through simplified, cost-effective, and user-friendly modelling at three nested biophysical scales, under four climate change scenarios. Using the Swedish city of Gothenburg as an example, we propose an approach for navigating NBS-oriented flooding adaptation strategies, by quantifying the ecosystem service of water run-off mitigation at three nested biophysical scales, under four climate change scenarios, hence, proposing an approach for how to navigate nature-based solutions in a multi-scale, social–ecological urban planning context against present and future flooding events. Our findings validate the effectiveness of employing an ecosystem service approach to better comprehend the significant climate change issue of flooding through user-friendly and cost-efficient modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing land use and land cover change and climate change have considerable impacts on urban green spaces and their ecosystem services. These impacts result in a loss of urban green space and particularly weaken the climate resilience of urban populations. Landsat imagery data from 1990 to 2020 were used to track the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban sprawl and its influence on the loss of urban green space in Bamako and Sikasso in Mali. Furthermore, a survey of local stakeholders was conducted to capture the perceptions of the status of urban green space. The results of the land use/land cover analysis of the cities between 1990 and 2020 showed that most of the vegetation classes, mainly urban green spaces, have been converted into built-up and bare land in both cities during the last 30 years. In Bamako, built-up land has risen from 5421 hectares in 1990 to 13,350 hectares in 2020, and in Sikasso, from 929 hectares in 1990 to 2213 hectares in 2020. Respondents mentioned street trees as the prevalent type of urban green spaces in both cities (20% of the respondents in Bamako and 24% in Sikasso). In addition, the majority of respondents perceived urban green spaces in Sikasso as having a good status and in Bamako as having a good or moderate status. This study recommends improving the number and quality of urban green spaces, which are crucial for the provision of ecosystem services and for the resilience of cities against climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New territorial units resulting from urban sprawl processes constitute a major challenge for territorial planning. The aim of this paper is to analyze periurban spaces, focusing on the delimitation and characterization of the urban units arising from urban sprawl processes. The delimitation derives from fractal analysis, where urbanized space is used to detect the limits of the units. The characterization starts with the calculation of eight different indicators, using Geographic Information Systems tools. PCA is used to obtain different dimensions of the urban sprawl phenomenon. Finally, a cluster analysis has been applied to establish a typology of territorial units and facilitate the comparative analysis. The methodology is applied to a case study, the metropolitan area of Valencia. Results show six groups of urbanized spaces, which present different types of urban sprawl structures with different necessities. This applied research can be useful for the spatial planning of the periurban spaces, insofar as it allows the identification of supra-municipal or infra-municipal areas, where it will be possible to improve infrastructures, facilities, or green infrastructure, to empower secondary urban nuclei and to create new inter-municipal cooperation and governance formulas. In addition, the results can constitute a non-administrative territorial basis for the calculation of land occupation indicators that are often used as thresholds for the creation of new residential spaces in regulatory planning documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adverse effects of urbanized areas' growth might be mitigated by the multiple ecosystem services that urban green infrastructure provides. However, the design and composition of such infrastructure is still a hotly debated issue, mainly considering the challenges associated with the use of exotic plant species. To assess if there is a clear association between the species' origin and ecosystem services or ecosystem disservices, an in-depth systematic literature review was carried out based on a bibliometric approach to assess the panorama of the scientific perspective. Based on the results, a detailed analysis was performed for the urban green infrastructure of five European Mediterranean cities, where management and expansion of the urban green infrastructure might act as tools to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Urban green infrastructure benefits to urban areas and its composition must consider the balance between services and disservices provided by plant species. Data analysis shows that disservices are not exclusively related to exotic species, revealing that plant species selection based on their origin represents a biased approach, as it often disregards the higher capacity of some exotic species to thrive under continuous pressure and disturbance, along with relevant and highly valued cultural services provided. Since exotic species are commonly used, ecosystems formed can be seen as experiments to support decisions, allowing new approaches to planning, designing, and maintaining urban green infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments in China have decision-making authority over urban land use, and their level of environmental attention influences the green use of urban land. However, the impact of local government environmental attention on urban land green use efficiency and its mechanisms remain unclear. This study utilizes panel data from 284 cities from 2003 to 2020 in China and employs fixed effects models and mediation analysis to investigate the pathways through which local government environmental attention affects urban land green use efficiency. The main results are as follows: (1) Through a series of significance tests, local government environmental attention has a significant positive influence on urban land green use efficiency in cities. (2) Further research suggests that both the quantity and quality of industrial structure upgrading act as intermediaries between local government environmental attention and urban land green use efficiency, while the rationalization of industrial structure plays a partial masking role rather than acting as an intermediary. (3) Furthermore, a regional heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of local government environmental attention on urban land green use efficiency is significant in the central region but not in the eastern and western regions. Based on these research findings, this study provides valuable policy insights aimed at contributing to green land use and sustainable development in Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territory space is an ecological resource carrier and place for human development. Human activities and ecological systems are the basis of ecological product supply. Promoting territories' spatial protection and governance by improving the supply of ecological products is very important. In this study, we established an ecological product supply capacity evaluation index system involving three types of ecological products, i.e., ecological environmental products, ecological material products, and ecological cultural products. For the case of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, we comprehensively used principal component analysis, the equivalent factor method, and the entropy method to evaluate the supply capacity of ecological products from 2011 to 2021. Then, we analyzed the spatio-temporal pattern, combining the natural breakpoint and quantile classification methods, and analyzed the obstacle factors using the obstacle degree model of ecological supply. The results show that the supply capacity of different ecological products in each city are closely related to their ecological resource endowment. The supply capacity of ecological products exhibited an upward trend, with the highest ecological environmental product supply being relatively smaller than the ecological material product supply, while the largest growth rate was for ecological cultural product supply. The supply capacity of different ecological products varied across cities over time and displayed noticeable spatial differentiation. The main obstacle factors included eco-land, eco-tourism, eco-leisure, park green space, and fishery products, although there were variations among cities. Finally, based on the level, spatial-temporal pattern, and obstacle factors of ecological product supply, we proposed strategies for territory spatial protection and governance from the perspectives of the integrated protection of elements, structural regulation, and systematic governance. The results reflected the ecological functional heterogeneity of the territory space, which can provide spatial planning guidance for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting urban green growth necessitates a dual focus on reducing carbon emissions and fostering high-quality development. However, the body of research on the coupling relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions remains remarkably limited. Taking Guangdong province as an example, this study strived to establish a comprehensive evaluation system for high-quality urban development encompassing economic, societal, and ecological dimensions and further conducted an in-depth examination of the spatiotemporal pattern and driving forces of coupling coordination degree between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity during 2000–2017. The coupling coordination degree in Guangdong province has shown continuous growth, transitioning from moderate incoordination to moderate coordination. The coupling coordination degree showed the overall spatial distribution characteristics of "high in southeast and low in others", with Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen as the core. Notably, technological advancement, environmental governance, and economic development emerge as pivotal factors that positively affect carbon emission intensity reduction, environmental quality improvement, and coupling coordination enhancement. This research provides valuable insights for achieving harmonized high-quality development in Guangdong province involving policies of regional differences, industrial competitiveness, and new-type urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land subsidence, soil erosion, and landscape fragmentation frequently occur in regions of backward production capacity. Therefore, it is imperative to carry out efforts for ecological restoration in these mine-closed regions. The proposal of holistic conservation of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts provides important guidance for ecological restoration. To support the governance of regional ecology, this paper aims to discuss the layout of element governance zoning in four southern towns of Qijiang District, Chongqing. SBAS-InSAR technology, vulnerability assessment, linear trend analysis, and suitability evaluation were used to divide the mountain, water, forest, and farmland management areas. Regional comprehensive management work was implemented according to the severity of each element's existing ecological questions. Eventually, a comprehensive management pattern of mountains, rivers, forests, and farmlands can be obtained. The results show that the mountain management area is 8.03 km2 (3.24% of the total management area), the hydrological management area is 212.07 km2 (85.80% of the total management area), the forest management area is 7.04 km2 (2.84% of the total management area), and the farmland management area is 20.07 km2 (8.12% of the total management area). In light of the current circumstances, this study advocates for the implementation of three integrated governance approaches, with a focus on managing hydrological factors. These approaches include ridge-based mountain, water, and forest governance, valley-based mountain, water, and farmland governance, and undergrowth economy-based water, forest, and farmland governance. This study explores the spatial layout and priority of the governance areas from the perspective of elements, which provides a new development direction for the current research on the life community based on policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has increasing impacts of hydro-meteorological extremes on water resources. Projections indicate a similar trend and challenge in the effectiveness of conventional engineering solutions in climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies. Nature-based solutions (NbSs) have been promoted as viable approaches and measures that complement engineering solutions. While the effects of NbSs have been increasingly demonstrated, their broader implementation can be favoured by NbSs knowledge integration in higher education curricula. Knowledge on how the research practice is translated into the educational landscape is missing. This paper adopts the concept of knowledge translation and analyses the integration of NbSs in the study programs of higher education institutions in three European countries (Croatia, Czechia, and Slovenia). Specifically, it explores the extent, thematic areas, and curricular settings of NbSs related to water resources management in implemented curricula at public universities. The results show that NbSs are integrated in a limited number of courses within the relevant study programs (in the fields of, e.g., natural sciences, geography, and engineering and technology) and represent rather an extension of compulsory curricula. Bibliometric analysis revealed that most courses involving the NbSs approach still represent a personalized knowledge, i.e., developed by professors during their research activities. The barriers impairing a broader integration of NbSs in the studied programs are then discussed. Our results therefore indicate that NbSs do not represent a mainstream knowledge that would proliferate into higher education curricula through accreditations procedures, but that the knowledge that is mostly integrated through direct incremental implementation of NbSs in the individual compulsory lessons or facultative courses. We assert that without broader and systematic NbSs knowledge translation to study programs, the effectiveness of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies cannot be fully achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensing and measurement techniques are necessary to study, evaluate, and understand the complex physical and chemical interactions that must occur for the successful deployment of nature-based solutions (NbS). How NbS are measured can determine which solutions best address local environmental and societal challenges, and how these solutions are prioritized and adopted by decision makers. Sensing and measurement techniques can provide useful meteorological and physiological data on nature-based interventions between different spatial, spectral, temporal, and thematic scales. Because NbS encompass research from across different fields, it is essential to reduce barriers to knowledge dissemination, and enable the circulation of information across different jurisdictions. In this study, a bibliometric and systematic analysis of the literature was undertaken to systemize and categorize sensing and measurement techniques for NbS. Opportunities and challenges associated with studying the effects of NbS have also been identified. Sensing and measurement techniques can provide evidence-based information on the efficacy of NbS, in addition to guiding policy formulation for the achievement of sustainable development across communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A green-blue infrastructure is essential for achieving the European Green Deal objectives and can be used to protect large cities and their metropolitan areas against urban sprawl. Green-blue infrastructure is an important research topic, because green-blue planning networks provide solutions for mitigating contemporary growing urban and climate challenges. Our study aims to create an innovative methodology for defining and analyzing the elements of green-blue infrastructure and their connectivity within Bucharest, Romania and its metropolitan area, to serve as a planning model. The methodology consists of merging European geodata sets with metropolitan and local data, using GIS tools, and analyzing the connectivity within the study area. All connections resulted from implementing the Linkage Mapper tool were operationalized, using high-resolution satellite images and correcting obtained connections, so that deviations from reality were minimized. The results consist of a conceptual model for planning the green-blue infrastructure within Bucharest and in its metropolitan area, embedding an analysis of its connectivity. The study contributes to implementing the concept of green infrastructure in urban and spatial planning, providing tools for planning the green-blue infrastructures of large cities and their metropolitan areas and, implicitly, reducing urban sprawl, improving air quality and mitigating environmental threats due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely and reliable Land Use and Cover change information is crucial to efficiently mitigate the negative impact of environmental changes. Switzerland has the ambitious objective of being a sustainable country while remaining an attractive business location with a high level of well-being. However, this aspiration is hampered by increasing pressures that are significantly impacting the environment and putting serious demands on land. In the present study, we used the national Land Cover (LC) dataset, named ArealStatistik, produced by the Federal Statistical Office, to explore the spatiotemporal patterns of Land Cover in Switzerland, providing a comprehensive assessment of land cover change at the national scale. Results indicate that, in general, Switzerland has undergone small, spatially dispersed, dynamic, and gradual change trends, with high rates of transition between low growing Brush Vegetation and forest LC classes in recent years. These pixel-level trends are more important in the lower altitude plateau and Jura regions, while greater changes in the spatial configuration of LC are observed in the alpine regions. However, findings also suggest that identifying drivers and understanding the rate of change are limited by the spatial resolution and temporal update frequency of the ArealStatistik. The ability to understand these drivers would benefit from a high-resolution annual LC dataset. Such a data product can be produced using the ArealStatistik together with dense satellite data time-series and Machine/Deep Learning techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions (NBS) have been central to the European Union's drive to address climate change, ecological degradation, and promote urban prosperity. Via an examination of the Horizon 2020-funded URBAN GreenUP project in Liverpool, this paper explores mainstreaming NBS in city planning. It uses evidence from pre- and post-intervention surveys with Liverpool residents and interviews with local business, environmental, government, and community sector experts to illustrate how a complex interplay of scale, location, focus, and visibility of NBS influences perceptions of the added value of NBS. This paper highlights the requirement that NBS interventions be bespoke and responsive to the overarching needs of residents and other stakeholders. Moreover, we underscore the importance of expert input into the design, location, and maintenance of NBS and call for these key drivers of successful delivery to be better integrated into work programs. This paper also notes that the type and size of NBS interventions impact perceptions of their value, with smaller projects being viewed as less socially and ecologically valuable compared to larger investments. We conclude that while small-scale NBS can support climatic, health, or ecological improvements in specific instances, strategic, larger-scale, and more visible investments are required to accrue substantive benefits and gain acceptance of NBS as a legitimate and effective planning tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization occurs now more rapidly than before, due to the development of compact cities or urban sprawl, threatening quasi-natural areas, especially those protected within/near built-up ones. Europe lacks laws dedicated to natural protected areas within built-up areas, which are subject to the same provisions as natural protected ones, or a legislative vacuum. This research aimed to find the best planning approach for resiliently conserving and developing these areas and establishing grounds for a new tool used for planning the proximity of natural areas within cities. The methodology involved selecting two groups of countries, Nordic and eastern European, and treating these areas differently. The choice was based on specific political history. The study analyzed the legislative and planning framework and compared the approaches of 11 analyzed countries to pinpoint the basic aspects accounted for and applied to other European territories, in order to preserve the characteristics of urban morpho-typology and the particularities of local landscapes. The comparison results suggest solutions such as adopting specific regulations for urban protected areas and their adjacent zones through legal documents, completing/detailing environmental legislation in Nordic countries, adopting laws dedicated to protected natural areas within and/or close to built areas, and changing the approach to protecting natural areas with urban planning or land use tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of urbanization has brought about a series of negative effects and prompting researchers to critically reflect on the pros and cons of urbanization. In particular, the rapid development of urbanization has posed serious challenges in terms of food and environmental issues. Edible landscapes have been proposed as a means to offset some of the negative impacts, but many of the challenges faced by edible landscapes in the development process have hindered their development. Therefore, how to promote the further development of edible landscapes in cities has become the focus of current research. This paper takes the edible landscape in the San-He community of the Long tan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan as a case study and uses in-depth interviews and non-participant observation to investigate the strategies of using local brands to solve the challenges of edible landscape development. The study found that the development of edible landscapes in urban communities can bring many social, economic, and cultural benefits to the communities, but the development of edible landscapes also faces challenges such as marketing, government policies, and growing techniques, which can be effectively addressed by place branding strategies. The results of this study can be used as a guide for the development of edible landscapes by local governments, communities, participants in edible landscapes, or similar cultural countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we evaluated alternative methods for comparing the provision of ecosystem services among urban areas, stressing how the choice of comparison method affects the ability to compare the ecosystem service outcomes, in order to improve the management actions in urban green areas, reduce environmental inequality, and ensure satisfactory levels of human well-being. For the analysis, ten spatial indicators were quantified to assess the provision of urban ecosystem services in Barcelona, Spain, and Santiago, Chile. Two comparison methods were applied in both cities to evaluate the differences in their provision scores. The analysis was performed using the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system, a spatially enabled decision support framework for environmental management. The results depicted changes in the values of the provision of ecosystem services depending on the methodological approach applied. When the data were analysed separately for each city, both cities registered a wide range of provision values across the city districts, varying from very low to very high values. However, when the analysis was based on the data for both cities, the provision scores in Santiago decreased, while they increased in Barcelona, showing relativeness and a discrepancy in their provisions, hindering an appropriate planning definition. Our results emphasise the importance of the choice of comparison approach in the analyses of urban ecosystem services and the need for further studies on these comparison methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining in general, and particularly mining for energy resources such as coal and lignite, results in massive impacts on the surrounding landscape and ecosystems. Post-mining reclamation that takes account of the disturbed ecosystem services requires a research approach that links the mining impact to ecosystem functions and ecosystem service potentials. The method used in this paper combines the Driving Forces–Pressures–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework and the ES cascade approach by complementing the limitations of each approach with the strengths of the other. The DPSIR framework is extended to a causal network to account for the multiple interconnected causal chains of coal and lignite mining impacts. The presented causal network supports the identification of ES indicators for the assessment, planning, and monitoring of post-mining reclamation in coal/lignite mining landscapes. The presented approach can also inform political and administrative decisions by identifying the ecosystem elements at risk of being degraded from mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sprawl is widely considered to be a major issue for the functioning of urban areas, threatening long-term sustainability and affecting the quality of living. The aim of this research is to develop a methodology for assessing the negative effects of uncontrolled suburbanization in metropolitan areas through a multicriterial approach. Based on the existing body of knowledge, we have defined a set of indicators for assessing the impact of suburbanization, covering themes such as land use, water, biodiversity and economy or social issues. A questionnaire was applied to experts in the field in order to find out the final set of indicators and their perceived importance. The product of our research is an urban sprawl restrictiveness index at the local level, tested on five of the most dynamic metropolitan areas in Romania. The results highlight the concentration of negative effects of urban sprawl in the areas most accessible from the city core, where additional in-depth analyses were performed for validation. This study thus proposes a novel method for assessing the negative impacts of urban sprawl. The index could be used in other comparative studies at the national or international level while also aiding policymakers in better managing metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese cities are experiencing urban shrinkage due to demographic, environmental, economic, and political changes. However, urban form is another reason for urban shrinkage. This study first identified the shrinking of 293 cities in China based on the values of the change in brightness extracted from multi-year nighttime light data. Next, the characteristics of construction land morphology from 2019 were analyzed using landscape pattern analysis. Finally, the impact of urban form on urban shrinkage was explored using Geodetector. The results show that: (1) In total, 293 cities experienced different degrees of shrinkage. Regions with severe shrinkage were concentrated in the underdeveloped provinces, and autonomous central and western regions of China; moreover, (2) All factors of urban form significantly affected urban shrinkage. The largest q-values were found in patch density (0.144) and urban area (0.133), indicating that the degree of construction land fragmentation and urban area scale affected urban shrinkage the most; and (3) The interaction effects of pairwise factors were mutually or nonlinearly enhanced. The influence of urban form and socio-economic factors was stronger than that of socio-economic factors alone. This shows that the coupling of urban form and socio-economic factors strengthens the impact of urban form on urban shrinkage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City densification and greening are two priority urban-policy objectives, for the coming years, aimed at making cities more resilient to climate change, slowing the spread of urbanization and improving the quality of life in cities. These are sometimes contradictory objectives that require fine and deep analysis to create approaches and methods that combine them. The most recent research has presented so-called small urban green spaces (SUGSs) as a viable alternative to achieve this double objective. This was the starting point of this research, which used GIS digital analysis and microscale fieldwork to study the possibilities of greening an excessively dense and low-quality urban space in the city of Pamplona (Spain). The results thereof showed that the urban structure of this neighbourhood contains a large number of small spaces with no specific use or function—residual, surface and vertical spaces—and that are simply undefined remnants between buildings and streets, or party walls that were never built. Only these surface spaces occupy a total area that is twice the size of the existing green spaces. Based on these results, this work explores the possibility of increasing the green areas of the neighbourhood through new SUGSs and the creation of a green corridor that increases environmental and social connectivity and the quality of life in the studied space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability and accessibility of green spaces in urban settings are important factors in determining the sustainability of cities and the quality of urban life. However, the literature indicates a need for evidence-based data correlating green areas and perceived well-being in the city. This study focuses on a vignette study of the satisfaction with green spaces in a Romanian small urban setting that meets the standards of green space availability and accessibility proposed by the World Health Organization. The data obtained by applying a questionnaire to a sample of 600 residents highlight the appreciation of the local people for the characteristics, functions, and availability of urban green spaces. The study establishes statistically significant correlations between the general satisfaction with life and the distance in meters to the nearest park, between the general satisfaction with life and the distance in time to the nearest park, and between the distance in meters and the time spent in parks and green spaces. The results can be used to establish a participatory agenda for local authorities interested in gaining insight from residents for the future actions needed to develop green spaces and to provide them with the opportunity to reflect upon the correlations between outdoor activities in such spaces and people's well-being in urban settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-constructed cities refer to impoverished neighborhoods that suffer from inadequate housing. Such cities are the result of individual or communal initiatives that must self-construct their neighborhoods. Most of the self-constructed cities are located near endangered bioregions on the Earth, and their continued growth will inevitably aggravate the human impact on our planet. Dwellers in these areas tackle threats such as poverty, environmental degradation, and disaster vulnerability. The lack of knowledge in planning self-constructed cities causes conditions of injustice. However, appropriate management of the existing natural capital of the surrounding areas of such cities can address the mentioned challenges and the conditions for justice. This paper aims to evaluate the role of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in planning procedures, to create conditions of fairness and equity in self-constructed cities. The paper focused on the linkage between the application of NBS and four principles of justice: distributive justice, restorative justice, spatial justice, and interactional justice. Considering data from a review of the literature, scrutiny of past planning and policy measures and a field study with interviews with stakeholders, the empirical result of our study delineates important strategic implications of Nature-Based Solutions for sustainable planning in the case study of San José de Chamanga, Ecuador. It was demonstrated how small-scale, natural-based interventions, instead of broader actions based on a pure engineering perspective, are economically and ecologically profitable, with a positive impact on local communities' well-being and social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are vulnerable to multiple risks associated with hydro-meteorological hazards (HMHs). The assessment of the climate benefits of implementing nature-based solutions (NBSs) in urban areas, especially in open spaces, is widely recognised and discussed within the scientific literature; however, the quantification of these benefits, in terms of the HMHs reduction, human safety and human well-being, is still a subject of debate. In this context, this contribution proposes a methodological approach that, starting from the analysis of the impacts of coastal flooding and in terms of the potential direct and tangible economic damages, heatwave events and vulnerability of open spaces, proposes the application and assessment of NBSs in terms of the reduction in these impacts. The process was developed in the GIS environment based on the processing of open-source data. The test was conducted in the case study of Naples' waterfront to identify the potentialities and limitations of the approach. The results showed the contribution of NBSs in reducing the economic damages due to coastal flooding and the improved vulnerability conditions to heatwave events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinators are key ecosystem components and their conservation represents a critical target for both nature and human health. In a world of increasing urbanisation, cities and peri-urban areas have to be active players in addressing this target, and in-depth knowledge of the effects of the urbanisation gradient and related landscape features on pollinators has to be acquired. Accordingly, an experimental study on the relationships between bee communities and natural vs. human-induced environmental heterogeneity has been carried out in a transitional peri-urban landscape of the Metropolitan area of Rome (Italy). A multi-step procedure was adopted, arranged into plant and bee communities field sampling, detailed mapping of actual and potential ecosystems, and combined processing and modelling of the respective results. The potential contribution of experimental findings to the deployment of a pollinator-friendly Green Infrastructure (GI) has been then explored, with statistical correlations between bee diversity and landscape metrics adopted for defining conservation and restoration actions and a multi-criteria analysis adopted for site prioritisation in the study area. Such a planned GI could represent an effective solution for enhancing resilience and resistance of peri-urban landscapes against land take and agricultural intensification, as local expressions of global biodiversity loss drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are human–environmental systems that rely heavily on ecosystems for long-term sustainability, and ecosystems and their components are essential to city life. Previous reviews have drawn a range of conclusions relevant to the future analysis and implementation of ecological and facility assessments. Overall, however, there is still a need to develop more systematic methods to comprehensively assess and evaluate urban ecosystem services (UES) in a temporal dimension for use in both historical monitoring studies and prospective research. Using CiteSpace, this study assessed the history and current state of UES research from multiple angles, as well as identified research structures and emerging trends in this field. The main findings are as follows: (i) The study of UES can be divided into three distinct but interconnected stages: preparation, rise, and prosperity. There are substantial prospects for UES research to develop worldwide collaborative networks, since it is increasingly expanding from domains focused on ecological or environmental science to those that draw from a wider range of disciplines. (ii) UES has evolved slowly from large-scale research to more focused, smaller-scale studies. Research on the subject of UES focuses primarily on two primary areas: land-use change and the development of green infrastructure. (iii) Sustainability in cities is currently a hot issue, and an important area of this study is the role that urban ecosystem services plays in ensuring residents' health and happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research largely focuses on the role of allotment gardens, the challenges facing them, and the direction of their future development in urban environments. The main idea behind the introduction of allotment gardens was to improve the living conditions and food supply of workers and the underprivileged. The impact of allotment gardening does not only concern the allotment gardeners but also the general public and the environment. It is important to emphasise that allotments have impacts not only on food production and outdoor physical activity, but also on the reuse of idle or neglected land, community development, therapeutic and nutritional benefits, and psychological benefits for allotment holders and residents. For this reason, this study captures six broad themes related to allotments: (1) community participation and cohesion, (2) health and well-being, (3) economic opportunities, (4) pollution, (5) urban planning and development, and (6) sustainable environment. The research is a systematic review in which steps were taken to minimise bias in the identification, selection, and summarisation of studies. The initial literature selection was based on a keyword search (title, abstract, and keywords) of the comprehensive literature databases Web of Science (all years) and Scopus (all years). The total scientific literature on which this review is based includes 162 research articles published between 1978 and July 2022. This work aims to fill these gaps and analyse existing knowledge by providing a detailed review of the academic literature, focusing not only on the benefits of community gardens and allotments in urban areas, but also on the existing problems related to allotments and urban gardening. Possible directions of development are also analysed based on the legal regulations in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing urbanization and climate change challenges are leading to relevant environmental, economic and social pressures on European cities. These include increasing flood hazards and the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognized within strategies to provide multiple ecosystem services to mitigate existing risks and pressures, as well as to make cities more resilient and livable. Although being increasingly addressed within the literature, NBS implementation on the ground still faces many technical and financial barriers. This paper aims to test the potential of selected NBS in mitigating the effects of identified climate change risks, i.e., the UHI effect and urban floods, in the Turin urban area (north-western Italy). Four different intervention NBS-based scenarios are developed. The supply of ecosystem services by NBS in each scenario is assessed using InVEST models and the effectiveness of NBS investments is analyzed by calculating and comparing the associated costs and benefits. Different results in terms of effectiveness and economic viability are observed for each scenario and each NBS. Flood risk mitigation oriented NBS seem to have the most impact, in particular forested green areas and retention ponds. The results are relevant to suggest policy mix strategies to embed NBS in city planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common to see urban land expansion worldwide, and its characteristics, mechanisms, and effects are widely known. As socio-economic transition and the change of land use policies may reverse the trend of urban expansion, in-depth research on the process of urban land use change is required. Through a process perspective, this paper reveals the change paths, development stages, and spatial patterns of urban residential land use with data from 323 cities in China from 2009 to 2016. The results show that: (1) theoretically, urban residential land use change can be divided into four development stages: an initial stage (Ⅰ), a rapid development stage (Ⅱ), a transition stage (Ⅲ), and a later stage of transition (Ⅳ). The rate of land use change is low—increase—decrease—approaching zero. (2) In about 68.7% of China's cities, urban residential land is experiencing a transition, shifting from accelerating growth to decelerating growth. Given the distinctive transition process, it has been suggested that urban planning and land use policies should give timely responses to the new trends and spatial differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid urban population growth and industrial agglomeration, the urban land supply is becoming gradually tight. Improving land use quality (LUQ) is becoming increasingly critical. This study was carried out in the Luohe built-up zones between 2013 and 2021. The aim is to explore the growth characteristics of LUQ and determine the association between the inner urban location and the growth rate from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity. Therefore, based on a socio-economic-environmental framework, we selected an integration/GDP/population/artificial-surface Rate, and a remote-sensing-based ecological index to construct a LUQ assessment framework that is more stable and applicable for developing urban areas. Additionally, then, multiscale geographical weighted regression is adopted, which can better help us explore the scale of the location factors. The results show that: (1) The LUQ overall growth is gradually slowing. High-quality areas clustered in the urban center and subsystem elements spread outward along the national and provincial highways to drive boundary expansion; (2) In the W/E/SE direction, land use tends more towards physical sprawl than usual development and expansion; (3) Location factors were distinguished as global, semi-global, and local. The global factors constitute the homogenized locational space. Semi-global and local factors constitute a heterogeneous locational space. The latter is critical to guide LUQ growth. LUQ assessment can promote intensive land use. Exploring location factors can further guide the LUQ spatial growth and provide data in support of urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive and burgeoning literature on the productivity of urban farms and gardens is largely focused on measures of crop yield and resource use, with little offered to date on their contribution to social productivity and sustainability. This paper suggests that evaluation of urban agriculture should consider all types of resource consumption and productivity simultaneously. The research reported here used a citizen science approach to collect data from seven community gardens and one community farm in London, UK in the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons. The paper examines the many variables that impact the sites' overall performance, highlighting the complex nature and relationship between the many benefits and outcomes of urban farms and gardens. Data are presented on crop yield, equivalent fruit and vegetable portions, input use (including water and fertilizer), journeys made to the garden by volunteers, social benefits, and social outreach. Results show very mixed levels of crop and social productivity, depending on the organizational structure and agenda of the various sites included in the study. With no clear pattern emerging, this paper suggests that the evaluation of citywide productivity, often based on projections of small data samples, may not be reliable. By ensuring that training opportunities for volunteers are made available, higher resource efficiency as well as higher productivity could be attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of human well-being and the urban environment in cities and towns around the world will always be at the forefront of our interests. After all, the resilience of the urban environment to climate change is very important now. For example, the residents' well-being can be improved in terms of environmental aspects. The opportunities for improving the urban environment are, of course, closely interconnected with other aspects, i.e., economic, technical and social. One of the ways to increase the resilience of cities is by progressive urban greening with small urban greenery elements. Exterior green walls are attractive, often used in urban areas, and are also the key issue of our paper. They represent at first sight (concerning their usual size) only a small instrument, but they can have a significant environmental, techno-economic and socio-cultural impact. Potential stakeholders may not be aware of this consequence. Our research focuses not only on a model exterior green wall (LIKO-S a.s., Czech Republic), where selected environmental aspects were measured for one year to confirm or deny the cooling effect of the exterior green wall on the surrounding environment, but also to objectify the issue of green walls. We also present proposals for tools that consider other aspects (technical-economic and socio-economic aspects): objectivization-decision scheme and guided interview for stakeholders' motivation. These tools can serve future stakeholders in the pre-implementation phase of the intended exterior green wall. Objectivization of exterior green walls is the main goal of the present paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lacustrine blue spaces provide benefits to the urbanites and wildlife habitat. Their availability varies depending on the city in which they are established and intra-urban social interactions. We analyzed the presence, distribution, and size of lentic water bodies in Mexico's 145 most populated cities. We searched for patterns in their distribution concerning demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic data, aiming to understand their socio-ecological interactions in cities. We digitized lacustrine spaces to obtain their number per city, total surface, area of blue space per inhabitant, and surface as a percentage of the city's total area. We tested for relationships between their number and surface and city population, hydrological regions, and urban marginalization index through linear and generalized linear models. We delimited 1834 lacustrine blue spaces, finding almost two-thirds of them artificial. Their presence and surface in Mexican cities were generally low, except for hydrological regions close to the Gulf of Mexico. Their number and surface decreased as the urban marginalization index increased. The lack of equitable provision of lacustrine space at the national level has implications for urban planning and land management. Blue spaces should maximize their ecosystem services' provision for the whole society to promote cities' sustainability and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peri-urban vegetable cropping areas, such as horticultural farms, provide several ecosystem services, such as the provision of fresh food. However, food supply must be estimated on the basis of the current and potential demand of future populations, taking into account the landscape carrying capacity towards sustainable agricultural planning. From this perspective, the study aimed at estimating the resilience of the "Agri-food Region of Central Córdoba" (ARCC) and its role in supporting the provisioning of ecosystem services, such as proximal services, provided by the diversified agricultural landscape in the peri-urban area of Córdoba (Argentina). A direct field survey has been carried out to collect data on the main species and types of crops, the annual productivity, and the area covered by each species and type of horticultural crops. The data have been statistically elaborated to test the spatial and temporal variability of productivity as well as the spatial autocorrelation. In relation to crop diversification, a total of 30 vegetable species have been recorded in the diversified farms under study, with 15 species identified as the most frequent crops as on the basis of the area dedicated to each vegetable species sampled in the farms (in %). The productivity of 30 species has been integrated into a single value of "vegetable crop productivity mean" (kg/m2), proposed and measured in this study, which has been 3.46 kg/m2. It can be a useful monitoring indicator in diversified production contexts. The estimated food supply (ton/year) of vegetable crops for the 170 farmlands has been 72,881 ton/year. An accurate measurement of the biomass harvested on a given surface area can be useful to assign productivity data to the pixel of each land use/cover class, providing accurate input data for remotely sensed-based models supporting decision-making on food provision in peri-urban systems. In this sense, the paper proposes a methodological framework that can be useful worldwide when up-to-date official productivity data are not available, but they are a necessary basis for planning, decision-making, and the implementation of public policies. Thus, diversity in farming systems can combine high ecological and socio-economic benefits, in terms of ecosystem service provision and sustainable food production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]