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This study aims to explore the role of urban streets as transitional edges in coordinating socio-spatial interactions within the urban environment. It will focus on how streets can revitalize their surrounding environments and shape sustainable urban living through their characteristics.

Employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, this study systematically reviewed 67 international research articles published from 2013 to 2023. It delved into the functionalities of urban streets as transitional edges under various social and physical interactions, covering the multidimensional impacts of streets at the social, spatial and individual levels.

The results demonstrate that the physical and social dimensions of streets, through their characteristics as transitional edges, not only complement each other but also effectively promote social space interactions and sustainable urban development. As a key public space at the interface of social and physical realms, streets influence residents' daily lives and balance the socio-spatial environment.

Although this study deepens the understanding of urban streets as transitional edges, it faces limitations due to the scarcity of literature related to transitional edges, which may affect the depth and breadth of the research. Future studies are required to further verify theoretical findings through field research and case studies and to explore practical applications of street design to enhance data comprehensiveness and availability.

The originality of this article lies in defining urban streets as dynamic transitional edge spaces, redefining their dual role in urban design to connect physical forms and social functions. Through a comprehensive literature review, this study provides theoretical support for urban planning and design practices, emphasizing their application value in promoting urban social interaction and sustainable development.

This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship among urban tourism, sustainability and the contributions of natural environments to the quality of life and convivial atmospheres in urban destinations. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive synthesis of existing knowledge, exploring the nuances of how natural environments impact the well-being of diverse demographic groups, both locals and visitors.

The study systematically reviews the literature using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) technique and uses the Scopus database. The search strategy incorporates key terms related to urban tourism, sustainability, quality of life and natural environments.

The findings of the systematic literature review provide insights into the current landscape of urban tourism, sustainability and the role of natural environments. The paper synthesizes existing knowledge, identifying trends, challenges and opportunities in leveraging natural environments for sustainable urban tourism.

Despite offering a thorough synthesis, this study has certain limitations. The scope is limited to articles published in English and available in the Scopus database, following the PRISMA guidelines. The implications of this research are significant, informing future studies and guiding urban tourism planning and policy development.

This research contributes to the existing literature by unraveling complexities in the interplay between natural environments, quality of life and convivial atmospheres in urban tourism. The emphasis on cross-cultural perspectives and the post-COVID-19 era adds originality, providing insights that can guide future research and practical applications in the field.

Residing in a densely populated urban area possesses its allure; nonetheless, it can significantly impact physical and mental well-being owing to the persistent stress and information overload inherent in urban settings. This study aims to introduce a neuro-urbanism framework that can guide urban planners and designers in quantitatively evaluating individuals' responses to virtual simulated environments.

Our study consisted of two phases after randomly selecting six locations representing three types of urban areas in Bratislava, Slovakia: urban spaces, urban streets, and public parks. First, we conducted a Mentimeter live polling (dialogic survey fusion), followed by an experiment involving volunteer participants from the Slovak University of Technology. This experiment employed an electroencephalogram (EEG) with virtual reality headsets to virtually explore participants' responses to the selected locations.

The EEG signal analysis revealed significant differences in relaxation levels across the selected locations in this study. Urban streets with commercial activities promote mental well-being more effectively than public parks, challenging the preconception that restorative environments are exclusively confined to public parks.

The results demonstrate a replicable neuro-urbanism framework comprising three distinct stages: problem-based technology rooted in neuroscience, experimental setup and deliverables, and identification of restorative environments.

Sustainable urban development involves integrating intelligent technology into urban planning to promote economic growth, social services, and environmental preservation. It fosters inclusiveness, safety, resilience, and sustainability in urban environments. However, this strategy faces challenges balancing economic growth, social equality, and environmental preservation. Design experts must balance economic development with sustainability preservation to achieve sustainable urban development. They depend on technology for smarter communities. The paper aims to identify the criteria for sustainable urban design and design professionals' bias and their awareness of using the fourth industrial revolution technologies.

The research methodology involves a document review to identify criteria and weights for sustainable urban design. A questionnaire was conducted with 30 design professionals to understand their preferences and biases. A hierarchical framework was created, and pairwise comparisons were computed using an AHP Online System. The weight of each criterion was calculated by aggregating normalized pairwise values within each row and dividing by the total number of cells. The Consistency Ratio (CR) was determined by aggregating the values in the row to produce the weighted aggregate value for each principle.

The document review emphasizes the significance of sustainable urban design, livability, intelligence, and environmental conservation in sustainable communities. However, participants often overlook these aspects, focusing on comfort, privacy, security, and exclusiveness. They also ignore the need for smart city technologies and environmental protection. This lack of understanding may hinder Egypt’s achievement of SDG11.

The paper’s main limitation is the small sample size and composition, as all participants were Egyptians working in Egypt or the Arabian Gulf region. The findings cannot be generalized, and future research could involve a team from different regions. Egypt needs to address the lack of knowledge and awareness of sustainable urban design principles among design professionals to achieve SDG 11 goals. This can be achieved through educational initiatives, readjusting priorities towards sustainability, harmonizing policy and practice with sustainable urban design principles, and interdisciplinary teamwork. Design professionals should customize their methods to suit local requirements and ecological circumstances.

The paper reveals that many design professionals lack an integrated and holistic understanding of sustainable urban design principles that the document review outlined. Their responses and practices reveal an incomplete understanding of sustainable urban development, requiring attention to organizing the profession, training practitioners, and reforming planning education. The paper shows that AHP has the potential to serve as a suitable instrument for decision-making; nonetheless, it is essential to exercise caution when interpreting its outcomes.

In urban studies, understanding how individuals perceive density is a complex challenge due to the subjective nature of this perception, which is influenced by sociocultural, personal and environmental factors. This study addresses these complexities by proposing a systematic framework for comprehending how people perceive density within urban contexts.

The methodology for developing the framework involved a systematic review of existing literature on the perception of density and related concepts, followed by integrating insights from empirical investigations. The framework designed through this process overcomes the limitations identified in previous research and provides a comprehensive guide for studying perceived density in urban environments.

The successful application of the framework on case studies in Glasgow and international settings enabled the identification of 20 critical spatial factors (buildings, public realm and urban massing) influencing density perception. The research provided insights into the subjective nature of density perception and the impact that spatial characters of urban form play, demonstrating the framework's effectiveness in understanding the impact of urban form, which is the realm of design and planning professions, on individual experiences.

The paper's originality lies in its comprehensive synthesis of the existing knowledge on the perception of density, the development of a user-responsive framework adaptable to future research and its application in case studies of different natures to identify recurrent links between urban form and user-specific constructs.

In urban planning, sustainability is closely linked to the quality of urban public spaces (UPS). However, some UPS encounter issues of low attractiveness and underutilisation. Vitality serves as a crucial measure in this context. The research perspective on the vitality of UPS centres on the balance between human activities and the built environment. Therefore, this article aims to systematically review critical aspects of UPS vitality evaluation system, including research objects, vitality components and research methods, from the dimensions of crowd activity and the built environment.

A systematic literature review using PRISMA analysed English-language publications from 2008 to 2023 in Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases, employing keywords related to UPS and vitality, with defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

(1) Research objects, including parks, squares, waterfronts, blocks and streets. (2) The factors contributing to crowd activity characteristics originate from five dimensions, namely spatial, temporal, visitor, activity and feedback. Environmental factors, both external (accessibility, surrounding function mix and population density) and internal (service facility mix and water presence), significantly impact vitality. (3) The study primarily relies on quantitative data, including traditional surveys and emerging significant data sources like dynamic location and traffic, social media, geospatial and point of interest (POI) data. Data analysis methods commonly used include correlation analysis and comprehensive evaluation techniques.

The findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the vitality evaluation system for UPS from multiple perspectives for urban planners, aiding in identifying key factors and research methods in the vitality evaluation of various types of UPS.

With rapid urbanization, cities are facing various ecological and environmental problems. Living in harmony with nature is more important than ever. This paper aims to evaluate the ecosystem and ecological features of Azheke village, a key component of the Hani Rice Terraces World Cultural Heritage in China. The focus is on exploring effective ways to improve the relationship between humans and the natural environment through urban design in order to create a livable and sustainable city that can promote the development of sustainable smart urban ecology design.

This study conducted a systematic literature review to answer the following research questions: (1) How does Azheke design achieve harmony between humans and nature? (2) What are the effective approaches to improve the relationship between humans and nature within urban ecosystems? (3) How can urban design learn and integrate from Azheke’s ecological features to improve the relationship between humans and nature?

Azheke sustains long-term human-nature harmony through traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and efficient natural resource use. By incorporating biophilic design and nature-based solutions from Azheke, along with biodiversity-friendly urban planning, we can boost urban ecosystem health and create unique Azheke-inspired urban designs.

This research primarily focuses on the human-nature relationship, exploring design strategies based on biodiversity without delving into the interactions between other components of urban ecosystems, such as social-cultural and economic components.

This paper provides a new perspective and strategies for developing sustainable and smart urban ecology design. These findings can provide theoretical references for urban planners, designers and decision-makers.

This study aims to explore interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interactions around sustainability, focusing on the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). By using the city as an informal learning space, it presents a case study to raise SDG awareness, promote interdisciplinarity, foster critical thinking and empower students.

Using qualitative content analysis, this study explores students' interdisciplinary engagements. The research centers on student-created Logbooks, combining field data for analysis via open coding.

The informal setting facilitates transdisciplinary interaction and enriches interdisciplinary skills while retaining individuals’ disciplinary tendencies.

Factors like local geographical conditions and participant numbers could lead to minor variations in future course applications. Although initial problem topics and discussions are confined to local urban geography, they might diversify during implementation.

The Logbook serves as a guide for local urban issues and embodies interdisciplinary outcomes. It can be enhanced with maps and problem zoning.

Demonstrates effective SDG integration into higher education.

This study spotlights interdisciplinary learning within an unconventional context – urbanism – bridging student gaps. Supported by a paradigm shift from sustainability to unsustainability, it underscores the significance of critical engagement with SDGs.

This study aims to explore the value of pocket parks and associated factors, as well as the differences between pocket parks and other green spaces, and finally to identify the role of pocket parks in cities.

This study adopts a systematic literature review method to identify 85 articles from the Web of Science and other sources. The Nvivo12plus software was employed to qualitatively analyse the value of pocket parks, and the key associated factors were visualised via the NVivo word cloud function.

As a result, pocket parks reflected high social, environmental ecological, cultural aesthetic values but low economic value. Compared to other large-scale green spaces, the particularity of pocket parks lies in their ambiguity and temporality of space and high reliance on the surrounding environment. Small and scattered pocket parks in the city are like “convenience stores” and “green magnets”, and connectivity should be strengthened to promote urban regeneration.

Compared with previous studies that mostly focused on large urban green spaces, the originality of this study is that it elaborates on the importance and values of pocket parks and proposes the particularity and roles of pocket parks in cities, which enriches the theoretical knowledge of pocket parks. In terms of practical applications, the proposed diverse values and associated factors contribute to guiding the planning, management and operation of pocket parks. Moreover, the roles of pocket parks help enhance park connectivity and establish a park network system.

This paper introduces the YouWalk-UOS mobile application, a tool that revolutionises the assessment of urban open spaces (UOS). The paper demonstrates how integrating real-time, on-ground observations with users’ reactions into a digital platform can transform the evaluation of urban open spaces. It seeks to address the existing shortcomings of traditional UOS assessment methods and underscore the need for innovative, adaptable and inclusive approaches.

Emphasizing the necessity of UOS for mental and physical health, community interaction and social and environmental resilience in cities, the methodology involves a comprehensive analysis of a number of theoretical frameworks that have historically influenced urban open space conceptualisation, design and assessment. The approach includes a critical review of traditional UOS assessment methods, contrasting them with the capabilities of the proposed YouWalk-UOS application. Building on the reviewed theoretical frameworks, the methodology articulates the application’s design, which encompasses 36 factors across three assessment domains: functional, social and perceptual and provides insights into how technology can be leveraged to offer a more holistic and participatory approach to urban space assessment.

YouWalk-UOS application represents an important advancement in urban space assessment, moving beyond the constraints of traditional methods. The application facilitates a co-assessment approach, enabling community members to actively participate in the evaluation and development of their urban environments. Findings highlight the essential role of technology in making urban space assessment more user-centred, aligning more closely with community needs and aspirations.

The originality lies in the focus on the co-assessment approach and integration of mobile technology into urban open space assessment, a relatively unexplored area in urban design literature. The application stands out as an innovative solution, offering a new perspective on engaging communities in co-assessing their environments. This research contributes to the discourse on urban design and planning by providing a fresh look at the intersection of technology, user engagement and urban space assessment.