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Urban green spaces support people to approach active, healthy ageing, especially in high-density cities where they compensate for limited private living spaces. This research paper aims to examine how urban green spaces support active, healthy ageing by exploring correlations between behaviour, physical setting and gender difference among older people in a highly populated urban context.

Urban parks in older neighbourhoods of Macau were selected for data collection. Photographic documentation was used to collect data, with 1,201 older people photographed identified as valid samples. Each was coded according to labels of behaviour, physical setting and gender. Chi-squared tests were conducted to assess correlations between behaviours and features of physical settings, and differences between genders in behaviours and physical settings. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to further examine associations between older people's behaviours and features of physical settings by gender.

The research reveals types and frequency of behaviours displayed, preferred environmental features for different behaviours and gender differences in behaviours and preferred environmental features. Design principles targeting active, healthy ageing should consider particular amenities and street furniture, the arrangement of trees and landscapes and the integration of open and secluded places.

Previous studies address older people's behaviour from the perspective of either environmental influence or gender difference, but there have been few studies on gendered behavioural differences among older people in urban green spaces. Analysing the behaviour–physical setting–gender relationship provides more evidence in the field of built environment studies.

Crowded urban regions pose a complex urban challenge that can adversely affect urban residents, encompassing aspects like mental and physical well-being, overall livability and quality of life. The complexity in determining the factors influencing the crowding perception, which encompass subjective and situational psychological factors alongside physical and environmental attributes, imparts ambiguity to planners' approach. This study aims to unravel the intricate interplay between crowding and the physical attributes inherent in the built environment.

This literature review analyses theories linking urban planning and environmental psychology to uncover gaps in the relationship between urban design principles and residents' perceptions of crowding. It also explores influential variables affecting crowding perception and diverse methodologies across contexts.

The study built upon a broad literature review which is expected to summarise and classify the variables of urban planning components and approaches according to their impacts on the psychological perception of crowding. Furthermore, highlighting a number of recommendations that can be considered a guide for planners and urban designers to enhance the urban experience and reduce the perception of crowding.

This study seeks to improve the overall experience of crowding in densely populated urban areas. It accomplishes this by identifying influential factors and comprehending the associated outcomes in such contexts. Furthermore, it bridges perspectives from various fields to examine relevant policies and strategies to mitigate crowding consequences.

Sacred forests are biocultural landscapes deeply rooted in centuries-old traditions of spiritual veneration. These sacred sites, including shrines, temple forests churches and graveyards, have historically been significant reservoirs of traditional resource management practices underpinned by spiritual reverence. However, despite their cultural and ecological importance, the cultural ecosystem services inherent to these sacred forests remain unexplored, particularly in urban settings.

This study focused on six sacred sites within Kanazawa City, Japan, using a meticulous face-to-face survey with 342 participants. We collected data on the extent of forest utilisation, the breadth of activities engaged in by visitors and their holistic appraisal of the rendered cultural ecosystem services. The findings illustrate the multifaceted benefits of urban sacred forests, encompassing participation in religious ceremonies, cultural events and festivals, complemented by educational programming that elucidates the historical and traditional underpinnings of the shrines and their surrounding communities.

It has been observed that urban forests have a crucial role in providing spiritual and communal connectivity, preserving traditional heritage, offering vital aesthetic values as green spaces and making visitors connected with nature while they are in the urban landscape. However, a concerning trend has emerged, as the younger demographic appears to lack interest in participating in the stewardship and cultural activities associated with these biocultural landscapes. Community engagement strategies must be strengthened, conservation measures should be implemented and cultural awareness programs need to be established to ensure the perpetuation and appreciation of these valuable urban sacred forests.

This study provides original perspectives on the measurable cultural ecosystem services and intangible values associated with urban sacred forests using the sacred forests in Kanazawa City, Japan. Our research illuminates the various advantages that visitors derive by examining the intersection of spiritual traditions, resource management practices and cultural significance, which has been relatively unexplored. The present study provides a significant basis for establishing initiatives that seek to promote the cultivation of respect and responsibility towards urban sacred forests.

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.

One of the crucial elements of addressing global climate challenges through urban tourism is the continuing existence of urban forests. The reasoning is that the ecological attraction of urban forests can impact visitors’ intention to conduct pro-environmental behavior, including low-carbon actions. Thus, more visitors to urban forests will positively affect enhancing the quality of the urban environment. However, the extent to which ecological attraction can influence pro-environmental behavior warrants further investigation due to the complexity of psychosocial factors that impact behavioral intention. The main objective of this research is to examine the effects of the ecological attractiveness of urban forests on the pro-environmental behavior of visitors by exploring motivation, ecological experience, perceived value and knowledge as mediators. Moreover, whether the nature of the urban forest and facilities attract visitors simultaneously is also studied.

Data were collected from 615 respondents who visited three urban forests in Bandung, the second-most populous city in Indonesia, by five-point Likert questionnaires. As an analytical tool, SEM PLS was applied to establish the effect of the ecological performance of the urban forest on the increase in environmentally conscious behavior among urban forest visitors.

The findings demonstrate that the attractiveness of an urban forest affects the growth of environmentally responsible behaviors. Nonetheless, the attractiveness of urban forests is dictated more by their infrastructure than their ecological function. On the contrary, the visitors’ knowledge level can improve their motivation, environmental experience and perceived environmental value. These findings show the significance of developing educational programs with an emphasis on the experience of the visitors so that their ecological performance can contribute to improved low-carbon behavior. In conclusion, this work contributes to the management of sustainable urban tourism.

This work also has some limitations. First, the medium R-square on intention behavior to low-carbon action suggests investigating other influential factors to produce a more robust conscious behavior. Mkono and Hughes (2020) mention that many complex factors that cause positive intention do not necessarily lead to environmental action. Thus, many psychosocial variables need to be explored in different models. Second, the convenient sampling used here does not represent the whole population, making generalization difficult. Thus, further work needs to apply more rigorous sampling techniques to validate the findings. Further investigations may also need to be conducted in other urban forests in another Asian country with a similar and different social context for benchmarking, as this study found that the type of attractive urban forest design is a more dense forest, which differs from other studies based in Europe. Exploring more influencing behavioral factors of pro-environmental action in the model is also suggested. Thus, we could contribute more to support recreational activities in urban forests.

As an implication for planning an urban forest to increase its recreational function, the authors illustrate the importance of producing educational programs. Although the improved knowledge of visitors has been shown to strengthen their commitment to perform pro-environmental actions, the mediating role of motivation, experience and perceived value reveals that some activities are required to achieve visitor motivation to actual behavior. Consequently, designing an urban forest requires not only the enhancement of eco-attractions and artificial elements for the convenience of visitors but also the development of an environmental education program that can improve visitors’ environmental experience and perception of ecological value. The designed educational program may use an experiential education approach incorporating objective knowledge of Earth’s current state. The urban forest education program must encourage visitors’ connection and participation with nature. Moreover, knowledge and information about Earth’s environmental quality can increase visitors’ perceived value, ensuring that their activities in the urban forest contribute to improved health, environmental quality and social environment. Thus, with well-managed and provided education, they are encouraged to adopt low-carbon action because it complements their contribution to a better quality environment.

The theoretical contribution of this research is generated through the role of urban forest attractiveness in the intention to conduct low-carbon action, which influences solutions to existing urban environmental problems. This work exhibits that both ecological attractiveness and attractiveness of artificial elements in urban forests can attract visitors and subsequently boost their outdoor recreation motivation, ecological experience and perceived value and then turn them to boost their intention to conduct low-carbon action. The physical characteristics of a site are behavioral stimuli that can increase a person’s motivation, experience and perception of the value of the environment, thereby increasing their intention to engage in low-carbon actions. This environment behavioral construction is fundamental in understanding that urban forests offer ecological benefits and influence the social quality of urban communities. Nevertheless, without visitor activity, urban forests are merely physical entities that become increasingly demanding to maintain. Due to this, an urban forest that is socially active and has an influence on promoting environmentally conscious behavior is needed, and its presence is becoming ever more crucial. This work shows the significance of integrating psychosocial approaches into managing tourism in urban forests.

In terms of the use of sports places and spaces, per capita is a determining parameter for the status and perspective of the future. Although there are many uses for the per capita indicator in sports places, there are no consistent scientific and methodological methods for calculating it. Therefore, this study aims to provide an analytical model to determine the per capita index of sports places and spaces.

One of the matters that can be considered as the basic information required to develop and construct sports facilities is determination of per capita, which can be used as the most vital information to plan and develop this type of urban utilities. In the history of contemporary urbanization, the use of the per capita concept is one of Reinhard Laumeister’s innovations, a founder of modern urban engineering in Germany, hence, the use of per capita was triggered in 1876, almost 133 years ago.

The underlying information of the research in two spatial and descriptive sections was analyzed in the geographic information systems (GIS) software. After the division and network distribution of the boundary by the Thiessen Networks analytic function in the Arc GIS, per capita of each polygon was separately calculated using the presented formula and the population of the related blocks

Finally, with the qualitative per capita achieved in the previous stage, the study area was classified based on the need for the development of indoor pools to three, privileged, semi-privileged and deprived spectrums.

The construction industry accounts for a large proportion of the economy of developing countries, but the connotation and influencing factors of high-quality development (HQD) are still unclear. This study aims to gain a more comprehensive insight into the current development status of the regional construction industry under China's HQD orientation and the obstructive factors affecting its development and to provide informative suggestions for its HQD prospects.

In this study, the construction industry of 16 cities in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle (CCEC), a new region in southwest China, was used as the research object to collect data from the 2006–2019 yearbooks, construct an evaluation index system for HQD of the construction industry, derive the development level of the construction industry using the entropy value method and spatial autocorrelation method and then apply the barrier Diagnostic model was used to compare and analyze the impact level of each index.

In terms of the time dimension, the development of the construction industry in CCEC is characterized by “high in the twin core and low in the surrounding area”, with unbalanced and insufficient development; in terms of spatial correlation, some factors have positive aggregation in spatial distribution, but the peripheral linkage decreases; through barrier analysis, the impact of different barrier factors is different.

This paper will help governments and enterprises in developing countries to make urban planning and management policies to fundamentally improve the development of the construction industry in underdeveloped regions.

This study aimed to explore the spatial accessibility dynamics of urban parks and their driving forces from 1901 to 2010 in terms of the dynamic relationships between spatial morphology and road networks, taking Nanjing City as an example.

This study mapped and examined the spatiotemporal distribution of urban parks and road networks in four time points at Nanjing: the 1910s, 1930s, 1960s and 2010s, using the analysis methodology of spatial design network analysis, kernel density estimation and buffer analysis. Two approaches of spatial overlaying and data analysis were adopted to investigate the accessibility dynamics. The spatial overlaying compared the parks' layout and the road networks' core, subcore and noncore accessible areas; the data analysis clarified the average data on the city-wide and local scales of the road networks within the park buffer zone.

The analysis of the changing relationships between urban parks and the spatial morphology of road networks showed that the accessibility of urban parks has generally improved. This was influenced by six main factors: planning implementation, political policies, natural resources, historical heritage and cultural and economic levels.

The results provide a reference for achieving spatial equity, improving urban park accessibility and supporting sustainable urban park planning.

An increasing number of studies have explored the spatial accessibility of urban parks through the relationships between their spatial distribution and road networks. However, few studies have investigated the dynamic changes in accessibility over time. Discussing parks' accessibility over relatively long-time scales has practical, innovative and theoretical values; because it can reveal correlational laws and internal influences not apparent in short term and provide reference and implications for parks' spatial equity.

This study aims to fill the lack of quantitative studies of user preferences in quasi-public spaces to observe the use of quasi-public spaces by questioning the contemporary needs of urban communities and to develop design strategies accordingly.

Within the scope of this study, public space design elements affecting users' preferences in the quasi-public spaces of the Podium Park shopping center in Bursa, Turkey were evaluated. By considering the spatial characteristics of the study area, 4 main and 15 subcriteria were determined and utilized by analytic hierarchy process (AHP). These criteria were evaluated by experts and locals with a participatory approach.

According to the obtained results, “events” (S2), “sun/shade” (C2), “safety” (P3) and “planting” (U4) subcriteria were determined as the vital elements for quasi-public spaces.

Although the concept of quasi-public space has been discussed for nearly 30 years, it has been observed that there are no quantitative studies to determine the criteria of user preferences in these open spaces in the literature. This study is the first quantitative research for user preferences in quasi-public spaces and there is no previous study on this subject and study area in Turkey.

Given the distinct and unique climates in these countries, research conducted in other parts of the world may not be directly applicable. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct research tailored to the specific climatic conditions of Australia and New Zealand to ensure accuracy and relevance.

Given population growth, urban expansions and predicted climate change, researchers should provide a deeper understanding of microclimatic conditions and outdoor thermal comfort in Australia and New Zealand. The study’s objectives can be classified into three categories: (1) to analyze previous research works on urban microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in Australia and New Zealand; (2) to highlight the gaps in urban microclimate studies and (3) to provide a summary of recommendations for the neglected but critical aspects of urban microclimate.

The findings of this study indicate that, despite the various climate challenges in these countries, there has been limited investigation. According to the selected papers, Melbourne has the highest number of microclimatic studies among various cities. It is a significant area for past researchers to examine people’s thermal perceptions in residential areas during the summer through field measurements and surveys. An obvious gap in previous research is investigating the impacts of various urban contexts on microclimatic conditions through software simulations over the course of a year and considering the predicted future climate changes in these countries.

This paper aims to review existing studies in these countries, provide a foundation for future research, identify research gaps and highlight areas requiring further investigation.