ObjectiveAgainst the backdrop of China’s ecological civilization construction and comprehensive green transition, the national strategy of “synergistic promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, greening expansion, and growth” has become a core policy orientation. How to foster effective synergies among these four objectives—carbon reduction, pollution reduction, greening expansion, and growth—have consequently emerged as a key research agenda across multiple disciplines. As the primary research object of landscape architecture, green space constitutes a crucial spatial carrier for “greening expansion” and offers a distinctive spatial planning and design perspective for simultaneously advancing carbon reduction, pollution mitigation, and high-quality development. This study aims to clarify the policy evolution, disciplinary research patterns, and spatial mechanisms underlying such synergies, and to explore how landscape architecture can contribute more systematically to this national strategic framework.MethodsThe study first reviews major national policies issued since 2005 that relate to carbon reduction, pollution control, ecological conservation, greening expansion, and green growth. It outlines their advancement pathways, summarizes evolving objectives and conceptual connotations, and identifies linkage mechanisms among “carbon reduction, pollution reduction, greening expansion, and growth”. Second, based on literature statistics and disciplinary mapping, the study examines publication trends and disciplinary distribution of collaborative research focusing on different combinations of these four goals, thereby revealing the dominant paradigms and existing gaps. Third, from the standpoint of landscape architecture, it analyzes how different forms and configurations of “greening expansion” can be leveraged to achieve synergistic improvements across carbon reduction, pollution mitigation, and economic growth, with particular attention to spatial characteristics, ecological processes, socioeconomic feedbacks, and the translation of scientific findings into planning, design, and management strategies.Results1) The relationships among carbon reduction, pollution reduction, greening expansion, and growth are strongly shaped by successive rounds of policy guidance. With the institutionalization of ecological civilization and the proposal of the “dual carbon” targets, policy documents have gradually shifted from sectoral management to integrated, cross-sectoral governance. During 2022−2025, China has entered a stage of deepening policy coordination, in where the four targets are no longer pursued in isolation but are embedded in systematic frameworks for territorial spatial planning, environmental management, and industrial restructuring. 2) As of 2025, the academic literature still focuses predominantly on pairwise synergies: carbon reduction−growth, pollution reduction−growth, greening expansion−carbon reduction, greening expansion−pollution reduction, greening expansion−growth, and carbon reduction−pollution reduction. Studies simultaneously addressing three or more objectives remain relatively scarce. Publications are heavily concentrated in environmental science and engineering, energy and climate studies, economics, and public policy. These works are largely driven by top-down policy agendas and oriented toward macro-level assessment, scenario simulation, and policy evaluation. In contrast, there is a clear deficiency of research within human settlement and built environment disciplines—including landscape architecture, urban and rural planning, and architecture—that take spatial localization, spatial configuration, and site-scale intervention as core entry points. 3) From the perspective of landscape architecture, existing studies primarily focus on how the spatial characteristics of green spaces—such as area and scale, type composition, landscape pattern, connectivity, configuration, and functional zoning—affect carbon sequestration, pollutant removal, microclimate regulation, and socio-economic benefits. These studies translate such relationships into principles that inform green space planning, design, and management. Current evidence demonstrates that “greening expansion” can effectively contribute to carbon reduction (e.g., through vegetation carbon sinks, reduced building energy consumption, and promotion of low-carbon mobility), pollution reduction (e.g., through air and water purification, noise mitigation, runoff regulation, and alleviation of urban heat islands), and growth (e.g., through enhancement of property values, attraction of investment, promotion of recreation and tourism, improvement of public health, and support for green industries and employment).ConclusionIt is necessary to further strengthen multidimensional synergy research led by “greening expansion” under the disciplinary framework of landscape architecture, with spatial planning and design as a primary leverage. Future work should move beyond isolated pairwise relationships and pay greater attention to multi-objective coupling mechanisms that integrate carbon reduction, pollution control, ecosystem restoration, and high-quality development. Specifically, green space planning should be more closely aligned with the hierarchical management requirements of territorial spatial planning, coordinating national, regional, urban-rural, and site-specific scales. Taking synergistic carbon and pollution reduction, as well as integrated “carbon reduction-pollution reduction-growth” goals, as core targets, research should develop systematic strategies for green space planning, design, and management that cover multiple spatial levels, including “urban−rural systems, space types, plots”. This implies establishing quantitative indicators and spatial configuration guidelines for different categories of green space; embedding ecosystem service optimization, low-carbon transition objectives, and environmental health considerations into zoning, layout, and design codes; and strengthening adaptive management based on continuous monitoring, performance assessment, and feedback adjustment. By leveraging the spatial carrier function of green spaces and integrating ecological, social, and economic objectives coordinated, landscape architecture can play a pivotal role in realizing the synergy of carbon reduction, pollution mitigation, greening expansion, and sustainable growth, providing spatial solutions, design pathways, and technical support for national strategies on ecological civilization and comprehensive green transformation.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
The global climate-change crisis, along with public health and economic competitiveness challenges in cities around the world have underscored the need for analytic tools to examine the relationship between city design and sustainable mobility. Car-centered travel demand models and land-use-transportation interaction models have historically analyzed zone-to-zone trips along major roadways, largely omitting pedestrian and bicycle trips and creating a gap in the ability for planners and urban designers to systematically assess non-motorized outcomes of development interventions. We present the Urban Network Analysis tools to address this gap. UNA tools offer an accessibility-based framework for analyzing how built environments influence pedestrian travel in both existing and newly planned built environments. Developed as a free plugin for Rhinoceros 3D since 2015 and applied in several cities and research projects internationally, this paper describes the current Urban Network Analysis modeling framework and discusses the unique contributions the framework offers compared to existing pedestrian modeling approaches. Using Somerville, MA as case example, we demonstrate several commonly used functions for planners: examining pedestrian accessibility over networks; identifying critical walking routes to destinations; estimating foot-traffic on street segments; identifying frustration points for pedestrians; and evaluating how development changes may impact pedestrian activity in their vicinity. Such analyses can provide analytic evidence to pedestrian infrastructure planning and investment, and enable planners, designers, and policy makers to prioritize projects that increase sustainable mobility outcomes.
João da Cunha Borges, Rui del Pino Fernandes, Sara Silva Lopes
et al.
This paper focuses on challenge, quite typical of developing or industrializing regions, of converting a former rural settlement into a town. We analyse the urban process of Pirescoxe, a former hamlet in the riverside of Loures (Lisbon Metropolitan Region), observing the key episodes of historical formation of its current built structure, but highlighting a particularity, which was the recent conversion of elements of rural memory, built and unbuilt, into elements of cohesivity in an otherwise discrete suburban space. This analysis discloses aspects of the process of transformation of Pirescoxe over time, through its regional context, and accounting for the evolution of its typical building forms. It stems from observation of photographic and cartographic elements, historical and contemporary, as well as of the urbanization plans that transformed this space. The conclusion notes how the most decisive intervention in Pirescoxe was the one that more strongly emphasized the ruins of the rural past as elements of memory and identity.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
Sara Calado Gonzalez, Ricardo Cunha Dias, Paulo Castro Seixas
Este texto analisou as perceções institucionais sobre a participação das crianças no planeamento urbano municipal. Metodologicamente, a pesquisa adotou uma estratégia qualitativa através da realização de 7 entrevistas com atores políticos e técnicos dos Municípios de Almada e Sintra ligados ao planeamento urbano, as quais foram depois alvo de uma análise de conteúdo. Os resultados evidenciaram que os atores municipais ainda percecionam muito as crianças num paradigma de dependência, em que o brincar e o cuidar são os principais direitos à cidade reconhecidos, não havendo, por via de uma participação efetiva no planeamento urbano, uma articulação com direitos cívicos e políticos. Assim, ao mesmo tempo que a importância de incluir a participação das crianças no planeamento urbano faz já parte do discurso institucional, a partilha de poder e responsabilidade nas decisões não é ainda visível nos projetos existentes, evidenciando uma problemática entre o paradigmático (a criança como um sujeito de direitos) e o pragmático (a criança como instrumento geralmente de performance política ou no máximo de consulta e informação).
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
This article examines the representational strategies of the world city in the age of the Anthropocene by concentrating the discussion on the notion of monumentality. By introducing the concept of ‘world city monumentality’, which can be defined as the projected anticipatory representation of the city’s desired global future embodied in the skyscraper, we attempt at illuminating on how monumentality is contested by its counter-practices, as significant artistic forms of experiential engagement in public space. To do so, we trace a critique of a specific world city monument, the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, by presenting our site-specific fictive intervention titled “Double Feature” (2021) as a case study.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
The recent literature on the “consumer city” and the “love of variety” argues that the provision of urban amenities makes a city more attractive. Meanwhile, polycentric urban development has been highlighted by academics and policymakers as a sustainable urban development regime, although its purported benefits need to be further investigated. Against this background, this paper empirically examines the relationship between polycentricity and the provision of urban amenities in 309 Chinese cities. After controlling for the size, population density, wage, and human capital, this paper finds that a higher degree of intra-urban polycentricity is associated with a larger number of urban amenities. Additionally, when all the covariates above are held, a higher degree of intra-urban polycentricity is associated with a greater diversity of urban amenities. Robust checks show that these findings are consistent with different polycentricity indices and diversity measures. Finally, possible explanations of the relationship between intra-urban polycentricity and urban amenities are provided from both the producer and consumer perspectives.
This article delivers the report of a cycle of three workshops dedicated to urban water and port city landscape, which took place in Taranto (2018), Brindisi (2019) and Bari (2021). These experiences, co-ordinated by Prof. Michael Jakob and Ing. Arch. Maria Cristina Petralla, aimed to analyse the current status and design the future of these territories, focusing on their landscape elements. The coexistence and overlapping of different spatial uses and conflicts have been investigated, between development and protection. Common elements and differences of each port city’s cultural heritage were evaluated, in order to develop a coherent landscape-oriented approach that can lay the foundations for an inclusive and resilient re-design process. After a short overview regarding the water culture and maritime mindset of each case studio and the specificities of each workshop, the article reflects on the role of participative workshops as practices enabling collaborative decision-making and fostering the recognition of the port cityscape as a driver of shared development perspective.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
Rose Murphy, Aaron Pardy, Morgan Braglewicz
et al.
In community energy planning, a persistent disconnect has been observed between the targets and plans announced by local governments and the application of effective policy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We use two methods to explore this implementation gap. First, we apply energy-economy modelling tools at the urban level to evaluate the effectiveness of various policy options available to local governments. Our case study for these exercises is the leading jurisdiction of Vancouver, British Columbia. Second, we report and analyze the results of a survey we administered to community energy practitioners in Canada. The modelling results point to jurisdictional reach as an important contributor to the implementation gap. We find that, while Vancouver can make significant progress by implementing policies that are clearly within its jurisdiction, the city is unlikely to meet its ambitious renewable energy and GHG emissions targets without the support of higher levels of government. The survey responses suggest that capacity limitations of local government also have a role in perpetuating the implementation gap.
City planning, Political institutions and public administration (General)
Maria Federica Ottone, Roberta Cocci Grifoni, Graziano Enzo Marchesani
This study focuses on the system of the Aurelian Walls with reference to Rome’s regulatory plan, which indicates its role as green infrastructure in service of the areas adjacent to the historical centre of Rome. A proposal is made to reinforce the system with an environmental focus as an opportunity to regenerate open spaces for interaction, using the mass of the walls as an environmental device as well as a memory and symbol of historical Rome. The objective is to reuse the wall as an urban contour line to generate humidity and thermal comfort by virtue of the insertion of green elements and functional devices in areas of the city pervaded by stone, cement, and asphalt.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Santiago Bachiller, Natalia Usach, Magali Elizabeth Chanampa
et al.
Uno de los factores clave para explicar las tomas de tierras y la expansión de los asentamientos informales en América Latina en general, y en sociedades rentistas particularmente, es el modo en que funciona el mercado formal de inmuebles. Estudiando el caso de la ciudad de Comodoro Rivadavia (Patagonia Argentina) bajo una metodología cualitativa basada en entrevistas semiestructuradas efectuadas a los principales agentes del mercado inmobiliario, el trabajo muestra las singularidades de este mercado que limitan y condicionan el acceso al suelo urbano y a la vivienda por parte de amplios grupos sociales; siendo una condición fundamental en los procesos de tomas de tierras. A través de este análisis, examinamos el modelo de acumulación y crecimiento urbano propio de una ciudad cuya economía gira en torno a la extracción de hidrocarburos.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Venice’s urban morphology does not allow for autonomous movement for people with impaired mobility, a problem which has been taken on in recent years via a number of projects which have improved the potential for movement along pedestrian and water-based routes.
This paper presents the results of research which, starting from a study of previously implemented changes, has mapped the town in GIS environment and planned a mobility support application which can be personalised to user needs. The tool is designed to help users wanting to move around Venice choose a pedestrian and ferry itinerary which takes account of fixed obstacles and the high water phenomenon.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
We propose an upgraded gravitational model which provides population counts beyond the binary (urban/non-urban) city simulations. Numerically studying the model output, we find that the radial population density gradients follow power-laws where the exponent is related to the preset gravity exponent γ . Similarly, the urban fraction decays exponentially, again determined by γ . The population density gradient can be related to radial fractality and it turns out that the typical exponents imply that cities are basically zero-dimensional. Increasing the gravity exponent leads to extreme compactness and the loss of radial symmetry. We study the shape of the major central cluster by means of another three fractal dimensions and find that overall its fractality is dominated by the size and the influence of γ is minor. The fundamental allometry, between population and area of the major central cluster, is related to the gravity exponent but restricted to the case of higher densities in large cities. We argue that cities are shaped by power-law proximity. We complement the numerical analysis by economics arguments employing travel costs as well as housing rent determined by supply and demand. Our work contributes to the understanding of gravitational effects, radial gradients, and urban morphology. The model allows to generate and investigate city structures under laboratory conditions.
Esta pesquisa traz uma abordagem sobre as qualidades espaciais da cidade e seu efeito sobre a sociabilidade urbana a partir de um estudo de caso de caráter exploratório de uma localidade do Recife-PE, Brasil. Esta cidade vem experimentando uma alta verticalização e adensamento de certas áreas da cidade, o aumento de interfaces fechadas e pouca diversidade de usos do solo. Diante disso nos perguntamos: Até que ponto a configuração espacial pode influenciar nos tipos de encontros entre os indivíduos que levam à sociabilidade urbana? A partir disso, o objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar quais parâmetros morfológicos e sociais de uma vizinhança teriam correlação com uma maior sociabilidade urbana. Para o desenvolvimento se estuda o surgimento de um padrão social através de um questionário sobre sociabilidade urbana, elaborado a partir da teoria das facetas, e se analisam as qualidades espaciais do segmento de rua onde os entrevistados residem, utilizando a metodologia do perfil espacial. Esta investigação pretende desvendar como essas qualidades espaciais e sociais podem rebater na sociabilidade urbana e, desta forma, descrever aqueles aspectos morfológicos necessários para conseguir uma boa qualidade urbana na cidade do Recife.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology