This study focuses on the traditional village landscape of the Yuan River Basin in Hunan Province, aiming to break through the limitations of subjectivity and one-sidedness in existing evaluation methods by coupling the importance-performance analysis (IPA) with the entropy weight method (EWM) to construct a comprehensive evaluation framework for tourists' satisfaction. This study provides an analysis framework that is both scientific and applicable. Based on 569 valid questionnaire data, the study first applies the EWM method to objectively weight 21 landscape factors and then uses the IPA method to analyze the perceived importance and satisfaction of tourists, thereby identifying the optimization level of each factor. The results show that cultural elements account for the highest proportion of the overall weight. Specifically, the continuity of intangible cultural heritage, the adequacy of recreational facilities, and the village popularity and reputation which are classified into the "key improvement area" with IPA indices of 30.957, 27.174, and 20.141, respectively, revealing a significant gap between the current tourist experience and expectations. This study not only verifies the adaptability and sensitivity of the IPA-EWM method in the satisfaction evaluation of traditional village landscapes, but also provides strong support and decision-making basis for the protection of traditional village landscapes, the optimization of tourism services, and the dynamic inheritance of culture in China. Compared with the previous studies that only use IPA or subjective weighting methods, this method has stronger explanatory power of the results and shows important theoretical innovation and practice guidance in the context of high-quality development of rural cultural tourism.
The restorative soundscape is an important consideration in the health benefits of coastal environments. However, limited research has examined the perceived restorativeness of coastal soundscapes on site, considering both individual and sound characteristics. This study explores coastal urban spaces as nature-based therapeutic landscapes for public mental well-being and investigates how individual and sound factors interactively determine the perceived soundscape restorativeness (PSR) through theoretical components, using a field questionnaire survey in a typical sea-fronting context in China. The results indicate that the PSR varies depending on both individual and sound characteristics. Sociodemographic factors, behavioral patterns, dominant sounds, and holistic soundscape evaluations significantly influence the PSR. Individual characteristics including occupation, education level, visit duration, frequency, and activity intensity are associated with all four theoretical components: Fascination (F), Being away (A), Compatibility (C), and Extent (E). Moreover, individual factors play an even greater role than sound characteristics in determining F, A, and C components. By integrating theoretical components with individual and sound characteristics, a robust framework was established using an extended Perceived Restorativeness Soundscape Scale (PRSS) to explain restorative soundscape in coastal urban spaces. Sound and individual factors, beyond theoretical components, account for nearly three quarters of the total variance (73.45%). This study highlights the interplay between restorative components, sound environment, sociodemographic factors, and visit behaviors in determining the PSR. The findings provide empirical insights for optimizing soundscapes in coastal environments to enhance their therapeutic landscape potential and landscape design benefits.
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have emerged as critical strategies for addressing global climate change and ecological crises. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology offers high-precision 3D data that could significantly enhance NbS implementation, yet its integration into planning and design workflows faces technical barriers. We employed a bibliometric approach to systematically review 4,275 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (2000-2024), using CiteSpace and Bibliometric R package with Pathfinder algorithm optimization to identify research clusters and evolutionary patterns. Four core application domains were identified: 1) ecological structural analysis, 2) vegetation assessment, 3) river restoration, and 4) urban resilience. LiDAR significantly enhances NbS site selection, spatial scaling, and performance evaluation by translating geometric-structural information into computable ecological metrics. However, challenges regarding data processing complexity, toolchain fragmentation, and interdisciplinary barriers continue to impede the full realization of LiDAR's potential. To address these gaps, we propose an integrated development pathway comprising three aspects: 1) open data sharing platforms to lower application thresholds, 2) AI-driven automation processing to overcome semantic understanding bottlenecks, and 3) standardized interoperability to bridge toolchain fragmentation. This pathway aims to transform LiDAR from a high-precision measurement tool into digital public infrastructure for evidence-based NbS design and governance, facilitating the digital and intelligent transformation of landscape planning and design.
As an important carrier for children's everyday activity engagement, the optimization of landscape elements in community public space has a positive influence on promoting children's health. However, existing studies have paid limited attention to spatiotemporal behavioral differences between children and their guardians during outdoor activities, as well as to the potential mechanisms associated with variations in gender and age. The current study takes FCC Central City Community in Fangshan District, Beijing, as the research site. By integrating spatio-temporal behavior mapping (N = 988) with the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (N = 302), this study examines spatio-temporal behavioral patterns of children and their guardians across gender, age, activity types, and time periods. The following results were revealed. 1) The number of activities involving boys is roughly equivalent to that of girls; however, during the evening hours, the number of boys is significantly higher than that of girls; during this period, boys tend to engage in activities in edge area of the site, whereas girls are more likely to gather around play facilities. 2) Male guardians greatly participate in children's activities during weekends or evenings; while female guardians' involvement spans across various time periods of children's daily routines. 3) Gender differences are closely related to gender roles shaped by social culture. Specifically, the gender of guardians determines the frequency and duration of their time with children, and also shapes children's activity types and spatial preferences. Furthermore, this study reveals that transportation modes and travel motivations also influence children's participation in outdoor activities. Through empirical research, therefore, this study aims to provide a theoretical and practical foundation for the design of child-friendly communities, fully considering the spatial characteristic needs of different genders and age groups, thereby enhancing the quality of children's outdoor activities and guardian's everyday engagement.
Global aging and intensifying heat extremes heighten outdoor thermal risk for older adults. Concurrent micrometeorological, physiological, and thermal-sensation data were collected from older park users in Xi'an, China, during sitting, slow walking, and square dancing. Predictors selected by statistical and machine learning methods were fed into gender-specific gradient boosting machine models of thermal sensation. Results indicated that: 1) Neutral physiological equivalent temperature (NPET) shifted markedly with activity. Older females showed lower NPET than older males during sitting, while during slow walking and square dancing, they exhibited higher NPET than males. 2) Older women maintained higher heart rates (HR) than men across all activities; while older men displayed a U-shaped core temperature (Tc) curve during slow walking. Limb skin temperatures (ST) exhibit more pronounced fluctuations with increasing activity intensity, whereas chest ST remained stable. 3) Thermal sensation vote (TSV) predictors differed by gender and activity. For men, ST dominated during sitting, HR during walking, and Tc during dancing; for women, TSV correlated strongly with STupper arm during sitting, while correlated jointly with Tc and STchest during square dancing. 4) The gender-specific TSV model, requiring only two to three localized physiological inputs, outperforms conventional indices in accuracy and feasibility. It directly informs age-friendly park design, enhances outdoor safety for older adults, and supports sustainable urban development.
Although design research and practice in landscape architecture have increasingly engaged with issues related to gentrification, theoretical discussions at the ontological level-concerning how design itself intervenes in and shapes such spatial processes-remain limited. As a result, the role of design is often underrepresented in related narratives. This article develops its analysis mainly along three dimensions. First, it examines the dialectical relationship between the intrinsic value of design and the regulation of spatial circulation. Second, it explores how alternative economic networks embedded in design can enable community-based value production. Third, it analyzes how institutional instruments, such as community land trusts, can influence spatial production processes. Based on this, the article constructs a spatially centered analytical framework integrating economy, space, and institutionalization. This framework addresses the tension between development-oriented urban regeneration and broader social considerations, and discusses the potential role of landscape design in mediating such processes. From the perspective of design activism as an embedded and collaborative practice within social networks, the study further proposes an alternative model of landscape activism. Through literature review and case analysis, the research focuses on three key aspects. First, the circulation of spatial and aesthetic values within communities can partially recalibrate capital-driven models of spatial production. Second, design can support the emergence of diverse economic forms, fostering locally grounded alternatives through community collaboration. Third, design can facilitate localized institutional spatial innovation, contributing to the formation of relatively stable spatial production mechanisms. These processes are synthesized into three analytical dimensions-circulation, alternative, and sustainability-offering a structured perspective on the role of design in addressing complex urban transformations.
Urban green spaces are not only ecological spaces but also important economic and social spaces. Enhancing service facilities to cultivate green third spaces and fully leveraging their roles in everyday life, such as social interaction and physical activity, help realize their multidimensional value. However, existing research on everyday-life functions of urban green spaces and their associated extermalities, particularly in relation to urban innovation, is insufficient. Based on the literature review and theoretical analysis, this study develops a dual framework through which green third spaces influence urba innovation. At the individual level, green third spaces enhance physical and mental health, stimulate creativity, improve innovation performance, and attract innovative talent. At the spatial level, green third spaces help foster the agglomeration of innovation factors such as talent, promoting the formation of innovation districts and even innovation cities, thereby generating spatial agglomeration effects. This study provides a theoretical foundatich for future empirical and case-based studies. It emphasizes cultivating green third spaces to realize the multidimensional value of urban green spaces and proposes spatial strategies of urban innovation, including integrating green third spaces into innovation districts and organizing innovation activities around them.
Flood disaster databases constitute a critical foundation for enhancing disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacities. Although China has achieved initial progress in developing the National Comprehensive Natural Disaster Risk Database, the finegrained construction of its data systems and the efficacy of its comprehensive service applications require further exploration and refinement. Given the relatively mature disaster database systems some developed countries, which offer valuable reference, this study adopts a full-cycle management perspective to construct a novel comparative research framework on the differences. The article points out that the development of China's flood disaster databases faces bottlenecks: inaccuracies in pre-disaster risk forecasting, lags in mid-disaster emergency response, and difficulties in institutionalizing post-disaster experiences. These challenges expose a full-cycle data fragmentation issue. Conversely, countries like the USA and the Netherlands have accumulated extensive pioneering experience in data standardization, dynamic simulation, collaborative governance, and societal application. Simultaneously, its practical bottlenecks regarding data coverage, response timeliness, and equity in resource allocation provide critical reflections for China's localized exploration. Accordingly, this study proposes a localization pathway for China's flood disaster database system construction: institutionally, it is imperative to accelerate the establishment of a government-led, multi-departmental collaborative management mechanism; technologically, priority should be given to advancing flood risk mapping and developing multi-source data integration platforms; in terms of social aspect, regional pilot programs should be conducted in key river basins to evaluate strategic feasibility. These strategies aim to steadily enhance the comprehensive efficacy of China's flood disaster databases, thereby facilitating their progressive optimization.
In response to the challenges brought by the extension of the Landscape Architecture professional degree to the doctoral level following the adjustment of the national professional degree catalogue in 2022, this study examines the paradigm transformation of knowledge production for Landscape Architecture professional doctoral students. Regarding the mode of knowledge production, by clarifying the fundamental logic differences in knowledge production between the academic doctorates and the professional doctorates, this study argues that professional doctoral knowledge production should shift from the sole pursuit of academic excellence toward the exploration of solutions to real-world problems; drawing on three international paradigms, it further offers insights into China's Landscape Architecture doctoral education. Regarding the attributes of knowledge production, grounded in Basil Bernstein's theory of knowledge structures, this study reveals the essential differences between discipline knowledge and domain knowledge in their organizational forms, and proposes that knowledge production attributes should shift from the single basic principle knowledge of the discipline toward the dual applied knowledge forms of the domain, i.e., applied principle knowledge and applied strategic knowledge. Regarding the pathway of knowledge production, this study analyses the disciplinary knowledge production pathway from a reductionist epistemological orientation and proposes that the domain knowledge production should shift from reductionist decomposition toward integrative construction, by innovatively proposing a staged knowledge production pathway: 1) problem domain identification and knowledge system construction; 2) cross-domain selection and knowledge system integration; and 3) domain expansion and knowledge system reconstruction. This study provides theoretical support and paradigmatic reference for Landscape Architecture professional doctoral education.
This article examines contemporary trends, challenges, and opportunities in Landscape Architecture education in the United States through the perspectives of program administrators at accredited institutions. Building on the foundational 1997 Landscape Journal article by Michael Richard Hodges and Miriam Easton Rutz, which documented the early development of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), this study revisits long-standing themes, including faculty development, recruitment, institutional support, and disciplinary identity while documenting how these issues have evolved in the current higher education of Landscape Architecture. Drawing on a 17-question survey distributed to all accredited Landscape Architecture programs in the USA, the study captures responses from 41 program administrators, representing a broad cross-section of institutional contexts. Survey findings reveal persistent administrative challenges related to student and assistantship funding, staff support, faculty recruitment, and enrollment, alongside emerging concerns about faculty burnout, workload imbalance, and evolving expectations for teaching, research, and service. Studio-intensive curricula, accreditation demands, and the interdisciplinary nature of Landscape Architecture place unique pressures on faculty and administrators, often exacerbated by limited institutional recognition and resource constraints. The study also documents varied approaches to recruitment, new faculty onboarding, and mid-career faculty support, highlighting practices such as mentorship, course releases, start-up funding, and sabbatical opportunities. In addition, the article situates the USA's administrative challenges within a broader international and theoretical context, drawing on scholarship that frames Landscape Architecture as a synthesizing discipline balancing scientific rigor and creative practice. Emerging technological pressures, including the growing influence of artificial intelligence, further underscore the need for curricular adaptation and professional development. By documenting shared experiences and strategies among program leaders, this article contributes to a growing collective understanding of Landscape Architecture education and emphasizes the importance of sustained dialogue, administrative support networks, and adaptive leadership to strengthen the discipline's future.
