This article reviews recent academic literature on adolescent girls in public spaces with the objective of defining a framework for action in designing and planning public spaces for adolescent girls. There is growing global relevance of this age group, which now represents over 16% of the world population. Despite their demographic weight, adolescent girls are often overlooked in urban studies, which tend to focus on either children or adult women. Anchored in a gender-sensitive planning framework, this study conducts a scoping literature review following PRISMA guidelines, reviewing 2,737 documents and analysing sixty-eight publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection between 2010 and 2025. The findings are grouped by implications for planning and design. The review also identifies significant gaps in the literature, including limited evaluation of effective strategies or design elements that promote adolescent girls’ use of public space, minimal focus on leisure environments, and scarce integration of cultural and social norms that shape gendered mobility. The findings underscore the fragmented research of intersecting issues such as violence, safety, adolescent needs, and spatial justice.
Managing former military land has been a challenging task, especially due to its status as a publicly owned asset. This has arisen bottom-up using commoning approaches to satisfy people's needs. This article explores such approaches by analysing three former military barracks in central and eastern Europe: Karlo Rojc barracks, currently Rojc Community Centre (Pula, Croatia); Kas & aacute;rna Karlin (Prague, Czech Republic); and Fourth of July barracks, today called Metelkova Mesto (Ljubljana, Slovenia). This article examines the conversion of these abandoned spaces to civilian use by approaching them through the lens of Ostrom's eight design principles for successful common-pool resource institutions. By comparing the case studies through these principles, this article demonstrates how the cases are based on features that can make them proper commons, as well as potential risks related to the profit-oriented approach conducted by technocratic or growth-oriented coalitions.
Regenerative development has gained prominence as an ecological paradigm in urban planning; however, its integration into urban transformation processes remains conceptually fragmented and uneven in practice. This study examines how regenerative development is framed within discussions on urban transformation, with a particular focus on its implications for planning systems and policymaking. A systematic literature review, guided by PRISMA protocols, identified thirty-eight peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus, which were coded using MAXQDA and analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal five interrelated dimensions of regenerative urban transformation (RUT): underlying rationales, key components, implementation challenges, modes of integration into urban planning, and evaluation approaches. The literature positions RUT as a response to the unsustainability of dominant urban models that degrade ecosystems and increase climate vulnerability. Core components – such as circular economy principles, public participation, adaptive reuse, and digital technologies – are widely acknowledged but often addressed as isolated interventions rather than integrated planning mechanisms. Key challenges include limited social acceptance, financing constraints, behavioural change requirements, and weak institutional coordination. Although integration into urban planning is commonly framed through alignment with sustainable development strategies and ecosystem services, persistent gaps remain in governance alignment and policy coherence. The study concludes that current assessment tools suffer from limited scale adaptability and weak links to planning and policy decision-making, constraining the practical evaluation of RUT.
Urbanization has intensified since the First Industrial Revolution, generating acute socioeconomic and environmental pressures for local authorities, particularly in relation to air quality management. Declining air quality in urbanized areas remains a central challenge, and urban spaces with vegetation, especially urban trees, are increasingly valued for their regulatory ecosystem services. This study examines the potential of urban trees for CO2 sequestration in Bucharest, Romania. Tree distribution and species composition were spatially represented with geographic information systems (GIS) based on data from the city's Green Registry, and sequestration potential was quantified using validated assessment tools. The results reveal pronounced spatial disparities, with substantial deficiencies in tree cover across several districts. The capacity of areas covered by trees and shrubs to sequester CO2 is negligible relative to overall urban emission levels. Native species display greater sequestration efficiency, although nonnative species dominate urban landscapes, largely reflecting financial and aesthetic preferences in planting practices. These findings underscore the limited regulatory impact of current urban tree cover on carbon sequestration and emphasize the need for targeted, nature-based strategies-particularly the expansion of native vegetation-to support urban carbon sequestration management.
Urban vitality reflects the intensity and diversity of everyday urban activities and their spatial distribution, serving as a key indicator for planning and managing cities. In medium-sized, post-socialist cities, spatial disparities in vitality often remain underexplored due to limited data integration and analytical tools. This study examines urban vitality in Ni & scaron;, one of Serbia's few medium-sized regional centres, using a spatial multi-criteria assessment that integrates socioeconomic, infrastructural, and spatial indicators. An entropy-TOPSIS multi-criteria model integrated with GIS was applied to determine the relative importance of indicators and derive a composite urban vitality index across sixty-nine settlements. The analysis reveals pronounced intra-urban differences, highlighting areas of concentrated vitality as well as zones of relative functional and social weakness. Beyond mapping vitality, the study identifies key indicators that most strongly influence urban vitality and provides insights into monitoring and enhancing vitality in similar urban contexts. The findings provide a transparent, spatially explicit framework to support evidence-based planning, targeted regeneration, and follow-up qualitative or participatory assessments in medium-sized cites.
With increasing territorial disparities in Kazakhstan, there is a growing need for a systematic assessment of social sustainability at the subregional level. This study develops and pilots an integrated social sustainability index for the districts of the North Kazakhstan Region based on fifteen indicators grouped into five key components: demography, healthcare, education, quality of life, and social integration. The methodology includes data normalization, indicator aggregation, and spatial analysis using GIS tools. The analysis reveals a stable yet markedly asymmetric territorial structure of social sustainability: although the regional centre (Petropavl) has relatively high values across most components, the majority of rural districts show persistent signs of demographic decline, social vulnerability, and insufficient access to basic services and infrastructure. A sensitivity analysis confirms the model’s applicability under conditions of incomplete statistical reporting. Based on the results, a typology of districts is developed, and directions for territorially oriented social policy are proposed. The proposed methodology can be applied for interregional monitoring, social risk assessment, and justification of sustainable development priorities in regions with transitional demographic structures.
This article examines the influence of modernist architecture on the formation of urban identity in two post-Yugoslav cities: Ljubljana and Sarajevo. A comparative analysis explores the contributions of key architects to shaping the urban fabric and identity of each city during the twentieth century, considering their shared socialist past and divergent sociocultural trajectories after the 1990s. The legacy of modernism is considered in light of sustainability, resilience, and the fluctuating notion of cultural identity. Special focus is placed on the works of Jo & zcaron;e Ple & ccaron;nik and Edvard Ravnikar in Ljubljana, and Du & scaron;an Grabrijan and Juraj Neidhardt in Sarajevo.
Public open spaces (POSs) played an important role as gathering areas during the 2023 earthquake in Turkey. However, challenges arose after the earthquake because POSs struggled to fulfil their recreational functions and could not meet the daily needs of the population. This study evaluates the performance of and changes to six POSs in Malatya after the earthquake and suggests strategies for integrating sustainability principles into seismic protection plans. The post-occupancy evaluation method was used, including field analysis, semi-structured interviews with sixty municipal experts, and a survey with 240 users. The results show that POSs faced problems such as insufficient infrastructure, limited space for camps, and issues related to safety and maintenance during the earthquake. After the earthquake, most POSs had not regained their recreational identity, with some transforming toward commercial use, occupation by new users, and changes in land use. The study concludes that earthquake resilience depends not only on the size, accessibility, and location of a POS, but also on the area’s capacity for rapid maintenance and its multifunctionality, which ensure its vitality after a disaster. Planning recommendations include integrating disaster preparedness into city planning and facilitating post-disaster restoration.
Urban environments influence mental well-being, yet most restoration scales have been developed for natural settings. This study developed and initially validated the Urban Restorative Potential Scale (URPS), a design-oriented measure for everyday urban contexts. A set of twenty-five items grounded in attention restoration theory and stress reduction theory was tested with 1,001 residents of Urdaneta, Philippines. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a seventeen-item, four-factor structure (quality, functionality, captivation, and relaxation) under a second-order urban restorative potential (URP) factor, with good fit and reliability. Convergent validity was adequate; subscale correlations were high but consistent with a meaningful higher-order construct. The URP factor strongly predicted overall satisfaction with the scene viewed. Multi-group models indicated context dependence across urban scene types (USTs): quality loaded most strongly on URP in recreational scenes; captivation dominated in housing, institutional, streetscape, and commercial scenes; functionality was most influential in transit scenes; and relaxation was an important but not leading factor for all USTs. The findings are cross-sectional; therefore, causal claims are not warranted. The URPS offers a practical diagnostic profile for design hypotheses, highlighting that what “feels restorative” varies by scene type.
The location of a bus terminal is crucial for efficient urban transportation and sustainable urban mobility. The location determines visitors' access to the city and safe, accessible, and economical transportation options. It also affects residents' access to employment, education, and health services and their efficiency, shaping the city's overall socioeconomic wellbeing. This study determines the optimal location for a new bus terminal in U & scedil;ak, Turkey, considering efficient operation of the city's transportation systems. The methodology employs a hybrid multicriteria decision-making model that evaluates twenty criteria, integrates the needs of residents and local authorities, and draws on urban transportation planning expertise for a comprehensive assessment of accessibility. The AHP method was used to assign weights to twenty evaluation criteria, and seven alternative areas were ranked using the MOOSRA, ARAS, and VIKOR methods. The findings revealed the most suitable location, demonstrating the robustness of the model and its applicability in urban planning.
Med potresom v Turčiji leta 2023 so bili javni odprti prostori pomembna zbirna območja, po potresu pa se niso mogli več ustrezno uporabljati za rekreacijo in niti niso mogli več zadovoljevati drugih vsakdanjih potreb prebivalcev. Avtorice so v članku proučile učinkovitost šestih javnih odprtih prostorov v Malatyi in njihove spremembe po potresu ter predlagale strategije za vključitev trajnostnih načel v načrte potresne varnosti. Pri tem so uporabile metodo naknadne ocene uporabe prostora, ki je vključevala terenske analize, polstrukturirane intervjuje s šestdesetimi občinskimi strokovnjaki in anketo, v kateri je sodelovalo 240 uporabnikov proučevanih prostorov. Izsledki so pokazali, da so med potresom za javne odprte prostore nastale težave, kot so neustrezna infrastruktura, pomanjkanje prostora za postavljanje šotorov in težave, povezane z varnostjo in vzdrževanjem površin. Po potresu se večina teh ne uporablja več za rekreacijo. Nekateri so se spremenili v trgovska območja, drugi so dobili nove uporabnike, pogosto so se pojavile še druge spremembe v rabi prostora. Glavna ugotovitev raziskave je, da potresna odpornost javnih odprtih prostorov ni odvisna samo od njihove velikosti, dostopnosti in lokacije, ampak tudi od možnosti izvajanja hitrih vzdrževalnih posegov na teh površinah in večnamenskosti, ki zagotavljata, da se na teh prostorih ohrani življenje in da delujejo tudi po naravni nesreči. Med ključnimi načrtovalskimi priporočili so vključitev ukrepov za okrepitev pripravljenosti na nesreče v mestno načrtovanje in omogočanje učinkovite obnove po nesrečah.
This article examines the impact of urban green spaces on wellbeing in Prishtina, Kosovo, using a quantitative approach. Data from 384 respondents, collected through stratified random sampling, were analysed using the principal component analysis and regression techniques. The findings reveal that quality and aesthetic appeal, and community connection are key predictors of perceived wellbeing, highlighting the importance of well-maintained visually appealing green spaces that foster social interaction. However, accessibility and availability, amenities and functionality, and safety did not show significant relationships, reflecting contextual challenges in Prishtina. Policymakers should prioritize high-quality inclusive green spaces that support social connection while addressing spatial inequalities and governance gaps to enhance urban wellbeing.
The concept of heritage ambience reconfigures cultural preservation by prioritizing multisensory experiences and human subjectivity, transcending static architectural analysis. However, capturing these intangible dimensions-rooted in sensory engagement, memory, and local narratives-remains methodologically challenging. This study employs netnography to decode interactions between sensory atmospheres and collective memory in historic urban spaces, using the medina in Tlemcen, Algeria, as case study. Analysis of digital narratives, social media discourses, and community-generated content reveals how nonexpert knowledge reconstructs heritage values often marginalized by traditional conservation frameworks. The results demonstrate that the medina's ambience is not merely a backdrop but a dynamic archive of lived experiences, where smells, sounds, and textures intertwine to shape cultural identity. This research advocates integrating local perspectives into protection strategies, challenging the hegemony of institutional approaches. By linking digital ethnography and sensory urbanism, it proposes a reproducible methodological framework for reimagining heritage as a living, participatory practice where the spirit of place thrives through community governance.
This article identifies the determinants contributing to the configuration of a city's identity. It presents the outcomes of a study on modes of expressing identity, exemplified through the case of Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest urban conurbation. Based on a public opinion analysis, a set of factors is identified that contributes to shaping Almaty's city identity. The findings indicate that modern architecture is important for preserving and expressing the identity of the city and region, which, in turn, is a source of investment and tourism interest in a particular area. Globalization, more than ever before, accentuates the challenge of searching for and preserving the identity of cities and regions. The importance of studying identity problems lies in the fact that the findings can be used to develop strategies for sociocultural and economic transformations of a city.
In many developing regions, inclusive pedestrian infrastructure remains insufficient to support the mobility and autonomy of individuals with disabilities. This study focuses on Jember Regency, Indonesia, where accessibility barriers such as narrow pavements, broken surfaces, and the absence of multisensory navigation tools persist. Employing a qualitative exploratory approach, the study integrates online questionnaires, focus groups, site inspections, and a literature-based benchmarking process. These mixed tools were used to identify real-world user challenges and validate local design preferences against global accessibility standards. The findings reveal two major categories of accessibility barriers: physical and structural, as well as emotional and psychosocial barriers. The results emphasize the need for context-sensitive, mul tisensory infrastructure features, including braille signage, audible indicators, and tactile paving. The study presents design recommendations that align global best practices with local anthropometric and cultural contexts through glocalized framework. By embedding user voices in the design process and adapting international principles to regional realities, this research contributes both methodologically and conceptually to discourse on inclusive urban design, particularly within underrepresented contexts of the Global South.
