A systematic review of studies at the intersection of urban climate and historical urban landscape

Abstract

Compared to modern cities, historical cities of fragile urban fabric are more vulnerable to natural hazards and climate change. Many existing academic publications have respectively studied urban climate risk and historical urban landscape management, but rare has systematically reviewed studies across the two fields. This review article provides a thorough understanding of how studies of urban climate and historical urban landscape inform and overlap with each other in a global scope from 1995 to 2021. The main aim is to raise academic awareness of the importance of addressing climatic issues in historical urban landscape studies and incorporating the proper cultural practices from the past into future urban climate management. This review finds a series of gaps in current literature, including insufficient academic attentions in this field, lack of collaborations across disciplines, isolation of cultural and natural knowledge, and lack of inclusiveness of climatic topics and case areas. Instead of focusing purely on urban climate, more research should integrate inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary findings addressing climatic, social, economic, and cultural issues in the development of historical urban landscape and discuss possibilities of their practical implementation. Substantial communication and collaboration between scholars from nature and culture sectors in this emerging field are also suggested to theorize the historical cultural wisdom and learn from successful urban models with a special focus on design and strategic planning so as to strategize for urban resilience and conservation.