Purpose This study aims to examine the recovery patterns and competitive performance of city tourism between 2019 and 2023, with a focus on the role of resilience factors in supporting competitiveness during the post-crisis recovery process. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a cross-sectional econometric approach covering 17 European cities to analyse the influence of factors such as economic diversity, social support and education levels on tourism recovery. Recovery is measured through changes in the market share of overnight stays by both domestic and foreign visitors, indicating the relative resilience of city destinations. Findings The findings demonstrate that the size of the tourism sector, the degree of market diversification, the availability of social support systems and education levels significantly impact market-share development and recovery patterns, particularly in relation to international tourism. Recovery trajectories varied considerably across the cities. Prices and cost factors were not found to be significant during the observation period. Originality/value This research makes a valuable contribution to the limited body of literature on crisis recovery in city tourism by identifying the necessary resilience factors that support competitiveness and by closing the gap in econometric analysis of this phenomenon. The findings offer policymakers insights into strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of city tourism through targeted investments in diversification, social support and education.

ABSTRACT This article examines how European cities and regions engage with circular economy (CE) strategies through the lens of territorial intermediation. Based on the analysis of 54 strategic planning documents, it identifies a range of local rationales – predominantly environmental – supporting CE commitments. The findings reveal a selective and often downstream-oriented framing of CE priorities. Local authorities assume three main roles in structuring circular transitions: promoter, facilitator and enabler, each operationalised through distinct policy instruments. Rather than following a uniform model, CE strategies take different forms depending on local priorities, challenges and development goals. The article contributes to the literature by clarifying how territorial intermediation mediates ecological transitions at the local scale.

As urbanisation accelerates, land-use planning has become a challenging factor in cities’ sustainable development. This process is based both on the historical heritage of Central and Eastern European cities and on concepts combining urban planning with ecology. Cemeteries, traditionally viewed as places of remembrance, hold significant potential as ecological assets within urban environments. On the other hand, they are problematic in relation to the location, neighbourhood, and form of past/present human activity. Many of these aspects are regulated in the investigated countries. This paper examines sustainable cemetery planning from legal, ecological, and spatial perspectives, highlighting their role in addressing environmental challenges while preserving cultural and social values. The research draws on comparative case studies from eight Central and Eastern European countries, combining an analysis of international and national legal frameworks with a functional–spatial assessment of cemetery surroundings. In addition, an environmental survey conducted among experts and residents highlights diverse perceptions regarding cemetery functions and their integration into urban landscapes. The findings demonstrate that policy-based management and multifunctional design are essential for enhancing the ecological, cultural, and social value of cemeteries. Reframing cemeteries as multifunctional green spaces offers a practical pathway toward more resilient and environmentally responsible urban development. Some important differences between the following countries have been observed.

This article examines how historical underground spaces in Czech cities are being reclaimed as pro-grammable cultural infrastructure. Using nationwide mapping of 26 sites, it combines desk research, site observation, interviews with managers, and analysis of online reviews. It proposes typologies by spatial form, cultural activity, and governance, and shows three levers enable successful reuse: governance partnerships; environmental control and comfort; and legibility with coherent narrative design. These levers convert subterranean specificities such as microclimates and acoustics into accessible expe-riences. Comparative evidence reveals stable pairings between underground types and specific cultural activities. Visitor feedback highlights clear routes, guide quality, safety, and memorable anchors, while humidity, crowding, and accessibility barriers depress satisfaction. The study contributes to debates on adaptive reuse, placemaking, and cultural management by clarifying how subterranean conditions re-shape costs, risks, and experiential value, and by specifying managerial thresholds for dependable, relia-ble year-round programming in mostly medium-sized Central European cities.

Ecosystem disservices (EDS)—ecosystem properties and functions that cause discomfort or harm—often shape public attitudes to urban biodiversity more strongly than ecosystem services, yet they remain weakly integrated into inclusive spatial planning. This study develops and tests an EDS classification and a decision-making tree intended to help planners recognise disservices, assess ES–EDS trade-offs, and select proportionate responses without defaulting to ecological simplification. The framework was derived from literature, survey evidence, and expert–stakeholder input from Eastern European cities, and then examined through five contrasting urban action situations in Estonia and Belarus. The cases show that a shared decision logic for EDS is transferable across settings, but that its practical uptake depends on governance conditions. Where communication was proactive and explanatory, participation was meaningful, and long-term management was institutionally secured, disservices were reframed or mitigated while ecological objectives were maintained. Where disservices were framed late, trust was low, or political intervention truncated deliberation, even modest nature-based interventions were stalled or redirected toward grey alternatives. These findings justify treating EDS as a routine planning concern and demonstrate how an EDS-aware approach can strengthen inclusive planning by making both benefits and burdens of urban nature explicit.

Rare earth element abundances and gadolinium contamination in tap water worldwide.

Leveraging peri-urban forests to reduce temperature and air pollution-related urban mortality in European cities

The valorisation of household and commercial bio-waste into soil improvers helps to reduce disposable waste, mitigate climate change, and improve soil resilience. While the separate collection of bio-waste is mandatory in the European Union, this remains a challenging task, particularly for large cities, due to quality problems in densely populated areas. In addition to various informational and motivational tools for households, financial incentives are becoming increasingly important. However, there is a lack of robust evidence regarding the optimal use of these incentives and their impact on the quantity and quality of collected bio-waste. We investigated the impact of different charging systems on the quantity and quality of bio-waste, basing our research on the experiences of more than twenty European cities and using a detailed questionnaire completed by the relevant administrators. The results confirm that cities, which provide financial incentives for waste sorting, yield a higher quantity of separated bio-waste. As introducing tiered fees can lead to quality issues, monitoring bio-waste and taking action against polluters seems to be unavoidable. Since the identification of polluters is very difficult in the case of multi-family homes, the results are discussed with a special focus on densely populated cities. Pilot projects for alternative options for the valorisation of organic waste, particularly in districts with high-rise buildings, should be evaluated.

This qualitative study explores the role of FinTech accelerators and incubators in fostering entrepreneurial innovation across seven major European cities: London, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, and Barcelona. Through in-depth interviews with 16 entrepreneurs, mentors, and program managers, the research identifies the key support mechanisms, challenges, and outcomes associated with accelerator and incubator participation. The study reveals that financial support, mentorship, and networking are critical enablers for the growth of FinTech startups. However, regulatory complexities, talent acquisition, and market competition present persistent challenges. The findings highlight the significant impact of accelerators and incubators on startup scalability and market readiness. The research further emphasizes the need for harmonized regulatory frameworks and better talent development initiatives to support the growth of FinTech ecosystems in Europe. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers, accelerators, and entrepreneurs in enhancing the FinTech innovation ecosystem.

Platform-mediated free tours in major European cultural cities, where they are notably prominent, remain underexplored in academic literature, despite their role as a contributing factor to overtourism in some instances. This research explores the characteristics of this tourism phenomenon by investigating consumers’ motivations and interactions with it. This is accomplished through a quantitative approach using Ajzen’s well-established theory of planned behaviour (TPB), which has demonstrated its efficacy in predicting various intentions and behaviours. A structural equation model (SEM) was constructed to shed light on the determinants of tourists’ choice of platform-mediated free tours. Our extended TPB model includes trust in the platform eWOM, sustainability values and online loyalty constructs. The results provide insight into tourists’ decision-making processes and validate the TPB’s efficacy in explaining a substantial portion of the variance in purchase intentions for online platform-based free tours.

Our article aims to assess the implementation of the principles of urban food governance and sustainable, resilient food systems in the local food plans in 7 European cities. We used content analysis of urban food plans to assess their quality and the scope of actions planned to create sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems. In the quality assessment, the participatory process of strategy development received the highest ratings. Implementation and monitoring received the lowest scores. The plans analyzed are more communication-oriented than actions-oriented. The least number of plans promoted food prosumption, cultural appropriateness of food system and technological innovation in the food system. The management of plan implementation does not always take into account the involvement of city residents. We recommend local decision makers expand interventions to include these aspects, enhancing strategy effectiveness.

Natural and engineered water features, or blue infrastructure are increasingly implemented in cities as a form of water-related nature-based solutions (aquaNBS), to address ecological and hydrological challenges that threaten urban biodiversity and water security. Nevertheless, the combination of impacts from climate change, multi-faceted consequences of past management, current urban expansion, population growth, and overall urban ecosystem complexity makes it challenging to evaluate the hydrological function of these aquaNBS, and their sensitivity to hydroclimatic and other environmental changes. To enhance adaptation capacity of aquaNBS towards multiple urban and climatic stressors, it is crucial to understand the main hydrologic processes, as well as hydroclimate influences, that determine the functioning of aquaNBS. Stable water isotopes have proven to be a valuable tool in providing integrated understanding of hydrologic functioning over extended spatial scales. While higher frequency isotope data is usually most informative, even limited isotopic data can aid hydrological characterization. We conducted seasonal sampling over the period of one year in 2023/2024, across a major hydroclimate gradient across four European cities (Poznań, Berlin, Antwerp, Lisbon). The goal was to identify the dominant physical processes (in terms of water sources, dominant flow paths, and age proxies) linked to the main hydroclimate factors along a continental climate gradient. Comparative analyses of local stable water isotope signatures from different aquaNBS types (i.e., streams, ponds) revealed the strong influence of local hydroclimate, as well as varying water source contributions and mixing processes. The application of transit time proxies, such as tracer damping and young water fraction estimations, suggests ponds to be more sensitive to hydroclimate changes, as evidenced by the strong seasonality in evaporative enrichment and high fractions of young water contributions. In contrast, most streams indicated greater mixing of water sources and longer transit times, suggesting greater resilience to hydroclimate variability. In addition, a comparison between seasonally sampled data and monthly sampling for selected locations in Berlin showed that even relatively coarse temporal data collection, but with more extensive spatial coverage, can be sufficient and still insightful for broader hydrologic characterizations of aquaNBS at larger scales.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10661-025-14882-x.

This study explored how undergraduate participants in a short-term study abroad (STSA) program engaged with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through visual documentation. Grounded in the framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the research examined how participants demonstrated awareness of sustainability issues through photographs captured during travel across five European cities (Amsterdam, Bruges, Delft, Leuven, and Paris) in May 2024. Twenty-nine participants from the University of Georgia were instructed to photograph at least five SDGs in each city, identifying the corresponding goal for each image. A quantitative analysis of frequencies revealed all 17 SDGs were represented, with SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) most frequently depicted. These quantitative findings were complemented by qualitative interpretations of recurring visual themes—livestock and natural landscapes (SDG 15), urban mobility and renewable infrastructure (SDG 11), and tourism and floriculture (SDG 9). The limited presence of human figures across photographs suggests that participants may have gravitated toward accessible, public scenes and felt hesitant to capture social interactions or people, revealing a potential bias toward the environmental dimension of sustainability. Within the ESD framework, these findings indicate cognitive engagement with sustainability concepts but limited socio-emotional or behavioral expression. The study demonstrates the pedagogical potential of visual methods to promote sustainability literacy in international education and offers recommendations for integrating SDG-focused reflection, ethical visual practices, and structured dialogue into future STSA curricula to strengthen critical thinking and global awareness.

In recent years, European cities have experienced rapid changes in their functional and spatial organisation, which have affected, among others, the natural environment, the economy and society. The intensive and often uncontrolled growth of residential development associated with suburbanisation significantly impacts areas located around urban areas. Growing investment pressures usually lead to the transformation of rural and naturally valuable areas, altering their character and functions. Solving these problems requires developing a method to determine the main directions and intensity of land use changes in the context of urbanisation pressures and sustainable spatial development. This article presents the results of a spatiotemporal analysis of the dynamics of built-up area development in rural and suburban zones, utilising Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. The study focused on the expansion of single- and multi-family housing around the city of Białystok, Poland, between 1997 and 2022. The analysis was based on spatial data, including available orthomosaics and cadastral data from the Topographic Objects Database (BDOT10k). The GIS-based analysis covered an area of nearly 2000 km2 and included methods for change detection, analysis, and land cover classification. The results indicated a marked intensification in landscape transformations, particularly in transition zones between rural and urban areas. At the same time, forests and protected zones significantly influenced the direction and pace of development, acting as natural barriers limiting spatial expansion. The results indicate the need to consider environmental factors (e.g., protected areas and forests) in spatial planning processes and sustainable development policies. The study confirms the high usefulness of GIS tools in monitoring and forecasting spatial change at both the local and regional scales. This research also contributes to the discussion on urbanisation, its characteristics, causes, and consequences, and highlights the role of green spaces in limiting sprawl.

Abstract. For the development of a joint European capacity for monitoring CO2 emissions, we created the framework “CO2 Monitoring Challenges City Mapbooks v1.0” (CMC-CITYMAP). It includes a Jupyter notebook tool (Storm et al., 2025a, https://doi.org/10.18160/P8SV-B99F) which we use to characterise and cluster cities based on aspects relevant for different CO2 monitoring challenges. These include: a. determining background levels of CO2 inflow into a city (“background challenge”).b. separating the anthropogenic emissions from the influence of the biosphere (“biogenic challenge”).c. representing spatially and temporally non-uniform emissions in models (“modelling challenge”).d. implementing observation strategies not covered by the other challenges (“application-specific observational challenge”). We provide and discuss the challenges on a city-by-city basis. Our primary focus, however, is on the relationships between cities: best practices and lessons learned from monitoring CO2 emissions in one city can be transferred to other cities with similar characteristics. Additionally, we identify cities with characteristics that strongly contrast with those of cities with existing urban monitoring systems. While the notebook tool includes 308 cities, this paper focuses on the results for 96 cities with more than 200 000 inhabitants. We place a particular emphasis on Paris, Munich, and Zurich. These cities are pilot cities for the Horizon 2020-funded project Pilot Application in Urban Landscapes (“ICOS Cities”), where a range of urban CO2 monitoring methods are being implemented and assessed. According to our analyses, Zurich – and Munich especially – should be less challenging to monitor than Paris. Examining the challenges individually reveals that the most significant challenge relative to the other cities is the “modelling challenge” (c) for Zurich and Paris. Complex urban topography adds to the challenge for both cities, and in Zurich, the natural topography further amplifies the challenge. Munich has low scores across all challenges, but with the greatest challenge anticipated from the “application-specific observational challenge” (d). Overall, Bratislava (Slovakia) and Copenhagen (Denmark) are among the most distant from Paris, Munich, and Zurich in our dendrogram resulting from numerical cluster-analysis. This makes them strong candidates for inclusion in the ICOS Cities network, as they would potentially provide the most information on how to monitor emissions in cities that face different challenges.

Whole-body vibration (WBV) represents a significant health and comfort concern in modern public transportation systems. This study compares vibration exposure in two types of articulated city buses—diesel-powered and fully electric—under real operating conditions in one of the European cities (1 million inhabitants). Measurements were conducted at three seating positions (front, middle, rear) across four surface types: smooth asphalt, mixed asphalt-rail, cobblestone, and idle. Triaxial accelerometers recorded accelerations processed according to ISO 2631-1. The frequency-weighted Root Mean Square (RMS) served as the principal comfort indicator, while FFT spectra provided spectral insight. Results showed differences in vibrations, and therefore passenger comfort, in buses powered by different energy sources (the research was conducted from May to July 2025). The article highlights additional inconveniences resulting from operating the buses on roads.

Climate-friendly mobility in cities. Planning for carbon reduction in the long term in four European cities

Understanding the public acceptance of automated minibuses: A market segmentation analysis across European cities

Exploring the future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS): A co-design approach to scenario planning in European cities

Over the past three decades tourism geographers have engaged increasingly with issues of urban tourism and overtourism. The mass of urban tourism scholarship and writings about overtourism concerns cities in the Global North. The novel contribution of this study is documenting evidence of emergent overtourism and the rise of resident discontent in the context of a major urban tourism destination in the Global South, namely Cape Town. The case study scrutinized is of tourism impacts and stakeholder perspectives of the historic inner-city neighbourhood of Bo-Kaap where 22 detailed stakeholder interviews were conducted. The Bo-Kaap manifests the hallmarks of overtourism as documented in several European cities. Touristification is modifying the local residential and business landscape for tourist consumption with the consequence that residents of the neighbourhood are alienated as the space becomes difficult to live in. The findings reveal significant levels of anti-tourist sentiment in the Bo-Kaap which stem from concerns about the local nuisances of tourism expansion and perceived lack of benefits for the neighbourhood. Arguably, critical policy and management challenges confront the City of Cape Town in respect of current directions of tourism development in the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood.