Despite the critical importance of ecosystem restoration across Europe, comprehensive, ecosystem-specific assessments of community attitudes toward restoration efforts, measured in terms of social acceptance, remain scarce. This study spatially assesses social acceptance across ecosystem types. An online public participatory GIS (PPGIS) survey collected data from over 4,500 residents in the Copenhagen capital region, Denmark, revealing attitudes toward restoring nature across five ecosystem types and documenting their specific values, outdoor recreation uses, and perceived barriers to acceptance. Social acceptance was moderate to high overall but varied significantly across ecosystems: coastal, freshwater, and field ecosystems received higher acceptance, whereas forest and urban ecosystems showed lower support. Importantly, acceptance was positively associated with intrinsic, aesthetic, and regulating values, as well as activities such as relaxation, swimming, hiking, and picnicking, while sites used for mountain biking, horseback riding, and dog walking showed lower acceptance. Key self-reported reasons for low acceptance included concerns about access restrictions, risks and trade-offs, perceived ineffectiveness of measures, and threats to cultural heritage. These findings highlight the need for place-specific and ecosystem-sensitive social acceptability assessments in landscape planning and management for nature restoration and demonstrate how participatory mapping can help anticipate local opposition and contested views. • Participatory mapping used to assess acceptance for nature restoration spatially • Overall medium to high levels of acceptance, with variation across ecosystems • We identify areas of high acceptance and areas where more efforts are needed • Areas for horseback riding and mountain biking had lowest acceptance • Perceived reduced access, risks, and other trade-offs hindered acceptance

The article is devoted to the study of territorial planning prerequisites for the development of tourism and recreation in the Central ecological zone of Lake Baikal. The paper discusses the theory of adaptation of recreational systems to the applied aspects of sectoral territorial planning on the example of Kabansky district of the Republic of Buryatia. The research considers the main tasks of organizing tourism in the environmental context of the territory: the study of the attractiveness factors of natural and anthropogenic complexes for recreational purposes, taking into account the landscape, ecological and aesthetic qualities of natural territories as a basis for the placement and layout of environmental and recreational functions in the territory, the study of socio-economic, historical, cultural and planning pre-requisites for the development of tourism as a typological subsystem of the established settlement. The results of the study consider the landscape, historical, cultural, functional, technical and infrastructural factors of the territorial organization of the settlement of Kabansky district. The analysis of the essential structure of environmental and recreational activities, resources and prospects for the development of the tourist and recreational system in the current context of land use is carried out. The features of the landscape planning organization and the tasks of adaptive development of recreation and tourism in the lower reaches of the Selenga River as a recreational area are also considered. The defining principles of sustainability are: the integration of environmental protection and ecotourism, the formation of a core tourist activity in human settlements, increasing the functional diversity and connectivity of the territory through the development of internal recreational networks.

Forest fragmentation and Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) change are major drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, particularly in landscapes undergoing infrastructure expansion. This study evaluates long-term LULC dynamics and forest structural fragmentation within the proposed China-Nepal railway corridor across the districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Kathmandu from 1990 to 2020. LULC classification identified eight major categories: forest, shrubland, grassland, agricultural area, barren area, water body, snow/glacier, and built-up area. A transition matrix approach was applied to quantify class conversions, while forest fragmentation patterns were assessed using spatial metrics, including edge, core, and perforated forest components. Results indicate that forest cover declined between 1990 and 2000, followed by partial recovery through 2020. Despite this recovery, fragmentation metrics reveal an increase in edge and perforated forest areas and fluctuations in core forest extent, suggesting structural reconfiguration of forest landscapes. Substantial forest persistence was observed alongside measurable transitions to agricultural and built-up land uses, highlighting dynamic landscape change rather than continuous forest loss. By integrating multi-decadal LULC transition analysis with spatial fragmentation assessment, this study establishes a structural baseline for the railway corridor prior to major infrastructure implementation. The findings provide spatially explicit evidence to support future environmental monitoring and informed landscape planning in ecologically sensitive Himalayan regions.

Landscape planners in semi-arid and arid regions often plant native shrubs to reduce water and fertilizer use; however, landscape management practices might alter shrub resource use and make them more dependent on irrigation and fertilization. Our objective was to assess whether water and nutrient subsidies in managed landscapes affected plant resource use. We measured carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotopes and tissue N concentrations in leaves of native Mediterranean-type vegetation growing in adjacent urban and natural areas at six different universities throughout Southern California. These data are used to test the hypothesis that native shrubs growing in natural areas with no or infrequent irrigation would have higher δ13C but lower δ15N values than conspecifics growing in managed landscapes. Leaf δ13C declined as aridity increased across our six campuses, but only for plants growing in natural areas, suggesting that irrigation decoupled water use efficiency (WUE) from natural climate conditions. Plants growing in urban landscapes had lower δ13C values than conspecifics growing in natural areas, suggesting that irrigated plants had lower WUE. Plants also had higher leaf δ15N in managed settings, suggesting that fertilization and irrigation increased N availability and mobility. Our results indicate that semi-arid plants that normally exhibit stomatal control over water loss in natural areas might be more sensitive to drought if irrigation systems fail or are shut off due to high water costs. Using native plants in urban landscapes may not result in water savings because native plants are less efficient in their water use.

Space is one of the main drivers of biodiversity, as it regulates the underlying processes affecting the distribution and dynamics of species and communities. It is a fundamental factor when considering the rapid climate and land cover changes occurring at local and global scales, which are linked to habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as their impacts on biodiversity. The Atlantic Forest of South America is among the world's biodiversity hotspots because of its exceptionally high species richness and endemism. Most of the threats to the Atlantic Forest's biodiversity stem from the expansion of urbanization and industry, extensive agricultural and livestock production, and mining. Here, we provide integrated and fine-scale spatial information (30-m resolution) for the entire extent of the Atlantic Forest for the years 2020 to 2022. The spatial data include different vegetation classes (forest, and forest combined with other non-forest vegetation), the effects of linear structures (roads and railways), and landscape metrics computed at multiple scales (radius buffers-moving window sizes-ranging from 50 to 2500 m, and up to 10 km for some metrics). The dataset comprises the Atlantic Forest delimitation vector and more than 500 rasters, available through a series of thematically grouped files in multiple Zenodo repositories. This data can also be accessed using the R package atlanticr, which we developed to facilitate data retrieval and organization from Zenodo. The dataset includes landscape, topographic, hydrological, and anthropogenic metrics. Landscape metrics were calculated for two vegetation classes-Forest Vegetation (which combined different forest cover classes) and Natural Vegetation (which combined forest and non-forest cover classes)-as well as for a heterogeneous, multi-class classification of the landscape (31 land cover classes). The landscape metrics include landscape morphology (classification as matrix, core, edge, corridor, branch, stepping stone, and perforation), fragment area and proportion, patch area and number, edge and core areas and proportions, structural and functional connectivity (for different organisms' gap-crossing capabilities), distance to and from fragment edges, fragment perimeter and perimeter-area ratio, and landscape diversity (heterogeneity). Topographic metrics include elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, and landform elements (peak, ridge, shoulder, spur, slope, hollow, footslope, valley, pit, and flat). Hydrological metrics comprise potential springs (and their kernel density) and streams (and distance to the nearest feature). Anthropogenic metrics include maps of roads, railways, protected areas, Indigenous territories, and quilombola territories (localities of self-defined Afro-Brazilian traditional communities), as well as the distance to each feature. This dataset facilitates the efficient integration of biodiversity and spatially explicit data for the Atlantic Forest, serving as a data source for studies, landscape planning, biodiversity conservation, and forest restoration programs. The data are released under a CC BY-NC 4.0: Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International license and this data paper should be cited when the data are reused.

Ecosystem service supply-demand coupling for multifunctional agroforestry landscape planning: A case study of Yunnan, China.

• Pipe culverts could be useful as wildlife crossings for clutter-adapted bats. • Small pipe culverts (80 cm in diameter) are occasionally used by bats. • Bat activity increase with pipe culvert diameters. • Pipe culverts with water have higher bat activity. • Open-air foragers, such as the genus Pipistrellus did not use pipe culverts. Roads have several negative ecological effects on bats. Clutter-adapted bat species avoid roads as the open space increases the risk of predation. This results in the road acting as a barrier of movement, making otherwise suitable habitat inaccessible. Different approaches to mitigate the fragmentation and mortality caused by roads have been explored. Underpasses such as bridges or tunnels have proven to be used by clutter-adapted species to cross the road. A few studies have indicated that some species of bats could possibly use smaller structures such as pipe culverts. As pipe culverts are more cost-effective than bridges and tunnels, we set out to quantitively investigate what factors affect the usage of pipe culverts, aiming to produce recommendations for their implementation in the landscape. Clutter-adapted bats were surveyed with ultrasound detectors in 269 pipe culverts in Sweden. Each pipe culvert was surveyed for one night each and 73 pipe culverts with a high recorded activity were revisited and surveyed with mist nets. M. brandtii, M. daubentonii, M. mystacinus , M. nattereri, and P. auritus were found to be flying in the pipe culverts. Factors affecting the activity and usage of the pipe culverts were the width of the pipe culverts, presence of water in the pipe culvert and the presence of forest at the openings of the pipe culvert. The results give insight into how pipe culverts could be designed and implemented in landscape planning to mitigate the fragmentation caused by roads and decrease their negative effects on clutter-adapted bats.

In the context of global climate change and rapid urbanization, understanding the interactions among thermal environments, energy consumption, and carbon emissions is essential for enhancing urban resilience and achieving dual carbon goals. Existing studies have rarely examined these relationships within a unified analytical framework, limiting insights into the thermal-energy-carbon (TEC) linkages at the regional scale. This study examines the TEC linkage within the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) by integrating remote sensing data with econometric modeling approaches. Benchmark regression and robustness checks indicate that changes in surface thermal environment significantly increase regional carbon emissions in the YREB. Further analyses yield three main findings. First, mediation analysis identifies a clear transmission pathway, showing that changes in thermal environment raise overall energy demand, which in turn accounts for approximately 59.20% of the total effect on carbon emissions. Second, threshold regression reveals a double-threshold effect of economic development, indicating that the impact of surface thermal changes on carbon emissions strengthens markedly as regional economic development surpasses specific thresholds. In particular, this effect becomes pronounced in highly developed areas. Third, landscape optimization, especially improved connectivity, is significantly associated with lower carbon emissions and may help alleviate the carbon impacts associated with surface warming. These findings underscore the necessity for policymakers to design differentiated, region-specific carbon reduction strategies that integrate landscape planning and energy efficiency improvements, with particular emphasis on highly developed regions, to more effectively address the challenges of the TEC linkage.

Abstract - Funerary architecture in the Indian subcontinent represents a significant expression of cultural, political, and architectural development. Delhi, as the capital of several dynasties, contains a rich collection of tomb architecture that reflects evolving architectural ideas over time. The Lodi dynasty (1451–1526), representing the final phase of the Delhi Sultanate, developed a distinct architectural vocabulary characterised by geometric clarity, centralised plans, restrained massing, and structurally dominant domes. With the establishment of Mughal rule in 1526, funerary architecture underwent further transformation through the introduction of refined geometric systems, increased monumentality, axial symmetry, and integrated landscape planning. This research undertakes a comparative architectural analysis of selected Lodi and early Mughal tombs in Delhi to examine continuity and transformation in funerary architecture. The study focuses specifically on plan typology, geometric organisation, spatial hierarchy, dome morphology, and proportional systems. Through the examination of tombs such as the Tomb of Muhammad Shah Sayyid, the Tomb of Sikandar Lodi, and Humayun’s Tomb, the research investigates how architectural geometry functions as a generative design tool rather than merely a stylistic feature. The findings reveal that early Mughal architecture did not emerge as a complete departure from Sultanate architecture but instead evolved through a gradual refinement of existing geometric and spatial principles. The study contributes to architectural history by highlighting the importance of geometry and form in understanding architectural continuity during this transitional period. Key Words: Funerary Architecture, Indo-Islamic Architecture Delhi Sultanate Architecture, Lodi Architecture, Mughal Architecture, Plan Typology, Geometric Organization, Spatial Hierarchy,Dome Morphology

The global mental health issue is becoming increasingly prominent. The fair supply of psychological therapeutic landscape spaces in urban high-density residential areas is a core path to ensuring the physical and mental health of residents and maintaining social health equity. This study takes the theory of spatial justice as the core framework, selects 20 typical high-density residential areas in Shijiazhuang City as empirical samples, and collects basic data through structured questionnaire surveys and on-site observations to explore the justice dilemma, evaluation system, and group demand differentiation characteristics of psychological therapeutic landscape spaces in high-density residential areas. The research results show that there are three core injustice problems in the psychological therapeutic landscape spaces of high-density residential areas: insufficient spatial inclusiveness, lack of ecological space justice, and incomplete facilities and management systems. Residents’ evaluations of the spatial justice of therapeutic landscapes can be divided into four dimensions: practical, ecological, social, and management. Among them, the ecological dimension is the core dimension that residents pay the most attention to. Individual characteristics such as gender, age, identity category, community activity duration, and governance participation willingness have a significant impact on residents’ evaluations of spatial justice. This study constructs an evaluation system for the spatial justice of therapeutic landscape spaces suitable for high-density residential areas, providing theoretical support and practical guidance for the planning, design, and optimization and renewal of fair and inclusive psychological therapeutic landscapes in high-density residential areas in northern China. At the same time, it provides a scientific basis for the construction of healthy cities and the practical application of spatial justice in the field of human settlements.

Spatial technologies play a key role in documenting and analyzing landscape components. The Landscape Information Model (LIM), deriving from the Building Information Model (BIM), is a digital representation of a landscape, which should support planning, design, management, and analysis throughout a landscape’s lifecycle. In the literature, the applications of BIM technology in landscape planning focuses on the design and the construction of 3D and 5D LIMs. The aim of this paper is to develop the concept of 7D LIMs for the purposes of managing greenery based on the example of the university campus and model implementation based on BIM-GIS technology. The specific objective is to develop the UML diagrams of the model that would be dedicated to the needs of the unit responsible for maintaining the university’s infrastructure. The source of data was a point cloud obtained by laser scanning, which was then processed to map the terrain, small architectural objects, and infrastructure in the Revit 2024 software. The developed method indicated the value of modern technologies in landscape processes and their potential use in public institutions. The proposed diagrams that describe the semantics of landscape forms and greenery maintenance activities can be developed by adding further ontological aspects of the landscape model.

Serving as a link between cities and villages, small towns play a crucial role in reducing the disparity between urban and rural areas. The spaces of small towns in Southern Jiangsu Province not only showcase the landscape style of production–living–ecological but also embody local cultural characteristics, acting as a unique “container” for preserving the memory of Jiangnan water towns. However, during the urbanization process, these spaces often fail to respect the principles of landscape locality, instead favoring standardization and efficient designs that overlook human perspectives on landscape perception and understanding. This results in the “homogenization” and “heterogenization” of Jiangnan small towns landscape spaces. As county urbanization shifts toward improving human environments, human-scale spatial perception has become key to localized planning. By combining street view photos with deep learning, the ‘2bulu’ dataset supports large-scale analysis of crowd perception and precise detection of spatial and landscape features. This study investigated the proportions of landscape elements in the small towns’ town–rural–wilderness of Wujiang District that play a direct role in shaping people’s perceived visual identity and sense of cultural resonance, assessed the spatial distribution of perceived landscape locality scores, and revealed the positive or negative correlations between the proportions of visual landscape elements and the sense of place. This study analyzed perceived landscape locality in Wujiang small towns based on crowd perception, exploring which town–rural–wilderness landscape elements are perceived as having local character, and highlighted the importance of preserving locality through integrated town–rural–wilderness landscape elements. The findings offer insights for quantitative measuring landscape locality perception and support planning of appropriate local landscapes in Jiangnan small towns.

Perception value and space configuration: Analyzing the mismatch relationship in urban historical and cultural area using multi-source data

Harvesting naturally dynamic forests causes losses of habitat quality and functional connectivity. Focusing on Sweden as a case study of high-yield rotation forestry, we provide analyses supporting spatial prioritisation of protection, management and restoration of representative functional forest habitat networks. Habitat suitability index modelling of focal birdspecies was used to analyse how forest naturalness, habitat patch size and functional connectivity affect representative forest habitat networks in Sweden's five ecoregions. Habitat modelling for the least demanding bird species showed that of the mountain ecoregion 57-77% was functional, but in the other three boreal ecoregions only 8-9% were functional. For nemoral forests, the proportions of functional habitat networks were < 3%. More demanding species have even less functional habitat. We highlight the importance of the mountain ecoregion for forest biodiversity conservation, and the urgent need for landscape planning of protection, conservation management and nature restoration in Sweden.

Background and objective: The Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam is a dynamic fluvial environment influenced by seasonal flooding, sediment deposition and saline intrusion. In this context the Óc Eo civilisation (1st–7th centuries CE (Common Era) established a water management system that combined technical innovation with cultural adaptation. Far beyond a simple hydraulic installation, the network contributed to a deliberate landscape design that supported urban habitation and ecological interaction. The study is intended to examine the hydraulic and spatial configuration of the Óc Eo–Ba Thê complex in order to evaluate how ancient societies shaped their settlement patterns in response to environmental constraints and sustained long term occupation.Methods: This study employed an interdisciplinary approach to examine ecological and cultural adaptation in the lower Mekong Delta. Archaeological data, remote sensing imagery, historical maps, and sediment analysis were used to reconstruct past environmental conditions and canal systems. GIS-based spatial analysis clarified the relationships between hydraulic infrastructure, settlement patterns, and geomorphology.Results: Settlements of the Óc Eo culture emerged in flood-prone lowlands influenced by sea level shifts and monsoonal climate. Urban structure centered on a canal network used for transport, drainage, agriculture, and ritual practices.Canal Number 16 served as the principal axis connecting habitation zones and sacred areas. Over 700 kilometers of canals reflect intentional planning for environmental adaptation. Archaeological and spatial data reveal a complex and resilient water-based urban system.Conclusion: The spatial and hydraulic systems of Óc Eo present a coherent model of ecological adaptation that operated in harmony with cultural continuity. These historical insights offer valuable perspectives for current water governance and landscape planning in the climate sensitive Mekong Delta, where flood risk, land subsidence, and rising sea levels continue to challenge sustainable development.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. In the Affiliation section, the below affiliation is missing for Thomas Thaler. 4. Institute of Landscape Planning, BOKU University, Peter-Jordan Straße 65, A-1180, Vienna, Austria The original article has been corrected.

Conservation-based landscape planning is an increasingly important strategic approach in addressing the challenges of ecosystem degradation and species extinction due to land use change, habitat fragmentation, and climate change. This article aims to analyze how landscape planning can effectively support the conservation of target species and target ecosystems within the framework of sustainable biodiversity management. Through a systematic literature review of 30 articles of reputable international journals (2005–2025), this study identifies the main principles, planning methods, and indicators of success in integrating conservation into landscape spatial planning. The results show that ecosystem-based approaches, connectivity planning, and multi-stakeholder participation are the main foundations in conservation landscape planning. Indicator species and umbrella species are often used as proxies to identify priority areas, while target ecosystems are selected based on their level of uniqueness, threat, and ecological function. The integration of GIS-based spatial data and habitat modeling allows for effective identification of ecological corridors and conservation core areas. Studies also found that long-term success relies heavily on supportive policies, institutional capacity, and local community involvement. This article concludes that holistic and adaptive landscape planning is key to achieving conservation goals while supporting sustainable development. Policy recommendations include strengthening cross-sectoral landscape governance and building technical capacity in evidence-based planning.

Thermal stress in hot–humid urban environments constitutes a persistent sustainability challenge, driven by the interaction of extreme temperatures, high atmospheric moisture, and heat-retaining urban surfaces, which collectively intensify outdoor discomfort and increase cooling-energy demand. Within this context, soft landscape systems have gained recognition as nature-based solutions capable of moderating microclimates and enhancing residential livability; however, their systematic prioritization based on integrated sustainability performance remains insufficiently addressed, particularly in Gulf-region residential developments. This study proposes a sustainability-oriented decision-support framework that evaluates and prioritizes soft landscape strategies for thermal comfort enhancement using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as the core analytical method. Expert judgments were elicited and structured across five sustainability-driven criteria—shading effectiveness, evapotranspiration potential, airflow facilitation, aesthetic–psychological comfort, and implementation and maintenance cost—and applied to five soft landscape alternatives. To verify the physical plausibility of the expert-derived prioritization, microclimate simulations were conducted using ENVI-met under extreme summer conditions, representing the hottest day of the year, at key diurnal intervals. The results reveal a clear dominance of shading-based mechanisms, with tree canopy systems emerging as the most effective and sustainable intervention due to their superior radiative control, ecological cooling capacity, and perceptual benefits. Simulation outputs confirm that canopy-driven strategies achieve the most substantial reductions in mean radiant temperature during peak thermal stress, while surface-based interventions provide secondary benefits primarily related to diurnal heat dissipation. At peak thermal stress (14:00), Scenario 2 reduced mean radiant temperature (MRT) from 71.69 °C to 54.23 °C (≈24% reduction) and PMV from 7.33 to 5.70 (≈22% reduction) relative to existing conditions. By integrating expert-based multi-criteria evaluation with simulation-based thermal verification, the study advances a robust and transferable framework for climate-responsive residential landscape planning. The findings reposition soft landscape systems as essential climatic infrastructure, offering actionable guidance for enhancing thermal resilience, reducing cooling-energy dependence, and supporting sustainable residential development in hot–humid regions.

Garden landscape designing software has revolutionized the way landscape architects, designers, and homeowners conceptualize and execute outdoor spaces. These digital tools provide advanced features for planning, visualizing, and managing garden layouts, incorporating elements such as plant selection, hardscaping, irrigation systems, and lighting. With 3D modeling, real-time rendering, and integration with Building Information Modeling (BIM), modern software enhances design accuracy and project efficiency. Applications like AutoCAD, SketchUp, and specialized tools such as Realtime Landscaping and PRO Landscape cater to both professionals and hobbyists, offering customizable templates and AI-driven design suggestions. Additionally, environmental and sustainability considerations are increasingly integrated, allowing designers to assess factors like water conservation, soil health, and climate adaptability. As garden landscape software continues to evolve, it plays a crucial role in sustainable urban planning, smart gardening solutions, and the seamless execution of aesthetically pleasing, functional, and eco-friendly outdoor environments.

Historic gardens are dynamic archives of biodiversity and cultural heritage, yet many have been lost or transformed, erasing their original floristic identity. This study reconstructs the experimental agricultural garden of Villa Santa Maria in Potenza (Southern Italy). The garden was founded in 1823 by the Società Economica di Basilicata as a provincial center for agronomic innovation. Through a multidisciplinary approach—archival research, iconographic analysis, and taxonomic revision—we analyzed the Catalogus Plantarum Horti Agrarii Lucani (1846), which listed 670 cultivated taxa, including 196 varieties. Updated nomenclature confirmed the presence of 450 plant taxa. The garden featured a clear functional zoning system integrating ornamental parterres, orchards, nurseries, artificial meadows, and experimental plots for industrial crops and forage species. Chorological analysis reveals a dominant Mediterranean component, along with significant Asiatic and American elements, and smaller Australian and African contributions, reflecting 19th-century plant exchange networks. The conservation assessment shows that many historically cultivated taxa are now nationally protected, and several endemics retain high ecological value. These results highlight the role of historic gardens as living laboratories for biodiversity conservation and cultural continuity. Reintroducing documented species and heritage cultivars within a conservation framework can strengthen urban resilience and identity. This case exemplifies how botanical memory can guide landscape planning by linking historical authenticity with contemporary ecological and educational objectives.