New Issue Published: Landscape Architecture, Volume 2026, Issue 1
Landscape Architecture is pleased to announce the publication of Volume 2026, Issue 3. The new issue is now available online
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- Research article
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1The University of Sheffield
- Volume 115 Issue 3
- Pages: 71
- - 85
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20251153-05
In photovoltaic green roofs, the electricity generation takes place over the vegetated surface via solar-electric process, whereas the thermal behavior is governed by evapotranspiration, substrate heat storage, and vegetation exposure under the effect of solar radiation. In the following section, a measured data set of sedum green roof in Ljubljana with elevated photovoltaics will be analyzed based on the comparison of three shade conditions of the vegetation surface: unshaded, partially shaded, and fully shaded. The Hydrothermal Constraint Number depends on evapotranspiration similarity, the vegetation-temperature correlation adjusted according to shading, photovoltaics’ correction to the evapotranspiration in the longwave range, and daytime heat-flux fraction to the heat flux reference. The measured evapotranspiration rate for 9 July 2024 is 3.98 mm day−1, and the modeled value is 4.15 mm day−1; for 25 July 2024, they are 4.08 mm day−1 and 3.95 mm day−1; and for 3 August 2024, they are 2.60 mm day−1 and 2.73 mm day−1. Thus, the corresponding RMSE is 0.145 mm day−1, the mean absolute error is 4.15 %, and the fidelity coefficient is 0.959. The vegetation-temperature correlation, θv = 0.935θa + 0.011Rg(1 − S), implies that every reduction of the short-wave shade-sensitive irradiation by 100 W m−2 results in the decrease of the solar thermal component of approximately 1.1 °C. Photovoltaics correction to the evapotranspiration by the long-wave exchange leads to the change in evapotranspiration.
- Research article
by
1College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Volume 115 Issue 2
- Pages: 51
- - 70
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20251152-04
Public space analytics has become capable of capturing visual data, text data, behaviour data, environmental data, and administrative data. However, increased opportunities in evidence collection do not necessarily mean balanced evidence on users, since observable actions and simple perception tend to attract significantly more computational power than, for instance, safety, accessibility, climate comfort, universality, and management experience. The objective of this paper is to apply the proposed Evidence-Deficit Allocation approach to a ten-dimensional public space evidence register, featuring 427 dimension assignments and 58 dimension-level machine learning assignments. These ten dimensions include feeling towards place, satisfaction, sensory experience, use and activity, sense of safety, health, climate comfortability, perceived accessibility, universality, and feeling towards management. Evidence-Deficit Allocation involves several components including evidence share, machine learning share, local uptake, positive evidence-to-method deficit, and constraint load, which are then used to calculate a size-sensitive priority score and an under-adoption urgency score. Analysis finds that use and activity and feeling towards place represent 64.17% and 86.21%, respectively, of the total dimension evidence assignments, and machine learning assignments. It can thus be confirmed that there is a pronounced dominance of machine learning in behavioural and affective dimensions. Meanwhile, climate comfortability, universality, and feeling towards management represent 14.29% of dimension evidence assignment, but none of these three has any machine learning assignments. Use and activity achieves a maximum size-sensitive priority score of 100.00, while sense of safety scores 100.00 in urgency. Perceived accessibility, climate comfortability, management perception, and universality are four under-instrumented fields in public space evidence. In a 10,000-run perturbation analysis, the results are found robust against alternative constraint weighting.
- Research article
by
1The school of Automation and Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
- Volume 115 Issue 2
- Pages: 33
- - 50
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20251152-03
Flood adaptation in land use in Nigeria calls for an intervention order that aligns with the level of flood burden, exposure of livelihood activities, and deterioration in land cover. In this paper, four flood-exposed communities; Odekpe, Umunakwo, Oko, and Okwe have been analyzed using the 198-respondent dataset on livelihood activity, size of farmland, flood shock index, nature-based integration value, and land cover type. About 61.1% of all respondents experienced severe to very severe flood shock, 72.7% of respondents earn their livelihood through farming and fishing, and 63.6% of respondent are exposed to small to medium-size farms. Odekpe had the largest flood shock value of 0.703, followed by Umunakwo (0.665), Oko (0.648), and Okwe (0.574). During 1990-2020, built-up and bare lands increased from 14.93 to 96.59 km2 whereas floodplains area increased from 183.07 to 332.73 km2. Vegetation and water bodies have declined during this period. The highest priority scores were allocated for ecosystem restoration and protection (27.51), green infrastructure development (25.01), and sustainable agriculture (24.80).
- Research article
by
1School of English Language and culture, Xi’an Fanyi University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710105, China
- Volume 115 Issue 1
- Pages: 16
- - 32
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20251151-02
Singapore’s urban green spaces should promote biodiversity and yet be safe, legible, and cheap to maintain. Rapid vegetation growth and regular pruning are likely to reduce insect and bird faunas through reduced flowering, litter, understory, and nesting structures within humid tropical urban green spaces. This paper assesses 13 Singapore urban green spaces comprising 7 parks and 6 streetscapes and determines whether sites having high faunal capacity also generate high biodiversity return when subject to light maintenance activities. Assessment was based on data regarding vegetation density, maintenance class, planted vs. spontaneous vegetation, species richness, Shannon diversity, probable species numbers, and cross-taxon performance for aculeate hymenoptera, butterflies, and birds. Four calculated metrics were considered: composite faunal capacity, low-input biodiversity return, unfulfilled species numbers, and cross-taxon performance. While parks recorded high average composite faunal capacity values (0.765), streetscapes recorded high values of spontaneous vegetation (0.602). Sites maintained under low maintenance conditions produced the greatest biodiversity return, at 0.577, against medium maintenance levels (0.274) and high maintenance conditions (0.152). Current return was greatest for Tampines Eco-Green (0.429), Chuan Lane Park (0.368), NUS Ventus (0.291), and Admiralty Road West (0.241), while those showing low current return included West Coast Park, Jurong Central Park, and Sembawang Hot Spring Park, all of which exhibited greater maintenance release priority. Results indicate that biodiversity amounts and biodiversity returns give contrasting planning signals for tropical urban green spaces.
- Research article
by
1Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies Capital Design University Canada
2Department of Environmental Planning Pacific Research University Canada
3Department of Environmental Design Coastal Research University United States
- Volume 115 Issue 1
- Pages: 1
- - 15
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20251151-01
Siting civic facilities in semi-arid settings should take into account both the need to locate facilities within a certain range from the people in terms of access to their services and the fact that some buildings are more sensitive to temperature than others. This analysis of a 29.5 ha plot located in the Green City of BenGuerir in Morocco is based on the data such as program areas, G+ floor configurations, the distance up to which people are willing to travel for certain types of facilities, population density, lighting loads, equipment loads, ventilation and air changes per hour, cooling and heating setpoint temperatures, wall and roof surface heat transfer coefficients, window solar heat gain coefficient, and annual cooling and heating intensities. As the result of calculations, mixed-use facilities demonstrate the highest internal gain intensity (65.28 W m−2), followed by the gymnasium (55.05 W m−2), the police center (49.10 W m−2), the secondary school (45.52 W m−2), and the primary school (43.73 W m−2). At the same time, residential buildings and the polyvalent room show the lowest figures (18.98 W m−2 and 19.15 W m−2). With regard to access requirements, primary schools and mixed-use facilities have the most important priority due to their preferred service distance being 750 m, while masjids and polyvalent rooms are second in order (1200 m). The annual cooling intensity is 51.13 kWh m−2 year−1, while the annual heating intensity is 25.18 kWh m−2 year−1. Thus, the coefficient equals 2.03. The obtained results suggest that high internal gain activities are to be avoided along.
- Research article
by
1College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2Turenscape Urban Planning and Design Co., Ltd., Beijing 100080, China
- Volume 114 Issue 4
- Pages: 143
- - 160
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20241144-10
Planners of road corridors are thus confronted with the problem of how to translate capacity considerations into action within the context of valued landscapes that have been recognized as such by the local population. Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) can be used to identify these valued places. However, a survey of preferences does not necessarily yield information about the interpretation of weakly separated preservation options. In this paper, we apply the technique of Co-Valuation Tension Graphing to the question of how aggregate PPGIS data indicate preservation-stability, ambiguity-sensitivity, negotiation, and dependency on corridor planning as conditions for road-infrastructure development. Empirically, there are 1044 participants and 3132 mapped valued landscapes of Dutch corridor planning involving 1734 points, 1120 polygons, and 278 lines. The study applies sustainability-value coupling, land use selection, co-land use, and preservation-point concentration measures. The findings demonstrate that the public preference pattern is structured even if there is no preference for a unique sacrifice hierarchy. Company settlement and development potential show the strongest value coupling (rs = 0.596). Water body and soil represent the strongest substrate for environmental preservation (rs = 0.492). Agricultural land represents the most planning sensitive use because it shows positive relationships with ecology and biodiversity, soil, water bodies, and spatial quality and negative relationships with accessibility, development potential, citizen settlement, well-being and health, and social relevance. There is only very weak value selection of roads by preference scores but the land use adjacent to road infrastructure represents business, semi-built up, agricultural, and railway terrain. Preservation-point values demonstrate the extent of choice compression with 39.5% of respondents scoring above 50, 23.8% above 60, and 13.7% above 70 points. PPGIS tables may inform corridor planning if interpreted as relational evidence of value coupling, land use sensitivity, and preservation compression.
- Research article
by
1The school of Automation and Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
- Volume 114 Issue 4
- Pages: 128
- - 142
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20241144-09
Green-area comparisons based solely on percentage cover, patch count, and aggregated connectivity may understate the stress on green systems caused by their high population pressure, limited resident-level supply, fine-grained grain, concentration of connectivity, and water shortage in dry climates. For the current comparison, the Population adjusted Connectivity Stress and Leverage (PaCSL) is calculated for the cities of Almada, Antwerp, Lisbon, Paris, Poznan, Tartu, and Zurich. PaCSL includes five normalized stress indices: population pressure, supply of green areas per 1000 residents, UGA fine-grained morphology, dominance of large or highly connected patches, and climate-induced water constraints. A distinct leverage factor is calculated as the product of the connectivity intensity and the percentage of green area cover, thus allowing to separate stressed systems from those with high consolidation potential. As the comparison demonstrates, the green percentage measure is an insufficient criterion for evaluating green-network condition in cities. For instance, Paris and Lisbon both have 16\% green areas, yet in Paris there is a much smaller share of green area per 1000 inhabitants (0.80 ha) compared to Lisbon where this figure stands at 2.49 ha per 1000. Paris has the largest PaCS stress index (0.989) with its maximum population pressure, maximum green supply scarcity, near-maximum UGA grain stress, maximum dominance, and moderate water constraint. The second highest score belongs to Lisbon (0.522) primarily due to small amount of green space per 1000 residents and severe water constraint. The third position, with PaCSL scores of 0.377 and 0.350 respectively, is shared by Almada and Tartu; however, the two have vastly differing leverage values of 0.835 and 0.018. Zurich has the largest leverage score (1.000) corresponding to 30\% green coverage and 292.90 connectivity units per hectare.
- Research article
by
1Department of Urban Design and Landscape Planning Greenfield State University United States
- Volume 114 Issue 4
- Pages: 113
- - 127
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20241144-08
The importance of urban green infrastructure can be stated in terms of contributions to climate adaptation, biodiversity preservation, health benefits, community revitalisation, and environmental justice. Nevertheless, the potential contribution of urban green infrastructure to resilience may be overstated because strong ecological or innovation components can offset poor performance in terms of governance, autonomy, and social cohesion. In the case of the municipal programme for urban green infrastructure in Madrid between 2015 and 2019, one may distinguish 21 districts with more than three million inhabitants, a population density of 5512 inhabitants per km2, 18.3 m2 of green space per inhabitant, 1.4 trees per three inhabitants, 27 urban green infrastructure policies, 620 geolocated actions, 30 resilience indicators, six factor scores, and district vulnerability values. From a set of six factor scores, one can discern the following picture of the profile of this municipality: learning and innovation and social-ecological justice have reached 0.98 on the 0–2 scale; diversity – 0.95; social cohesion – 0.81; self-sufficiency and autonomy – 0.76; and polycentric governance – 0.69. The highest mean score (6.97) among all sets of three policies belongs to HI_plan, MD_info, and MI_plan. Together with GIB_plan and GS_plan, this constitutes a five-policy strategic core with a mean score of 6.74 and a better municipal balance due to the link between neighbourhood participation and planning continuity. District action scores correlate rather strongly (r = 0.569) and positively with the proportion of low-education or no-education residents, i.e., a partial pro-vulnerability orientation exists.
- Research article
by
1Department of Landscape Architecture, Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, 119 Meyerson Hall, 210 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA19104-6311, USA
2Associate Professor, Department of Real Estate Management, HungKuo Delin University of Technology, No. 1, Lane 380, Qingyun Road, Tucheng District, New Taipei City
- Volume 114 Issue 3
- Pages: 97
- - 112
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20241143-07
The assessment of urban green infrastructure tends to be based on measures of parks, gardens, street trees, and open space, but the social impacts of urban greenery are additionally mediated by land form, soils, drainage, history of settlement, and metro connections. This paper focuses on London neighbourhood data for 1881-2001 to evaluate whether greening in poor slum-clearance areas was linked with lower lower-status concentration. The present study interprets the London coefficients in terms of their direction, statistical significance, and reliability for groups of variables including ground conditions and status distribution; the Slum2Green terms among cleared neighbourhoods; and the long-run socioeconomic evolution in light of centrality and the 1908 London Underground line network. In all 197 London neighbourhoods, alluvium land is positively related to lower status concentration in 1881 (\(0.101^{**}\)) and 2001 (\(0.024^{**}\)). Bed rock sand has positive correlations with upper status concentration in 1881 (\(0.984^{*}\)) and 2001 (\(0.390^{***}\)). Slope elevation has negative relationships with class v in 1881 (\(-4.115^{***}\)), and positive correlations with social classes i–ii, \(2.027^{*}\). The main Slum2Green coefficients by 2001 tend to be positive or close to zero, and are weakly statistically significant in all specifications except for all-clearance and MSOA. Period-specific greening indicators have mixed signs, without strong evidence of a persistent reduction in lower-status concentration due to greening. The size of clearance, proximity to central London, distance to Westminster, and distance to 1908 underground network exhibit stronger associations. The London experience, thus, suggests no evidence of class replacement in greened slum-clearance areas.
- Research article
by
1Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies Capital Design University Canada
2Department of Environmental Planning Pacific Research University Canada
3Department of Environmental Design Coastal Research University United States
- Volume 114 Issue 3
- Pages: 80
- - 96
- https://doi.org/10.70517/la20241143-06
Green infrastructure in peri-urban areas may be assessed according to various criteria like green-area quantity, accessibility, or sustainability class. Such indicators prove valuable, however, the difference between convertible and resilient land remains overlooked. This paper studies Krakow’s peri-urban fringe based on land-use composition within five sustainability classes defined for each of the 2313 hexagonal cells in the assessment system. The aim was to identify sustainability classes that feature both significant proportion of space and land use configuration that increases vulnerability of green infrastructural assets. Additionally, the effect of a modest arable-permanent grassland land-use exchange is estimated on those two classes that exhibit relatively higher susceptibility to change. The five classes under study have 1095 fields each (which constitutes 47.34% of the total number of fields), while very high and high classes account for 615 fields apiece (totaling 26.59%). Ordinal state is equal to 2.81, while ordinal sustainability burden stands at 0.547. In the very low class, arable land covers 74%, built-up – 11%, permanent grassland – 10% and no forest; therefore, its exposure-resilience ratio comes up to 8.50. For very high class arable land occupies 16%, built-up – 3%, permanent grassland – 18% and forest – 58%; hence, it gets an exposure-resilience ratio equal to 0.25. The low class is primarily responsible for vulnerability since it involves 36.62% of the total number of fields, exposes 73% to conversion and scores the transition-priority value of 0.200. With 20% arable-permanent grassland reallocation, the ratio of the very low class drops from 8.50 to 2.83, and that of the low class decreases from 3.48 to 1.78.
Call for Papers
Landscape Architecture invites submissions for Volume 2026, Issue 3, scheduled for publication in September 2026. The journal welcomes high-quality scholarly contributions that advance research, theory, criticism, and applied knowledge in landscape architecture and related fields.