Street view imagery (SVI) provides efficient access to data that can be used to research spatial quality at the human scale. The previous reviews have mainly focused on specific health findings and neighbourhood environments. There has not been a comprehensive review of this topic. In this paper, we systematically review the literature on the application of SVI in the built environment, following a formal innovation–decision framework. The main findings are as follows: (I) SVI remains an effective tool for automated research assessments. This offers a new research avenue to expand the built environment-measurement methods to include perceptions in addition to physical features. (II) Currently, SVI is functional and valuable for quantifying the built environment, spatial sentiment perception, and spatial semantic speculation. (III) The significant dilemmas concerning the adoption of this technology are related to image acquisition, the image quality, spatial and temporal distribution, and accuracy. (IV) This research provides a rapid assessment and provides researchers with guidance for the adoption and implementation of SVI. Data integration and management, proper image service provider selection, and spatial metrics measurements are the critical success factors. A notable trend is the application of SVI towards a focus on the perceptions of the built environment, which provides a more refined and effective way to depict urban forms in terms of physical and social spaces.

The ecosystem services approach offers a more ecologically relevant method to establish environmental conservation goals and implement ecological risk assessment (ERA). The emergence of bibliometrics has facilitated the development of new systematic review techniques. In this study, we utilised CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and SciMAT software, based on the Web of Science database, to qualitatively and quantitatively analyse the ecosystem service-based ecological risk assessment (ESRA) literature knowledge map spanning from 1994 to 2023. This article explored the field’s evolution from macro to micro perspectives, incorporating background information, current trends, and knowledge structure. The findings demonstrate that ESRA has progressed from an initial stage to a phase of global cooperation and policy applications. This transition between stages has been characterised by a shift from focusing on natural processes to understanding human impacts on ecosystems. Key themes identified include ecosystem services, landscape ERA, aquatic ERA and ecosystem health. The overall development of ERA can be observed as a progression through different periods, namely, the traditional era, regional era, and landscape era. Currently, landscape ERA methods based on changes in land use and land cover are widely employed. The study also revealed various challenges in the ESRA field, such as data availability, scale issues, and uncertainty. Future ESRA studies should consider holistic ecosystem services, interdisciplinary approaches, ecological models, and advanced technologies to address complexity. Using big data and informatisation for research offers new opportunities but requires integration and innovation. It is anticipated that ESRA holds promise for ecological sustainability and human wellbeing.

Urban areas are human–environmental systems that rely heavily on ecosystems for long-term sustainability, and ecosystems and their components are essential to city life. Previous reviews have drawn a range of conclusions relevant to the future analysis and implementation of ecological and facility assessments. Overall, however, there is still a need to develop more systematic methods to comprehensively assess and evaluate urban ecosystem services (UES) in a temporal dimension for use in both historical monitoring studies and prospective research. Using CiteSpace, this study assessed the history and current state of UES research from multiple angles, as well as identified research structures and emerging trends in this field. The main findings are as follows: (i) The study of UES can be divided into three distinct but interconnected stages: preparation, rise, and prosperity. There are substantial prospects for UES research to develop worldwide collaborative networks, since it is increasingly expanding from domains focused on ecological or environmental science to those that draw from a wider range of disciplines. (ii) UES has evolved slowly from large-scale research to more focused, smaller-scale studies. Research on the subject of UES focuses primarily on two primary areas: land-use change and the development of green infrastructure. (iii) Sustainability in cities is currently a hot issue, and an important area of this study is the role that urban ecosystem services plays in ensuring residents’ health and happiness.

As an interdisciplinary topic, landscape ecology has great potential in providing knowledge for landscape planning. However, previous studies have not been reviewed by multidisciplinary journals. There has not yet been a thorough analysis of these studies, and it is unclear how different points of view have evolved. In this study, CiteSpace software is used to analyze the evolution and current state of LEP research from several perspectives, which also identifies research hotspots and future research trends. The main findings are as follows: (i) There are three phases in LEP research: preparation, rising, and prosperity. LEP research is gradually shifting from concentrated ecological or environmental science to multidisciplinary fields, and there are significant opportunities for LEP research to build global collaborative networks. (ii) The focus of this research has gradually shifted from quantifying environmental impact to analyzing the internal process of the urban system. (iii) Future research will concentrate on a spatial model of landscape system analysis, landscape ecological resilience research, and LEP research in “urban agglomeration” with the hope of increasing the ability to realize sustainable space development.

Although impending urbanization is a well-acknowledged problem, there is a rising concern about how the urban forms will change and what can be the impacts on the global energy demand. As hubs of economic, social and cultural activities, cities are major energy consumers and GHG emissions. Energy consumption is a technical or a spatial problem? From Newman and Kenworthy to today, several studies have tried to shed light on this nexus. In this work, the controversial paradigm of urban density is discussed as a key component of the fight against climate change impacts. Concerning energy consumption, an in-depth bibliometric analysis is developed to identify the interdependencies of the terms. As a key ‘promise’ of an efficient urban configuration, density has been the core of diverse studies but with still under exploration arguments. This work provides a way forward for planners seeking to design strategies related to dense urban tissues exploring controversial paradigms as a key solution for energy-efficient problems.