The concept of resilience was only recently introduced into urban studies to address the complexity and future uncertainty in cities. In particular, the interest in better understanding how it can be integrated into studying urban form—as the raw material of urban planning/design and key for the sustainability of cities—has been growing. However, resilience is a polysemic concept with different meanings/interpretations, which creates ambiguity and challenges in its operationalization. This paper resolves this issue through a systematic review of 106 peer-reviewed publications guided by recurring questions in the literature (e.g., resilience of/through what? To what? For whom? How? When? Where?). The results showed that the urban form–resilience relationship is complex, where many urban form elements can influence resilience to a great many disturbances (general/specified). In facing these disturbances, urban form exhibits different performances (i.e., persistence, adaptability and transformability) and where it can be either persistent/adaptable/transformable itself or can enhance people’s persistence/adaptation capacities. The review also showed that there are many actors for urban form resilience and potential trade-offs. Finally, an overview of existing definitions of urban form resilience is provided to improve clarity in the field, and examples of general urban planning/design recommendations were formulated to enhance the resilience of different urban form elements.

In recent years, extreme temperatures have gained significant attention in urban studies, leading to the search for various adaptation and mitigation measures. While many studies employ heat-related indicators to assess climate-related health impacts, a better understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of these indicators can enhance their integration into urban policies, planning and design. This research aims to examine various dimensions of urban heat stress in built environments, using a systematic review of scientific articles (n = 146) and consequently, establishing a framework for effectively stratifying examples of related indicators across different dimensions. The results showcase dimensions including demographic, economic, health, urban climate, social, urban morphology, and institutional. However, literature disproportionately emphasizes demographic, health and climate dimensions, while social, urban morphology and institutional ones receive comparatively less attention. On the other hand, the co-occurrence analysis reveals connections among these dimensions and their related indicators, underlining the need for a holistic understanding of heat stress impacts. Additionally, the spatial distribution of the selected papers brings attention to the lack of studies in the regions identified as most exposed according to the Koppen Climate Classification. Accordingly, we advocate for more multidimensional and context-specific studies that bridge existing gaps. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers, planners, urban designers and researchers on advancing the understanding of urban heat stress in built environments and its impact on urban healh.

Over the past decades, climate change has become among the top issues challenging cities worldwide, endangering the urban infrastructures and threatening the health of millions of people. Hence, climate action, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation to climate change, has become a priority for urban planning. This work introduces an example of the promising role that spatial analysis and statistical modelling, employing Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and freely available satellite and land-based data, can provide in supporting urban climate design and policymaking. In particular, this study puts special attention on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. Here, we first introduce a simple, but effective morphological-based approach for mapping potential ventilation corridors across cities of uniform built-up structure, as a common UHI mitigation measure. Then, we propose a methodology for assessing the relative role of these corridors in maximizing the impacts of green solutions upon lowering high temperature. Results show that even under very calm wind conditions, there is still an opportunity for maximizing the benefits of greening measures on the urban climate. Also, it has been demonstrated that green ventilation corridors are more effective during night-time when the UHI effect is peaked. The research findings are very promising, especially for cities where wind is a marginal potentiality.

Bird species occurrence datasets are a valuable resource for understanding the effects of urbanization on various biotic conditions (e.g., species occupancy and richness). Existing datasets offer promising opportunities to explore variations among cities and along the urban-rural gradient. However, there is a lack of observation data to systematically capture intra-urban variations at a fine spatial scale, especially in dense urban areas. Here, we describe the production and validation of a machine learning-generated bird occurrence dataset based on 10,691 hours of passive audio recordings systematically collected across different types of dense urban forms in Gothenburg, Sweden. The dataset is available in a standard Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) format, to ensure data interoperability, and includes 239,597 occurrence records of 61 species from April 21 to June 16, 2024, across 30 sites in Gothenburg. We anticipate that this dataset will be a valuable resource for researchers in urban ecology, planning, and design to better understand the relationship between the characteristics of different types of dense urban forms and various biotic conditions in cities.

Urban solar radiation is a primary factor affecting indoor and outdoor thermal and lighting comfort. However, although 3D solar radiation models are achieving remarkable advances in urban climate planning support and decision making, they are time-consuming and cost-intensive. We aim at compensating for such limitations by providing an agile approach to estimate shadows and solar radiation on building facades, using elevation models (2.5D) and image processing techniques. This is achieved by making the best use of the new visibility toolset for raster processing, provided in ArcGIS, and GRASS GIS solar radiation 2D model. Results give a clear and detailed picture of the radiation condition in the study area, which offers promising opportunities for urban solar planning and assessment in complex urban areas.