Urban and community forestry is a specialized discipline focused on the meticulous management of trees and forests within urban, suburban, and town environments. This field often entails extensive civic involvement and collaborative partnerships with institutions. Its overarching objectives span a spectrum from preserving water quality, habitat, and biodiversity to mitigating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The UHI phenomenon, characterized by notably higher temperatures in urban areas compared to rural counterparts due to heat absorption by urban infrastructure and limited urban forest coverage, serves as a focal point in this study. The study focuses on developing a methodological framework that integrates Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), Random Forest (RF), and Suitability Analysis to assess the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect across different urban zones, aiming to identify areas with varying levels of UHI impact. The framework is designed to assist urban planners and designers in understanding the spatial distribution of UHI and identifying areas where urban forestry initiatives can be strategically implemented to mitigate its effect. Conducted in various London areas, the research provides a comprehensive analysis of the intricate relationship between urban and community forestry and UHI. By mapping the spatial variability of UHI, the framework offers a novel approach to enhancing urban environmental design and advancing urban forestry studies. The study’s findings are expected to provide valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers, aiding in creating healthier and more livable urban environments through informed decision-making in urban forestry management.

Objective: This study aims to analyze research methodologies from 157 research articles published in this journal in the last five years (2016–2020). Background: Health environments research is comprised of research covering many topics and from various disciplines worldwide. No systematic study exists to uncover themes in evidence-based design (EBD) research concerning the types of research published, people engaged in research, and the research methods employed. Understanding the nature of health environment research performed can help researchers, practitioners, and students situate their work within an EBD research structure. Methods: Case study research was used to analyze 157 articles published in the Health Environments Research & Design Journal devoted to EBD and research. Secondary data were extracted to capture research methods from health environments studies and then analyzed to identify themes. The design and outcome categories were structured around and the Center for Health Design’s (CHD) Knowledge Repository with origins to Ulrich et al.’s Evidence-Based Design Framework. Results: Findings are reported on categories commonly found in empirical research articles: (i) key words, (ii) disciplines from authors, (iii) settings studied, (iv) populations studied or sampled, (v) research approach and study design, (vi) research strategies, (vii) data collection methods, (viii) data analysis procedures, (ix) design categories and variables, and (x) outcome categories and variables. Conclusions: The analyses highlighted the research methods most frequently used in health environments research. Findings revealed several inconsistencies across articles on key words and the framing of research methodologies. Results suggest that there should be a consistent and overarching research taxonomy with a set of acceptable terms for effective literature searches.

The impacts of global climate change on food systems will be broad, complex, and profoundly affected by urban context. Food-related urbanism has been investigated for decades to explore how food access influences placemaking and urban forms. With global climate change, foodscapes within urban spaces are an important consideration in urban design and planning for food security and community health. The distribution of catering businesses (restaurants and cafés), one critical method of access to food, is highly associated with urban spaces because of their high impact on diet patterns, human physical activities, travel behaviors, and the use of public spaces. This research explores the spatial associations that exist between the distribution of catering businesses and the design and planning of urban spaces in London. This quantitative research includes three parts: (1) uses Open Street Map data and the GIS spatial analysis method to study the distribution of catering businesses; (2) uses the imagery segmentation method in machine learning to categorize urban spaces into open, landscape, and conflict spaces; and (3) establishes the association between the distribution of catering businesses and the categories of urban spaces through Spearman’s correlation and a linear regression model. The results indicate that the spatial distributions of catering businesses are highly correlated with urban spaces. Conflict and landscape spaces have a significant positive influence on the distribution of catering businesses, while open space has a significant negative influence. Based on the context of global climate change, this research contributes a quantitative urban design and planning approach to promote access to food increase food options and advocate active lifestyles.

Traditional urban green spaces offer numerous benefits to the environment and residents, but their high social resource expenditure on exploitation and maintenance makes them insufficient to face the threats of global climate change and the rapid pace of urbanization, further raising numerous other socio-environmental issues. Spontaneous urban plants have a superior ability to mitigate urban environmental crises due to their ability to maintain urban biodiversity and provide ecological benefits with minor cost and effort of maintenance. However, these values are often overshadowed by their stigmatized image and aesthetic characteristics that are not widely appreciated by the general public. To promote the future utilization of spontaneous plants at the community level, this study explores how, from the perspective of individual psychology, aesthetic appreciation of spontaneous plants can serve as a pivotal element in motivating environmental participation, thereby fostering urban resilience. Public psychogeography, with its focus on the emotional and behavioral interactions between individuals and their urban environments, can be instrumental in promoting community climate resilience by enhancing place attachment and inspiring collective action towards sustainable urban living. Through study, the project conducted by Future Green Studio, based in New York City, raised public interest and awareness based on psychogeography theory and presented a way of using social media posts, not only as a reflection of the public’s aesthetic appreciation of spontaneous urban plants but also as a data collection instrument of their geo-location and ecological properties. The result of the social media engagement activities enabled the establishment of a growing interactive digital open database, covering all of New York City. This database succeeded due to its efficient data collection methods, which resulted in more robust stakeholder engagement as compared to conventional community engagement efforts. The research argues that when residents are empowered to document and learn about their environment, they can become active agents in the creation of sustainable, resilient, and aesthetically enriched urban ecosystems. The success of this initiative offers a replicable model for other cities and demonstrates the potential for collaborative efforts in environmental restoration and education.

Background: College students are experiencing increasing levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, but little research exists on factors weakening the mental health of design students.Aim: This study investigates the prevalence and precursors of mental health challenges among architecture and landscape architecture students.Methods: This study used a convergent mixed-methods research design with three data collection methods: The Depression and Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21; n = 399 students), an online wellness survey (n = 269), and semi-structured interviews (n = 37).Results: Findings reveal that 33%, 46%, and 33% of students screened positive for moderate to extremely severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. The leading factors elevating stress included school deadlines and schedule, workload demands or amount of work outside of class, inadequate sleep, and time spent at work. Negative behaviors due to stress were discussed, including neglect of self-care (e.g., poor sleep patterns, eating habits, and physical inactivity), inability to focus, emotional instability, and social withdrawal.Conclusions: This study underscores mental health concerns among design students and identifies potential factors that contribute to unhealthy habits and compromise academic performance, including pedagogical approaches, learning and teaching culture, studio environment, and lifestyle choices.