The term “behavioral” has become a hot topic in recent years in various disciplines; however, there is yet limited understanding of what theories can be considered behavioral theories and what fields of research they can be applied to. Through a cross-disciplinary literature review, this article identifies sixty-two behavioral theories from 963 search results, mapping them in a diagram of four groups (factors, strategies, learning and conditioning, and modeling), and points to five discussion points: understanding of terms, classification, guidance on the use of appropriate theories, inclusion in data-driven research and agent-based modeling, and dialogue between theory-driven and data-driven approaches.

Transportation systems worldwide are facing numerous challenges, including congestion, environmental impacts, and safety concerns. This study used a systematic literature review to investigate how advanced technologies (e.g., IoT, AI, digital twins, and optimization methods) support smart transportation planning. Specifically, this study examines the interrelationships between transportation challenges, proposed solutions, and enabling technologies, providing insights into how these innovations support smart mobility initiatives. A systematic literature review, following PRISMA guidelines, identified 26 peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2024, including studies that examined smart transportation technologies. To quantitatively assess relationships among key concepts, a Sentence BERT-based natural language processing approach was employed to compute alignment scores between transportation challenges, technological solutions, and implementation strategies. The findings highlight the fact that real-time data collection, predictive analytics, and digital twin simulations significantly enhance traffic flow, safety, and operational efficiency while mitigating environmental impacts. The analysis further reveals strong correlations between traffic congestion and public transit optimization, reinforcing the effectiveness of integrated, data-driven strategies. Additionally, IoT-based sensor networks and AI-driven decision-support systems are shown to play a critical role in sustainable urban mobility by enabling proactive congestion management, multimodal transportation planning, and emission reduction strategies. From a policy perspective, this study underscores the need for investment in urban-scale data infrastructures, the integration of digital twin modeling into long-term planning frameworks, and the alignment of optimization tools with public transit improvements to foster equitable and efficient mobility. These findings offer actionable recommendations for policymakers, engineers, and planners, guiding data-driven resource allocation and legislative strategies that support sustainable, adaptive, and technologically advanced transportation ecosystems.

Large scale, multi-organisational collaborations between researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds are increasingly recognised as important to investigate and tackle complex real-world problems. However differing expectations, epistemologies, and preferences across these teams pose challenges to following best practice for ensuring high-quality and rigorous qualitative research, while maintaining goodwill and team cohesion across team members. This article presents critical reflections from the real-world experiences of a team navigating the challenges of collaborating on a large-scale, cross-disciplinary interview study. Based on these experiences, we extend the literature on large team qualitative collaboration by highlighting the importance of balancing autonomy and collaboration, and propose eight recommendations to support high quality research and team cohesion. We identify how this balance can be achieved at different times: when centralised decision-making should be prioritised, and autonomy can be allowed. We argue that prioritising time to develop shared understandings, build trust, and creating positive environments that accept and support differing researcher perspectives on qualitative methods is paramount. By exploring and reflecting on these differences, teams can identify how and when to support autonomy in decision-making, when to move forward collaboratively, and how to ensure that shared processes reflect the needs of the whole team. The reflexive findings, emanating from practical experience, can inform large research teams undertaking qualitative studies to explore complex issues. We make an original contribution to qualitative methods research by arguing that balancing autonomy and collaboration is the key to promoting high quality research and cohesion in large teams.

Despite the popularity of the “behavioral approach,” there is as yet a lack of guidance on the selection and use of appropriate behavioral theories for specific planning purposes. Based on a literature review of 318 articles in spatial planning-related journals, this paper presents a portfolio of behavioral theories by types of behavior, key variables, rules, and research methods. In addition, based on the survey of twenty-two international experts, it cross-validates the findings and highlights particularly appropriate theories for certain types of behavior dealt in related disciplines. Finally, the paper derives discussion points including the applicability of various behavioral theories in urban models such as space and time-sensitive dynamic simulations.

Under rapid urbanization that took place from around 1960 to 1990, the Republic of Korea has been facing various urban problems such as the expansion of urban slum, traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Among the various responses to these challenges, New Town development can be regarded as one of the most successful and effective strategies, which hasover 50 years of development history in five phases. Korea's New Towns were developed with three main purposes according to the periodic needs: industry support, housing supply, and nationwide balanced development. Phase I New Towns (1962-81) responded to the country's need for industry promotion. Phase II (1967-86), Phase III (1989-95) and Phase IV (2001-present) New Towns were built in response to the severe lack of housing emerged due to over-concentration in the capital and later its metropolitan area, by providing large-scale housing inside Seoul, in the outer ring of Seoul, and in the Capital Area respectively over time. Finally, the most recent Phase V New Towns (2005-present) provided response to the issue of equitable and balanced development across the country. These development yielded outcomes such as housing market stabilization, improvement of housing condition, securement of public and green spaces, economic effect on related industries, and expansion of urban infrastructure. The paper suggests three success factors of Korea's New Town development. First is feasible planning and concrete implementation strategies that enabled the implementing organizations to overcome conflicts and carry on with the project until completion. The second factor is institutional driving force and legal support which involved establishing a dedicated bureau, defining clear organizational structure and stakeholder roles, and providing timely Acts to support the land acquisition and construction. The third success factor is reasonable land acquisition methodologies which evolved over time from Land Readjustment to Publically Management Development. This paper also presents Sustainable New own Design Criteria as an important implication for the LAC to consider, which includes social, economic and environmental sustainability that pursue outcomes such as social inclusion, self-sufficiency, connectivity, green space and smart resource management. Exchanging these experience of Korea and promoting mutual cooperation would be highly valuable for the cities in LAC to minimize the trial and error and maximize the success factors experienced by Korea as an attempt to relieve the challenges of rapid urbanization they are faced with at present. In this regard, it is anticipated that Korea can actively share its accumulated New Town experience and knowledge and act as one of the promising development partners of the countries in LAC.