Urban microclimate has a direct impact on the quality of life of urban residents. Therefore, research on urban microclimates has received greater attention from contemporary scholars. At present, there is a lack of quantitative summary and review of the research in the field of urban microclimate, and it is urgent to sort out its research context and evolution. The Web of Science was used as the data source, and CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to analyze the urban microclimate research from 1980 to 2020. We discussed the annual trends, research countries, research institutions, key authors, highly cited publications, hot issues, and research fronts. The study found that: (1) the number of published articles on urban microclimate has experienced three stages: initial stage—slow growth period—rapid growth period; (2) European and American countries were the first to focus on urban microclimate research, while China started late but developed rapidly; (3) the research topics of urban microclimate are thermal comfort, improvement strategies, urban street canyons, and urban heat island effect; (4) the frontiers of urban microclimate include research on urban microclimate and building energy, ecosystem services, and urban parks.

Open-pit mining is an important form of coal mining in China, and its damage to the ecological environment is particularly obvious in alpine regions. The ecological restoration of alpine open-pit coal mines faces severe challenges, and its restoration effect will directly affect the ecological security of China. Meanwhile, comprehensive and system-oriented evaluation of ecological restoration effects is still insufficient in current research. In this study, we selected different quantities of assessment factors on the two scales of ecological project area and ecological impact area to evaluate the ecological restoration effect of an alpine open-pit coal mine. Then, we formed a multi-scale and multi-dimensional ecological restoration effect assessment model of the alpine open-pit coal mine and used this model to analyze the implementation effect of the ecological restoration project of the Baiyinhua No. 2 Open-pit Mine. The results show that the multi-scale and multi-dimensional ecological restoration effect assessment model of alpine open-pit coal mine proposed in this study can accurately characterize the restoration effect of open-pit coal mines in alpine regions and can also be used as a significant evaluation tool in the future ecological construction of mining areas. This study hopes the multi-scale and multi-dimensional ecological restoration effect assessment model of alpine open-pit coal mine can provide a comprehensive, systematic, and scientific evaluation method for the ecological restoration of alpine open-pit coal mines and provide a scientific basis for the ecological restoration and green development of relevant mining areas.

Ecological infrastructure (EI), as the composite system on which the sustainable development of cities depends, has attracted worldwide attention. Considering refined methodologies and broad scope, researchers lacked overall understanding of research patterns and evolutionary processes on EI-related issues. In this study, we applied the bibliometric approach to describe the current situation of EI-related research, and reveal research trends. Based on the Web of Science Core Collection, the bibliometric analysis of EI-related publications from 1990 to 2018 was performed to discuss the history and present research situation of EI, and preview research prospect. The results showed that: (1) the number of EI-related publications has surged astonishingly worldwide over the last three decades; (2) countries in Europe and North America were the first to invest heavily in EI-related research, while China started later but subsequently developed rapidly; (3) the EI-related research focuses were EI-related management, methods for countering extreme meteorological phenomena, providing ecosystem services, and protecting biodiversity; and (4) the EI-related research frontiers included the design of EI, policy research on EI, role of EI in environmental governance, and research on the adaptability of EI.

Studying the spatiotemporal evolution of urban expansion in the Xia-Zhang-Quan metropolitan area (XZQ) is of crucial importance, to effectively guide coordinated development and industrial adjustment during urbanization. Based on National Polar Partnership-Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS) data this study used an analytical method of irregular spatial grids to explore and evaluate the dynamics of urban spatial expansion and urban socioeconomic vitality in XZQ between 2013 and 2017. The results show that the gulf-type urban development strategy of Xiamen has played a key role in the integration and development of XZQ. The urban area increased by 20–30% and increased intensity of socioeconomic activities was demonstrated by observed increases in the total brightness of urban nighttime light. Due to its unique advantages in the agricultural industries, Zhangzhou made significant economic progress during 2013–2017. At the same time, driven by spatial processes in Xiamen, areas such as the Zhangzhou Port Area and Longhai also achieved significant progress. This is also the case in Quanzhou and thus, collectively there is evidence of multi-polar growth. Jinjiang and Shishi effectively utilized coastal port economy development advantages to play a key role in the integration and development of XZQ. There were both commonalities and differences in terms of the characteristics of spatial expansion in different cities of XZQ. In summary, this study provides evidence to support further promotion of coordinated development in XZQ, and with appropriate caveats these findings could also be transferred to other urban agglomerations.

Wind environment comfort (WEC) can have major impacts on people who use outdoor spaces within a city. WEC in urban areas is directly linked to the configuration of urban geometry, including street axes, building heights, and other attributes. Thus, it is valuable to provide an outdoor WEC measure at pedestrian level in as much detail and close to real time as possible. In this paper, a system for the real-time measurement of WEC (SRTM-WEC), one of the subsystems of Environmental Internet of Things (EIoT), was established to conduct real-time measurements of the WEC value in Pingtan Island, Fujian Province. Four layers were employed in the system to handle data measurement, synchronized data transfer, data manipulation, and application tasks. It was demonstrated that EIoT enabled the system to successfully perform real-time WEC measurement in urban area. Six favorable attributes obtained for the system include low cost, small size, ease of installation, low-cost operation, ease of retrofit in existing spaces, and independence from specific manufacturers.

Due to the special geographic locations and multiple typhoons a year, the frequent strong winds bring great discomfort and danger to the daily lives of the urban residents in southeast coast of China. The strategic design of landsenses pattern on different scales can help reduce gale days in urban areas while delivering diverse additional benefits such as pollution control and biodiversity habitat protection. Although the greatest gale days are observed in cold and damp winters, there is comparatively little information available for land managers to determine an appropriate strategy for landsenses pattern design under these climatic conditions. We present a framework for prioritization and selection of landsenses pattern for gale day reductions. The framework is supported by examining the relationships between urban landsenses pattern evolution and gale day mitigation in the past, with which we used to develop implementation guidelines that maximize reductions of urban surface gale days. We focus particularly on quantifying the benefits of four types of landsenses: land-use patterns, urban road network, architectural patterns, and vertical greening systems (green walls and facades) and demonstrate how to apply the framework with a case study from Pingtan Island, China.