Recently, climate change resilience efforts in the building sector have increased. Previous studies have examined the theoretical frameworks that have shaped the concept development of resilience. However, little is known about the theoretical approaches adopted by building professionals in their climate change resilience work. A literature review identified climate change resilience across four academic domains: ecology, engineering, disaster risk reduction, and the social sciences. To better understand how resilience is defined in the building sector, we examined eighteen climate change resilience documents developed to provide guidance to building sector professionals in the United States. Our analysis of these documents helps to understand how professionals are framing and possibly incorporating these strategies in their work, though we did not measure the adoption rate of each of the documents. We find that resilience is mostly a discourse on bouncing-back, preserving the status quo, and/or developing emergency responses to major hazards. Fewer documents incorporated an ecological or social science-based logic. This highlights the challenges of translating resilience from four academic domains into building strategies for the professional community. In closing, we discuss how competing conceptions of resilience may impact the implementation and effectiveness of climate change resilience strategies in the built environment.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the postgraduate disciplinary trends in architecture in Jordan. It highlights current research topics in master theses of architecture programs, to enhance the selection of postgraduate thesis topics that are more responsive and adaptive to the raised research demands of communities and the profession.Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyzed 254 master's theses published from 2009 to 2019 in three Jordanian universities. The paper employed a descriptive and content analysis for theses' titles and abstracts.Findings: The principal results identify unique geographical, temporal and disciplinary trends in the mapped theses. The findings illustrate an interest in disciplines of design studies, building technology, housing and community and urban design among postgraduate students. The findings also highlight a centralization of theses' number and geographical location within Amman governorate. Many theses also focused on residential spaces as a scale of analysis.Practical implications: The proposed suggestions include collaborative efforts and practical mechanisms by higher education institutions, practitioners and decision-makers for advancing rigorous, diverse and relevant research topics in postgraduate theses.Originality/value: The paper provides a comprehensive mapping of the topics of postgraduate theses in the field of architecture. It highlights how they have evolved or have been influenced by community needs. It also draws attention toward specific disciplines that have been the focus of major architectural programs in Jordan. Finally, it highlights the coexistence of interdisciplinarity within the field of architecture.

Climate change poses a significant threat to commercial and residential buildings. New buildings must be designed, and existing buildings retrofitted, to be resilient to extreme weather and sea level rise. At the same time, designers and building owners need to address energy consumption because the building stock uses nearly 40% of all energy in the United States. Building professionals will shape how the building stock responds to climate change. However, despite their critical role, few studies have examined how these professionals balance increasing the resilience of the built environment with greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts. To address this gap, data from 42 semi-structured interviews and an online survey were analyzed. The research focused on the response of New York State building professionals. Results indicate that building professionals are aware of potential climate impacts. However, their understanding of climate impacts are framed by where they live. In addition, while climate change is a concern, these building professionals tend to focus on energy efficiency rather than climate-related resilience. This is potentially due to a lack of information, outdated building codes, a lack of resources, and limited support from their clients.

Purpose: This paper analyzes and illustrates the spatial distribution of publications in international urban planning journals from 2010 to 2020.Design/methodology/approach: The study employs the Biblioshiny bibliometrix package in R to analyze 44,123 articles from 95 international planning journals. To conduct the spatial scientometric analysis, we adopted the United Nations’ geoscheme focusing on three geographical scales: country, subregion, and region. Collaboration patterns at the country and subregional levels were examined using the VOSviewer tool.Findings: The study found evidence of a spatial polarization of urban planning scholarly knowledge production. Scholars based in the United States and the United Kingdom consistently published at higher rates than any other country in our data set. The region producing the largest number of publications was Europe, consisting of 39.92% of the total publication count. However, urban planning scholars from the Global South authored only 20.96% of planning publications from 2010–2020. Centralization of planning research is also evident within each region and subregion. As such, both the Global North and the Global South should not be framed as homogenous entities and spatial patterns of knowledge production should not be generalized. The analysis also established the emerging role of Northern America as a major collaborator in inter-country and inter-subregional research collaborations. Co-authorship patterns indicate low intra-regional collaboration in planning research, except for Europe.Originality/value: This article argues that a culture of exclusivity may be occurring in urban planning publication production. By highlighting the spatial disparities in knowledge production, we emphasize the need to examine the structural and institutional barriers that exclude urban planning knowledge emerging from the peripheries in international planning journals.

Introduction: Research has highlighted the importance of addressing air pollution in cities. Despite the emergence of various environmental strategies in developed contexts, implementation and research related to air quality management frameworks and clear air action plans in the Global South, and in the Arab region, is limited. In Jordan, current air quality management efforts are primarily constrained to monitoring ambient air quality. Accordingly, this research examines the barriers to implementing Clean Air Zones (CAZs) in Amman, Jordan. Methods: The methodology utilizes document analysis and semi-structured interviews with city planning and air quality management stakeholders in the city. Results: An assessment of current environmental, urban, and transportation action plans indicates that clean air strategies are not a priority within city planning processes and improvements to air-quality are mainly framed as a potential co-benefit of various climate adaptation and environmental strategies. Moreover, targeted place-based air quality interventions and action plans, such as CAZs, are limited. Interview findings illustrate how current pedestrian and public transit infrastructure in the city significantly impedes the implementation of CAZs' vehicle restriction measures. Other barriers include the potential lack of public support of vehicle restrictions, economic vulnerability of residents, limited public awareness of air pollution, and lack of technical and financial capacity of local authorities to implement diverse CAZ measures. Discussion: The outcomes of this study offer valuable lessons to urban planners and local authorities considering various clean air strategies in developing contexts. The study highlights the need to further explore clean air management and action planning in cities facing similar conditions to Amman, particularly within developing and resource constrained contexts.