Increasing recognition of the importance of urban forest ecosystem services calls for the sustainable management of urban forests, which requires timely and accurate information on the status, trends and interactions between socioeconomic and ecological processes pertaining to urban forests. In this regard, remote sensing, especially with its recent advances in sensors and data processing methods, has emerged as a premier and useful observational and analytical tool. This study summarises recent remote sensing applications in urban forestry from the perspective of three distinctive themes: multi-source, multi-temporal and multi-scale inputs. It reviews how different sources of remotely sensed data offer a fast, replicable and scalable way to quantify urban forest dynamics at varying spatiotemporal scales on a case-by-case basis. Combined optical imagery and LiDAR data results as the most promising among multi-source inputs; in addition, future efforts should focus on enhancing data processing efficiency. For long-term multi-temporal inputs, in the event satellite imagery is the only available data source, future work should improve haze-/cloud-removal techniques for enhancing image quality. Current attention given to multi-scale inputs remains limited; hence, future studies should be more aware of scale effects and cautiously draw conclusions.

Due to rising temperatures, energy use, and thermal discomfort, urban heat islands (UHIs) pose a serious environmental threat to urban sustainability. This systematic review synthesizes peer-reviewed literature on various forms of green infrastructure and their mechanisms for mitigating UHI effects, and the function of urban green spaces (UGSs) in reducing the impact of UHI. In connection with urban parks, green roofs, street trees, vertical greenery systems, and community gardens, important mechanisms, including shade, evapotranspiration, albedo change, and ventilation, are investigated. This study emphasizes how well these strategies work to lower city temperatures, enhance air quality, and encourage thermal comfort. For instance, the findings show that green areas, including parks, green roofs, and street trees, can lower air and surface temperatures by as much as 5 °C. However, the efficiency of cooling varies depending on plant density and spatial distribution. While green roofs and vertical greenery systems offer localized cooling in high-density urban settings, urban forests and green corridors offer thermal benefits on a larger scale. To maximize their cooling capacity and improve urban resilience to climate change, the assessment emphasizes the necessity of integrating UGS solutions into urban planning. To improve the implementation and efficacy of green spaces, future research should concentrate on policy frameworks and cutting-edge technology such as remote sensing.

Urban streams are scarce natural elements in compact cities, and suffer from pollution in the course of city expansion and densification, especially in developing nations like China. They may offer the amenity of a riverscape view, but also the dis‐amenity associated with water pollution. Yet whether and how polluted urban streams affect high‐rise residential property values remain under‐investigated. Based on a total of 315 transaction records of apartment sales in two residential precincts located near two typical urban streams in Guangzhou, south China, this study attempts to assess the impacts of urban river pollution, in terms of view and proximity, at a neighbourhood level. A novel “cube contiguity”, consisting of a three‐dimensional spatial weighting matrix, is developed to incorporate the effect of property height in hedonic price models. Comparison of the spatial hedonic analysis of the two selected residential precincts reveals that views of heavily polluted urban streams fail to command a premium, and the impacts of proximity to urban streams vary considerably in high‐rise, compact urban contexts, when micro‐level landscape variations are carefully represented in hedonic modelling. This could be associated with the hydro‐morphological features and riverine landscape, as well as with homebuyers’ subjective perception of river pollution. Assessing the impacts of urban stream pollution could provide a basis for understanding the negative externalities of urban river pollution, establishing priorities for restoring polluted urban streams, and planning the provision of multi‐functional green‐blue spaces with respect to homebuyers’ demand for environmental amenities in mid‐ and high‐rise housing markets in both developed and developing nations.