This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the current state of physical activity research, focusing on the interplay between built and social environments and their respective influences on physical activity. We comprehensively searched electronic databases to identify relevant studies published between 2000 and 2022. A total of 35 articles have been reviewed based on the research question. The review found that built and social environments influence physical activity, and consideration of people’s perceptions of their surroundings can provide further insight. The literature was summarized, and recommendations were made for future research. Findings suggest that interventions targeting built and social environments can promote physical activity effectively. However, limitations in the literature exist, including a need for more standardization in research methods and consistency in measurement tools.

In landscape architecture, visual representations are the primary means of communication between stakeholders in design processes. Despite the reliance on visual representations, little critical research has been undertaken by landscape architects on how visual communication forms work or their socio-political implications. In this theoretical paper, we argue that such research is of great importance. We explain how concepts of visual and critical social theory such as visual semiotics, simulacra and simulation, and power/knowledge can be used to critically reflect on landscape architectural representations. We further propose to study these representations at different stages of meaning-making by using visual methodologies such as visual discourse analysis, iconographical content analysis and social semiotic analysis. We conclude that these research approaches have the potential to explain issues such as dominant power structures, miscommunication between participants, and visual path-dependencies during landscape design processes.

Literature on climate services presents a large diversity of different services and uses. Many climate services have ‘usability gaps’: the information provided, or the way it is visualized, may be unsuitable for end users to inform decision-making processes in relation to adaptation against climate change impacts or for the development of policies to this end. The aim of this article is to contribute to more informed and efficient decision-making processes in climate adaptation by developing a typology of usability gaps for climate services. To do so, we first present and demonstrate a so-called ‘climate information design’ (CID) template with which to study and potentially improve the visual communicative qualities of climate services. Then, two climates services are selected for a further, qualitative explorative case study of two cases in the north and south of the Netherlands. A combination of focus group sessions and semi-structured interviews are used to collect data from Dutch governmental stakeholders as well as private stakeholders and NGOs. This data is then coded to discover what usability gaps are present. We then present twelve different types of usability gaps that were encountered as a typology. This typology could be used to improve and redesign climate services.

This article addresses the use of photographic comparison as a complementary visual appraisal method in an outdoor thermal perception survey. This survey was carried out during a Ph.D. research exploring how materials and vegetation influence thermal comfort in outdoor public spaces. Objective and subjective thermal perception parameters were combined and quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. The quantitative methods included microclimatic measurements, whilst the qualitative methods comprised observations and spatially localised interviews based on a questionnaire and the photographic comparison. This article explores how such visual research method allowed triangulating findings of this field survey. Three non-edited photographs of outdoor public spaces, under similar summer meteorological conditions but with contrasting spatial features, were shown to respondents to the questionnaire. The photographs depicted undisclosed locations for preventing biased emotional appreciations. Respondents were asked to select the potentially most comfortable and uncomfortable environments depicted. The choice of photographs matched the previous answers on the thermal sensation and evaluation judgement scales. Hence, we discuss the way the visual interpretations by respondents allowed the triangulation of in situ thermal perception data. The extent to which thermal comfort can be interpreted from thermal environments depicted in photographs containing clear visual signs is further discussed. The article concludes on how such a visual appraisal method can be valuable for enriching future qualitative outdoor thermal perception surveys with subjective interpretation of visual data.

Considering the importance of visual representations for communication between stakeholders in landscape planning and design processes, the authors identify a lack of critical visual research methods supportive of the disciplines involved. As part of such a method, they have developed an analytical framework based on semiotic and iconographic theory that enables a visual content analysis and iconographic interpretation of landscape design representations. Two projects from Rebuild by Design, a participatory transdisciplinary design competition organized in the New York City area after hurricane Sandy, were analysed to demonstrate this framework. The article presents a semiotic vocabulary based on four categories: medium, mode, formulation and knowledge with which to ‘read’, discuss and potentially create design representations. This enables a syntactic analysis for assessing the semiotic complexity of design representations in terms of validity, readability and interactivity. This assessment enables further qualitative study of the production and interpretation of landscape design representations in practice.

Visual landscape design representations facilitate communication and knowledge exchange during participatory planning and design processes. The production of representations is considered to be a discursive act: actors and institutions construct knowledge with a certain authority and credibility through the use of visual expression. We aim to study the context in which the production of representations is embedded and how this context manifests itself in the communicative qualities of design representations. We present a visual discourse analysis of landscape design representations, employing empirical examples from the transdisciplinary design competition Rebuild by Design. The analysis uncovers interdependencies among three components of the visual discourse: the arrangement of participatory processes, media interactivity and the visual rhetoric embedded in the composition and style of the image. A conscious use of these discursive components could help prevent miscommunication, manage participant expectations and increase the validity of participatory design process outcomes.