Rich in history and culture, heritage sites often evoke stirring emotions and memories. We analyzed historical poetry using grounded theory and high-frequency word and semantic analysis to construct historic landscape images (HLIs) of the West Lake UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hangzhou, China. GPS trajectory data were used to identify hot and cold tourist spots and understand the site’s intra-attraction tourist behaviors (IATBs). Finally, we analyzed the HLI–IATB relationship. We found that the tourist distribution was uneven, and different attractions had different visitor behaviors. Our findings should inform future heritage site management—and neighboring cities—about the benefits of using HLIs to predict attraction visitors’ behaviors and leveraging those insights to optimize multiple-attraction sites proportionally. Such projections can provide new perspectives for heritage studies, landscape planning, and tourism image-making.

Urban green spaces (UGS), as essential components of urban ecological infrastructure, play a vital role in improving residents’ quality of life and fostering spatial equity. However, rapid urbanization and intensive land use have intensified UGS supply–demand mismatches and associated “green inequities”, while their spatial drivers remain insufficiently understood. Taking the central urban area of Nanjing as a case study, this study developed a comprehensive framework to quantify UGS supply, demand, and spatial mismatches in 2022, thereby revealing inequities in green resource allocation. An explainable machine learning model (XGBoost–SHAP) was further applied to identify the urban morphological drivers of these mismatches. The results showed that all traffic analysis zones (TAZs) experienced varying degrees of spatial mismatch: 48 TAZs in urban core suffered from severe green space deficits, whereas 203 TAZs in peripheral areas exhibited evident surpluses. We found a clear gap between provision and residents’ actual benefits, with “quantitative abundance” not translating into “qualitative accessibility”. Regarding driving mechanisms, urban compactness and floor area ratio exerted significant negative impacts on supply–demand balance, while road density and land-use mix further amplified spatial inequities. In contrast, public facility coverage and the proportion of residential land played positive roles in mitigating mismatches. Based on these findings, we propose governance strategies that move beyond an “area-oriented” approach, emphasizing urban morphology optimization to align green space services with residents’ needs. Overall, this study offers practical insights for equity-oriented green space planning and spatial governance in rapidly urbanizing regions, advancing social equity and environmental justice.

Extreme heat events have become more common and more severe during summer than ever before as a result of the warming climate in Australia. The impact of urban morphology and green coverage on outdoor thermal comfort has been the subject of extensive research, however, their link to suburban developments of different historic periods is still underexplored. This paper investigates and compares the outdoor thermal performance of ten suburban areas constructed since the late nineteenth century in Greater Adelaide, which were built to different planning ideals and concepts of their time. Microclimate models of two precedents for five development eras were constructed in ENVI-met, validated with site data related to a recent heatwave event in 2023, and then used to facilitate further investigation of the impact of development patterns on outdoor thermal comfort. This study examines how these urban patterns perform in scenarios of varying development intensity and greenery ratio. In these case studies, the distance between buildings, streets’ spatial ratio and green coverage has a significant impact on the thermal environment. The results underline the impact of solar exposure on outdoor thermal performance even in lower-density suburban areas. Some of the outcomes of the study are counter-intuitive to conventional assumptions about urban design typologies. In this comparison, for example, one of the “green” model garden city developments did not perform as well as denser 19th-century suburbs. The results can support better decision-making for future urban planning in Australia and other regions with similar climate conditions. The study shows that real performance does not always align with stated green ambitions and, urban design should consider and evaluate heat mitigation through evidence-based testing to achieve real green development.

The system of protected areas in China has been initially established, but the effectiveness of ecological protection and restoration remains limited. Conducting an evaluation of ecological protection and restoration effectiveness, identifying priority protected areas, and implementing a regional management model are crucial for regional sustainable development. This study focuses on the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, integrating multiple dimensions, including ecosystem patterns, quality, function, and social-ecological feedback, to develop a framework for evaluating ecological protection and restoration effectiveness. Furthermore, we identified key ecological areas and the spatial distribution of priority protected areas. The results showed that: Significant differences in the ecological protection and restoration effectiveness of protected areas across various indicators. Overall, from 2018 to 2022 indicators such as landscape connectivity (+2.17%), vegetation cover (+9.38%), biodiversity (+5%), soil conservation capacity (+4.91%), and carbon sequestration and oxygen release function (+4.46%) achieved an excellent level, while public satisfaction (+2.56%) reached a good level. However, indicators such as important ecological land area (-1.04%), air quality (-16.85%), water conservation capacity (-16.17%), and human footprint (+7.83%) showed a poor level. A total of 21 priority protected areas were identified in the study area, mainly distributed in the Taihu Lake Basin, Northern Zhejiang, and Northern Anhui. Based on the research results, a regional management model of "3-Core Dynamic (3CD)" was proposed, comprising zonal control, node linkage, and dynamic optimization. This study provides scientific references for regional ecological protection, restoration, and sustainable development.