Historic religious cities are living examples of cultural landscapes where spiritual traditions, heritage, and visitor experiences combine to demonstrate a timeless experience. It is very challenging to achieve balance among the demands of mass pilgrimage, heritage preservation, and urbanization. Govardhan, India is a Hindu religious town with historical significance. Millions of pilgrims travel to Govardhan every year to perform parikrama and take a holy dip in kunds. The quality of the visitor experience, spatial coherence, and heritage conservation are all at risk due to increasing urbanization and tourism. The study intends to create a paradigm for the sustainable management of religious heritage towns by evaluating the factors involving visitor perception, historical significance, and spatial visibility, employing a combination of computational methods and cognitive assessments. The study employed space syntax tools (visibility graph analysis and isovist area analysis) to quantify spatial significance (SS) and identify patterns of openness, congestion, and visibility along the parikrama route of Govardhan. By examining pilgrims’ cognitive surveys for openness, orientation, congestion, and spiritual impression, a cognitive index (CI) and heritage importance scores (HIS) have been developed. The computed spatial significance (SS) has been correlated with cognitive index (CI) and heritage importance (HIS) scores to create an experiential priority index (EPI). The study employs a mixed-method approach that incorporates heritage significance scoring, cognitive surveys, and spatial analytics, including methods such as the isovist area analysis and visibility graph analysis. In order to assess how spatial arrangement and intangible perceptions together influence visitor experience, these statistics are further combined using a composite experiential priority index (EPI). The findings show a strong correlation between spiritual orientation, visual connectivity, and spatial openness; locations such as ‘punchari ka lota temple’ and ‘kusum sarovar’ are high-priority nodes. In accordance with United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (11, 9, 12, 4.7, and 8.9), this research proposes a heritage impact assessment (HIA) framework that provides workable solutions for ecological restoration, heritage-sensitive zoning, sustainable pilgrimage management, and enhanced tourism.

India is a country where major part of its population lives in rural area and majority of rural people are deprived from the very basic amenities. There are approximately 900 villages in Mathura district. These villages are not in very good condition and do not cater to the basic needs of villages i.e. education, healthcare, employment etc. The aim of this article to demonstrate through various developmental proposals that village can be self-contained in itself by understanding & identifying the potential of that place. For the demonstration of sustainable development, village sameri of Mathura district has been taken up. The main aim of this project is to upgrade built environment of village and living conditions of villagers which include the socio-economic well-being, livable atmosphere, educational up liftment and societal integrity of the people living in the village. It is intended to show various stages of village development without degrading the environment. The article is divided into three sections: familiarization with the place, identification of issues and finally typical proposals which can also be adopted in other villages of Mathura district. The last section of conclusion and recommendation is not merely based upon theoretical study but detail surveys which were carried out by subsequent visit to the village. It is hoped that this little work will contribute in some measures to serve the society and nation.

Climate sensitivity and energy efficiency of traditional buildings always gives certain guidelines and directions to designers. With an objective to understand energy efficiency of traditional buildings, cities at four different latitudes have been identified and analysis for solar chart and corresponding desired time-lag has been analyzed. The traditional buildings from historic cities of Jakarta, Jaipur, Ankara, and Geneva have been examined. The identified buildings have been studied for certain parameters i.e., building orientation, ventilation, material, building form, position against the sun and time lag. As a result, it has been observed that the architecture of traditional buildings is based upon climatic responsive aspects which makes it energy efficient. The comparative analysis of four different latitudes has provided insights as to how change in latitude is leading to the change in climatic conditions and corresponding traditional architecture. It is seen that traditional buildings show sensitivity according to the environment and conditions, energy is conserved with passive methods and used local materials effectively.

The area of research selected by the authors “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)” is very important as it gives an opportunity to architects for taking into consideration consciously the certain factors which helps in the preventio...

The quantitative measurement of TCC at tourist cities involves considerable methodological complexities. Conventional evaluation methods based on fixed numerical criteria are frequently insufficient since tourism systems are characterized by unclear information, gradual shifts, and subjective experiences. To address these methodological constraints, this study develops and implements a hybrid FAHP-weighted Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) framework to estimate TCC. The framework incorporates four critical indicators, visitor density, waste generation, infrastructure load, visitor perception, reflecting the physical, environmental, infrastructural, and socio-cultural dimensions of tourism development. These indicators are assessed using a structured analytical procedure integrating fuzzification, expert-derived weighting through the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and centroid defuzzification. This study presents a hybrid SEM–FAHP–FCE framework, which is a multi-method integrated decision model that combines SEM (structural equation modeling) for visitor perception and behavioral drivers, FAHP (fuzzy analytic hierarchy process) for expert-based indicator weighting and FCE (fuzzy comprehensive evaluation) for final carrying capacity assessment under uncertainty. This combined methodology offers a more adaptive and empirically grounded assessment of TCC by synthesizing quantitative conditions with qualitative stakeholder perceptions within a unified evaluative model. The framework is validated through empirical application to Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s most visited destinations, across eight study sites and two seasonal conditions (normal and festival-peak). Primary data collection comprises 300 visitor count observation units and field data, i.e., visitor count, waste generation and infrastructure details. The defuzzified FAHP–FCE results for each site (W = 3.94, 3.33, 2.44, 1.95, 3.66, 1.87, 1.86 and 2.71) reveal that major pilgrimage nodes exhibit scores approaching the upper bound of the evaluation scale, indicating that tourism pressure has significantly exceeded carrying capacity during peak periods. This study establishes proof-of-concept for the FAHP–FCE framework as a standardized, replicable instrument for evidence-based TCC governance at tourism cities.

This article examines how combining climateresponsive solutions with knowledge of vernacular architecture can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the built environment. Considering Dodoma, Tanzania as a case study, the research employs a performance evaluation methodology to measure passive design features. The case study has been evaluated for building orientation, thermal mass, ventilation patterns, and selection of building materials. Based on the results, vernacular building systems have a performance score of 3.85/5 against SDG-aligned criteria, indicating that they naturally exhibit resource efficiency, low embodied energy, and climate resilience. Nonetheless, there are still gaps in community-level design awareness, material modernization, and policy translation. According to the study, upon reinterpreting vernacular ecological intelligence, the ancient practices provide a low-carbon, culturally grounded architectural paradigm appropriate for the new global sustainability concerns.