Urban Forest parks are indispensable areas in cities and have ecological and social advantages, and the quality of their acoustic landscapes is an important factor influencing visitors’ visiting experience. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the acoustic landscape on psychological stress relief in selected urban forest parks in China. This study used a questionnaire to construct an index system for psychological stress reduction and designed a questionnaire for the perceived impact of stress-reducing acoustic sources with user perception and stress-reducing restoration evaluation as the entry point. The research team conducted field research and online questionnaire survey on the questionnaire.com platform from 1–5 July 2022, in Huolu Mountain Forest Park, an urban forest park in Guangzhou, and collected 266 valid questionnaires. SPSS26.0 was used to analyze the results of the impact of the urban forest park on users’ psychological stress relief. Spearman’s rho correlation analysis and a Kruskal–Wallis nonparametric test were used to reveal the relationship between social, demographic and behavioral factors of tourism and sound source perception, and multiple regression analysis was used to identify the key factors of urban forest park. The results showed that, first, there were significant individual differences and correlations between respondents’ age, education level, visit time and frequency on soundscape perceptions; the older the respondent or the higher the education level, the higher the psychological stress relief evaluation of natural sounds such as birdsong in urban forest parks; the more frequent the visit, the more sensitive the users were to sound source perceptions; and the different visit time periods showed that, when the frequency of the visit was higher, the more sensitive the users were to the sound source. Secondly, natural sounds are important factors for psychological stress relief in soundscape, and natural sounds such as birdsong, cicadas, flowing water, and the sound of breeze blowing leaves have positive benefits and significant contributions to psychological stress relief. Third, the overall restorative evaluation of soundscape perception and the separate evaluation of natural, mechanical, and human-made sounds had significant effects, and the overall restorative evaluation showed that the cumulative contribution value of attractiveness was greater than that of compatibility and consistency. Fourth, soundscape plays a role in psychological stress relief, as evidenced by significant differences in pleasure and arousal levels but not in control.

Urbanization is a global trend that is expected to continue, and by 2025, it is estimated that almost 60% of the world’s children will live in urban areas. Urban community pocket parks provide a solution to the need for parks in high-density urban communities due to their flexible location, small size, and patchy distribution. This paper aims to examine and optimize the construction of urban community pocket parks from a child’s perspective to encourage children’s participation in these parks. The first step was to conduct a literature review to identify key evaluation indicators for assessing the child-friendliness of pocket parks. Then, the AHP-entropy TOPSIS approach was used to establish an indicator system to effectively evaluate the child-friendliness of pocket parks in urban communities. The system included physical space, cognitive ability, emotional development, environmental perception, and social interaction. Finally, suggestions for optimization were made based on the weighting of influencing factors. The results show that freedom of movement (6.2%) significantly affects the child-friendliness ratings of community pocket parks. Additionally, Hefei residents are not sufficiently influenced by the diversity of play (2.29%) and play facility planning (2.58%) in pocket parks. Therefore, consideration should be given to focusing on the degree of nature adaptation in park construction and renewal projects, as well as understanding children’s perception of nature.

In the global context of sustainable urban development, urban regeneration is an activity to improve the form and function of urban space in built-up areas. Commercial streets are one of the most active factors in urban space and an important factor in promoting urban prosperity and reflecting urban vitality, yet these streets have not kept pace with the public’s quest for quality through theoretical change, and this can even affect public comfort and well-being. In order to effectively undertake urban regeneration and improve the quality of urban streets and residents’ satisfaction, design factors for the quality enhancement of commercial streets are explored in order to rationalise residents’ demand preferences and their priorities, enhance residents’ sense of belonging, and provide suggestions for the optimisation of the design of subsequent urban street regeneration in China. By summarising the literature and the content requirements of the quality enhancement scheme for Shuanggang Old Street in Hefei, this study applied a questionnaire survey and scientifically developed an index system containing five evaluation indicators, including spatial carrying capacity, street attractiveness, travel safety, environmental comfort, and social interaction. A combination of hierarchical analysis and entropy weighting was used to identify the most influential factors on the implementation of the quality improvement of the commercial street and design optimisation suggestions. The evaluation results show that travel safety and social interaction significantly affect the evaluation of the quality improvement of commercial streets, as well as highlighting the needs of residents for street environments and services and the role of local governments.

Against the backdrop of slowing economic growth and increasing environmental pressure, the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, as one of the largest city clusters in the world, has become more driven in its pursuit of high-quality development. We constructed a system of 24 evaluation indexes and used entropy-weighted TOPSIS to calculate and study the high-quality development index of urban agglomerations in the region. First, the level of high quality development (HQD) of the Yangtze River Delta city cluster generally improved from 2010 to 2021, with 2017 was the best year, while 2010 was the worst year. Second, in the multidimensional evaluation of HQD, Jiangsu excels in innovation and people's livelihood with 0.524 and 0.534, respectively; Shanghai (0.531) excels in coordinated development; Zhejiang excels in green and economic development with 0.557 and 0.484, respectively; and Anhui lags behind in all aspects. Third, the development process of HQD in the Yangtze River Delta region is uneven, and the level of HQD development varies greatly among the city clusters in the province. The measurement results show that Shanghai (0.511) has the highest score, followed by Zhejiang (0.484), Jiangsu (0.440) and Anhui (0.435). Fourth, spatial correlation analysis shows that Shanghai and Jiangsu are mainly distributed in the double-high region, Zhejiang is distributed in the high-low region, while Anhui is concentrated in the low-low region. The results of this study help us understand more deeply the characteristics and challenges of high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations and provide a scientific basis for more precise urban development policies.