Lu Ding

The journal retracts the article entitled “Evaluating Ecological Contributions of Tree Assemblages in Urban Expressway Interchange Landscapes: A Case Study from Nanjing, China”

As the integration between urban public spaces and aquatic environments continues to deepen, waterside sports venues have gradually become important public spaces that combine sports, leisure, and nature-based experiential value. Existing studies have mainly focused on the functional configuration and spatial performance of sports venues, or on the restorative benefits of natural environments. However, relatively limited attention has been paid to the psychological pathway through which residents develop blue space connectedness and restorative experiences in waterside sports venues, and how these experiences are further associated with well-being. This study surveyed 1064 residents who had used waterside sports venues and constructed a chain mediation model linking perceived waterside sports venue design, blue space connectedness, perceived restorativeness, and residents’ well-being. Perceived waterside sports venue design was conceptualized as a second-order construct composed of water visibility, water accessibility, water harmony, and water interactivity, while perceived restorativeness was conceptualized as a second-order construct composed of being-away, fascination, extent, and compatibility. Questionnaire data were collected from residents, and structural equation modeling was employed to test the theoretical model. The results indicate that: (1) perceived waterside sports venue design is significantly and positively associated with residents’ well-being; (2) blue space connectedness and perceived restorativeness play independent mediating roles in the above relationship; (3) blue space connectedness and perceived restorativeness form a chain mediation pathway between perceived waterside sports venue design and residents’ well-being. The findings extend blue space and sport venue research by conceptualizing waterside sports venues as hybrid public environments that combine water-based spatial experience, sport participation, and restorative potential. By identifying the sequential roles of blue space connectedness and perceived restorativeness, this study provides a psychological explanation of how perceived waterside venue design is associated with residents’ well-being, and offers practical implications for health-oriented waterfront sport venue planning and evaluation.

Urban riverside greenways contribute significantly to ecological resilience, non-motorized mobility, and urban livability. However, comprehensive evaluation methods that integrate quantitative analysis with differentiated user perceptions remain limited. This study developed a combined entropy-weighted fuzzy evaluation and user perception framework to assess the landscape quality of the Zhenjiang riverside greenway, a site frequently visited by residents and tourists. A hierarchical indicator system was established with three dimensions: functional facilities, visual landscape, and cultural connotation, and 28 evaluation indicators reflecting the multidimensional attributes of greenway landscape quality. Indicator weights were determined using the entropy weight method, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was employed to quantify landscape performance along the greenway. Structured perception surveys were conducted with residents and tourists to assess their perceptions. The results indicated that visual landscape accounted for the highest importance (5.80), followed by functional facilities (4.07) and cultural connotation (3.87). Furthermore, there were significant differences in the landscape quality of sample spots; those with higher vegetation coverage, better accessibility, and complete facilities exhibited better evaluation performance. Due to the different demands of residents and tourists, the difference in perception scores for the same spot reached up to 1.11. Hence, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of integrating entropy-weighted fuzzy evaluation with user perception differentiation, supporting evidence-based and inclusive greenway planning. The proposed framework is a practical and transferable tool for efficiently and scientifically assessing urban riverside greenways.

Urban roadside forests are vital components of green infrastructure that provide multiple ecosystem services, contributing to climate regulation, environmental quality, and urban resilience. This study assessed the multifunctional ecosystem services of roadside tree communities along four representative road types—Coastal Scenic, Commercial Arterial, Residential Secondary, and Industrial Park Roads—in Weihai, a coastal city in eastern China. Based on a complete tree inventory (6742 individuals from 38 species) integrated with the i-Tree Eco model, we quantified three key ecosystem services, carbon storage and annual sequestration, air-pollutant removal, and stormwater interception, and monetized their benefits. Results indicate that roadside forests stored approximately 1120 tons of carbon and sequestered 78 tons annually (≈USD 0.53 million; CNY 3.85 million), removed 1.28 tons of air pollutants per year (≈USD 9370; CNY 68,400), and intercepted 1560 m³ of stormwater (≈USD 5560; CNY 40,600). Commercial Arterial and Coastal Scenic Roads yielded the highest total ecosystem-service values, while Residential Secondary Roads achieved the greatest per-area efficiency. These findings highlight the significant contribution of urban roadside forests to sustainable and climate-resilient city development and underscore their potential role in urban forest planning and management.

Rural tourism has emerged as a key strategy for regional revitalization and sustainable development, yet the lack of a comprehensive and context-sensitive framework to evaluate landscape performance remains a critical gap. In this study, we developed a landscape performance evaluation (LPE) framework tailored to tourism-oriented rural areas by integrating the analytic hierarchy process with multidimensional indicators. Using Jiangxin Island as a case study, the framework was used to assess landscape sustainability across environmental, economic, social, and aesthetic dimensions. The results show that the overall landscape performance score for Jiangxin Island is 3.66, placing it in the Good category. Among the four major dimensions, environmental performance holds the highest weight (0.34) and scores 3.80, reflecting effective ecological protection and water quality management, while also revealing challenges in flood control and biodiversity conservation. Economic performance (weight: 0.24) achieves the highest score of 4.95, driven by increased employment and tourism revenue, though income sources remain concentrated in traditional sectors such as agriculture and hospitality. In contrast, social performance, despite its relatively high weight (0.28), scores the lowest at 2.72, indicating deficiencies in infrastructure, accessibility, and cultural experience. Aesthetic performance, with the lowest weight (0.14) and a score of 3.00, highlights generally acceptable visual conditions while still indicating the need for improved overall landscape coherence. These differentiated results not only validate the robustness of the proposed framework but also provide practical guidance for rural tourism development. Based on the findings, targeted strategies are recommended—such as enhancing infrastructure, improving biodiversity management, diversifying economic activities, and strengthening local cultural identity. This study contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding of landscape performance in tourism-oriented rural areas and offers a replicable framework to inform sustainable agricultural land management and multifunctional landscape planning in broader rural development contexts.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) provides a practical framework for enhancing urban resilience. This study had three objectives: (i) to quantify the structural attributes and ecosystem services (ESs) of campus street trees, (ii) to integrate LiDAR-derived metrics with the i-Tree Eco model to improve assessment accuracy, and (iii) to evaluate how quantified ESs contribute to climate resilience and inform localized EbA strategies. Field surveys were complemented with LiDAR data to enhance estimation of leaf area index (LAI), canopy dimensions, and tree height. Results show that 2643 street trees representing 29 species provide substantial ESs, including carbon storage of 508,230 kg, annual carbon sequestration of 48,580.5 kg, removal of major air pollutants totaling 2132 kg/year, and stormwater runoff reduction of 2351.8 m³/year, with a combined annual economic value of USD 202,822.10. A small number of species dominated ES delivery, with C. camphora and M. indica contributing disproportionately to canopy structure and ecological benefits. These findings highlight the critical role of urban vegetation in carbon mitigation, air-quality regulation, and flood adaptation at the parcel scale. The study provides a replicable framework for integrating LiDAR-enhanced i-Tree assessments into urban greening policies. It also emphasizes the need for species diversification and the inclusion of omitted services (e.g., biodiversity support, microclimate regulation) in future work to deliver more comprehensive EbA planning.

With the rise of green building and biophilic design, how sports venues enhance users’ place attachment through natural design features has become a critical interdisciplinary research topic in architecture and environmental psychology. This study adopts an integrated perspective of environmental psychology and architectural psychology to investigate the impact mechanism of natural design features (natural visibility, integration, and interactivity) on place attachment. Using a maximum likelihood-based structural equation model with a sample of 1022 users of waterside sports venues, this research pioneers the construction and validation of a parallel mediation model involving nature connectedness and biophilia. The findings reveal that (1) natural visibility, integration, and interactivity all significantly and positively influence place attachment; (2) nature connectedness mediates the relationship between natural design features and place attachment; and (3) biophilia also mediates the effect of natural design features on place attachment. This study makes a groundbreaking contribution by uncovering the dual-path “perception-emotion” mechanism through which natural design elements influence users’ psychological responses. The results provide empirical support for the refined application of nature-embedded strategies in architectural design and offer direct guidance for enhancing the social sustainability of high-density urban waterfront public spaces.

Users are often interested in exploring ranks over time data to compare the performance or ranking of multiple observations with respect to each other. However, predominant visualization techniques suffer from a high cognitive load due to visual clutter. We propose Colorslope, a hybrid of Tufte’s slope graph and temporal heatmap, to depict ranks over time in one graph while maintaining an overview and details with scalability. Colorslope combines both canonical visualization methods’ complementary benefits: depicting overall trends and enabling the estimation of detailed values. We evaluated the efficacy and effectiveness of Colorslope by comparing it with a standard bump chart and temporal heatmap on various data sizes. We conclude that Colorslope contributes by (1) allowing users to identify extremes of the data and rate of change effectively in a relatively large number of series; (2) allowing the visualization to have better scalability in a larger amount of data (e.g., 30 ∼ 50) than a bump chart; and (3) allowing users to gain a better estimate of data values than a heatmap. For a certain size of ranks over time data, Colorslope provides an alternative solution to visualize multiple time series simultaneously that provides both an overview and a certain level of detail.

(2019). How smell can help visually impaired in health and well-being – a cognitive experiment. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 371-386.