As the impacts of climate change intensify and ecological degradation accelerates, the inadequacies of carbon-centric and concrete-dependent infrastructure have become increasingly evident. This article introduces the "Sponge Planet" paradigm— a transformative, landscape-based framework for climate adaptation and ecological restoration grounded in hydrological logic and nature-based urbanism. Synthesizing insights from decades of research and implementation across more than 600 projects worldwide, the work critiques the systemic failures of gray infrastructure, highlighting its historical, cultural, and material dissonance with ecological principles. In contrast, the Sponge Planet model is structured around three foundational strategies—retaining, slowing, and embracing water—thereby reimagining urban and rural environments as porous, adaptive systems capable of mitigating floods, droughts, sea-level rise, and urban heat. Through case studies from China, Thailand, and other countries and regions, the article illustrates how modular design, local materiality, and GIS-based precision can be employed to construct deep forms of ecological infrastructure. It ultimately advances a planetary design framework that integrates scientific knowledge, cultural heritage, and landscape architecture to restore Earth’s regenerative capacity and promote scalable resilience in the face of climate crises.

Aiming at the high-quality development of marine landscapes and the needs of accurate assessment and quality improvement of coastal landscapes, systematic digital analysis and quantitative research of typical coastal zone scenes have become one of the prerequisites for the in-depth research on coastal landscapes. This study, based on landscape character theory, constructs an analytical framework and technical path suitable for the digital clustering research on coastal scenes with the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). Taking the typical area of Taozi Bay in Yantai as an example, this study collaborates with remote sensing image interpretation and ArcGIS spatial analysis to quantitatively extract basic information of coastal landscapes, establishes a coastal zone scene characterization system, uses the GMM to form a digital clustering analysis process for scene characters, and combines Bayesian Information Criterion and expectation maximization algorithms to optimize key parameters for coastal zone scene clustering. It integrates classification and digital mapping practices for coastal zone scenes, and provides an analytical basis for the formulation of corresponding landscape and environmental management strategies. Proposing an analytical method suitable for the quantitative characterization and digital integration of coastal zone scenes, this study offers research references and practical implications for the clustering identification and collaborative management of coastal landscape resources.

Blue spaces have attracted increasing attention for their potential to promote children's well-being due to their strong appeal. However, existing evidence remains fragmented and lacks systematic synthesis. Using the PRISMA-ScR framework, this scoping review identified 21 eligible studies from databases including Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, etc. Guided by affordance theory, this review first examined how childhood interactions with blue spaces influence different dimensions of mental health and well-being, and then analyzed whether and how affordance actualization and intensity shaped these outcomes. The findings indicated that childhood engagement with blue spaces significantly enhanced overall mental health, resilience, social functioning, self-confidence and self-efficacy, as well as emotional and behavioral functioning. Compared with green spaces, blue spaces demonstrated distinct advantages in promoting social functioning, emotional regulation, and self-confidence, although potential risks must be carefully managed. Importantly, these benefits largely depended on the affordance actualization and intensity—that is, whether children were able to perceive, access, and actively engage with water-based opportunities. This process was further moderated by socio-economic status, urbanization degree, and other contextual factors. Based on these findings, the review proposes related practical implications, covering governance strategies, mindset change, spatial design, and program upgrades. By synthesizing fragmented evidence, this study presents the first comprehensive overview of the mental health and well-being of childhood blue space exposure, provides a theoretical lens to interpret inconsistencies across studies, extends the application of affordance theory to health-promoting landscapes, and offers actionable directions for urban planning of healthy cities.

Physical activity (PA) is essential for children's healthy development; however, many of them fail to achieve the suggested levels of activity due to an increase in sedentary behaviors. Playgrounds are pivotal for promoting PA among children. Nevertheless, the relationship between playground features and children's PA levels remains intricate and not fully elucidated. This review comprehensively analyzed 65 research articles exploring the multifaceted factors influencing children's engagement in PA within playgrounds. These factors include independent variables such as playground size, facilities, environment factors, and renovation, alongside moderating variables like age, gender, children's interactions, parental behaviors, and socio-economic factors. Despite extensive research efforts in this domain, existing findings remain fragmented and at times contradictory. For instance, studies disagree on whether larger playgrounds and natural elements consistently enhance children's PA, and how facility preferences differ between boys and girls. This review proposes a comprehensive framework delineating the key variables influencing children's PA levels in playgrounds with different features. The aim is to advance understanding of how playground characteristics affect PA levels and to provide evidence to inform future playground design and planning for public health.

To alleviate the increasing urban pluvial flood risks, Dual-Use Stormwater Storage Facilities (DUSSFs) for normal and emergency situations have emerged as a vital complement to traditional stormwater facilities. DUSSFs not only effectively enhance urban capacity to cope with extreme rainfall but also align with the growing demand for multifunctional and intensive utilization of existing spaces. With the continuous empowerment of real-time technologies (RTTs), DUSSFs play an increasingly crucial role in strengthening urban resilience, activating public spaces, and enhancing disaster response capabilities, necessitating a systematic review of its research development and frontiers. Based on bibliometric analysis and CiteSpace visualization methods, this paper systematically analyzes current research hotspots in DUSSFs, thoroughly examines its conceptual origins and classification methods, and summarizes cases of both unit- and system-level management enabled by RTTs. Looking toward the construction of future intelligent drainage and flood prevention systems, this paper summarizes spatial optimization pathways for DUSSF across three dimensions—site identification, whole-hazard-cycle configuration, and system-level management. The pathways require: 1) actively establishing typologies and design guidelines for DUSSF and refining cross-departmental and interdisciplinary collaborative mechanisms; 2) improving the multi-objective optimization framework by incorporating whole‑hazard‑cycle resilience indicators into DUSSF configurations; and 3) deeply embracing RTTs, particularly artificial intelligence-based risk prediction and spatial coordination tools, to enhance the response capabilities to urban flood disaster. This review aims to provide theoretical references for urban flood management and qualitative spatial optimization, while offering new perspectives in addressing challenges posed by extreme rainfalls for planning and design practice.

Under the trends of global urbanization and climate change, urban stormwater management has become increasingly critical in addressing urban flooding and water scarcity issues. Bio-retention facilities play a key role in stormwater management systems by reducing runoff volume and peak flow. Surface elevation is directly related to the layout of facilities by influencing their sink areas, runoff paths, and retention capacity. This study treats the raster cells of the digital elevation model as optimization variables to establish the linkage between surface elevation modification and layout objectives, and employs the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm Ⅱ (NSGA-Ⅱ) to solve for retention space and facility layout. At a demonstration site in Copenhagen, the method was tested under different constraint scenarios and proved capable of rapidly generating solution sets based on three objectives: maximizing retention volume, maximizing sink area, and minimizing total earthwork. The resulting surface elevation changes in the solution sets exhibited clear spatial differences and a gradient of retention benefits. Furthermore, this paper discussed optimization efficiency, solution set probability visualization, and layout strategies, providing feasible roadmaps and insights for identifying potential stormwater retention spaces and improving blue–green infrastructure planning.

The accelerating urbanization has exacerbated mental health challenges faced across social groups. College students, as an important group in the society, often experience multiple pressures from academic demands, familial responsibilities, and career uncertainties, making their emotional states especially susceptible to environmental influences. This study investigated and sampled the colored-leaves plant communities in urban parks of Suzhou, selected red–green palette, yellow–green palette, and single green plant communities with varied color proportions, and combined psychological indicators (PANAS scale) and physiological indicators (EEG data) to scientifically examine the differences in the influence on college students' emotional restoration. The results included: 1) all plant communities significantly increased respondents' positive emotions and reduced negative emotions; 2) in the comparative experiment of red–green plant communities, single green plant communities had the best effect on emotional restoration; 3) in the comparative experiment of yellow–green plant communities, those with yellow color proportion of 75% ~ 90% and 45% ~ 60% had the best emotional restoration effect; and 4) when comparing the plant communities with the same red and yellow color proportion, the yellow–green plant community performed better than the red–green plant community. This study responds to the urgent need to pay attention to the mental health of the youth in the current urbanization process by exploring the differences of emotional restoration effects of colored-leaves plant communities. It aims to provide scientific vegetation planting and configuration suggestions for emotional restoration environments, as well as theoretical guidance for the construction of restorative landscapes.