Biomass energy, as a renewable and abundant source of clean energy, offers strong support for mitigating the environmental crises caused by fossil fuel consumption and realizing global carbon neutrality goals. Research on biomass energy spatial planning is inherently complex and interdisciplinary. Although existing studies span a wide range of spatial scales and thematic focuses, there remains a lack of review that constructs the research framework from a holistic perspective, systematically synthesizing existing literature, identifying research hotspots, and analyzing evolving trends. To address this gap, this research employs CiteSpace to visualize the research trends of the field. Thereby, grounded in “energy landscapes” theory, this research constructs the “resource–supply chain–demand–optimization” spatial operational logic and corresponding biomass energy spatial planning research framework. It reviews existing literature on potential assessment, supply chain, energy demand, and spatial optimization of supply–demand alignment, to clarify the interconnections among research themes, methods, and subfields, enhance the practical feasibility of biomass energy assessment and spatial planning, and improve the scientific rigor and applicability of optimization strategies. Finally, the research outlines future research directions, emphasizing the need to integrate energy planning with spatial planning. Through scientifically guided planning and rational allocation of biomass resources, the added spatial value of renewable energy can be fully leveraged to support sustainable development.

Planning policies often seek to concentrate the “impact” of renewable energy in supposedly “worthless” landscapes by differentiating them according to their scenic “value”—rather than contributing to the new beauty of all types of landscapes by integrating the new elements into different types. The selection of wind turbine sites guided by these planning policies and the subsequent landscape changes have exacerbated public concerns and negative opinions of renewable energy development, which hinders the progress of the energy transition. According to the European Landscape Convention (ELC), all landscapes are valuable, subject to change, and require good design. This article suggests, from the perspective of landscape architecture, that renewable energies represent new scales in the landscape, but can also be perceived as closely connected to nature. The ELC-based design strategies for landscapes with wind turbines in European regions have been discussed, demonstrating that new, shared, professional conventions have emerged to connect the new dimensions and natures of renewable energy with existing landscape morphologies and infrastructure. Adhering to the new principles of the wind energy landscape design, landscape architects can collaborate with citizens involved in the planning process to translate their input into design language and diverse concepts. This positive planning and design approach exhibits the potential to contribute to the mitigation of social conflicts through the integration of energy infrastructure into everyday spaces and cultural landscapes.

The energy transition and the resulting changes in landscape appearance have brought great social repercussions. Nowadays we have to answer the questions that how can we view the rapidly changing landscape appearance caused by energy transition, and how to balance associated issues about protection and development. Since the energy landscape aesthetic theory in the low-carbon era has not yet been constructed, this paper explores landscape aesthetics from terminological, evolutionary, and methodological perspectives, and discusses the connotation, core values, and research scopes of postmodern aesthetics, post-industrial aesthetics, and ecological aesthetics. Based on theoretical review, assessment paradigms of landscape aesthetics are sorted out from essentialism, positivism, to social constructivism. A framework is introduced to assess energy landscapes under energy transition background to generate a consensus for sustainable landscape among all stakeholders.

Urban mountain parks (UMPs) are vital green spaces for public leisure and recreation, but their recreational value is often underdeveloped, with few studies examining the influencing mechanisms of UMP recreational attractiveness. To address this issue, this study conducted an empirical investigation in Fuzhou, China. Guided by China’s Standard of Rating for Quality of Tourist Attractions, a structural equation model (SEM) of UMP recreational attractiveness was established and tested based on an expert group and a questionnaire survey of 609 tourists. The findings reveal that seven factors—tourism transport, excursion services, tourism safety, integrated management, natural resource conservation, landscape resource value, and market impact—contribute positively to enhancing UMP recreational attractiveness. Among them, natural resource conservation has the highest influence, followed by landscape resource value, indicating that they both play the greatest role in affecting UMP recreational attractiveness. These seven factors are interrelated, with natural resource conservation strongly positively influencing market impact and landscape resource value. This study explored the influencing mechanism of these seven factors on UMP recreational attractiveness, which can provide practical recommendations for enhancing UMP recreational value worldwide.

In the 21st century, the increasing importance of renewable energy in addressing climate change and environmental sustainability has posed opportunities and challenges to the exploration of energy landscapes. A crucial question arises for disciplines related to spatial planning and design: how to theoretically and practically collaborate to appraise the meanings, classifications, and characteristics of energy landscapes, as well as their future development? Answering this question is essential for the discipline of Landscape Architecture to deepen the understanding of energy landscapes. Therefore, this research utilizes a scientific bibliometric methodology, complemented by typical case studies, to review relevant literature and projects. This systematic approach aims to offer a comprehensive explanation of key issues about energy landscapes. Ultimately, three fundamental aspects for the future sustainable development of energy landscapes are identified: enhancing social acceptance of energy infrastructure; conducting big data processing, analysis, and mapping; and providing multiple solutions of planning and design. In conclusion, this research seeks to shed light on the significance, role, and potential of landscape in the energy transition for planners and designers.

The abundant land resources in rural areas have allowed for a rapid growth of the photovoltaic (PV) industry. However, the largescale construction of PV facilities has significantly impacted rural landscapes. This study systematically analyzed the visual impact of PV facilities on rural landscapes using the visual Q-method. By selecting images of PV facilities within rural natural, settlement, and production landscapes from different regions in China, visual perception scoring was conducted between experts and non-experts. Statistical analysis of the scoring results using PQMethod2.35 software identified five primary factors influencing the visual impact of PV facilities on rural landscapes: boundary integration, morphological innovation, color richness and coordination, multifunction, and scale. The findings indicate that PV facilities exert the most significant visual impact on rural natural landscapes, with a clear disparity in satisfaction. PV facilities negatively affect rural settlement landscapes, with dissatisfaction frequencies significantly exceeding satisfaction frequencies. However, their visual impact on rural production landscapes is negligible. The results will provide a reference for landscape planning and design of PV facilities in rural areas, supporting the sustainable development of PV facilities.

As the awareness of public health arises, hiking has grown increasingly popular. Suburban mountain areas have become important areas of activities for recreational exercisers like hikers, necessitating adaptations in the planning and construction of their trail systems to meet diverse demands. Taking Xiaoxishan in Beijing as a case study, this research classifies the spatial characteristics of the trail spaces based on data from the 2bulu website and field surveys, examines the profiles of trail users and their evaluations of various trail spaces through questionnaire surveys, and explores the preferences, the differences in preferences, and the underlying reasons for preferences among non-hikers and hikers (including short-distance and long-distance hikers). The results show a clear preference for naturalized trail spaces—including the importance level to spatial elements, the preference of trial surface materials, and the preference of specific trail space types—as the preferred hiking distance increases. Specifically, the importance of slope decreases while the preference for steeper slopes increases; the attention to trail surface materials intensifies while the preference shifting from paved trails to dirt or dirt-rock trails. In addition, concerns about safety decrease, while demands for comfort and fun among long-distance hikers increase. Based on these varying preferences, this study proposes differentiated trail design strategies and provides practical insights to enrich the content of the National Fitness Strategy, inform the formulation of trail system policies, and facilitate related planning and design practice.

The 2024 Climate Design Summit, held on October 29, 2024, emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in tackling climate change challenges. Experts from architecture, engineering, and environmental science gathered to discuss sustainable solutions for mitigating climate disasters like floods, wildfires, and droughts. The summit advocated for cross-disciplinary solutions that integrate Nature-based Solutions as catalysts for climate resilience and are essential for long-term sustainability, and stressed that no single technical solution can address the complexity of climate issues. Successful case studies were highlighted as examples of how design can address both climate resilience and socio-economic challenges. The gathered insights and discussions on this summit reinforced that achieving climate resilience requires a holistic approach that blends scientific innovation, sustainable design, and community empowerment, and underlined the need for collaboration across disciplines and sectors to build resilient cities and infrastructures.