In compact cities, one of the main challenges is the competition for limited urban land resources between people and vehicles, where shared parking infrastructure may offer a potential solution. Building on existing literature, this study presents a technical framework for the time-division multiplexing strategy of transportation infrastructure, and explores its application in an old central urban area in China as a case study. This strategy includes three main steps: supply and demand identification, planning and design, and community promotion. Firstly, from macro to micro scales, identify characteristics of parking lots' usage rates and the public activity demands based on mobile signaling data and field survey results. Secondly, develop the time-division multiplexing rules for parking lots according to the above characteristics and detailed spatial planning and design schemes. Finally, design an interactive model that can provide the public's real-time feedback to ensure effective implementation of the schemes by guiding public behavior. Grounded in compact city theories, this approach extends spatial land use limitations by introducing a temporal dimension. By blending big data coverage with field surveys and interviews, and integrating planning and design with public participation, this study offers an effective solution to urban conflicts between people and vehicles.

● Focuses on time-division multiplexing strategies to address people and vehicle conflict by optimizing the use of limited space over time

Exploring the effect ecological design methods is a critical issue for sustainable development, yet a gap still exists between the research and practices of ecological landscape design. This study employed pragmatic designed experiments as its core method, integrating methodologies from empiricism, positivism, and romanticism to propose a semi-empirical ecological design framework that emphasizes learning by doing and research through practice. The framework encompasses three steps: prototyping, designed experiments, and monitoring and adjustment. The study further took the restoration project of Haizhu Wetland in Guangzhou as an example by proposing five designed experiments based on the analysis of form prototypes suitable for the site: the mound-based orchard wetland system, enhanced paddy field system, bird island, high-tide habitat, and a low-maintenance resilient water system. Corresponding design hypotheses and monitoring and adjustment evaluation indicators were also offered. The results showcase the feasibility of integrating ecological research with practical application to steer ecological design optimization and enhance the resilience of anthropogenic ecosystems. Although the wetland renovation project has initially shown ecological benefits and social welfare, the effectiveness of this design framework still requires further tracking and validation.

● Constructs a learning-by-doing and semi-empirical ecological design framework based on pragmatism to facilitate effective learning through practices

As a highly urbanized bay area bustling with socio-economic activities, Shenzhen Bay is a pivotal stopover and wintering habitat for migratory birds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. The Futian Mangrove National Important Wetland, located in the northeast of Shenzhen bay, is a part of the Guangdong Neilingding–Futian National Nature Reserve. As the smallest national nature reserve in China, the wintering habitat of migratory birds has been significantly impacted by the compacted surrounding built-up environment. It has become an urgent need for refined high-quality ecological restoration for the habitats. This project leveraged Nature-based Solutions to develop a refined model for the ecological restoration of coastal wetland waterbird habitats in compact urban areas. By analyzing waterbird behaviors and habitat requirements, this model outlined six strategies: water surface expansion, water level control, hydrodynamic conditions improvement, shoal transformation, adaptive vegetation management, and disturbance control. To effectively guide the restoration implementation, high-, medium-, and low-adaptive approaches were proposed accordingly. After restoration in 2022, notable increases in target species, such as Platalea minor, were observed. The variety of waterbirds of the reserve in 2022 increased by 33% compared with 2021, while increased by 50.9% compared with 2016, significantly enhancing ecosystem services of the coastal area. As urban renewal in China is shifting towards spatial redevelopment, this model offers valuable insights for ecological restoration aiming at coastal wetland waterbird conservation across the country, and substantially supports establishing the "International Mangrove Center" in Shenzhen.

● Explores Nature-based Solutions on refined coastal wetland restoration in highly urbanized area

Facing the irreversible decline of anthropogenic landscapes, what should be the aesthetics for landscape architects to design a perishing site? How should landscape design inform ecological grief from disappearing sites? This article evaluates the intersection of landscape aesthetics and material performance as agencies in the drying Aral Sea for design intervention.

This article challenges conventional ways of landscape conservation which aim to halt or reverse ecological degradation. Instead, it proposes a paradigm where the design for the anthropogenic landscape in the Aral Sea is not to solely conserve what is left, but rather allows a dignified decline. This perspective suggests that the aesthetics of designing anthropogenic landscapes depends on making visible the impact of human actions on the land and addressing resultant ecological grief, where nonhuman elements and their agency play a vital role in addressing the ecological losses.

The proposed design interventions involve creating a system of brine pools, tillage mounds, sand-capturing dunes, and ecological markers, and seek to employ non-human entities, including both inorganic and organic materials like sand, salt, and plantings, in mitigating the demise of the Aral Sea. In essence, this article strives to make human devastation in the Anthropocene perceptible by designing an educative experience while slowing the disappearance of the dying sea.

● Challenges conventional environmental conservation by designing the beautiful death of the Aral Sea

The Resilient Cities Congress (2010 ~ 2019) and the Daring Cities (2020 to present) were the pioneering annual global platforms showcasing the latest advancements in international research and practices of resilient cities. They have been instrumental in fostering the growth and collaborative efforts of resilient cities across the globe. Drawing from the materials and scholarly work presented at these congresses, this research comprehensively reviews the evolution of resilient cities over the last decade through the lenses of policies and actions, summarizing the cutting-edge and current trends. The journey of global resilient cities unfolds in three phases of global commitment and framework establishment, path exploration and action, and experience translation and adaption. Resilience building and financing based on multi-level actions, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and community participation have consistently been the core themes of the Resilient Cities Congress series. Emphasizing the leading role of local governments in such actions and taking into account the social, environmental, and economic dimensions, multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation and innovation is the key to achieving resilience and overall sustainable development. Moreover, in response to the new challenges and opportunities of the digital age, efforts to strengthen the cyber resilience by building a healthy and safe cyber environment are vital enhancers of sustainable urban development. Finally, the article reflects how the insights and accomplishments stemming from the Resilient Cities Congress series can inform resilient city research and practices in China. It advocates for a strategic approach that aligns with China's unique conditions and urban characteristics, encouraging the adaptation and contextualization of resilient initiatives to craft localized and regionspecific plans for building resilient cities across the nation.

● Reviews the global resilient city development from 2010 to present based on the Resilient Cities Congress series and Daring Cities

As global climate continues to change, it is pressing to integrate the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals into territorial spatial planning. While little existing ecological restoration research focuses on counties in western China, particularly arid areas of northwest China, this research took Wensu County of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China as the study case, evaluated the carbon sequestration capacity and carbon storage of the current carbon sinks, identified the spatial pattern of carbon sinks, and proposed the territorial ecological restoration approaches to increasing carbon sinks. The evaluation results show that the importance level of carbon sinks varies significantly across geographical environments of the county, where one primary carbon sink, two secondary carbon sinks, and potential carbon sinks with a total area of 2259.81 km² were identified. This research extracted eight typical land use patterns based on current land use and proposed ecological restoration strategies accordingly. This research shows a way to integrate carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals in territorial spatial planning, which is instrumental for carbon sink management in the arid areas of northwest China and provides a referable paradigm for regions with similar geographical conditions.

● Focuses on ecological restoration in a county in the arid areas of northwest China, aiming for carbon sink increase

This study introduces a Landscape Information Modeling–Stable Diffusion (LIM–SD)-based digital workflow for ecological engineered landscaping (EEL) design, focusing on urban river wetlands. It explores how students from diverse academic backgrounds perform EEL tasks using the LIM–SD approach. A total of 30 participants, including industrial design postgraduates and landscape architecture undergraduates and postgraduates, completed the design tasks. The efficacy of their designs was assessed through expert evaluations on site appropriateness, aesthetics, spatial layout, and eco-engineering techniques of the design proposals, as well as the parametric simulation which calculated the vegetation coverage rate and proportion of riparian areas for each design. Moreover, evaluation of participants' subjective design experiences was conducted via questionnaires. Results indicated that landscape architecture postgraduates outperformed others applying ecological engineering principles. The study also elucidated discrepancies between LIM models and SD-generated renderings, as well as the uncertainty of SD-generated renderings, suggesting improvements are needed to align digital outputs with ecological design criteria.

Facing the challenges of global climate change, the construction of low-carbon cities has become an inevitable pathway, where carbon emission assessment is a critical part to the transition towards digitalized urban planning and design of low-carbon cities. However, comprehensive review on carbon assessment tools applied to urban planning and design is absent. As a response, this paper selected and reviewed typical digital assessment tools of carbon emissions at both the city and district/neighborhood scales, and summarized their measuring dimensions and reference data. Currently, tools based on energy system planning and operational energy simulation dominate the field, while tools for carbon emission and carbon sink estimations based on land use types or materials are rapidly developing due to the increasing refinement of carbon emission assessments and shifts of decarbonization policies. At present, these tools are primarily used in energy planning and design, governmental decision-making, and building structural design and material choice, and their application in urban planning and design practice, especially in the early stages, remains limited. Hence, this study further underscored the limitations and potential development directions of existing carbon emission assessment tools by case studying low-carbon practices worldwide that have not utilized digital assessment tools—in the future, improving tools' flexibility and adaptability for diverse scenarios, building comprehensive databases, incorporating the calculation of operational carbon, embedded carbon, and carbon sinks, and aligning with the needs for multi-dimensional, multi-criteria, and full-process assessments should be put into more efforts.

● Summarizes five categories of carbon emission assessment tools at both city and district/neighborhood scales

Design increasingly plays a pivotal role in achieving justice for all. However, there are often gaps between visions and implementation due to the variety of factors and stakeholders involved in design practice. Through literature review and a keyword co-occurrence analysis, this paper investigates current landscape justice research and identifies the distinguishing concerns in design, and highlights the importance of systematic thinking in achieving landscape justice. By examining the practices of the British company Building Design Partnership (BDP), a multinational design company, this paper identifies BDP’s three key design principles as experiences can be followed for landscape justice: design for inclusion, design for resilience, and design for future ecosystems. The paper also addresses potential challenges and conflicts in implementing landscape justice across different contexts and highlights multinational design companies’ efforts to mediate between various stakeholders. Finally, this paper demonstrates that design companies can contribute to 1) bridging social and environmental justice through landscape design, 2) achieving the visions promoted by scholars, 3) identifying and deploying diverse approaches to achieving landscape justice with their sensitivity to practical problems, and 4) fostering integrated feedback loops via both top-down and bottom-up approaches to ensure effective implementation of landscape justice.

● Investigates current landscape justice research and identifies the gap between theories and design practice through a keyword co-occurrence analysis

This study provides a comparative analysis of the journey toward hazard-resilience by examining the resilience-related policies and local practices in five exemplary cities worldwide: Cape Town (South Africa), Greater Manchester (UK), Changsha and Wenchuan (China), and San Juan City (Puerto Rico). Through a conceptual framework encompassing seven interrelated dimensions of the social-environmental system, this paper delves into how hazard risk is perceived and resilience is approached in both policy documents and local practices. Policy reviews reveal distinct strategies among cities. Cape Town employs diverse water-saving measures, addressing drought through water resilience. Greater Manchester focuses on human and organizational aspects in disaster risk reduction. Changsha and Wenchuan prioritize specific disaster response measures, while San Juan tackles environmental and socio-economic challenges through multidimensional actions. Local practices illustrate the effectiveness of bottom-up resilience enhancement, with examples including home drilling in Cape Town and community engagement in Changsha. Despite these efforts, there is a common trend across cities of limited consideration for cultural/worldviews and urban-rural-spatial dimensions. Bridging this gap is crucial for effective risk management and disaster recovery. This study underscores the importance of aligning policy formulation with local practices, prioritizing targeted recovery plans, and expanding considerations to include the urban-rural-spatial dimension. Overall, this research contributes valuable insights to the development of hazard-resilient cities, offering policymakers and planners a foundation to prepare cities for future challenges and foster urban resilience.

● Reveals varied hazard resilience strategies across five global cities: Cape Town, Greater Manchester, Changsha, Wenchuan, and San Juan City

In the context of rapidly evolving urban landscapes, the integration of green urban structures emerges as a critical solution for addressing the multifaceted challenges of climate change and mobility. This editorial outlines an approach to sustainable urban development, emphasizing the necessity of incorporating green urban structures and environmentally conscious planning principles across all facets of urban life. By analyzing the impacts of urban challenges and underlying crises, it calls for a collaborative effort among governmental agencies, private enterprises, and local communities to foster innovative solutions that mitigate ecological vulnerabilities while enhancing green urban resilience. Through the lens of green urban structures, it highlights the potential for cities to transform into more sustainable, adaptable, and resilient entities, capable of withstanding the unpredictable risks in the future.

Faced with the future decentralization trends of intelligent agent distribution in urban neighborhoods, this article proposes a new, integrated pathway of “intelligent construction + scenario operation.” Its innovativeness lies in incorporating intelligent technology into processes of urban design, neighborhood renewal, and scenario operation. The pathway is tested through the empirical research on the case of the Shanghai Vanke Future City (NEXUS) project. In this project, the “intelligent construction + scenario operation” pathway is mainly demonstrated in scenarios of “intelligent transportation,” “convenient living,” “inclusiveness and security,” and “environmental governance.” The project becomes the model of combining production, ecology, and living together under Shanghai’s new city strategy, and has gained positive social impacts. It verifies that the pathway is conducive to improving the design, construction, and operation qualities of future urban neighborhoods, providing a reference for China’s smart neighborhood construction in the future.

● Proposes a pathway of "intelligent construction + scenario operation" for smart neighborhoods of future city

This paper explores the application of digital twins (DT) in urban planning and landscape design. Initially developed in fields such as manufacturing and engineering, DT has emerged as a critical tool for replicating and simulating the physical world within a virtual environment. Its application enables real-time monitoring and future transformation simulations, offering profound implications for urban planning and landscape design. Despite its broad applicability, implementing DT in less controlled contexts like urban landscape environments presents unique challenges, particularly drawing skepticism around the feasibility of launching a universal city-level DT. This paper advocates for site-scale DTs focusing on specific urban elements, such as parks, buildings, and infrastructure, to enable more controlled and effective modeling environments, emphasizing the importance of creating an urban DT network through serial site-scale DTs. This approach requires ongoing experimentation in landscape and urban design practices and supportive economic and policy environments to foster interdisciplinary research and design and market adoption. Drawing from three design proposals, this paper explores the transformative potential of site-scale DTs, highlighting its role in creating more interactive, participatory, and responsive environments by integrating citizen data on emotions, interactions, and health factors, thereby advancing the design-intervened virtual-physical interface of public spaces and urban landscapes.

● Advocates for site-scale DT to enhance integration with existing urban design and planning practices

The katsura tree at Dumbarton Oaks is among the oldest of the species in North America and pre-dates the design of the garden. Japanese master gardener Kurato Fujimoto was commissioned to inspect and lead the construction and installation of a series of branch supports, known as "hoozue" in Japan, to rejuvenate this venerable tree that was in decline. The assessment of the tree included the inspection of the branch structure with a projection toward post-installation growth over the next several decades. Materials such as rope, bark fabric, nails (kasugai), and the wooden hoozue themselves were fabricated and installed with indigenous knowledge and experience, which were described in the text and drawings and documented in a series of photographic sequences. This article narrates the process of this preservation work, demonstrating the significance of this indigenous Japanese technique.

● It studies an indigenous Japanese arboriculture technique that has time-tested success yet may be different from accepted practices

The disasters frequently happened these years made the term "resilience" gained increasing attention. Since the end of the 20th century, the way of responding to disaster risks has evolved from disaster prevention to reduction, and now to resilience governance, shifting from the pursuit of "zero risk" to living with risk. In this interview, Professor Guofang Zhai from Nanjing University summarizes the development process of resilient city construction in China, highlighting that the primary task is to enhance infrastructure resilience. Facing the issue of spatial imbalance of urban resilience, it is essential to give full play to the role of territorial spatial planning, with whole-process, multi-factor, multisystem research on urban resilience as an important reference for planning and design, and take disaster scenario simulation as a crucial technical approach. It is necessary to implement both engineering and non-engineering measures, to increase public awareness of risks and to encourage individual participation into the building of resilient cities. Planners and designers should also have a deeper understanding of the possible disasters and be prepared for emergency responses to disasters that exceed standard defense levels.

● The years of 2005, 2015, and 2020 are three significant milestones of China’s resilient city construction

The rapid development of electronic technology has resulted in the annual phase-out of a large amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment, known as "e-waste, " especially in developed countries. In the context of economic globalization, the lack of relevant environmental laws and policies in developing countries and less developed countries, as well as cheap labor, has attracted developed countries to export a large amount of domestic e-waste to these countries. The chemicals produced during the low-tech dismantling process enter the air, soil, and deep groundwater, contaminating drinking water and food, and eventually entering the human body. Due to the inequality of economic and political development, the countries and regions that generate the least e-waste suffer the most. The most affected areas include, but are not limited to, China, India, and Ghana. This paper studies the production, distribution, and movement of e-waste, and its unequal distribution and disposal patterns of e-waste on a global scale. It also analyzes the national and international recycling policies and investigates the consequences of informal dismantling practices on the economy, society, and environment. The conclusion of the paper focuses on Guiyu, China as an example to draw landscape intervention strategies from key landscape issues, specifically for farmland, rivers and urban areas. These strategies are divided into three distinct stages of recovery and development. From the perspective of landscape intervention, this paper attempts to provide research and intervention suggestions for the restoration of ecology, health, and livelihood in global e-waste polluted areas.

● The global e-waste flow pattern is analyzed under the background of economic globalization and unequal environment distribution

Artificial intelligence (AI) image generation is revolutionizing traditional workflow in landscape architecture industry, among which the "image-to-image" generative adversarial network (GAN) exhibits potential to facilitate concept design. Therefore, it underscores the importance of applicability evaluation from the perspective of users. This research aims to evaluate the quality of the GAN-generated results, their effectiveness in integrating with design workflows, and the landscape architects' acceptance of the results through image analysis and user survey. The evaluation focuses on layout generation and masterplan rendering within the Pix2Pix–BicycleGAN workflow. The evaluation metrics of image analysis including block number absolute/Euclidean distance, histogram distance, and structural similarity index measure, were employed. Additionally, the online survey with two questionnaires was conducted to evaluate the visual realism and preference for color and texture of the GAN-generated results. The findings indicate that the GAN-generated layout exhibits a high similarity to the human-designed layout, and the GAN-rendered masterplans fulfill the criteria for concept design and garner positive user acceptance. Conclusively, this study delves into the intrinsic rationality of the GAN generation methods and limitations in professional ethics and data bias, reflecting on the gaps between current AI-assisted design methods and evidence-based design.

● Quantitative applicability evaluation of "image to image" landscape masterplan generation method

As social and economic dynamics continue to evolve and the demand for companionship increases, pet ownership has become an increasingly popular lifestyle choice. Pet parks, as a new form of urban public space, are gaining significant attention. This study, grounded in the theory of spatial justice, employs a combination of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to evaluate four representative pet parks in Hong Kong, China. It explores how pet parks, as inclusive green infrastructure in high-density environments, contribute to urban community well-being and broader spatial justice. The study reveals the conflicts between pet owners and non-pet owners regarding the rights to use public spaces, examining how to guarantee the spatial rights of specific groups while avoiding harm to others. The findings indicate that green space availability, sociability and participation, walkability, safety, and flexibility in pet parks play a positive role in achieving urban spatial justice. However, pet parks also face challenges related to social exclusion and safety, requiring a balance between promoting community integration and ensuring public safety. This study offers valuable insights for the development of pet parks, the creation of vibrant and diverse public spaces, and the promotion of harmonious human-animal environments in cities across China and other Asian countries.

● Applies the spatial justice theoretical framework to the study of pet parks in an Asian city for the first time

The construction of a barrier-free environment is an important measure that guarantees the safety, right-of-way, and interests of the disabled, the elderly, and other mobility disadvantaged groups. It is also an indispensable part of the low-carbon urban transportation and a necessary way to protect the rights of mobility disadvantaged groups in green travel. In this paper, the researchers conducted life log surveys on the travels of 10 wheelchair users residing in Beijing with IoT Inspector, a self-developed, wheelchair-mountable intelligent sensing device. Wheelchair users' travel preferences and reasons were then analyzed using the image and textual data from the surveys. Combined with a mapping workshop, a comparative analysis was performed on the bumpiness of sidewalk paving materials. The study found that wheelchair travelers' preferred non-motor lanes over sidewalks; substandard curb ramps, unleveled tree pools, limited access widths, and bumpy pavement were the main problems faced by wheelchair users in sidewalk accessibility. In addition, the study explores the inclusive needs and challenges of non-motorized right-of-way for new transportation means at urban planning and traffic management levels. Based on multi-sourced data, this paper discusses the possibility of assessing urban barrier-free environment and representing a narrative of the needs of mobility disadvantaged groups, so as to provide practical experience and technical support to the improvement strategies of adaptive roads.

As an extension of environmental justice, landscape justice emphasizes achieving inclusive and equitable planning and design in both built and natural environments, allowing different social groups to enjoy and share landscape resources and benefits more equally. By endowing landscape design with a “just” orientation, landscape justice significantly improves the spatial and environmental benefits while promotes the process of environmental justice. Landscape justice is characterized by its interdisciplinary nature, showing great variability in spatio-temporal scales, site dimensions and attributes, and social groups and scenarios, the research of which urgently requires in-depth dialogues, sincere collaborations, and active explorations among multiple disciplines. We call for enriching the connotation of landscape justice through interdisciplinary perspectives and addressing practical issues, to provide innovative spatial propositions and paths for creating sustainable urban environments and landscapes.

Combining research methods such as semantic analysis and Space-Time Cube, this paper proposes a "historic urban landscape–cognition–sentiment" analysis framework, covering aspects of heritage intrinsic value, urban functional value, and urban landscape value, and reveals the influencing mechanism of the characteristics of historic urban landscape (HUL) on public sentiments and the spatio-temporal differentiation patterns through the case study of the Shaoxing ancient city in China. The research findings include that different HUL characteristics had differentiated effects on public sentiments, and the effect of a same HUL characteristic on public sentiments varied between weekdays and weekends/holidays, and among different HULs. On weekends/holidays, public sentiments were more influenced by the intrinsic value factors of HUL (e.g., heritage level, heritage age), whereas on weekdays, they were more affected by urban functional value factors, and urban landscape value factors played a greater role in arousing people's positive sentiments. This study aims to provide scientific references for enhancing public perception and emotional experience in urban spaces and for identifying potential spatial improvement opportunities in historic cities.

● Innovatively proposes "HUL–Cognition–Sentiment" analysis framework, and systematically explores the influencing mechanism of HUL characteristics on public sentiments

Urban green spaces contribute to improving people's physical and mental health by reducing levels of stress and anxiety. Marginalized communities in the USA experience poor health outcome in part because of health disparities related to social and structural determinants of health. The purpose of this study is to assess the prospective role of Kellogg Park, a newly built community park in a marginalized community in California, in enhancing residents' physical and mental health. The researchers collected the data by conducting an in-person survey, which covered questions related to environmental and safety perceptions, overall satisfaction, changes in physical activity changes and mental health with respondents' pre- and post-occupancy experiences. For analyzing data, bivariate analyses using a t-test and a correlation analysis were conducted to examine if there was a relationship between the overall satisfaction and visiting experience. The results indicated an increased positive environmental perception. Besides, respondents reported positively to questions of safety and their overall satisfaction. This research yielded positive results, indicating an improvement in the respondents' physical activity changes and mental health after the construction of the park. The results will advocate for and assist planners, designers, and policy-makers in prioritizing green spaces in marginalized communities.

● Reveals that increased physical and mental health was closely related to the accessibility of urban green spaces

The establishment and development of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area have demonstrated the collaborative relationship of the globally regional reconstructing. As a major strategy of the Greater Bay Area, Northern Metropolis faces challenges in transboundary ecological collaborative management. Based on the analysis of the ecological issues and the complexity of the transboundary management in Shenzhen Bay, this article proposes a co-governed “Special Ecological Conservation Zone” under the context of “one country, two systems” by zoning areas with varied protection levels. The development and operation framework includes: establishing an independent Joint Work Group, building consensus and standardizing collaboration procedure, conducting hierarchical management and regulating development, leveraging and motivating knowledge and technological innovation, and strengthening community engagement and emphasizing shared benefits. By case-studying three sites along the Shenzhen Bay, this article also provides place-making strategies for different levels of protection zones. Exploring innovative collaboration models for Northern Metropolis, this article is expected to provide new solutions for the sustainable development of the Greater Bay Area and creative insights for global transboundary ecological collaborative management.

The Niagara Escarpment, a 440-million-year-old landform, cuts through a property owned by the University of Toronto in Caledon, Ontario in Canada. The property juxtaposes impacts from historical quarrying activity which burrowed directly into the Escarpment’s slope, the greater context of the region’s urban development demands, and the Escarpment’s identity as an ancient geological formation, ecological refugium, and old-growth forest housing ancient species such as Thuja occidentalis.

This project explores the university’s responsibility in advocating for the protection of the Escarpment’s unique ecologic conditions, including the distinct cliff ecosystems and the novel successional plant communities evolving on sites of former quarry activities. Interventions on the trail system, cave bridges and lookouts, and the boardwalk and path system, along with guidance of signage and trail markers, will bring visitors to areas where former quarry activities sculptured the Escarpment’s limestone faces and are now reclaimed by a system of lush novel wetlands and habitats in evolutionary stages. Connecting to a system of existing public trails, this project leverages the university’s educational and recreational objectives to form new strategic partnerships with local conservancy groups, aiming at monitoring and managing access and habitat protection.

● Indigenous-led conservation efforts and partnerships with local conservancy groups are emphasized to enhance sustainability and stewardship

In recent years, the convergence of accelerating climate change, land use changes, and modified fire regimes has escalated the risk of catastrophic wildfires. In response, landscape stewardship tools such as the application of beneficial fire are being increasingly employed worldwide to mitigate fuel accumulation, improve habitat, and support eco-cultural practices. Beneficial fire encompasses various forms, including cultural burns, prescribed burns, or simply allowing naturally-occurring wildfires to safely burn out. Historically, those involved in planning and designing landscapes have resisted the transformative power of fire by embracing spatial techniques that suppress and push fire away. However, this article highlights co-creative strategies that embrace and utilize pyric forces. It discusses how landscape architects can broaden their wildfire adaptation toolbox to incorporate land-fire stewardship techniques. The article also acknowledges the agency of landscape architects to pursue (or not pursue) projects in fire-prone areas, promotes collaboration with existing fire stewards to gain insights and include them as key members of project teams, and explores how landscape architects could become active stewards themselves.

● The risks and negative impacts of wildfire are intensifying globally

The Vatican Climate Summit, titled “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience”, was successfully held in May 2024. A landmark achievement of the Summit was the introduction and adoption of the Planetary Protocol for Climate Change Resilience. This comprehensive framework calls for global cooperation to enhance climate resilience through the implementation of the MAST principles—mitigation, adaptation, and societal transformation, laying the groundwork for a strategic approach to climate action. Facing the current climate challenge, it is also crucial to understand the complexity of climate change, conduct climate design, and promote educational paradigm change for future global leadership in planet stewardship.