Open research questions in Urban Planning and Landscape Design
57 gap statements mined from Urban Planning and Landscape Design papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 663 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
Further research is needed to explore the relationships between economic, sociocultural, and environmental aspects of the eco-city concept. Studies should investigate the impact of global technology and energy business on the eco-city concept. Research should be conducted to develop effective strategies for retrofitting city infrastructure to achieve eco-city goals.
Urban residents’ perspectives on eco-city: a second-order confirmatory factor analysis of Khon Kaen, Northeast Thailand · 2025 · DOIWhile theoretical models are well-recognized among policymakers, the extent to which these approaches are understood and embraced by urban residents remains underexplored.
Urban residents’ perspectives on eco-city: a second-order confirmatory factor analysis of Khon Kaen, Northeast Thailand · 2025 · DOIThe concept of symbolic fences is introduced as a means of addressing this gap.
There is no single source that adequately surveys the city's many plant communities and their functions. The paper identifies a gap in considering nature in city design beyond parks and new suburbs.
It highlights the need for further research on the cultural, economic, and physiographic environments of viticulture.
The need to integrate theoretical concepts into explanatory schemes. The difficulty of measuring the importance of settlements.
The lack of integration of theoretical concepts into explanatory schemes. The need to relate the processes of regional urban growth to the factors often cited in individual urban histories.
Its area1 focus is limited to the states between the Appalachians and the Great Plains and the temporal coverage is from 1775 to 1850, facts that greatly facilitate the reader’s acceptance since he is not forced to consider frontier conditions from the Atlantic Seaboard in the 1600s to those of the far West in the late nineteenth century.
The paper suggests that future research should focus on working out the relationship between mind, society, and environment in concrete studies of real places and landscapes. It implies that a dialectical approach may lead to a more nuanced understanding of human geographical experience.
To develop adequate theory, we need to combine macro and micro analyses in single pieces of research. To provide the missing complementarity, increase the information content contained in our models, and reduce the number of arbitrary decisions which must be made to facilitate research.
Future research should continue to explore the concept of hierarchy and its application in various disciplines. The study of levels of integration should be further developed to inform the development of more effective theories and models in regional science.
The study seeks to address this gap by exploring the concept of levels of integration and its importance in understanding order and coherence.
The need to understand the conflict basis of public and private decisions on the use of land. The lack of insight into the complex interdependencies linking participant and land-use combinations.
The study highlights the need for further research into the impact of human activity on the landscape.
The study of cultural landscape is challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the landscape. There is a need to consider the geographic context of cultural elements.
The paper suggests that future research should explore the application of phenomenology in human geography. It argues that phenomenology can provide a new perspective on geographical research. The paper also suggests that future research should investigate the potential applications of phenomenology in geography, including the study of regionalism and the concept of action space.
It argues that phenomenology is a suitable approach for human geography, but it has been neglected in the field. The paper also identifies a gap in the discussion of the potential applications of phenomenology in geography.
There is a gap in the understanding of dualism and its implications. The concept of dualism has been characterized by mistaken or inadequate analyses.
The paper identifies a gap in current research, which is the lack of concern with behavioural processes in geographic research. The authors argue that this gap has somewhat stunted the geographer's explanatory powers.
It notes that the precise relationship between these factors cannot be stated as a general theory.
The scale problem in human geography is a significant issue that affects the development of comprehensive theories. Macro and micro scale studies do not complement each other due to different philosophical and methodological positions.
There is a methodological debate rooted in different philosophical beliefs - There is a need to reconcile different beliefs and suggest an underlying theoretical…
Further study of the dimensions of locational conflicts in different cities. Analysis of the impact of demographic changes on facility usage and the rising standards of expectations for basic educational and health services.
The complexity of the social structure of antebellum cities - The limited availability of data on the social configuration of these cities - The need to consider the overall social structure rather than just particular…
The paper identifies a gap in current research, which has focused on particular pieces of the city rather than the overall social structure - It notes that historians have failed to take into account the social configuration of antebellum…
Most-cited papers in Urban Planning and Landscape Design
- This is Not a Boundary Object: Reflections on the Origin of a Concept · Science Technology & Human Values · 2010 · 1,694 citations
- Challenges in the Quest for Keystones · BioScience · 1996 · 1,495 citations
- A complex landscape of inequity in access to urban parks: A literature review · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2016 · 880 citations
- Regions, Networks and Fluids: Anaemia and Social Topology · Social Studies of Science · 1994 · 787 citations
- ‘Spatial’ relationships? Towards a reconceptualization of embedded ness · Progress in Human Geography · 2004 · 757 citations
- Reconnecting Cities to the Biosphere: Stewardship of Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecosystem Services · AMBIO · 2014 · 517 citations
- Phase space: geography, relational thinking, and beyond · Progress in Human Geography · 2009 · 490 citations
- Ecological networks: A spatial concept for multi-actor planning of sustainable landscapes · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2005 · 425 citations
- People needs in the urban landscape: Analysis of Landscape And Urban Planning contributions · Landscape and Urban Planning · 2007 · 418 citations
- Mobility/Sedentism: Concepts, Archaeological Measures, and Effects · Annual Review of Anthropology · 1992 · 385 citations
Most recent work
- Mixed Use Urban Design · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · 2026
- The symbiotic city: when density becomes green · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · 2026
- Multifunctional landscapes in Sweden – How the concept is understood and implemented in research and practice · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · 2026
- Territorial design as frictional landscapes: reframing urban-landscape discourse and practice into multi-scalar governance · Proceedings of DRS · 2026
- From the city as a system to the system of cities: The systemic approach to urban planning · Quaestiones Geographicae · 2026
- Architect-Urbanist: House and Habitat in the Work of Ian McKay · Fabrications · 2026
- Elements of Urban Design - Shrewsbury · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · 2026
- Elements of Urban Design - Forsyth · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · 2026
- Grounding our perspectives: musings on ‘landscape scale’ · Landscape Ecology · 2026
- Restorative Sustainability on Richmond's Fall Line Trail: Opportunities for Addressing Urban Resilience and Historical Inequity in Southside Through Sustainable Design Standards · VCU Scholars Compass (Virginia Commonwealth University) · 2026
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