Knowledge management technology is now ubiquitous in many businesses, yet it is much less common among local authorities. Following a "brainstorm meeting" in Lyon on knowledge management for regional planning and policymaking, a proposal was developed to set up a research agendum for future development of this topic. The main difficulty we identified is that regional knowledge encompasses many topics beyond business issues, especially those related to long-term sustainability. The goal of this paper is twofold, first to clarify the proper definitions and boundaries of regional knowledge and technology, and second, to identify the ways of using this technology effectively for governance and decision-making.

The New Urban Agenda-the global urbanization framework agreement adopted by acclamation by all 193 countries of the United Nations-contains no fewer than eight paragraphs on the importance of public space, three of which outline its role in achieving "human health and well-being", "attractive and liveable cities", and "physical and mental health". However, there is an urgent need to translate these and other quality of life aspirations contained in this landmark document into measurable targets, tools, and strategies to achieve outcomes. This paper examines the core theories that connect health and well-being to public space as reflected in the document, surveying some of the most relevant research in the field. It then analyzes the document text to identify a number of potentially useful indicators. Finally, it proposes a framework for data gathering, assessment, and iterative progress in achieving the stated goals, concluding with an overview of emerging research and practice, and proposed next steps.

The mathematical concept of symmetry, in its fullest sense, figured large in architectural history up to the early twentieth century. However, for the better part of a century, architecture and related disciplines have marginalized the consideration of symmetry in favour of a 'functionalist" conception of design. More recently, dramatic developments in mathematics, physics, biology, neuroscience, environmental psychology, and other fields have given new dynamism to the ancient topic of symmetry. These findings carry implications for architecture and other environmental design professions that have, until now, been poorly understood, where they have been considered at all. This paper examines the new findings and what they reveal about current design orthodoxy as well as shedding new light on historic precedents. It concludes that there is an urgent need for a reassessment, toward a new agenda of research and practice.

We present evidence that New Urbanism, defined as a set of normative urban characteristics codified in the 1996 Charter of the New Urbanism, reached a seminal moment-in mission if not in name-with the 2016 New Urban Agenda, a landmark document adopted by acclamation by all 193 member states of the United Nations. We compare the two documents and find key parallels between them (including mix of uses, walkable multi-modal streets, buildings defining public space, mix of building ages and heritage patterns, co-production of the city by the citizens, and understanding of the city as an evolutionary self-organizing structure). Both documents also reveal striking contrasts with the highly influential 20th century Athens Charter, from 1933, developed by the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Yet, both newer documents also still face formidable barriers to implementation, and, as we argue, each faces similar challenges in formulating effective alternatives to business as usual. We trace this history up to the present day, and the necessary requirements for what we conclude is an `unfinished reformation' ahead.

Urban systems involve a multitude of closely intertwined components, which are more measurable than before due to new sensors, data collection, and spatio-temporal analysis methods. Turning these data into knowledge to facilitate planning efforts in addressing current challenges of urban complex systems requires advanced interdisciplinary analysis methods, such as urban informatics or urban data science. Yet, by applying a purely data-driven approach, it is too easy to get lost in the 'forest' of data, and to miss the 'trees' of successful, livable cities that are the ultimate aim of urban planning. This paper assesses how geospatial data, and urban analysis, using a mixed methods approach, can help to better understand urban dynamics and human behavior, and how it can assist planning efforts to improve livability. Based on reviewing state-of-the-art research the paper goes one step further and also addresses the potential as well as limitations of new data sources in urban analytics to get a better overview of the whole 'forest' of these new data sources and analysis methods. The main discussion revolves around the reliability of using big data from social media platforms or sensors, and how information can be extracted from massive amounts of data through novel analysis methods, such as machine learning, for better-informed decision making aiming at urban livability improvement.

Architecture has an ancient relationship to mathematics, and symmetry-in the broad sense of the term-is a core topic of both. Yet the contemporary application of theories of symmetry to architecture and built environments is a surprisingly immature area of research. At the same time, research is showing a divergence between the benefits of and preferences for natural environments on the one hand, and built environments on the other, demonstrating relatively deleterious effects of many contemporary built environments. Yet the research cannot yet pinpoint the actual geometric factors of architecture and urbanism that could produce such an important divergence. This paper explores this research gap, surveying the literature across a range of fields, and assessing current evidence for the impacts of symmetry in the built environment upon human perception and well-being. As an emerging case study, it considers the recent work by Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros, two trained mathematicians who have made notable contributions to architecture and urbanism. The conclusion proposes a new research agenda toward further development of this immature subject area.

We are beginning to better understand the complex differentiations of public spaces, and in particular, the ways that more private territories form within public spaces, both formally (e.g. legally permitted sidewalk cafe seating) and informally (e.g. a family picnic on a blanket in a public park). These structures are remarkably complex, intricate and dynamic, and they form as the result of a complex interaction of rules, laws, customs, tacit agreements, and structural adaptations over time. Designers can make use of this knowledge to better support the development of a more dynamic “ecology” of more private zones within public spaces, allowing a more balanced mediation between individual, group and public needs, with fewer conflicts. At the same time, designers and stakeholders can better resist the damage that can occur to the public realm from an over-dominance of private interests. This chapter describes some of the work that has uncovered this structure, and the wider lessons for design and policy.

Christopher Alexander published his longest and arguably most philosophical work, The Nature of Order, beginning in 2003. Early criticism assessed that text to be a speculative failure; at best, unrelated to Alexander’s earlier, mathematically grounded work. On the contrary, this review presents evidence that the newer work was a logically consistent culmination of a lifelong and remarkably useful inquiry into part-whole relations—an ancient but still-relevant and even urgent topic of design, architecture, urbanism, and science. Further evidence demonstrates that Alexander’s practical contributions are remarkably prodigious beyond architecture, in fields as diverse as computer science, biology and organization theory, and that these contributions continue today. This review assesses the potential for more particular contributions to the urban professions from the later work, and specifically, to an emerging “science of cities.” It examines the practical, as well as philosophical contributions of Alexander’s proposed tools and methodologies for the design process, considering both their quantitative and qualitative aspects, and their potential compatibility with other tools and strategies now emerging from the science of cities. Finally, it highlights Alexander’s challenge to an architecture profession that seems increasingly isolated, mired in abstraction, and incapable of effectively responding to larger technological and philosophical challenges.

Livability reflects the quality of the person-environment relationship, namely how well the built environment or the available services in a city fulfill the residents' needs and expectations. We argue that livability assessment can aid the implementation of certain New Urban Agenda (NUA) goals by providing a flexible way to assess urban environments and their quality. However, a reliable and transferable assessment framework requires the key elements of livability to be defined in such a way that measurable factors adequately represent the person-environment relationship. As an innovative approach, we determined key livability elements accordingly and asked over 400 residents worldwide to evaluate their urban environments using these parameters. Thereby, we could calibrate the livability assessment workflow by including personal aspects and identifying the most relevant livability factors through an ordinal regression analysis. Next, we performed relational-statistical learning in order to define the individual and combined contribution of these statistically significant factors to the overall livability of a place. We found that urban form and mobility-related factors tend to have the highest influence on residential satisfaction. Finally, we tested the robustness of the assessment by using geospatial analysis to model the livability for the city of Vienna, Austria. We concluded that the workflow allows for a reliable livability assessment and for further utilization in urban planning, improving urban quality by going beyond simple city rankings.