Greenery plays a vital role in urban environments, providing numerous benefits through diverse pathways. Various metrics and methodologies have been proposed to assess multiple dimensions of greenery exposure. For a comprehensive and precise assessment of greenery exposure for different research purposes, it is crucial to identify the most suitable methods and data sources. However, existing reviews primarily address the health outcomes of urban greenery, rather than the methods of assessing greenery exposure. To address this gap, we conducted a review of 312 research articles, focusing on methodologies and technologies for measuring greenery exposure in urban settings. This review categorizes exposure measurement techniques into three categories: proximity-based, mobility-based, and visibility-based, evaluating their strengths, limitations, and synergies. Proximity-based methods generally assess overall greenery level in residential areas or other locations, but they fall short in capturing the actual interactions between humans and greenery. Mobility-based methods track real-time human location and assess greenery exposure based on travel trajectories, but they neglect the specific nature of human-greenery interactions. In contrast, emerging visibility-based methods offer opportunities to measure potential visual interactions between individuals and greenery. We found emerging metrics tend to integrate 3D data, qualitative aspects, and diverse data sources. We advocate for an integrated approach that encompasses both human mobility and potential interactions with greenery across various areas. We also argue that data granularity is balanced against cost, scalability, and ethical constraints. Our comprehensive review offers a framework and categorization to guide studies in designing exposure measurements aligned with their research objectives.

Understanding people’s preferences is crucial for urban planning, yet current approaches often combine responses from multi-cultural populations, obscuring demographic differences and risking amplifying biases. We conducted a large-scale urban visual perception survey of streetscapes worldwide using street view imagery, examining how demographics—including gender, age, income, education, race and ethnicity, and personality traits—shape perceptions among 1,000 participants with balanced demographics from five countries and 45 nationalities. This dataset, Street Perception Evaluation Considering Socioeconomics, reveals demographic- and personality-based differences across six traditional indicators—safe, lively, wealthy, beautiful, boring, depressing—and four new ones: live nearby, walk, cycle, green. Location-based sentiments further shape these preferences. Machine-learning models trained on existing global datasets tend to overestimate positive indicators and underestimate negative ones compared to human responses, underscoring the need for local context. Our study aspires to rectify the myopic treatment of street perception, which rarely considers demographics or personality traits.

The 15-minute city concept emphasizes accessible urban living by ensuring essential services are reachable within walking or biking distance. However, most evaluations rely on two-dimensional (2D) analyses, neglecting the vertical complexity of high-density cities. This study introduces a 3D framework for assessing 15-minute accessibility in Nanjing, China. Using natural language processing and rule-based methods, we construct a 3D functional composition dataset from multi-source data. We then develop floor-level proximity indices that account for both horizontal travel time and vertical circulation (e.g., stairs, elevators). Analyzing over 90 million simulated trips, we find that accessibility generally declines with building height, though access to offices and commercial facilities improves at 20th or higher floors. Spatial inequalities emerge not only between central and peripheral zones but also across building levels and regional GDP levels, with a U-shaped disparity tied to distance from downtown. Notably, 11%–17% of trips considered accessible in 2D analyses exceed the 15-minute threshold when vertical travel is included. Our findings highlight the need to incorporate vertical space in 15-minute city evaluations and offer a scalable method to support inclusive, fair, and livable 3D urban planning with the background of 15-minute city.