In the past five decades, privately owned public open spaces (POPOS) have become increasingly prevalent and significant in urban areas. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the performance and utilization of these spaces as the internal functions of adjacent buildings were shut down. This offers an opportunity to address the research gap in the theory of publicness—one of the most crucial attributes in these places due to their ownership and management—by assessing user satisfaction with spatial publicness in POPOS independently of adjacent commercial and corporate functions. This study aims to identify key environmental factors that significantly affect user satisfaction during a pandemic and develop adaptive strategies to enhance user satisfaction and resilience in such contexts. Based on a comprehensive literature review of previous assessment criteria for spatial publicness, the study proposes 30 vital indicators. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is employed to analyze changes in user satisfaction regarding these vital indicators. Data from 386 users of Plaza Gae Aulenti in Milan, Italy were collected via an online questionnaire. The findings reveal that optimizing physical facilities and visual permeability are crucial environmental factors for promoting a higher degree of publicness during pandemics, as evidenced by a comparison of pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 feedback. This study addresses the research gap by assessing the spatial publicness of POPOS independently of adjacent commercial and corporate functions. These findings have practical implications for the design and regulation of future projects in the post-COVID-19 era.

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In the renewal of old industrial areas, residents' life has been affected. In order to explore the relationship between residents' sense of place and their attitude towards the future development direction, this study takes Xiangfang old industrial area as an example and conducts a field questionnaire survey. The calculation of Structural Equation Model shows that residents' sense of place can be divided into place attachment, place dependence and place identity in Xiangfang old industrial area, and the intensities are high. Moreover, the logistic regression shows that sense of place significantly impacts History and Environment preference. Place dependence and place attachment significantly impact History preference. And place identity is the only dimension that is significant to all types of preferences. These conclusions show the importance of a sense of place, especially place identity, in public participation. This study can help the urban renewal of Xiangfang old industrial zone and proves that sense of place can provide a way for the public to participate in planning decision-making and policy-making in the future.

Human activities are the primary source of energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Adopting low-carbon behaviors (LCBs) can effectively reduce carbon emissions, which in turn helps alleviate environmental problems. Previous research shows that low-carbon policies can promote LCBs, while an extensive understanding of the effects of multi-types of low-carbon policies on various LCBs needs to be verified. Analyses on influencing factors regarding LCBs are dominated before, and place attachment and low-carbon behavioral intention as the influencing factors of LCBs, their relationship with low-carbon policy and LCBs needs to be clarified. By taking a questionnaire survey of residents of Hangzhou, China, this study presents a conceptual framework capable of analyzing the relationship between three types of low-carbon policies, including information policy, economic policy, and administrative regulations, and two types of LCBs, including low-carbon consumption (LCCB) and travel (LCTB) behavior, considering the mediation effect of place attachment and low-carbon behavioral intention in a single structural equation model. The results illustrate that administrative regulations and information policy have a direct positive impact on LCCB, and information policy has the most significant influence. Economic policy and administrative regulations directly impact LCTB, and administrative regulations have the most significant influence. The influence of administrative regulations on LCTB is more excellent than on LCCB. Information policy indirectly affects two types of LCBs through the chain mediation effect of place attachment and low-carbon behavioral intention. The results should be helpful to low-carbon policymakers seeking to promote LCBs to consider the importance of place attachment and various low-carbon policies. Moreover, they enrich our understanding of the influencing mechanism of LCBs.