The urban food environment is a key research area for exploring factors influencing diet and promoting healthy eating. Despite numerous studies in this field, reviews and future research agendas from a spatial perspective remain scarce. This paper reviews the measurement of the food environment and its impacts on dietary behavior and health, emphasizing the shift from residential neighborhoods to activity spaces. In terms of measurement, the activity space method provides a more comprehensive depiction of residents’food environments but faces challenges such as the uncertainty geographic context problem and the selective daily mobility bias. Regarding impacts on dietary behaviors, the food environment has a more pronounced effect on fast food consumption than on fresh produce, and the associations between activity space food environment and dietary behaviors are more consistent. In terms of health impacts, a significant association exists between the proportion of unhealthy food stores in residential areas and overweight, while the activity space food environment may mitigate health risks associated with disadvantaged food environments in residential neighborhoods. Building on identified research gaps, this paper discusses trends and future directions in urban food environment research, including integrating temporal and spatial dimensions in measurement, examining the intertwined impacts of spatial and non-spatial factors on dietary behaviors, evaluating the behavioral and health effects of spatial interventions, and addressing challenges posed by online food retailing. This paper aims to provide references for advancing research on the urban food environment.

Creating a favorable neighborhood food environment not only facilitates residents’ access to safer and healthier food but also promotes local food production and consumption, reduces food waste, and encourages low-carbon living. By examining planning documents from 24 international cities and regions, and using planning text content analysis as the analytical techniques, the author introduces Western practices in optimizing community food environments. This analysis is conducted from the perspective of the “vision-goals-strategies-policies-actions” planning elements, covering four key stages: vision description, developing objectives and polices, formulation and implementation, and supervision and evaluation. Focusing on different stages of spatial planning, particular attention is paid to the formulation and implementation stage, with specific recommendations proposed to utilize master plans, detailed plans, and specialized plans to promote the optimization of neighborhood food environments in China. Recommendations during the planning formulation stage aim to achieve effective transmission from vision to action. Recommendations during the planning implementation stage emphasize utilizing and innovating existing planning management tools and advancing the formulation of specialized plans for food implementation.

As the introduction of the special issue “Plots and Urban Rgenration”, this paper focuses on the multifaceted term of “plot”, aiming to analyze the multidimensional relationship between plot and urban regeneration, and to explore organic regeneration methods for plot patterns. This paper is divided into three main parts. Firstly, it clarifies the multifaceted connotations of the term “plot”, summarizing it into three main attributes, namely as an element of urban form, as a unit of land ownership, and as a unit of land use planning. Secondly, it discusses the significance of studying the relationship between plot and urban regeneration from the perspectives of influencing mechanisms, research history, and the practical requirements for organic regeneration in China. Finally, it introduces the content structure of the special issue, highlighting the selected five papres, including three papers in Chinese and two English-Chinese translations. These papres are organized around topics such as the analysis of the plot concept, planning and control of plot pattern in the context of urban regeneration, the impact of plot patterns on economic activities, and the identification and evaluation of plot patterns under different renewal scenarios. The discussions involve issues related to the morphology, function, property rights, and planning control of plot patterns in the context of urban regeneration, with the aim of promoting the establishment of a multidimensional, refined planning control mechanism for plot patterns in China’s urban regeneration efforts.

The urban food distribution and fresh food retail supply chain have undergone profound structural transformations, catalyzed by growing consumer demand for immediate food consumption and promotion of e-commerce platforms. This transition not only improves the availability of access to raw food for residents, but also poses new challenges to the logistical security of the supply chain. Urban planners begin to rethink the layout and distribution of food supply chain facilities to ensure that the accessibility and equity of the food circulation system can be maintained and enhanced. In pursuit of this aim, firstly, this paper examines the process and reasons for transforming the supply chain and presents various types of digital logistics supply chains for urban fresh food distribution. Secondly, employing Shenzhen as an illustrative case, we gather data from prominent e-commerce platforms’ front warehouses. Subsequently, we employ KDE and 2SFCA to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of accessibility and equity within the supply chain. Finally, a multi-objective model was devised, utilizing an optimization algorithm to formulate a more pragmatic arrangement for the placement of distribution outlets practical layout for outlet locations. This paper indicates a misalignment between front warehouses layout and population distribution, and an unequal distribution of fresh food owing to factors such as urban population density, geography, and transportation infrastructure. Furthermore, strategically positioning front warehouses can improve the availability and fairness of fresh food, thereby promoting the sustainable advancement of the food distribution system.