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Article History

Received: 2 September 2024

Accepted: 24 April 2025

First Online: 7 May 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: According to Article 32 of the Measures for Ethical Review of Life Sciences and Medical Research Involving Humans, issued by the National Health Commission of China on February 18, 2023, research that does not cause harm to the human body, does not involve sensitive personal in-formation, or does not involve commercial interests can be exempted from ethical review. This study would not cause any mental injury to the participants, have any negative social impact, or affect the participants’ subsequent behaviours. In the procedure, the study recruited experts and residents over the age of 18, and the relevant vulnerable groups were strictly excluded from the sampling process. Therefore, in accordance with the regulations (Article 32 of Measures for Ethical Review of Life Sciences and Medical Research Involving Humans of China), this study falls under the category of “exempt from ethical review”. The study received an ethical exemption from the School of Art and Design, Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Application number: No. 10020250153SX. Nevertheless, as researchers, we felt that it was necessary to protect participants’ safety, privacy, and confidentiality. All research procedures were conducted following the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki and its revised version in 2024.

: Informed consent was obtained in writing from all participants involved in this study. For the expert focus group participants, consent was collected via electronically signed informed consent forms prior to the interviews. The forms were distributed by the first author via email and returned with signatures. Consent was obtained by the research team from nine urban planning and design experts affiliated with four universities in China. The consent form explained the purpose of the research, the voluntary nature of participation, the procedure of the interviews, and their right to withdraw at any time. It also explicitly requested permission to record, analyze, and publish anonymized excerpts from the discussions. For the questionnaire respondents, informed consent was obtained through a written consent form presented at the beginning of the online survey. Before beginning the questionnaire, all respondents were required to read and agree to a digital consent statement to proceed. This statement clarified the purpose of the study, assured participants of their anonymity and confidentiality, and explained how the data would be stored and used. It also confirmed that participation was voluntary, and that respondents could exit the questionnaire at any point without penalty. The scope of consent covered participation in the study, use of anonymized data for academic analysis, and inclusion of aggregated findings in publications and presentations. This study did not involve any vulnerable populations such as minors, refugees, or patients. All participants were competent adults who voluntarily provided informed consent in accordance with ethical guidelines.

: The study used ChatGPT 4o in the experimental stimulus generation phase, and some of the images are displayed in Fig. of this study. In addition, no other AI software was used for the other parts of the study.