UPHEx-Eco: A Conceptual–Analytical Framework for Human–Ecological Design Relations in Urban Planetary Health

Urban planetary health requires urban design decisions to consider human and ecological consequences together, yet relevant evidence is often generated through different constructs, methods and scales. This concept paper develops the Urban Planetary Health Experience–Ecology Framework (UPHEx-Eco) through a targeted critical synthesis supported by structured literature identification. UPHEx-Eco is organised around the human–ecological design relation: an analytically bounded relationship between a specified and potentially modifiable urban design intervention, condition or alternative and at least one human response and one ecological health response within a common decision context. The framework requires explicit spatial and temporal boundaries, a reference condition, appropriate indicators, reporting of evidential support, testing status and uncertainty, and translation into design, maintenance or monitoring implications. Cross-domain response direction is classified as synergy, trade-off, joint detriment, one-domain effect, no meaningful change or unresolved; perceptual–ecological mismatch is assessed separately when human judgement concerns an independently assessable ecological property. A conceptual worked application concerning night-time lighting in a biodiverse urban park demonstrates the analytical sequence without constituting empirical testing or validation. UPHEx-Eco is, therefore, proposed as a traceable analytical structure rather than a validated predictive or optimisation model; its reliability, transferability and comparative utility remain to be tested.