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By definition, public spaces are areas or locations that are open and accessible to all people, and in cities they are open space that is specifically concerned with public health, social cohesion, and the quality of urban life. This paper reports a review of literatures on urban public spaces attempting to gauge the research gaps on public spaces through a scoping-review analysis of relevant studies. The review of relevant literatures published from 1990 to 2023 led to an inference that there is a huge gap in defining the publicness (non-excludable and non-rival) of the public spaces in Nepal. Furthermore, knowledge about public spaces is found to be scattered. However, all Nepal-based research identified that open spaces in Kathmandu valley were severely encroached upon. Rapid urbanization, along with a lack of resilient urban planning and governance, appears to have a significant influence on urban public …