Urban regeneration is emerging as an important means of transforming cities for development, with built environment as the main object of operation. Modern urban regeneration process has become a mechanism in the evolution of urban landscape, where decision-making factors such as legal, institutional and administrative systems have a direct impact on the implementation of regeneration activities. In turn, the built environment will also influence the urban decision-making process. Accordingly, this article interprets the important role of decision-making factors in urban regeneration from the perspective of urban landscape, taking Liverpool docklands as a case as it bears the history of shipping and trade and is also the main area of Liverpool’s urban regeneration. Based on the literature and official documents, this article reviews the urban regeneration process staging in Liverpool Docklands, identifies the decision-making factors, and constructs an explanatory framework, then the role of decision-making factors in shaping urban landscape is interpreted in stage. It is found that the role of decision-making factors is rooted in the notion of legitimacy of development power and influenced by institutional systems and administrative relationships, generally involving different agents from public, private and intermediate organisations. And the role in shaping urban landscape takes three forms: restrictive, chance and evolutionary.