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In this paper, we explore the mutual effect of prior background expectations and visibility afforded by the 3D configuration of the physical environment on wayfinding efficiency and strategy in multilevel buildings. We perform new analyses on data from 149 participants who performed six unaided and directed wayfinding tasks in virtual buildings with varying degrees of visibility. Our findings reveal that the interaction between visibility and prior background expectations significantly affects wayfinding efficiency and strategy during between-floor wayfinding tasks. We termed this interaction effect strategic visibility, which emphasizes the importance of the strategic allocation of visibility towards actionable building elements in promoting efficient wayfinding and shaping wayfinding strategy. Our study highlights the significance of strategic visibility in promoting inclusive and accessible built environments for neurodiversity. Finally, we provide an open-source dataset that can be used to develop and test new wayfinding theories and models to advance research in the emerging field of human-building interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities continue to grow globally, characterizing the built environment is essential to understanding human populations, projecting energy usage, monitoring urban heat island impacts, preventing environmental degradation, and planning for urban development. Buildings are a key component of the built environment and there is currently a lack of data on building height at the global level. Current methodologies for developing building height models that utilize remote sensing are limited in scale due to the high cost of data acquisition. Other approaches that leverage 2D features are restricted based on the volume of ancillary data necessary to infer height. Here, we find, through a series of experiments covering 74.55 million buildings from the United States, France, and Germany, it is possible, with 95% accuracy, to infer building height within 3 m of the true height using footprint morphology data. Our results show that leveraging individual building footprints can lead to accurate building height predictions while not requiring ancillary data, thus making this method applicable wherever building footprints are available. The finding that it is possible to infer building height from footprint data alone provides researchers a new method to leverage in relation to various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has demonstrated the positive effect of natural environment on human restoration and well-being. Time spent in nature can often alleviate both physiological and psychological stress. However, few studies have discussed the environmental health effects of the nature's components and characteristics. Sixty volunteers were recruited and one manufactured environment and five different natural environments were randomly assigned to them, including coniferous forests (pure coniferous forest-PC and mixed coniferous forest-MC), broad-leaved forests (pure broad-leaved forest-PB and mixed broad-leaved forest-MB), and mixed forest (mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest-MCB). Each volunteer sat in a built or natural environment and looked around the environment for 15 min. Physiological (HR, HRV, BP, pulse rate and salivary cortisol) and psychological indicators (POMS and STAI) were used to evaluate the changes in their stress level. Results indicated a strong difference in HR, HRV, POMS and STAI between the built and natural environment, which showed that natural environment can lower the stress level. MC had the best effect on relieving physiological stress, whereas MCB is most successful in improving emotional state and reducing anxiety. Broad-leaved forest and mixed forest significantly affected the DBP and vigor level of the subjects, respectively. While coniferous forest did significantly increase the concentration of salivary cortisol in subjects. The study confirmed that compared to the built environment, the natural environment can relieve the human body's physical and psychological stress and negative emotions, while significantly increasing vitality. And different plant communities also have different effects on the physiological and psychological indicators of the subjects. These results will provide scientific basis for the construction and improvement of urban green space environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]