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This article explores the potential for a broader, more integrated treatment of the long-term development of Latvia's coastal landscape, seeking avenues for conveying its dynamism. Various transformational processes are considered, with a particular focus on dune migration – formerly a major issue in Latvia but nowadays essentially resolved and forgotten. Relief features of the sandy, forested areas, as well as old pine trees, serve as cues to temporality in the present terrain, while historical and folkloric sources provide insights into past perceptions of the landscape and the experiences and imaginings of landscape change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User-generated data can reflect various viewpoints and experiences derived from people's perception outcomes. The perceptual results can be obtained, often by combining subjective public perceptions of the landscape with physiological monitoring data. Accessing people's perceptions of the landscape through text is a common method. It is hard to fully render nuances, emotions, and complexities depending only on text by superficial emotional tendencies alone. Numerical representations may lead to misleading conclusions and undermine public participation. In addition, the use of physiological test data does not reflect the subjective reasons for the comments made. Therefore, it is essential to deeply parse the text and distinguish between segments with different semantic differences. In this study, we propose a perceptual psychology-based workflow to extract and visualize multifaceted views from user-generated data. The analysis methods of FCN, LDA, and LSTM were incorporated into the workflow. Six areas in Fuzhou City, China, with 12 city parks, were selected as the study object. Firstly, 9987 review data and 1747 pictures with corresponding visitor trajectories were crawled separately on the Dianping and Liangbulu websites. For in-depth analysis of comment texts and making relevant heat maps. Secondly, the process of clauses was added to get a more accurate representation of the sentiment of things based on the LSTM sentiment analysis model. Thirdly, various factors affecting the perception of landscapes were explored. Based on such, the overall people's perception of urban parks in Fuzhou was finally obtained. The study results show that (1) the texts in terms of 'wind', 'temperature', 'structures', 'edge space (spatial boundaries)', and 'passed space' are the five most representative factors of the urban parks in Fuzhou; (2) the textual analyses further confirmed the influence of spatial factors on perception in the temporal dimension; and (3) environmental factors influence people's sense of urban parks concerning specificity, clocking behavior, and comfort feelings. These research results provide indispensable references for optimizing and transforming urban environments using user-generated data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite imagery allows us to view landscapes from a bird’s eye view, providing a new dimension in appreciating the environments we inhabit. This alternative perspective has the potential to shape individual perceptions of landscapes and play a pivotal role in land management decision-making and communication. However, the interpretation and appreciation of landscapes seen in satellite imagery may vary among observers. This study investigates the relationship between individuals’ ability to interpret images from eye-level and satellite perspectives, their familiarity with the landscape, and their appreciation of land cover from this viewpoint. To achieve this, a survey was conducted presenting respondents with images of land cover classes captured at eye level and from satellite imagery of the Yungay municipality in Chile. Participants were asked to interpret the primary land use land cover (LULC) depicted in the imagery and indicate their appreciation of that landscape. Variation in the interpretation of LULC was observed between the image source and land cover type. For instance, forest classes seen in eye-level imagery were more accurately interpreted compared to satellite imagery, while the reverse was true for agriculture. These differences in interpretation also impacted the appreciation scores assigned to the landscapes in the images. Specifically, if respondents perceived an image to be dominated by a traditionally appreciated land cover (e.g., Native Vegetation), they provided a higher score, even if the image depicted another class (e.g., Plantation Forestry). These findings highlight that considering the influence of satellite imagery in shaping perception is crucial in supporting land management activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the initial stages of migration, refugees spend much time in urban environments. With longer stays, rural landscapes become increasingly important. However, little is known how rural landscape supports place attachment and bridges the gap between individuals' former home and the host location. To reduce this research gap, we asked refugees to travel through rural Switzerland, creating a photo reportage that was later analysed using photo-elicitation. To check the representativeness of individual assessments the photographs were shown to refugees' peers and control groups in a quantitative survey. We found that refugees' landscape experience and the contribution of this to place attachment can be highly individualistic, or it can be driven by culture-specific meanings. Accessibility to natural elements, e.g. water, forests is crucial to fostering place attachment. However, large patches of wild environments are perceived as unsafe, reducing individuals' ability to form an attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a feature perception study of traditional village landscapes, refines the research method of traditional village landscape features using tourists online comment data, combs the landscape perception features of Xijiang Thousand Households Miao Village from tourists perspectives, digs out the managers' problems in landscape planning, protection, utilisation, and puts forward the corresponding improvement strategies. In this paper, the Octopus data collector was used to collect online evaluation data from nine target platforms, and ROST CM6 was used to analyse the data for word frequency analysis, semantic network analysis, and sentiment analysis. Finally, using Nvivo12, the data was coded and a multidimensional model of landscape perception was constructed: natural landscapes, cultural and social landscapes, perceived landscapes, seasonal landscapes, and services and infrastructures. The results show that in the landscape perception model, the cultural and social landscape modules are the core factors affecting tourists' psychological perceptions, with most tourists holding positive emotions towards the scenic spots and a few negative emotions mainly focusing on the relatively weak natural landscape, the unsatisfactory road system and charging system, and the over-commercialised development. In response to these problems, this study proposes corresponding planning recommendations. The results of the study reflect the trend of deep integration of culture and tourism in traditional villages in China, respond to the policy guidance of China's rural revitalisation policy, and provide useful references and insights for the landscape construction and development of the Xijiang Thousand Households Miao Village and even similar tourist-oriented traditional villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought vast challenges. The lifestyle of residents has been extended from long-term home isolation to outdoor public activities along the periphery of the residential area. In this context, residents have an increasing demand for urban green space (UGS). To achieve a comprehensive perception of landscapes and explore the influencing factors during pandemic, the study administered a survey to assess residents' perceived demand for UGSs in April 2020. The 828 questionnaires were to explore respondents' perceptions underlying the pressure from COVID-19, focusing on the physical-mental response, activity preferences, and overall satisfaction with UGSs. The study found three aspects of experiencing nature, rest and relaxation, and self-improvement are the key factors improving the residents' long-term stay in UGS and the choice of venues for activities. The four categories of rest, sports, entertainment, and watching UGS are the main factors affecting residents' long-term choices and choices of venues. The main categories of people activities are sports, watching, entertainment, and rest. Residents who went to UGS for recreation did not change their psychological health but it could regulate people's emotions and have a positive emotional response effect. The three types of activities – rest, sports, and watching – are the main factors affecting the health of residents in UGS, and the impact of rest is the most important. The critical factors affecting satisfaction are ecological greening facilities, sanitation facilities, infrastructure, amusement, and entertainment facilities. This study could provide a health-activity-satisfaction evaluation for UGS design after the outbreak of the pandemic. Recreational activities within a UGS did not change human psychological health but could regulate people's emotions and have a positive emotional response effect. The three types of activities, such as rest, sports, and viewing, were the main factors affecting the health of residents in UGS, and the rest had the most critical impact. UGS could match the basic needs of outdoor activities for residents. The order of the key factors affecting the degree of satisfaction is infrastructure > amusement and entertainment facilities > ecological greening facilities > sanitation facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore how tourists perceive the landscapes in traditional Chinese villages and to provide recommendations for developing and utilizing resources that improve these landscapes. To this end, a database containing over 13,000 online comments from tourists was created from domestic travel websites. A Likert scale was applied to score tourists' qualitative perceptions of the landscapes of five traditional villages, and based on the importance-satisfaction analysis approach, a model to evaluate satisfaction with – and importance of – landscape indicators was created. The results indicated that the perception of visual elements was extremely important for tourists, but satisfaction scores for some indicators were low. Tourists' satisfaction with tactile perception was low, and its importance was also low. Regarding physical activities available in villages, satisfaction and importance scores were high. Satisfaction with olfactory elements was also high but not important. Based on the evaluation model, traditional Chinese villages should prioritize the following: (1) protecting overall village style and features, (2) improving village service facilities, and (3) developing characteristic folkloric and cultural activities to enrich tourists' behavioral experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese garden Saihō-ji is used as a case study to evaluate the spatial-visual characteristics of sequential landscapes using eye-tracking technology. We present objective data and quantitative analysis of subjective behavior, addressing the lack of research in landscape perception. In this study, we combine virtual reality and eye-tracking technologies to collect statistical data for an entire garden through static stimulus images. The data produced are objective and enable the direct assessment of landscape elements and objects. The correlation between spatial compositions indicators and the eye-tracking data reveals that different spatial compositions have varying effects on distinct gaze elements. While this research provides a preliminary validation, it still has certain limitations. Factors such as visual fatigue and demographic differences should be considered in future studies. Further, our findings emphasize the viability of eye-tracking technology for investigating the spatial visual characteristics of sequential landscapes, prompting further research in this field.

User-generated data can reflect various viewpoints and experiences derived from people’s perception outcomes. The perceptual results can be obtained, often by combining subjective public perceptions of the landscape with physiological monitoring data. Accessing people’s perceptions of the landscape through text is a common method. It is hard to fully render nuances, emotions, and complexities depending only on text by superficial emotional tendencies alone. Numerical representations may lead to misleading conclusions and undermine public participation. In addition, the use of physiological test data does not reflect the subjective reasons for the comments made. Therefore, it is essential to deeply parse the text and distinguish between segments with different semantic differences. In this study, we propose a perceptual psychology-based workflow to extract and visualize multifaceted views from user-generated data. The analysis methods of FCN, LDA, and LSTM were incorporated into the workflow. Six areas in Fuzhou City, China, with 12 city parks, were selected as the study object. Firstly, 9987 review data and 1747 pictures with corresponding visitor trajectories were crawled separately on the Dianping and Liangbulu websites. For in-depth analysis of comment texts and making relevant heat maps. Secondly, the process of clauses was added to get a more accurate representation of the sentiment of things based on the LSTM sentiment analysis model. Thirdly, various factors affecting the perception of landscapes were explored. Based on such, the overall people’s perception of urban parks in Fuzhou was finally obtained. The study results show that (1) the texts in terms of ‘wind’, ‘temperature’, ‘structures’, ‘edge space (spatial boundaries)’, and ‘passed space’ are the five most representative factors of the urban parks in Fuzhou; (2) the textual analyses further confirmed the influence of spatial factors on perception in the temporal dimension; and (3) environmental factors influence people’s sense of urban parks concerning specificity, clocking behavior, and comfort feelings. These research results provide indispensable references for optimizing and transforming urban environments using user-generated data.

Humans use stories to explain natural processes, to explore alternatives, to resolve issues, and to imagine different possibilities and futures. Stories are a fundamental way people connect to their natural surroundings. But are some stories better for this than others? This study uses an experimental design to explore the impact of three types of stories on perceptions of natural landscapes. Using photographs of four diverse landscapes and four story conditions (no story, a story with a scientific focus, a European human story, and an Indigenous creation story), 733 respondents were exposed to one of 16 conditions and asked to rate landscape perception and preference and intention to visit. Stories, particularly those with a scientific or Indigenous creation focus, enhanced the appeal of the landscapes. Key elements of the stories that may have enhanced respondents' perceptions of, preferences for, and intentions to visit a particular landscape are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor running has a positive impact on human health. Our study attempted to address the issue of what other aspects motivate people to take up running. We were particularly interested in the landscape and its significance at the stage of decision making regarding participation in races. Our goal was also to identify the landscape features of routes, which determine their popularity. We conducted surveys among running participants and spatial analyses using GIS tools. Great landscape values of running routes can contribute to the activation of a running society, especially those including women and city dwellers. The high diversity of the landscape of cross-country routes, especially in terms of their relief and land use, significantly affects their high landscape rating. Route profiles and running challenges are as important as landscape values. The landscape that runners observe during long-distance runs affects their regeneration and motivates them to finish competitions. Runs organised in mountain and foothill landscapes, characterised by a wide variety of landscapes, are particularly attractive for runners. This study illuminates how the enchanting tapestry of landscapes not only fuels the passion for outdoor running but also underscores the intricate relationship between humans and their surroundings. The results enable us to establish the key principles for designing new running routes that support runners during their exertion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More studies have understood landscape as a perceived entity since the European Landscape Convention was approved in 2004. This article adopts a systematic review approach in line with the PRISMA statement to delineate the utilization of eye tracking in studying landscapes. A comprehensive analysis of 55 studies sourced from the Web of Science and Scopus databases was conducted. Various aspects were scrutinized, encompassing landscape attributes, media employed for landscape representation, eye tracking data visualizations, and eye tracking metrics. The prevalence of eye tracking usage in landscape studies has notably increased since 1998, with research conducted across all continents. The most studied aspects of the landscape are saliency and specifics of particular types of landscape. Amongst the varied media used to represent landscape, photographs reign supreme, while heatmaps prominently feature as a means to visualize eye tracking data. The spectrum of metrics applied is extensive, showcasing distinct suitability for specific landscape attributes. Drawing from this review, recommendations for prospective research directions are outlined. The insights garnered from this review stand to serve as a valuable overview for researchers delving into the realm of reading landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscapes in urban waterfront spaces are of high societal value as they can meet people's physical, psychological, and social needs for health and well-being, but the relationship between waterfront landscape features and public health benefits has yet to be clarified. From the perspective of blue health, this paper takes blue spaces along the Min River of Fuzhou City as the research object. It constructs the mediation model of "Waterfront landscape characteristic (WLC)→Water-friendly environmental preference (WEP)→Emotional benefit (EB)". The role of WEP in the mechanisms linking WLC and EB in different waterfront spaces was explored through the quantification of indicators, questionnaires, and physiological measurements. The main results showed that (1) the ability of different types of waterfront spaces to arouse positive emotions in the population is characterized by blue-dominated space > co-dominated space > green-dominated space, while the opposite is true in terms of inducing negative emotions; (2) green visibility, blue visibility, naturalness, water-friendliness, and openness are all significantly related to EBs and could affect positive emotions either directly or mediated by WEPs, but openness seems not to affect negative emotions through WEPs; (3) cleanliness affects the population's WEP for the coherence dimension, but has no significant role in improving EBs. This study could expand new ideas for research in habitat health, provide a reference for embodied evidence-based waterfront landscape design, and help promote the construction and development of healthy cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we analyzed GIS-based visitor-employed photography (VEP) to identify the most impressive landscape objects on the walking trails of the Jeoji Gotjawal Experimental Forest, a unique forest on Jeju Island, Korea, which has been recognized for its potential as an ecotourism destination. The researchers asked the subjects to take impressive landscape pictures using a smartphone while walking along the forest trails. We acquired 183 photographs with GPS coordinates, preference value points, and simple reasons for preference from each individual, and we converted the photographs into spatial information data to analyze the preferred landscape objects and hotspots. The results show that GIS-based VEP is useful for not only identifying visitors' favorite landscapes in forests from a visual aspect, but also exploring the location and characteristics of their preferred forest spaces with microscale spatial data. This study can provide practical guidance for the planning and management of forest spaces as sustainable ecotourism destinations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Forest Villages in China are village types with significant environmental resources and cultural landscapes that play a vital role in ecological conservation, tourism development, territorial planning, and other elements. Understanding tourists' landscape perception preferences is important to the long-term development of their landscape systems. Using Xidi village from the second batch of National Forest Villages as a research case, we gathered the evaluation digital footprints of visitors to the village with Python (version 3.12.0) and then used the ROST CM6 software and the semantic network analysis method to sort out the general characteristics of visitors' perceptions of the village's landscape. Finally, we constructed a multidimensional landscape perception model by studying precise details of passengers' views of Xidi village on four dimensions: natural landscape, humanistic landscape, landscape environmental atmosphere, and emotional state. The findings show that travelers' perceptions of Xidi village's landscape primarily focus on scenery, architecture, and culture, with the humanistic landscape having the strongest degree of perception, the landscape environment atmosphere having the middle degree of perception, and the natural landscape having a weaker degree of perception. Most travelers have positive emotions, and commercialization and homogenization are negative factors that trigger negative emotions. The optimization recommendations for Xidi village's landscape system are then offered in light of the study's findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Natural treatment systems (NTS) for stormwater have the potential to provide a myriad of ecosystem services to society. Realizing this potential requires active collaboration among engineers, ecologists and landscape planners and begins with a paradigm shift in communication whereby these groups are made aware of each other's perceptions about NTS and the presence of knowledge gaps that their respective disciplines can bridge. Here we participate in the first part of what we hope will be a reciprocal exchange: presenting results from a landscape perceptions survey to urban planners, ecologists and landscape architects that illustrates how the next generation of engineers perceives NTS relative to other landscape features, and the implications of those perceptions for future infrastructure development. Our results suggest that although lawns, gardens and native ecosystems were perceived as multifunctional, providing characteristic bundles of services/disservices, perceptions of NTS were more variable (i.e. there was no social norm for their perception). Environmental worldviews, knowledge, attitudes about ecosystem services and demographics were all significant drivers of perceived services. However, students had difficulty identifying NTS correctly, and factual knowledge about NTS did not help students associate NTS with typical design services like flood reduction more than features not designed for those purposes, such as lawns. This suggests that engineering students lack familiarity with the outward appearance of NTS and have difficulty placing NTS services into a broader landscape context. Expertise from urban planning and ecology could help bridge these knowledge gaps, improving the capacity of tomorrow's engineers to co‐design NTS to meet diverse community needs. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Water environments of urban constructed water quality treatment (WQT) wetland waterscapes are strongly related to water quality, whereas scenic beauty values help achieve better aquatic environments. However, correlations between several water quality indicators (WQIs) and scenic beauty indexes (SBIs) have not been thoroughly revealed in the existing studies. In this research, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based on scenic beauty estimation (SBE) per site in two WQT wetlands has been developed. The weights of indicators were determined by the AHP voting, which includes three main criteria, i.e., conditions of vegetation, physical geographical conditions, and human geographical conditions. SBIs are voted and calculated from the professional group and the unprofessional group. WQIs of typical pollutants (i.e., dissolved oxygen (DO), CODCr, NH3-N, pH, and total phosphorus) were sampled in situ simultaneously. Inter-relationships among SBIs and WQIs are indicated by correlative analysis and a regression model, which highlights that DO increase, CODCr removal, and NH3-N removal can explain 68.8% of changes in the SBI. Accordingly, applications for WQT wetland eco-engineered landscaping (EEL) were suggested to be conducted on quantitative estimations in three aspects, i.e., following strategies of EEL, improving WQT techniques, and applying the attention restoration theory. HIGHLIGHTS An AHP-based scenic beauty estimation in urban constructed WQT wetland parks has been developed.; Quantitative correlation among SBIs and common WQIs are revealed by statistical methods.; The priority of influential factors for scenic beauty in constructed wetland parks is analysed.; Applicable measures for WQT wetland eco-engineered landscaping are put forward.;

Within urban green spaces, spontaneous groundcovers, as potential alternatives for traditional lawns, have garnered attention due to their ecological adaptability. However, little attention has been paid to whether spontaneous groundcovers can serve as suitable replacements for lawns in terms of the aesthetic values and human preferences for each. Based on questionnaires accompanied by photo elicitation, this study explored the perceptions of and preferences for seven kinds of lawns and six kinds of spontaneous groundcovers in China. The effects of social backgrounds on people's perceptions of and preferences for ground covers were also analyzed. The results indicated a general equivalence in preferences for the lawn and spontaneous groundcover. The Taraxacum mongolicum -- Cynodon dactylon -- Conyza canadensis community was significantly preferred most among all of the selected ground covers. Spontaneous groundcovers were regarded as more natural, wild, variable, and species-richer compared to lawns, while lawns were perceived as better kept than spontaneous groundcovers. Ground covers were preferred which were perceived to have high ecological aesthetic value and low wildness. Industry and attention to herbaceous plants mostly affected human perceptions and preferences among the social background factors, and gender, age, education level, and occupation also had significant effects. The results thus provide the support for the application of spontaneous groundcovers in moderately developed cities, but such application should consider the comprehensive development of ecological aesthetic value and the applicability of different groups of residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling the perception and evaluation of landscapes from the human perspective is a desirable goal for several scientific domains and applications. Human vision is the dominant sense, and human eyes are the sensors for apperceiving the environmental stimuli of our surroundings. Therefore, exploring the experimental recording and measurement of the visual landscape can reveal crucial aspects about human visual perception responses while viewing the natural or man-made landscapes. Landscape evaluation (or assessment) is another dimension that refers mainly to preferences of the visual landscape, involving human cognition as well, in ways that are often unpredictable. Yet, landscape can be approached by both egocentric (i.e., human view) and exocentric (i.e., bird's eye view) perspectives. The overarching approach of this review article lies in systematically presenting the different ways for modeling and quantifying the two 'modalities' of human perception and evaluation, under the two geometric perspectives, suggesting integrative approaches on these two 'diverging' dualities. To this end, several pertinent traditions/approaches, sensor-based experimental methods and techniques (e.g., eye tracking, fMRI, and EEG), and metrics are adduced and described. Essentially, this review article acts as a 'guide-map' for the delineation of the different activities related to landscape experience and/or management and to the valid or potentially suitable types of stimuli, sensors techniques, and metrics for each activity. Throughout our work, two main research directions are identified: (1) one that attempts to transfer the visual landscape experience/management from the one perspective to the other (and vice versa); (2) another one that aims to anticipate the visual perception of different landscapes and establish connections between perceptual processes and landscape preferences. As it appears, the research in the field is rapidly growing. In our opinion, it can be greatly advanced and enriched using integrative, interdisciplinary approaches in order to better understand the concepts and the mechanisms by which the visual landscape, as a complex set of stimuli, influences visual perception, potentially leading to more elaborate outcomes such as the anticipation of landscape preferences. As an effect, such approaches can support a rigorous, evidence-based, and socially just framework towards landscape management, protection, and decision making, based on a wide spectrum of well-suited and advanced sensor-based technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to assess each of the seven segments of the Akbarieh Garden as the World Heritage Cultural Landscape. First, we wanted to identify the macro elements that dominated one's perception within each area. Then, we wanted to identify the micro elements that support the vista in its entirety. Design/methodology/approach: To acquire data, we used a Participant Observer (PO) method as part of a Continuous/Stop-Motion (CSM) procedure. The identification of macro elements came from retrospective recollections derived from the continuous walk method—the stop-walk method allowed for the identification of micro elements. The data gained from this method is then used to understand how one interprets and responds to large—multi-segmented sites such as the Akbarieh Garden. Findings: The results of this study show the Continuous/Stop-Motion method yielded predictable results with macro elements and elements of interest being easily recalled. However, the use of photographing for the stop-walk method revealed a similar focus on the macro element. We had hypothesized that the micro elements would be the elements of fascination and discovered when the person remained in the area to photograph scenes of interest. However, the PO photographed the macro elements. It wasn't until the post photo analysis that the PO identified some of the micro elements would be the elements of fascination and discovered when the person remained in the area to photograph scenes of interest. However, the PO photographed the macro elements. It wasn't until the post photo analysis that the PO identified some of the micro elements. The post photo discoveries suggest that real-time experience of micro elements is undervalued. Originality/value: There is no general discussion on this topic yet amongst professionals. The initiative of the Participant Observer (PO) method as a tool for perception the historic gardens and landscapes identified that gap and its related necessity to provide guidance. As is true for exploratory studies, these results provide a foundation for further study. The use of the Continuous/Stop-Motion method was ideal for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging and elderly health issues have always been the focus of attention, both within and outside the industry. With the introduction of the national "14th Five-Year Plan" for healthy aging, it is urgent to address how to implement this plan. Among them, the restorative environment is an important part of implementing healthy aging. For older adults, "nostalgia" is a common emotional experience, and "nostalgia therapy" is also commonly used for mental health recovery, which has important significance for healthy aging. However, although existing research on "nostalgia" has already involved local attachment and the environment, there are few studies that use space as a carrier in the context of environmental restorative effects. Therefore, from the perspective of healthy aging, combined with structural equation modeling, this study took four parks in Changchun City as examples to explore the role of "nostalgia" in the restorative effect of the park environment. It found that, firstly, both the "nostalgia inclination" influenced by individual conditions and the "landscape perception" influenced by landscape quality had a positive impact on the "nostalgia affection"; secondly, nostalgia affection and place attachment were important mediating factors for environmental restorative effects, and the pathways of "landscape perception → nostalgic affection → environmental restorative effects", "landscape perception → place attachment → environmental restorative effects", and "landscape perception → nostalgic affection → place attachment → environmental restorative effects" all existed. Based on the above path exploration, corresponding spatial optimization ideas for effectively improving the health level of older adults have been provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the parks and historical fortifications constitute important components of urban green spaces in many cities around the world. The approach taken in terms of shaping these spaces often appears similar regardless of provenance. For this reason, recognising the preferences of their visitors is relevant from the perspective of creating and managing spaces that are not only safe, but also interesting. In this study we were interested in how fortress landscapes are perceived compared with typical urban parks in Poland. To this end, we conducted a questionnaire involving 117 participants who evaluated a set of 116 eye-level photographs (58 fortified landscapes and 58 urban parks environments). We analysed a range of correlations and mediation models, testing hypotheses regarding the mediating role of mystery, legibility and danger on preferences towards the two types of studied landscapes. We wished to establish what hidden mechanisms underpin the studied variables as well as their influence on the shaping of the researched landscapes. The results indicate that in the case of fortified landscape, it is important to maintain greenery favoured by the respondents, conducive to diversity and mystery while limiting perceived danger. Legibility can support educational values in the protection and maintenance of fortifications when sites are not devoid of mystery. In the case of park landscapes, legibility should not be improved at the expense of a complete loss of mystery, but should be accompanied by a reduction in perceived danger. In turn, mystery in parks plays an important role because without it, even legible park landscapes cease to be liked by the respondents. In turn, in fortress landscapes, mystery has a strong impact on preference, regardless of its relation to danger and legibility. At the same time, were it not for the fact that legibility reduces sense of danger, legible fortress landscapes would not be liked. Therefore, our findings can support the successful restoration and maintenance of fortress landscapes especially when their function shifts and they need to be managed and maintained in a planned manner in modern green areas.

Improving the quality of the built environment to enhance people's mental health is gaining traction across various fields, precipitating valuable actions on the wave of "Healthy China 2030" initiative. While ample studies have confirmed the benefits of interaction with natural or green spaces, the investigation into the restorative potential in urban built settings remains notably underexplored. In this study, we focused on historical districts, conducting a questionnaire survey to evaluate the restorative experiences of individuals visiting these sites. We used Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyze a conceptual model that encompasses landscape perception, place attachment, and perceived restoration, with a specific focus on detecting the mediating role of place attachment and the moderating influence of visitor groups. The results showed that landscape perception significantly influenced the perceived restoration, which contained the indirect effect pathway through place dependence and place identity, as well as the potent direct impact of landscape perception. Moreover, employing a multi-group analysis (MGA), we discerned that different visitor groups partially moderate the relationship between landscape perception, place attachment, and perceived restoration. This study validates the restorative features in historic districts and highlights the importance of cognitive-emotional bond in promoting psychological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the microclimate pattern and related spatial perception of urban green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) and the stormwater management landscape, using rain gardens as a case study. It investigates the relationship between different rain garden design factors, such as scale, depth, and planting design, and their effects on microclimate patterns and human spatial perception. Taking an area in Blacksburg, Virginia, as the study site, twelve rain garden design scenarios are generated by combining different design factors. The potential air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed/direction are analyzed through computational simulation. Additionally, feelings of comfort, the visual beauty of the landscape, and the overall favorite are used as an evaluation index to investigate people's perception of various rain garden design options. The study found that a multilayer and complex planting design can add more areas with moderate temperature and higher humidity. It also significantly improves people's subjective perception of a rain garden. Furthermore, a larger scale rain garden can make people feel more comfortable and improve the visual beauty of the landscape, highlighting the importance of designing larger and recreational bioretention cells in GSI systems. Regarding depth, a relatively flatter rain garden with a complex planting design can bring stronger air flow and achieve better visual comfort and visual beauty. Overall, by examining the microclimate pattern and related perception of rain gardens, this study provides insight into better rain garden design strategies for the urban stormwater management landscape. It explores the potential of rain garden design in urban GSI and responds to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increase in the number of migrants in China has resulted in a growing concern for social integration issues. This study aims to explore the methods and approaches of social integration using urban community parks as a carrier. Using community parks in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, as a case study, we utilized structural equation modeling to construct the influence mechanism of community parks on social integration, which provides theoretical support and a reference for the design of social integration-oriented urban community parks. Our research indicates that the affective effects generated by migrants and local residents in community parks are crucial for social integration, including landscape perception, place attachment, and destination loyalty. Among them, landscape perception does not directly affect social integration, it can have a significant impact through the mediation of destination loyalty and place attachment. Destination loyalty has a direct and positive relationship with social integration, and place attachment also has a direct and significant positive effect on social integration. The study suggests that community park design should prioritize enhancing the emotional experience of migrants and local residents in three aspects: sensory stimulation, experience, and atmosphere creation, to promote social integration. Additionally, community managers and related policies should jointly promote future construction efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Understanding tourist perceptions and the relationship between landscape features and emotional attitudes in traditional village is crucial for sustainable development. However, quantifying these perceptions over vast spatiotemporal scales is challenging. Additionally, there is a paucity of knowledge on which landscape features influence tourist perceptions within varied samples on a spatial scale. In this study, we analyzed 39,130 online reviews of 57 traditional Chinese villages from 2018 to 2023. Utilizing Word2Vec and machine learning techniques, we identified 14 key landscape feature indicators. These were quantitatively scored using expert evaluations, and their relationship to tourists’ emotional attitudes was determined through linear regression analysis. The analysis revealed that architectural elements, service facilities, convenience, and sanitation are positively associated with tourists’ emotional attitudes towards traditional villages. Contrary to expectations, the frequency of landscape feature mentions did not correlate significantly with emotional attitudes, challenging traditional assumptions about the visibility of landscape features and their impact.

Purpose/SignificanceTo a certain extent, geographical indication (GI) protects the ecosystem of product origin, but there is still a lack of quantitative evidence on its cultural spillover effect. The mechanism of the impact of geo-certified landscapes on people’s perceived value of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) should be explored.Methods/ProceduresIn this study, two urban forest parks, Changqing and Zhongshan, which differ mainly in terms of geo-certified landscapes, were selected in Beihai, Guangxi. Basically, homogeneous volunteers were recruited, and photos of value labels were collected from their independent visits to two parks. The SolVES model was used to explore the effect of the presence or absence of geo-certified landscapes in urban park ecosystems on people’s CESs needs and the relation to the spatial context of the landscape.Results/ConclusionsThe results show that GI significantly enhance people’s perception of human CESs value of landscape elements, and clarifies the correspondence perception relationship between CESs value types and each landscape element. In addition to the spillover effect on humanistic value perception, GI also attracts and transfers people’s esthetic attention to the natural landscape itself to a certain extent. And these two effects will also spread to the ecosystem that the landscape belongs to.

It has long been understood that diversity is a key aspect of what makes a landscape attractive but to what degree of diversity and how is it experienced? Many forest landscapes are generally monotonous in character or are broken up by forest management activities such as clear cutting, which may negatively impact their potential for recreation and psychological well-being benefits. We conducted a virtual reality experiment where people were taken on a trip along a simulated cross country skiing track in an Estonian forest. Participants followed a route at simulated speeds typical of cross-country skiing. The route was long enough to experience several minutes passing through one type of forest landscape with a series of small variations in character followed by several minutes passing through a notably different forest landscape. The restorative experience obtained by the visit was measured periodically in each version of the landscape. Univariate general linear modelling analysis was statistically significant (r2 = 0.651, F(198, 965) = 9.108, p < 0.001) and showed that while respondents preferred less-dense forest in general (B = 0.189, p = 0.001)—an expected result—a comparable amount of positive restorative response could also be attributed to prominent changes in forest character, regardless of the type of forest (B = 0.401, p < 0.001). We hypothesise that respondents were reacting favourably to sudden changes in forest appearance after prolonged exposure to one forest type—that diversity is important in maintaining interest, reducing boredom, and in providing a restorative experience. The implications are, firstly, that a virtual experience can detect restorative effects and, secondly, that recreational trails should be designed to pass through varied landscapes offering continually changing diverse experiences—the impact of which can be tested in the virtual setting because there is control of all variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating treatment wetlands (FTW) are artificial structures used for water quality improvement through the hydroponic growth of certain macrophytes and their rhizospheric bacteria, with the capacity for pollutant removal. Through the application of face-to-face questionnaires, our study aimed to analyze visitors' perception of the structure, functionality, and benefits of FTW installed in two ponds of one green space in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, and the emotional experience that these FTW could incite in those same visitors. Visitors identified the plant component of FTW as the most noticeable one, perceived filtering/cleaning water as their principal function, and reported positive and negative emotions in the same proportion. The visitors' perceptions of FTW varied according to their age, school level, and occupation. Positive and negative perceptions regarding FTW were linked to their maintenance and that of the ponds. Visitors' awareness of FTW composition and function was associated with the presence of informative signs. The understanding of perception about the FTW can be integrated into management programs for the successful and participative improvement and cleaning of water bodies in urban settings. Along with people's participation, the municipality of the city must improve the maintenance of these important water bodies given its positive repercussions on visitors' perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Natural treatment systems (NTS) for stormwater have the potential to provide a myriad of ecosystem services to society. Realizing this potential requires active collaboration among engineers, ecologists and landscape planners and begins with a paradigm shift in communication whereby these groups are made aware of each other's perceptions about NTS and the presence of knowledge gaps that their respective disciplines can bridge. Here we participate in the first part of what we hope will be a reciprocal exchange: presenting results from a landscape perceptions survey to urban planners, ecologists and landscape architects that illustrates how the next generation of engineers perceives NTS relative to other landscape features, and the implications of those perceptions for future infrastructure development. Our results suggest that although lawns, gardens and native ecosystems were perceived as multifunctional, providing characteristic bundles of services/disservices, perceptions of NTS were more variable (i.e. there was no social norm for their perception). Environmental worldviews, knowledge, attitudes about ecosystem services and demographics were all significant drivers of perceived services. However, students had difficulty identifying NTS correctly, and factual knowledge about NTS did not help students associate NTS with typical design services like flood reduction more than features not designed for those purposes, such as lawns. This suggests that engineering students lack familiarity with the outward appearance of NTS and have difficulty placing NTS services into a broader landscape context. Expertise from urban planning and ecology could help bridge these knowledge gaps, improving the capacity of tomorrow's engineers to co‐design NTS to meet diverse community needs. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

• Four types of published aesthetic experience operate in perception of raingardens. • These are scenic, ecological, attachment & identity, and care & effect of knowledge. • A fifth aesthetic experience, related to affordance, emerged from data analysis. • These should inform raingarden design and management to optimise public support. Raingardens, as part of urban green infrastructure, are being retrofitted in cities worldwide to contribute to urban sustainability and resilience. Technical function is essential, as is aesthetic function to optimise their community acceptance. Unlike technical design guidelines, aesthetic design guidelines for raingardens are limited. Experience of a landscape can contribute to its bio-physical sustainability, however not all landscape aesthetic experiences are pleasurable. Ecologically motivated landscape change might trigger displeasure. Thus, public support for such change depends on understanding how people perceive and experience beauty in that landscape. Four types of aesthetic experience of landscapes have been proposed in a perceptual model of human/environmental transactions, depending on landscape context and the observer's situational context. These are scenic and ecological aesthetics, and aesthetics of care and effect of knowledge, and attachment and identity. Understanding which type applies to raingardens can inform their design and management to optimise their acceptance when retrofitted into streetscapes. As part of a study into perception of raingardens in four suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, survey data from 139 respondents were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to reveal perceptual aesthetic experiences. The four aesthetic experiences proposed in the model were identified. An additional, fifth aesthetic, related to affordance, emerged from analysis. Drawing on criteria underlying each aesthetic lens, raingardens can be designed and managed to ensure that any aesthetic experience is favourable. Aesthetic lenses need not compete or be mutually exclusive. Design need not mimic natural forms but can draw attention to nature-based processes within the raingardens and foster environmental ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Chinese classical gardens, designated as a vital world cultural heritage, embody a lasting legacy transcending generation. Despite the cultural importance of these gardens, a notable research gap exists in deciphering the nuanced emotional and physiological responses triggered by individual elements within classical garden landscapes. Our research question aims to uncover the specific emotional and physiological impacts of key garden elements—plants, architecture, waterscape, and rockery—on visitors, with a particular focus on the Humble Administrator's Garden. These elements serve as the primary subjects for video capture at four sites. Study Design: A within-subject design experiment was used. Methods: Videos were recorded at these sites, encompassing visual, auditory, and tactile elements. Ninety-five participants watched these videos in an indoor setting. While viewing, we measured participants’ physiological responses, including heart rate variability, skin conductance, and skin temperature, will be monitored alongside subjective assessments obtained through self-reported questionnaires such as the Emotional Perception Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Scale. Results: Findings suggest that while all landscape types evoke positive emotions, natural elements exert a more profound influence. Additionally, the Large Rockery emerges as a focal point, indicating enhanced emotional relaxation through auditory and tactile stimuli, particularly among younger individuals. Conclusions: This research contributes to the broader understanding of how classical gardens impact human emotions and well-being, offering insights that can inform future landscape design and promote mental health in diverse cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current era of increasing urbanization, urban green spaces play a crucial role in enhancing human well-being. However, quantifying public perceptions from text data at spatio-temporal scales remains challenging, and the relationship between urban green space perception and spatial-physical attributes requires further exploration. This study systematically examines public perceptions of urban green spaces within Singapore's urban parks from 2018 to 2022. Utilizing Twitter data, it applies large language models to conduct textual content analysis related to urban green space. The findings reveal a positive trend, with individuals expressing favorable perceptions and satisfaction towards urban green spaces in Singapore. Specifically, this study demonstrates that people's perceptions of urban green spaces are influenced by vegetation density. Higher vegetation density heightens people's awareness of spatial presence, while shrub and grassland may lead to neglect of urban green spaces as individuals focus more on themselves. Additionally, due to the spatial heterogeneity of the area, there is no clear correlation between all land covers and public satisfaction with urban green spaces in Singapore. The results also indicate a significant decrease in public perception in 2020, followed by a subsequent recovery. This fluctuation is attributed to the substantial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that external socio-political, economic, and public health events can impact public green space needs and spatial perceptions. In conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of urban green spaces by effectively analyzing textual content extracted from social media data using large language models. The insights gained contribute valuable to the following discussions regarding the planning and design of urban green spaces and urban parks. • Large language models can be effectively utilized in urban spatial perception. • We assessed the overall perception of urban green spaces in Singapore. • The public perception of green spaces depends on vegetation density. • Social public events can influence people's perception of urban green spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling the perception and evaluation of landscapes from the human perspective is a desirable goal for several scientific domains and applications. Human vision is the dominant sense, and human eyes are the sensors for apperceiving the environmental stimuli of our surroundings. Therefore, exploring the experimental recording and measurement of the visual landscape can reveal crucial aspects about human visual perception responses while viewing the natural or man-made landscapes. Landscape evaluation (or assessment) is another dimension that refers mainly to preferences of the visual landscape, involving human cognition as well, in ways that are often unpredictable. Yet, landscape can be approached by both egocentric (i.e., human view) and exocentric (i.e., bird’s eye view) perspectives. The overarching approach of this review article lies in systematically presenting the different ways for modeling and quantifying the two ‘modalities’ of human perception and evaluation, under the two geometric perspectives, suggesting integrative approaches on these two ‘diverging’ dualities. To this end, several pertinent traditions/approaches, sensor-based experimental methods and techniques (e.g., eye tracking, fMRI, and EEG), and metrics are adduced and described. Essentially, this review article acts as a ‘guide-map’ for the delineation of the different activities related to landscape experience and/or management and to the valid or potentially suitable types of stimuli, sensors techniques, and metrics for each activity. Throughout our work, two main research directions are identified: (1) one that attempts to transfer the visual landscape experience/management from the one perspective to the other (and vice versa); (2) another one that aims to anticipate the visual perception of different landscapes and establish connections between perceptual processes and landscape preferences. As it appears, the research in the field is rapidly growing. In our opinion, it can be greatly advanced and enriched using integrative, interdisciplinary approaches in order to better understand the concepts and the mechanisms by which the visual landscape, as a complex set of stimuli, influences visual perception, potentially leading to more elaborate outcomes such as the anticipation of landscape preferences. As an effect, such approaches can support a rigorous, evidence-based, and socially just framework towards landscape management, protection, and decision making, based on a wide spectrum of well-suited and advanced sensor-based technologies.

Aging and elderly health issues have always been the focus of attention, both within and outside the industry. With the introduction of the national “14th Five-Year Plan” for healthy aging, it is urgent to address how to implement this plan. Among them, the restorative environment is an important part of implementing healthy aging. For older adults, “nostalgia” is a common emotional experience, and “nostalgia therapy” is also commonly used for mental health recovery, which has important significance for healthy aging. However, although existing research on “nostalgia” has already involved local attachment and the environment, there are few studies that use space as a carrier in the context of environmental restorative effects. Therefore, from the perspective of healthy aging, combined with structural equation modeling, this study took four parks in Changchun City as examples to explore the role of “nostalgia” in the restorative effect of the park environment. It found that, firstly, both the “nostalgia inclination” influenced by individual conditions and the “landscape perception” influenced by landscape quality had a positive impact on the “nostalgia affection”; secondly, nostalgia affection and place attachment were important mediating factors for environmental restorative effects, and the pathways of “landscape perception → nostalgic affection → environmental restorative effects”, “landscape perception → place attachment → environmental restorative effects”, and “landscape perception → nostalgic affection → place attachment → environmental restorative effects” all existed. Based on the above path exploration, corresponding spatial optimization ideas for effectively improving the health level of older adults have been provided.

People experience different types of landscapes every day. The quality of these landscapes has a major effect on their psychological well-being and general satisfaction of a place. Determining the quality of landscapes is an important issue for policy makers and planners, especially when making decisions about the conservation or transformation of urban landscapes. Defining quality based on people’s perception has received significant attention from planners and decision makers as it can lead to greater public involvement and improve the reliability of the decisions. This research aimed to determine the criteria important for landscape quality assessment by using walk-and-talk interviews in two green landscapes in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). The attributes affecting people’s choices include naturalness, locomotion, smoothness, surprise, variety, sense of place, tranquillity, rarity, legibility, safety, complexity, mystery, openness, accessibility, maintenance and management. Not all of these attributes have the same weight, as some are more influential in determining people’s preferences, however, categorizing them into primary and secondary attributes, provided a means of evaluating landscape that is less costly and time-consuming.

It is common for visitors to have rich and varied experiences in the limited space of a classical Chinese garden. This leads to the sense that the garden's scale is much larger than it really is. A main reason for this perceptual bias is the gardener's manipulation of visual information. Most studies have discussed this phenomenon in terms of qualitative description with fragmented perspectives taken from static points, without considering ambient visual information or continuously changing observation points. A general question arises, then, on why depth perception can vary from one observation point to another along a garden path. To better understand the spatial experience in classical Chinese gardens, this study focused on variations in perceived depth among different observation points and aimed to identify influential visual information through psychophysical experimentation. As stimuli for the experiment, panoramic photos of Liu garden were taken from three positions at Lvyin Pavilion. Considering the effects of pictorial visual cues on depth perception, the photos were processed to create 18 kinds of stimuli (six image treatments * three positions). Two tasks were presented to the participants. In Task 1, 71 participants were asked to rate the depth value of the garden using the magnitude estimation method in a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE). Statistical analysis of Task 1 revealed that depth values differed significantly among different viewpoints. In Task 2, participants were asked to compare 18 stimuli and 3D images presented on three connected monitors and to judge the depth of the garden using the adjustment method. The results of Task 2 again showed that depth values differed significantly among different viewpoints. In both tasks, ambient information (i.e., the perspective of interior space) significantly influenced depth perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The up-close experience of perennial landscapes has been shown to enhance residents' perception of naturalness in the context of increasing small-scale vegetation landscapes. This study explored how formal aesthetic characteristics were related to landscape perception and whether landscape preference correlated with eye movements. We created a series of photomontages showing perennial combinations that contained different plant forms, degrees of species richness, and plant arrangements and recorded 73 participants' eye movements during 10 s of free viewing in Experiment A and task-oriented viewing in Experiment B and ratings of landscape preference collected through rating scales. We found that the effects of plant form and species richness were significant for gaze behavior, while arrangement showed no significant effect. We also found that landscape preference was positively correlated with fixation count but negatively correlated with mean fixation duration and total fixation duration. Additionally, women had more but shorter fixations than men while viewing these photomontages, and the difference in aesthetic preferences between men and women was not significant. Concerning the different professional background groups, no significant gaze behavior difference between professionals and nonprofessionals was detected, but compared with professionals, nonprofessionals tended to give strongly higher preference ratings. The outcomes shed light on the influence of formal aesthetic characteristics on gaze behavior and advanced the application of eye-tracking technology in perennial landscape studies. Our findings also confirmed the efficiency of vegetation landscapes designed based on public preferences for providing restoration from stress or fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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With the rapid and vigorous growth of forest tourism, the irresponsible environmental behavior of tourists has caused enormous strain on forests' ecological systems. Carrying out environmental education in forest parks is conducive to promoting the sustainable development of forest tourism. To explore the impact of human–place emotion on environmental education effects, this study took Fuzhou National Forest Park as an example to construct a structural equation model composed of landscape perception, environment interpretation, place attachment, and the effects of environmental education (EEE). The relationship between the four elements and the mechanism of action was clarified. A questionnaire was used with 480 visitors. Statistical analysis showed that: (1) The value of scientific research and education (0.774) influences landscape perception. Reliability (0.770) and tangibility (0.718) contribute to environmental interpretation. Place identification and dependence are represented by environmental identity (0.771) and are activity-dependent (0.792), respectively. Knowledge (0.860) and behavior (0.869) are essential factors in driving the EEE. (2) Place attachment and environment interpretation had a significant positive impact on the environmental education effect (p < 0.001), and there was no direct effect between landscape perception and EEE. (3) Landscape perception and environmental interpretation indirectly influence EEE with place attachment as full and partial mediators, respectively. This paper aims to provide theoretical support for better synergistic growth of forest park ecology, economy, and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]