Forests

Research

17 pages, 2115 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Perceived Economic Values of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Green and Blue Spaces of 98 Urban Wetland Parks in Jiangxi, China

by Yu Zheng, Jinli Zhu, Shan Wang and Peng Guo

Forests 2023, 14(2), 273; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020273 - 31 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1351

Abstract

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) of urban wetland parks (UWPs) can be priced according to monetary values. Urban green and blue spaces (UGS and UBS, respectively) provide stands of nature in UWPs, wherein visitors’ emotions related to the enjoyment of CES values can be [...] Read more.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) of urban wetland parks (UWPs) can be priced according to monetary values. Urban green and blue spaces (UGS and UBS, respectively) provide stands of nature in UWPs, wherein visitors’ emotions related to the enjoyment of CES values can be assessed through analyzing the facial expressions of visitors. In this study, a total of 98 UWPs were selected as study stands in Jiangxi, where a total of 1749 photographs showing facial expressions were obtained from Sina Weibo for local visitors experiencing UGS and UBS in 2021. The CES of UBS were evaluated at a widely used price of USD 881 ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, and those of UGS were evaluated at USD 1583 ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. The averaged CES values were estimated to be USD 941.26 and 39.54 thousand yr⁻¹ for UGS and UBS per UWP in Jiangxi, respectively. The large number of UGS in an UWP had no relationship with the examined facial expressions; however, areas of UBS and, accordingly, the CES values therein, can both be perceived and exposed as positive emotions. CES in UBS only accounted for lower than 5% of that in a UWP, whereas those in UGS together explained over 95%. Overall, people smiled more when perceiving the values of services in UBS of UWPs than when experiencing UGS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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22 pages, 20445 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Relationships between the Visual Quality and Color Patterns: Study in Peri-Urban Forests Dominated by Cotinus coggygria var. cinerea Engl. in Autumn in Beijing, China

by Yujuan Cao, Yanming Li, Xinyu Li, Xing Wang, Ziyun Dai, Minjie Duan, Rui Xu, Songting Zhao, Xiuping Liu, Jiale Li and Junfei Xie

Forests 2022, 13(12), 1996; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13121996 - 25 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1517

Abstract

The spatial pattern of color patches plays a crucial role in affecting the visual quality of peri-urban forests dominated by Cotinus coggygria var. cinerea Engl. in autumn. The impact mechanism has been studied to facilitate algorithm-based automatic visual quality estimation. The color patterns of [...] Read more.

The spatial pattern of color patches plays a crucial role in affecting the visual quality of peri-urban forests dominated by Cotinus coggygria var. cinerea Engl. in autumn. The impact mechanism has been studied to facilitate algorithm-based automatic visual quality estimation. The color patterns of 120 photographs were calculated after color quantization and automatic color substitution. The scenic beauty of the forest was estimated by 698 respondents. Multiple correlations between visual quality and color pattern metrics were explored with stepwise regression. Principal component analysis (PCA) was also employed to investigate the impact mechanism of color patterns on visual quality. Number of patches (NP), largest patch index (LPI), mean patch area (AREA_MN), patch size standard deviation (AREA_SD), and Shannon’s evenness index (SHEI) were the main factors affecting the visual quality of the Cotinus coggygria forest. AREA_MN correlated positively with visual quality, while NP, LPI, AREA_SD, and SHEI correlated negatively. Moreover, AREA_SD had the most significant impact on the visual quality of the landscape, while SHEI, LPI, and AREA_MN had the second-highest impact. The evenness and the size of color patches significantly affected the visual quality of the forest landscapes. Balancing the diversity and evenness of color patches plays a decisive role in creating a forest landscape with high visual quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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27 pages, 4545 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Residents’ Preferences to Multiple Sound Sources in Urban Park: Integrating Soundscape Measurements and Semantic Differences

by Yuan Gong, Chuyun Cui, Mengmeng Cai, Zehao Dong, Zheng Zhao and Aihua Wang

Forests 2022, 13(11), 1754; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111754 - 24 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1475

Abstract

Urban parks provide their residents with a space for activities and interactions, and soundscapes play an important role in influencing the residents’ sense of experience of the park environment, with the result that the preferences of residents regarding multiple sound sources can be [...] Read more.

Urban parks provide their residents with a space for activities and interactions, and soundscapes play an important role in influencing the residents’ sense of experience of the park environment, with the result that the preferences of residents regarding multiple sound sources can be used as the basis of improving the soundscape quality and optimizing the function of urban parks. Using Shanghai Century Park as the research area, this study focused on the residents’ preference to multiple sound sources based on registered residence differences, and comprehensively used the semantic differential method, importance-performance analysis model, and multinomial logit model to conduct quantitative research on urban park soundscapes and combined the measurement results of the soundscape with the residents’ perception and preference. The results showed that the artificial sounds in Century Park were noisy during the morning and evening peak, while the human sounds were noisy when residents gathered in the park. There was a close relationship between the favorability and subjective loudness of urban park soundscapes, and the residents’ perceptions of urban park soundscapes substantially differed in terms of loudness, tone, and sense of belonging, whereas the differences in the perception of timbre, coverage, and sound source distance were relatively small. Furthermore, it is necessary to enhance the role of natural sounds as well as control the main noise-producing sound sources so that various sounds in the park will not interfere with each other; the optimization of soundscapes should also focus on the residents’ different soundscape preferences due to their individual characteristics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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17 pages, 3054 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Can Indoor Residents Perceive Green and Blue Spaces in Communities as Posted Sentiments? A Verification in Nanchang

by Changhong Chen and Peng Guo

Forests 2022, 13(9), 1421; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13091421 - 04 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1772

Abstract

Ecological infrastructures (EIs), such as public and urban green and blue spaces (GBSs), have been well demonstrated to benefit visitors’ mental well-being. Experiences in community GBSs may also evoke positive emotions for their residents. In this study, 54 communities in Nanchang were chosen [...] Read more.

Ecological infrastructures (EIs), such as public and urban green and blue spaces (GBSs), have been well demonstrated to benefit visitors’ mental well-being. Experiences in community GBSs may also evoke positive emotions for their residents. In this study, 54 communities in Nanchang were chosen as objective sites, where landscape metrics of GBSs were remotely evaluated. A total of 2105 local residents’ facial expressions (with happy, sad, and neutral emotions) were obtained from Sina Weibo. Inhabitants showed more net positive emotions (happy minus sad) in cold seasons, and females smiled more frequently than males. Newly constructed communities with houses for sale had larger areas of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and built-up index compared to communities with no houses for sale. Neither the availability of houses for sale nor housing price had any effect on facial expression scores. Poisson regression revealed significant coefficients (β) of positive emotions with largeness of green space (GS) and blue space (BS). Overall, BS had a stronger contribution (β, 0.6–1.1) to residents showing positive emotions relative to GS (β, −2.45–0.89), whose area ratio of NDVI increased the frequency of showing happiness. We recommend constructing GBSs with over 0.68 km² of GS and over 2000 m² of BS per community, where the area ratio of GS should be more than 70% of the total if the goal is to evoke more happiness in residents. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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14 pages, 2703 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Do Emotional Perceptions of Visible Greeneries Rely on the Largeness of Green Space? A Verification in Nanchang, China

by Siying Huang, Jinjin Zhu, Kunbei Zhai, Yang Wang, Hongxu Wei, Zhihui Xu and Xinren Gu

Forests 2022, 13(8), 1192; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081192 - 27 Jul 2022

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2634

Abstract

Experiencing nature can induce the perception of happiness because of mental stress alleviation and well-being restoration. The largeness of green space may not always mean the frequency of experiencing greenery. It is arguing about the probability of positive sentiments in response to an [...] Read more.

Experiencing nature can induce the perception of happiness because of mental stress alleviation and well-being restoration. The largeness of green space may not always mean the frequency of experiencing greenery. It is arguing about the probability of positive sentiments in response to an experience of interacting with green nature. In this study, 38 green spaces were investigated in Nanchang City, China, where the green space area was evaluated by the largeness of the landscape metrics of the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Green View Index (GVI) data were further obtained using Open Street Maps (OSM). The semantic segmentation method was used by machine learning to analyze a total of 1549 panoramic photos taken in field surveys to assess the Panoramic Green View Index (PGVI) proportion. The photos of 2400 people’s facial expressions were obtained from social networks at their check-in visits in green spaces and rated for happy and sad scores using FireFACE software. Split-plot analysis of variance suggested that different categories of NDVI largeness had a significant positive effect on posted positive sentiments. Multivariate linear regression indicated that PGVI was estimated to have a significant contribution to facial expression. Increasing the amount of PGVI promoted happy and PRI scores, while at the same time, neutral sentiments decreased with increasing PGVI. Overall, increasing the PGVI in green spaces, especially in parks with smaller green spaces, can be effective in promoting positive emotions in the visitor experience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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24 pages, 4775 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Psychological Cognitive Factors Affecting Visual Behavior and Satisfaction Preference for Forest Recreation Space

by Zhi Zhang, Yu Gao, Sitong Zhou, Tong Zhang, Weikang Zhang and Huan Meng

Forests 2022, 13(2), 136; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020136 - 18 Jan 2022

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3032

Abstract

Background: People are paying increasing attention to urban forest landscapes, and recreational landscape spaces (providing recreation and viewing functions) are an important part of the urban forest landscape. Visual tracking technology is a flexible and accurate modern research method. When this technology [...] Read more.

Background: People are paying increasing attention to urban forest landscapes, and recreational landscape spaces (providing recreation and viewing functions) are an important part of the urban forest landscape. Visual tracking technology is a flexible and accurate modern research method. When this technology is applied to forest landscape evaluation, it can assist in explaining the content that could not be studied in depth in the past and has high application value. However, although an eye tracker can tell us what the user is looking at, it cannot tell us why they are looking at it or how they feel after seeing it. To this end, we combined a 7-point spatial cognition questionnaire and satisfaction preference to understand the visual behavior (fixation point time, number of fixation points, etc.) and preference satisfactions of users in recreational landscape spaces to help designers understand what elements attract people’s visual attention and improve the design of these spaces. Methods: We used eye-tracking and cognitive questionnaires to obtain experimental data and used factor analysis and linear regression analysis of SPPS 23.0 to analyze data. Main purpose: Clarify the factors affecting people’s visual behavior and satisfaction preferences in forest recreation spaces to provide theoretical guidance for planning and designing forest landscapes. Main results: (1) Places with more frequent eye movements have relatively lower satisfaction preferences; (2) The spatial perception factors affect participants’ visual behavior, and satisfaction preference is different based on many indicators (WCB, WSO, WSN, SSH, etc.) in forest recreation space; (3) The professional background education affects the participants’ visual-behavior evaluation of the recreational landscape space and also affects the participants’ focus on the landscape preference. When the spatial type of forest recreation space changes, the spatial perception factors that affect the participants’ visual behavior and satisfaction preferences also change. Based on the above, we suggest that in forest recreation space, the spatial perception indicators should be improved according to the characteristics of space itself, then improve the satisfaction preferences for the scene in a targeted manner to make participants produce effective and positive visual behavior. Meanwhile, for a well-built forest park, we should provide the landscape node with the best visual effect and satisfaction preference for tourists from different professional backgrounds on the park’s tour route map based on the characteristics of the forest recreational landscape space. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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17 pages, 2474 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimizing Urban Forest Landscape for Better Perceptions of Positive Emotions

by Jie Zhang, Zhi Yang, Zhuo Chen, Mengyuan Guo and Peng Guo

Forests 2021, 12(12), 1691; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121691 - 03 Dec 2021

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3606

Abstract

Interacting with urban spaces that are green and blue is believed to promote mental well-being and positive emotions. Therefore, there is an incentive to strategically design urban forest landscapes in a given space to evoke more positive emotion. In this study, we conducted [...] Read more.

Interacting with urban spaces that are green and blue is believed to promote mental well-being and positive emotions. Therefore, there is an incentive to strategically design urban forest landscapes in a given space to evoke more positive emotion. In this study, we conducted a pilot study in Northeast China with 24 parks from 11 cities across 3 provinces. The subjects of the study are the visitors and a total of 1145 photos and selfies were collected from open micro-twitters in Sino Weibo (~50 individuals per park). Facial expressions of happy and sad emotions were recognized and rated as percent scores by FireFACE v1.0. Demographically, male adolescents smiled more than male visitors in other age groups and female teens. Females expressed more positive emotions than males according to their positive response index (PRI; happy-sad). Multivariate linear regression indicated positive contribution of green space to happy scores (estimate of 0.0040) and a stronger negative contribution of blue area to sad scores (estimate of −0.1392). Therefore, an urban forest landscape can be optimized by mapping green- and blue-spaces to predict spatial distributions of positive emotions. Male teens are recommended more as frequent visitors than people in other age ranges. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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16 pages, 2792 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Relationship between Landscape Metrics and Facial Expressions in 18 Urban Forest Parks of Northern China

by Ping Liu, Mengnan Liu, Tingting Xia, Yutao Wang and Peng Guo

Forests 2021, 12(12), 1619; https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121619 - 24 Nov 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2517

Abstract

Urban forests are an important green infrastructure that positively impacts human well-being by improving emotions and reducing psychological stress. Questionnaires have been used frequently to study the influence of forest experiences on mental health; however, they have poor controllability and low accuracy for [...] Read more.

Urban forests are an important green infrastructure that positively impacts human well-being by improving emotions and reducing psychological stress. Questionnaires have been used frequently to study the influence of forest experiences on mental health; however, they have poor controllability and low accuracy for detecting immediate emotions. This study used the alternative approach of facial reading, detecting the facial expressions of urban forest visitors and their relationships with the landscape metrics. Using the microblogging site, Sina Weibo, we collected facial photos of 2031 people visiting 18 different forest parks across Northern China in 2020. We used satellite imagery analysis to assess the elevation and pattern sizes of green space and blue space areas. Age and location were taken as independent variables affecting facial expressions, which were categorized as happy or sad. With increases in green space and intact park areas, people showed a higher frequency of expressing happy scores. The results showed that the forest experience frequently elicited positive emotions, suggesting that creating and maintaining urban green spaces enhance people’s quality of life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing a Landscape for Better Mental Well-Being of Urban Forest Experiencers)

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