Restorative potential,fascination, and extent for designed digital landscape models

Few studies have investigated whether manipulating objective measures related to fascination and extent affect respondents’ ratings of restorative potential (RP) and estimations of fascination and extent. The following study addresses this need. We manipulated or measured variables in 27 color digital landscape model views. Tree height represented a measure of fascination. Three measures related to extent: The number of organized plant groups represented coherence. Shannon’s Information Entropy bit values represented plant species complexity. The visible view polygon area in each model represented scope. We included 65 respondents’ RP ratings for the digital model views in analyses, along with estimations of fascination (n = 48), extent (n = 43), coherence (n = 38), complexity (n = 44), and scope (n = 35). Collinearity diagnostics indicated dependency between respondents’ estimations of fascination, extent, and complexity, and between estimations of coherence and scope. A strong, inverse correlation occurred between respondents’ RP ratings and the view polygon area. Repeated measures ANOVA test results suggest that respondents’ RP ratings increased as mean designed tree height increased. RP ratings for model views depicting scattered and formally arranged plants were significantly higher than views of clustered plants. Moreover, the decrease in RP ratings between scattered and clustered scenes was greater when plants represented three bits of entropy instead of two. Chief among the implications stemming from this study is that increasingly taller trees and groundcover plants may have increasingly greater restorative potential.     

Restorative properties of green sheltered spaces and their morphological characteristics in urban parks

The properties of green space for physical and mental health have been widely demonstrated, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have systematically focused on spatial indicator thresholds that provide a sense of refuge with restoration benefits. Four morphological indicators as area, coverage, enclosure, and the ratio of width to height(D/H), were quantified for thirty-one scenes in outdoor green sheltered spaces in seven urban parks of Harbin in China. The results show that the sense of refuge and the morphological character of a green space constitute elements that influence restorative properties. Green spaces with different morphological indicators have different restorative properties. The morphological indicator ranges that produce better restorative properties were obtained: 250–500 m² for area, 0.25–0.35 for coverage, 0.3–0.4 or 0.8–1 for enclosure, and 0.7–1.5 for D/H. This can provide references for the construction of restorative activity spaces in urban parks.     

Restorative effects of visits to urban and forest environments in patients with exhaustion disorder

This experimental study investigated differences in perceived restorativeness, mood, attention capacity and physiological reactions when visiting city and forest environments. Twenty female patients diagnosed with exhaustion disorder visited three different forest environments and one city environment in randomized order. They performed a standardized 90-min test procedure in each of these environments. Evaluation of the environments and psychological effects in mood were studied with self-administered questionnaires. Attention capacity was studied with Necker Cube Pattern Control task. Physiological responses were measured with regularly scheduled controls of heart rate and blood pressure, and a single test of heart rate recovery. Visits to the forest environments were perceived as significantly more restorative, enhancing mood and attention capacity compared to the city. This also applies to the results of heart rate and to some extent to the results of the diastolic blood pressure. The results from this experimental study support our hypothesis that short visits to forest environments enhance both psychological and physiological recovery and that visits to forest environments are likely to be beneficial when suffering from exhaustion disorder.