Study On The Effects Of Different Green Space Structures On Students’ Landscape Preference And Restoration

With the increasingly intense competition of modern society,students in university are under various stress which from work and life etc.The stress has become an obstacle to the students’ physical and mental health.Accumulated evidence claims that natural environments reveal a restorative effect on the physical and mental health of humans,However,little information is available to clearly reveal what the most important driving factors are for college students’ psychophysiological restoration.In order to promote the psychophysiological health of college students,identify the type of urban natural environments which students are willing to go to and can be most effective for college students’ psychophysiological restoration,we therefore used an interdisciplinary method,employed virtual reality(VR)technology to investigate the physiological(electroencephalogram,EEG),and psychological(attention,emotion)responses and individual preferences for different urban environments.Moreover,we investigate the impact of sociological factors(gender of university students,professional background)and ecological factors(level of biodiversity)on individual restoration and preferences.Participants(120)were recruited and randomly assigned to experience six different types of environments varying in land use and vegetation structures,which were: Grey space,blue space,open green space,partly open green space,partly closed green space,and closed green space.The results are as followed:(1)Experience of the six environmental types through VR devices had positive restorative effects on the individuals’ attentional fatigue and negative mood(tension;depression;anger;fatigue);however,all the participants obtained the highest levels of physiological stress restoration when asked to close their eyes for relaxation.(2)There is no significant restorative difference between the six types of landscape spaces.But compared the average scores of the physiological and psychological indicators,there has a significant trend,the blue space(BS)with a large area of water and the partly closed green space with a canopy cover dominated by 30–70% trees/shrubs have a better physical and mental restorative effects for college students.(3)There has a significant difference in the environmental preference of six landscape spaces environments.The blue space(BS)and the partly closed green space as well as partly opened green space are the most popular.And in such environmental space,college students are more willing to stay and engage in sports-related recreational activities,such as running and walking.(4)There is a significant positive correlation between college students’ preference,recreational intentions,and the improvement of their negative mood(tension).This indicated that as the popularity of an environment increased,so did the benefits of college students’ health and well-being.(5)In this research,demographic factors(gender and professional background)have no significant effect on college students ’preference and restoration.Different levels of biodiversity have a positive effect on students’ preference and the restoration of negative emotions.That is,college students prefer an environment with a high level of biodiversity,and in this environment,college students’ negative emotion will be better restored.With these results,urban design professionals and local governments should fully consider the recreational intentions and landscape preferences of different users’ group when planning and constructing the urban green space surrounding the campus.Through design approached inserting variety environmental affordances,such as an environment with a large area of natural water landscape and plants.In addition,it can also be considered to construct multiple layers of vegetation structure environment,such as partly open green space and partly closed green space with 30%-70% canopy of shrubs.As for the recreation needs of college student,in the partly open green space and partly closed green space,more facilities could be built to meet the needs of college students’ physical activities;and facilities for psychological activities could be build in open green space;the gray space can provide the place to meet the social communication needs.In addition,the biological communities with high biodiversity can be prioritized in the conservation management plan.