A step towards understanding the relationship between species diversity and psychological restoration of visitors in urban green spaces using landscape heterogeneity

Abstract

Studies have demonstrated a relationship between plant species diversity within urban green spaces (UGS) and psychological restoration of visitors. However, the majority of "non ecologist" visitors are not able to perceive all the different plant species present within UGS. More work is thus needed to explore and better understand the underlying processes of this relationship. Recent studies have suggested that "non ecologist" visitors are able to perceive landscape heterogeneity within UGS, which is related to species diversity based on landscape ecology theories. The goal of this study was to test whether landscape heterogeneity can begin to elucidate the relationship between species diversity within UGS and psychological restoration of visitors. Within 13 UGS in Rennes (France) we tested if relationships can be established between i) measured landscape heterogeneity, ii) landscape heterogeneity perceived by visitors, and iii) psychological restoration of visitors. We measured landscape heterogeneity using different landscape-level metrics, and quantified psychological restoration and perception of landscape heterogeneity of 390 visitors using in situ questionnaires. Our results evidenced that within UGS visitors are able to perceive landscape compositional and configurational heterogeneity, and that they gain psychological restoration from landscape configurational heterogeneity. We advise that enhancing landscape configurational heterogeneity within UGS could help designers and managers increase both their environmental and social benefits.

Relationship between Urban Green Spaces and Cancer: A Scoping Review

“…A large proportion of the selected studies focus on chemicals present in green spaces through dust, in the soil or in bathing or recreational water accessible in these spaces, that may be risk factors for cancer. In opposition, very few studies adopt a salutogenic perspective considering UGSs as a determinant of health for the individuals who use them [ 10 ] and whose characteristics in terms of layout, plant species [ 69 ], configuration or accessibility may have an influence on the individual and social behaviors of populations [ 70 , 71 ].…”

Pathways linking biodiversity to human health: A conceptual framework

“…Perceived biodiversity is measured by asking people for their individual assessment of the species identity or richness in an environment through self-report questionnaires (Fuller et al, 2007;Dallimer et al, 2012;Marselle et al, 2016;Southon et al, 2018;Cameron et al, 2020). Perceived biodiversity has stronger correlations with well-being than actual biodiversity (Dallimer et al, 2012;Cameron et al, 2020;Meyer-Grandbastien et al, 2020). However, the proxy measure of perceived biodiversity cannot replace a measure of actual biodiversity (Hoyle, 2020).…”

“…However, the proxy measure of perceived biodiversity cannot replace a measure of actual biodiversity (Hoyle, 2020). While perceived biodiversity assessments have been shown to be correlated with actual biodiversity measures (Fuller et al, 2007;Southon et al, 2018;Cameron et al, 2020;Meyer-Grandbastien et al, 2020), other studies have found no relationship between the two measures (Dallimer et al, 2012;Shwartz et al, 2014). Perceived biodiversity assessments may over or underestimate the amount of actual biodiversity in a location (Shwartz et al, 2014).…”

“…Perceived restoration-where people selfreport changes indicative of restoration (e.g. feeling relaxed, refreshed after a long day) (Hartig, 2011)has been found to be positively associated with actual and perceived landscape heterogeneity of urban greenspace (Meyer-Grandbastien et al, 2020), vegetation structure and plant species of gardens (Hoyle, Hitchmough and Jorgensen, 2017), and actual (Wood et al, 2018) and perceived species diversity (White et al, 2017) of various taxa. The four restorative qualities have shown positive associations with structural complexity of urban greenspace (Scopelliti et al, 2012;Carrus et al, 2015) and perceived species richness of birds (Marselle et al, 2016).…”

Restoring pieces of architectural heritage as a factor contributing to biosphere compatible urban space development

“…A. Grabar (see [3] to learn more about Grabar's school or restoration), art theorist and historian I. Glazov [4] are particularly significant for the training of future restorers. Important conclusions were made by contemporary urban environmentalists A. Meyer-Grandbastien, F. Burel, E. Hellier and B. Bergerot [5].…”