Is an Environment with High Biodiversity the Most Attractive for Human Recreation? A Case Study in Baoji, China

Gao, Tian; Zhu, Liguo; Tian, Zhang; Song, Rui; Zhang, Yuanqun; Qiu, Ling

doi:10.3390/su11154086

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between certain PSDs and psychological restoration, and the PSDs that had significant predictive effects on psychological restoration varied across different types of environments. These findings support a previous study which found that the effects of the same PSDs varied with different environments due to different landscape characteristics and configurations [ 45 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

The Effects of Urban Natural Environments on Preference and Self-Reported Psychological Restoration of the Elderly

Qiu

Chen

Gao

2021

IJERPH

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The world is facing the challenge of aging populations. Urban natural environments, including green spaces and blue spaces, have been demonstrated to have great benefits to the mental restoration of the elderly. However, the study of the specific characteristics of urban environments that are popular and the most restorative for the elderly is still lacking. Photo elicitation as visual stimuli was utilized to explore the differences in preference and psychological restoration of the elderly through the perception of the eight perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) in different types of urban environments. The results showed that: (1) The respondents had different perceptions of the eight PSDs in the different urban natural environments. Blue space and partly-closed green space were more preferred by the elderly, and also had more psychological restorative effects on the elderly. (2) There was no significant correlation between the number of highly perceived PSDs and preference, as well as between the number of highly perceived PSDs and psychological restoration. However, there was a significant correlation between preference and psychological restoration. (3) Partly-closed green space with more Serene and Refuge qualities, and blue space with more Serene, Refuge and Prospect properties were optimal characteristics for psychological restoration of the elderly. In addition, open green space with more Prospect, Serene and Social qualities, and closed green space with more Space, Refuge and less Nature properties could also increase psychological restoration of older adults. These findings can provide useful guidelines for restorative environmental design for the elderly in the future.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

The Effects of Urban Natural Environments on Preference and Self-Reported Psychological Restoration of the Elderly

Qiu

Chen

Gao

2021

IJERPH

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“…Dallimer et al, 2012;Fuller et al, 2007;Marselle et al, 2016). Studies report a good, general concordance between actual and perceived biodiversity (Fuller et al, 2007;Gao et al, 2019;Gonçalves et al, 2021;Johansson et al, 2014;Lindemann-Matthies et al, 2010;Meyer-Grandbastien et al, 2020;Simkin et al, 2021;Southon et al, 2018), yet the accuracy of lay people's biodiversity assessments does not allow for conflating both constructs (Austen et al, 2021;Dallimer et al, 2012). Compared with actual biodiversity, perceived biodiversity has been shown to be a stronger predictor of mental well-being (Cameron et al, 2020;Dallimer et al, 2012;Schebella et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The more the merrier? Perceived forest biodiversity promotes short‐term mental health and well‐being—A multicentre study

Rozario,

Oh,

Marselle

et al. 2023

People and Nature

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Forests can foster mental health and well‐being. Yet, the contribution of forest biodiversity remains unclear, and experimental research is needed to unravel pathways of biodiversity–health linkages. Here, we assess the role of tree species richness, both actual and perceived, and how stress reduction and attention restoration can serve as potential mediating pathways to achieve positive mental health and well‐being outcomes. We conducted an experimental, multicentric field study in three peri‐urban forests in Europe, employing a mixed design with 223 participants, that comprised 20‐min stays in forests with either low, medium or high tree species richness or a built control. Participants' short‐term mental health and well‐being and saliva cortisol as a biomarker of stress were measured before and after the intervention. Forest visits for 20 min were found to be beneficial for participants' short‐term mental health, short‐term mental well‐being, subjective stress, subjective directed attention and perceived restorativeness compared with a built environment. No differences were found for the physiological stress indicator saliva cortisol, which decreased in both the forest and the built environments. Increased perceived biodiversity—possibly linked to structural forest attributes—was significantly associated with well‐being outcomes, while no association was found for differences in actual tree species richness. Structural equation modelling indicates that higher levels of perceived biodiversity had an indirect effect on short‐term mental health and well‐being through enhancing perceived restorativeness. While we found no evidence of actual tree species richness effects, perceived biodiversity was associated with positive short‐term mental health and well‐being outcomes. Understanding these biodiversity–health linkages can inform conservation management and help develop effective nature‐based interventions for promoting public health through nature visits. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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“…Many studies reporting a good agreement between perceived and actual diversity also allowed participants to directly compare environments (e.g. Gao et al, 2019;Johansson et al, 2014;Simkin et al, 2020;Southon et al, 2018), thus supporting the assumption that the study design might be a crucial factor that determines the accuracy of diversity ratings, and our understanding of perceived diversity.…”

Section: Association Between Perceived and Actual Diversitymentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Lately, there has been a growing interest in establishing the link between measured and perceived biodiversity to determine the accuracy of this proxy measure. Most studies confirm a relationship between both (Ferraro et al, 2020; Fuller et al, 2007; Gao et al, 2019; Gonçalves et al, 2021; Johansson et al, 2014; Lindemann-Matthies et al, 2010; Rozario et al, 2024; Southon et al, 2018) but associations are often weak (Rozario et al, 2024) or non-existent (Dallimer et al, 2012; Phillips & Lindquist, 2021; Stobbe et al, 2022). This indicates that, despite a substantial overlap, there is a divergence between biodiversity measured by biologists and how people perceive it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived biodiversity: is what we measure also what we see and hear?

Rozario,

Shaw,

Marselle

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Abstract1. Biodiversity is crucial for human health and well-being. Perceived biodiversity - people’s subjective experience of biodiversity - seems to be particularly relevant for mental well-being.2. Using photographs and audio recordings of forests that varied in levels of species richness, we conducted two sorting studies to assess how people perceive visual and acoustic diversity and whether their perceptions align with measured tree and bird species richness (‘actual diversity’). Per study, 48 participants were asked to sort the stimuli according to any similarity-based sorting criteria they liked (‘open sorts’) and perceived diversity (‘closed sorts’).3. The main perceived visual forest characteristics identified by participants in the open visual sorts were vegetation density, light conditions, forest structural attributes and colours. The main perceived acoustic forest characteristics identified in the open acoustic sorts comprised bird song characteristics, physical properties such as volume, references to the time of day or seasonality and evoked emotions.4. Perceived visual and acoustic diversity were significantly correlated with actual tree and bird species richness, respectively. Notably, the relationship was twice as strong for the acoustic sense. The acoustic sense may thus be crucial to obtain a more thorough understanding of perceived biodiversity.5. We further computed several visual and acoustic diversity indices from the photos and audio recordings, e.g. colourfulness or acoustic complexity, and assessed their relevance for perceived and actual diversity. While all acoustic diversity indices were significantly associated with perceived acoustic diversity and bird richness, we could not identify a visual diversity index that captured perceived visual diversity and tree richness.6. Our results suggest that people can perceive species richness. Our identified visual and acoustic forest characteristics may help to better understand perceived diversity and how it differs from actual diversity. We present acoustic diversity indices that quantify aspects of perceived and actual acoustic diversity. These indices may serve as cost-efficient tools to manage and plan greenspaces to promote biodiversity and mental well-being.

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Is an Environment with High Biodiversity the Most Attractive for Human Recreation? A Case Study in Baoji, China

Cited by 15 publications

References 43 publications

The Effects of Urban Natural Environments on Preference and Self-Reported Psychological Restoration of the Elderly

The Effects of Urban Natural Environments on Preference and Self-Reported Psychological Restoration of the Elderly

The more the merrier? Perceived forest biodiversity promotes short‐term mental health and well‐being—A multicentre study

Perceived biodiversity: is what we measure also what we see and hear?

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