Landsenses in Green Spaces

1. Introduction

Green spaces, serving as crucial ecological infrastructure, offer numerous ecological system services and enhance human well-being, particularly in densely built environments. Theories and technical approaches for greening high-density agglomerations are progressively adopting a multidisciplinary approach [1]. The impact of landscape experience on human mental and/or physical well-being has garnered growing attention in the fields of green space and public health [2,3]. The domains of research dedicated to the planning, design, and management of green spaces emphasize the significance of multi-sensory perception, guided by traditional visual perception, in shaping landscape experiences to create high-quality landscapes [4,5,6]. The term “landsenses” is derived from “landsenses ecology”. As a recently emerging scientific discipline grounded in ecological principles and an analytical framework encompassing natural elements, physical senses, psychological perceptions, socio-economic perspectives, process risk, and related aspects, landsenses ecology integrates landscape ecology with people’s vision and social needs. It concentrates on land-use planning, construction, and management aimed at sustainable development [7]. Landsenses emphasize the incorporation of human perception from sensory and psychological dimensions into ecological environmental research. Within this framework, we posit that the theory advanced by landsenses ecology not only offers an effective avenue for investigating the relationship between humans and the environment, but also serves as a crucial methodological and technical approach for the development of green spaces in the context of constructing smart and resilient cities.

This Special Issue in Forests explores the role of landsenses in green spaces. It is comprised of 13 papers involving multi-sensory studies conducted in green spaces. This collection contains works in seven research fields:

(1)

Mechanisms of multi-sensory interaction and their effects;

(2)

Indicators for landsenses characteristics of green spaces;

(3)

Landsenses with cultural and regional significance;

(4)

Theoretical and technical approaches for landsenses creation;

(5)

Innovative application of the Internet of Things and multi-source data in green space studies;

(6)

Social perception, machinery perception and virtual reality;

(7)

Planning, design and management of green space based on landsenses ecology.

2. Summary of Articles Included in the Special Issue

Green spaces play a crucial role in promoting sustainable urban environmental management and enhancing social well-being. These spaces not only deliver numerous ecosystem services, but also positively influence the mental and physical health of urban residents, as well as encourage social interaction. Our research collections concentrate on diverse urban green spaces, encompassing urban forests, residential green areas, scenic zones, urban waterfront green spaces, botanical gardens, traditional villages, and more.

The quality of soundscapes significantly influences life quality and visitor experiences. Our research collections delve into the intricacies of soundscape quality, concentrating on the perception of soundscapes and examining influential factors across dimensions such as landscape patterns, environmental functional characteristics, visual perception, and visitation experiences. Moreover, our research collections extend to the development of predictive models for soundscape perception, which are founded upon the acquisition of sufficient data. Liu et al. explored a new perspective on the interrelationships between soundscape perception and landscape pattern on a multi-scale [8]. The authors confirmed that the scale effect of landscape patterns can affect soundscape perception based on 30 residential green spaces. They found that the multi-scale patterns of vegetation and buildings play more critical roles in forming soundscapes in residential areas. Guo et al. explored the relationships between the harmonious degree of sound sources (SHD) and visiting experience indicators [9]. They suggested that natural sounds were the most influential sound source and visual landscape perception, while human sounds and mechanical sounds both had significant positive effects on soundscape perception. There is an indirect relationship between the SHD of sound sources and the evaluation of comprehensive impression. Luo et al. analyzed the soundscape preferences of elderly residents in underdeveloped cities in China for urban forest parks and the relationships between the soundscape preferences and landscape features [10]. They found that the most influential factors affecting the soundscape preferences of the elderly include the length of time spent in the waterfront environment, the time spent in the forest park, and the importance of road signs. Zhang et al. conducted comparative research to investigate subjective soundscape evaluations between typical forest-type and urban-type Han Chinese Buddhist temples [11]. They found that respondents in forest-type temples preferred natural sounds, while respondents in urban-type temples preferred Buddhism-related man-made sounds. Yin et al. predicted individual-scale soundscape perception in large-scale urban green spaces (UGSs) based on environmental visual, aural, and functional characteristics [12]. Prediction results suggested that people’s perceived soundscape satisfaction increased as the distance from the ring road increased, and it gradually reached its highest level in the green spaces stretched outside the ring road.

Multisensory integration can convey comprehensive information, thereby enhancing the stereoscopic and richness experience of environmental quality. Our research collections focus on the mechanisms of multisensory interactions, including visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and thermal perceptions. Furthermore, the research explores the impact of the objective landscape environment on the psychological dimensions of the public. Wei et al. investigated the influence of sensory perception of forests on visitors’ restoration effects from a multidimensional and multisensory perspective [13]. They utilized a generative large language model to address the dilemma posed by traditional self-report scale measures and revealed that different sensory quantities (sight, hearing, touch, and taste) have varying effects on visitor restoration. Zhong et al. explored the influence of spatial characteristics and visual and smell environments on the soundscape of waterfront space in mountainous cities (WSMCs) [14]. They found that L_Aeq and the normalized soundscape difference index (NDSI) are more affected by spatial characteristics, and the soundscape comfort degree (SCD) is more affected by visual and smell environments in WSMCs. Meanwhile, they summarized the recommended values of spatial characteristics and visual and smell environment indicators. Cheng et al. analyzed the factors affecting the thermal comfort of green spaces [15]. They found that water and greening coverage are the primary factors affecting the thermal comfort of spaces. Increasing water area and creating multi-level greening spaces are effective measures to improve the thermal comfort of green spaces in the settlement. Li et al. revealed the influence of different landscape elements in urban park waterfront green spaces on public psychology and behavior [16]. Landscape elements have significant different contributions to the four experience dimensions, i.e., emotional, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral. The spatial element contributes most significantly to public’s psychological response. Focusing on a special group, Shu et al. investigated how audio–visual interactions in common public spaces within Chinese urban residential areas might have restorative effects on older adults [17]. Their results indicate the importance of establishing residential areas that incorporate both natural elements and diverse activities, encompassing both auditory and visual stimuli, to support the well-being and healthy aging of older adults in Chinese residential settings.

Moreover, a thorough comprehension of public aesthetic perception and preferences is crucial for crafting top-notch landscape planning and design. This understanding helps meet the expectations of residents and visitors while accomplishing diverse objectives, including environmental optimization, community interaction, and the preservation of regional characteristics. Our research collections explore the complexity of the relationship between landscape design, landscape features, and perceived preferences. Chen et al. expanded the landscape characterization system for the public space of the traditional village by integrating multiple dimensions [18], including landscape spatial form, visually attractive elements of the landscape, and landscape color. Results indicated that the public preferred a scenario with a high proportion of trees, relatively open space, mild and uniform color tones, suitability for movement, and the ability to produce a restorative and peaceful atmosphere. Shen et al. combined objective and subjective landscape complexity to investigate the effects of landscape design intensity on preference and eye movement [19]. They suggested that the significant relationship between objective or subjective landscape complexity, or preference and eye movement metrics, was dependent on landscape types. Liu et al. examined the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of spatial vitality and explored the correlation between plant landscape characteristics and spatial vitality [20]. They suggested that to establish vibrant specialized plant landscapes, managers and planners involved in the planning and design process should prioritize a comprehensive consideration of and respect for the visual aesthetics and functional needs of visitors.

3. The Researchers’ Perspectives on Landsenses in Green Spaces

To delve deeper into the contributors’ perspectives on landsenses in green spaces, an open-ended question was introduced: “What should be the primary focuses and challenges for landsenses research in public spaces?” Selected contributors were invited to share brief comments, and their comprehensive responses are presented below.

3.1. Personal Perspective 1

The primary research focus of landsenses lies in the mechanisms of multi-sensory experiences, emphasizing the need to address the significance of these issues in the research agenda. Identifying the sensory dimension(s) that contribute most to the visiting experience and understanding their interconnections in specific contexts pose complex challenges, with variations in different scenarios. A key challenge in landsenses research for green spaces is the integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches to offer more applicable and instructive theoretical outcomes for planning and design practices. Additionally, the evolving field of landsenses ecology holds significant potential in human settlement science, requiring further clarification and enrichment of its theoretical framework and methodology through additional research.

 

(Prof. Dr. Hui Xie, Chongqing University)

3.2. Personal Perspective 2

In landsenses research, it is best to use the power of contemporary science and technology, but also take into account the historical sense of the place and other special requirements and achieve a certain flexible variability. At the same time, at the macro and micro levels, these studies should pay attention to people’s feelings and the healthy ecological development of the whole region. Traditional research methods should also be combined with artificial intelligence or big data, so that the true reliability of research results can be guaranteed. At present, the biggest challenge lies in the lack of due attention to the academic community and the insufficient participation of personnel.

 

(Prof. Dr. Dongxu Zhang, Guangzhou University)

3.3. Personal Perspective 3

As a senior landscape and tourist cross-discipline, I think the landscape perception of public space should be more focused on interaction with space and people, such as the material, color, light, sound and other sensory experience. It should more attention should be paid to deeper psychological responses and spiritual needs, such as belonging, happiness, security, authenticity, and other sociological properties. I think the challenge of public space landscape perception research should be the measurement of human objective physical indicators, such as ergonom measuring, corticol measurement, etc. Today, in the face of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, more technological intelligent detection methods and evaluation methods should be advocated.

 

(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jian Xu, South China University of Technology)

3.4. Personal Perspective 4

Landsenses research in public spaces, rooted in the principles of landscape ecology, aims to achieve sustainable land use planning, construction, and governance. The focus of this research includes a comprehensive examination of natural elements, physical and psychological perceptions, socio-economic factors, processes, and risks. Investigating elements such as light, heat, water, and societal dynamics is crucial for creating public spaces that cater to diverse needs. However, landsenses research faces challenges, including the necessity for interdisciplinary collaboration across ecology, psychology, sociology, and urban planning. The integration of diverse data sources, standardization, privacy concerns, resource constraints, and community engagement are significant hurdles. Overcoming these challenges is essential to ensure that landsenses research contributes to the development of public spaces that are sustainable, inclusive, and attuned to the varied experiences and preferences of the community.

 

(Associ. Prof. Qunyue Liu, Fujian University of Technology)

3.5. Personal Perspective 5

The focuses of landsenses research could be put on the correlation and interaction between human perception, psychology, emotion, behavior and the urban and built environment. Due to the development of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the extensive and in-depth application of these technologies has not only provided landsenses research with the use of diversified sensing sensors, but also offered technical possibilities for the processing, analysis and application of the massive amounts of information.

The future challenges lie in the need to evolve quantitative research and to build more advanced perceptual systems, so as to analyze, compare and optimize different types of urban public spaces, among which the public space of healthy communities should be closely monitored because of its fundamental role in the process of healthy city construction and the realization of the goal of healthy and sustainable development. Exploring the construction of healthy communities, from the perspective of landsenses ecology, is really conducive to the further application of landsenses ecology to the practice of sustainable development and residential environment construction, offering support for the successful realization of health and sustainable development goals.

Researchers can explore ways to create a healthy community public space system integrated with multiple landscape perception elements including natural elements, physical sensory elements and psychological sensory elements. In a full use of the ecosystem services with all types of natural elements, health service facilities and ecological infrastructure are combined to form composite health and welfare service facilities, so that natural factors detrimental to the population health are eliminated and avoided, the natural elements beneficial to the community health are introduced and optimized, and the accessibility and sense of belonging influencing psychological health are provided. Simultaneously, the comfort of the physical perception of the crowd could be improved to avoid the discomfort or even impact on human senses and mental health caused by excessive stimulation of the human senses. Both normal performance of human senses and comfort are promoted through the creation of good physical perception.

 

(Associ. Prof. Xiao Liu, South China University of Technology)

3.6. Personal Perspective 6

Landscape research in public spaces is dedicated to creating urban environment that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional, focusing on meeting diverse user needs, promoting environmental sustainability and social–cultural activities, ensuring safety and convenient access, and striving to enhance the health of residents. Challenges faced include limited budgets, the need to adapt to environmental changes, and the efficient use of emerging technologies, all of which require interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative strategies to ensure the long-term development and maximization of social value in public spaces.

 

(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yuhan Shao, Tongji University)

3.7. Personal Perspective 7

Landsenses research in public spaces should not only emphasize individual users’ multi-sensory perceptions and diverse cultural backgrounds, but also understand the social interaction pattern importance of creating inclusive and diverse public spaces. Additionally, attention should be given to constructing and maintaining green infrastructure in public spaces for sustainable ecosystem services. However, landsenses research in the context of rapid urbanization faces challenges. How to improve limited urban spaces? How to ensure public spaces serve equally diverse societal groups? How to balance cultural differences in expectations and needs from the human collective? Landsenses ecology covers a broad range of topics, and therefore, in landsenses research, it is essential to define its conceptual framework and specific research fields clearly. This will showcase the unique contributions of landsenses ecology. I am looking forward to witnessing its distinctive role in the future.

 

(Ph.D. Candidate Zhu Chen, Leibniz University Hannover)

3.8. Personal Perspective 8

As we all know, the information conveyed by an objective environment provides multisensory stimulation and subsequently has an impact on human physical and mental health. As the main place for urban residents to relax, entertain, and unwind, the landsenses of public spaces also have a significant impact on the urban residents’ physical and mental health, including the special landscape structure, landscape composition, and landscape pattern characteristics. The changes in landscape characteristics of public spaces, such as sky view factors, building height, vegetation area, water ratio, etc., may also change the public’s perception attitude to some extent. Therefore, using semantic segmentation and virtual reality as technical support, the landscape features of urban public spaces have been analyzed and quantified, exploring the impact of landscape elements, facility elements, natural elements, and construction elements on the psychological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions of urban residents, which provides data support for exploring the impact of landscape features on public psychology.

However, the landscape features of public spaces are diverse and complex, and it is particularly important to select appropriate indicators to reflect the landscape features of public spaces. Similarly, the landsenses of urban residents in public spaces are also influenced by many factors, making it equally challenging to select appropriate landsense indicators. Additionally, how to more accurately quantify the changes in landscape features of public spaces and the changes in physical and mental indicators of urban residents remains a huge challenge in landsenses research in public spaces.

Therefore, in future research, the development and innovation of technical means for quantifying landscape features of public spaces will need to be continuously carried out. In addition, obtaining objective and accurate landsenses of urban residents in public spaces is also crucial for future research, as the data obtained from the questionnaire are subjective and cannot objectively reflect the landsenses of urban residents. Moreover, we will continue to explore a scientifically reasonable landscape feature evaluation system for landsenses research in public spaces.

 

(Ph.D. Candidate Junyi Li, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University)

3.9. Personal Perspective 9

Landsenses research in public spaces focuses on understanding the sensory experiences of individuals and the interaction of these experiences with different environmental elements. This understanding is crucial for creating or modifying spaces to enhance human experience. A major challenge is the inherent complexity and subjectivity of human sensory perception and psychological cognition. The task is therefore to develop methods to accurately quantify and measure these perceptions and experiences. This is essential if they are to be effectively linked to various environmental factors, thereby facilitating informed and practical design decisions in the development of public spaces.

 

(Ph.D. Candidate Xuan Guo, Leibniz University Hannover)

In summarizing the contributors’ perspectives, the primary focuses of landsenses research in public spaces can be generalized as follows:

• Application of Technologies:

Utilizing technologies such as AI, IoT, and big data to enhance the understanding of public spaces.

• Interdisciplinary Collaboration:

Encouraging collaboration across different disciplines to uncover the multi-sensory mechanisms influencing the visitor experience.

• Creating Inclusive and Diverse Public Spaces:

Designing public spaces that cater to the needs of a diverse range of users.

As for the challenges identified:

• Integration of Diverse Data Sources:

Addressing the complexity of integrating data from various sources.

• Combining Theoretical Results into Practice:

Bridging the gap between theoretical research outcomes and practical implementation.

• Efficient Use of Emerging Technologies:

Ensuring the effective and ethical utilization of emerging technologies in landsenses research.

• Lack of Appropriate Indicators of Perceptual Process:

Developing suitable indicators to measure the perceptual processes involved in public space experiences.

• Insufficient Attention from Academic Community and Public Awareness:

Addressing the need for increased attention and awareness from both the academic community and the public.

• Adaptation to Environmental Changes:

Responding to the challenges posed by environmental changes to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of landsenses research in evolving contexts.

4. Conclusions

Since the emergence of the landsenses ecology theory, it has not only been serving as an effective avenue to delve into the relationship between humans and the environment, but also representing a crucial methodological and technical approach for the development of green spaces within the framework of constructing smart and resilient cities. While initially advocated by researchers in the field of ecology, it has shown significant potential in driving the systematic reorganization of traditional knowledge and accomplishing structural upgrades.

There is a comprehensive interaction between ecological processes and human perception in landsenses ecology. Grounded in the fundamental principles of ecology, landsenses ecology delves into the connection between natural elements and human physical perception and psychological cognition. This approach provides a rational means to integrate ecological processes with human perception. By focusing on changes in human perception at various scales during landsenses creation, it facilitates achieving a balance between the supply and demand of the natural ecosystem and the human socio-economic system. As evident in our research compilation, the studies span various scales, ranging from macro levels like urban ecological zones to micro levels like residential green spaces.

Landsenses ecology promotes transitioning from scattered to integrated multi-source data optimization. The data underpinning landsenses ecology consist of extensive information on ecology, its associated dynamic processes, and human psychological and physical perception. The implementation strategy involves multidisciplinary system reorganization and multi-scale spatial optimization management to achieve the processing, analysis, and application of landsenses data through the melioration model. It advocates employment of diverse technical methods to acquire and integrate scattered data information from various sources. As highlighted by many contributors to this compilation, the incorporation of quantitative approaches is crucial in advancing landsenses research and developing more sophisticated perceptual systems. A promising avenue for achieving this lies in the integration of diverse data sources, facilitated by digital technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In the era of sophisticated spatial practice and rapid advancements in science and technology, landsenses ecology advocates a shift in spatial creation thinking from static to dynamic. Landsenses creation serves as the primary method in landsenses ecology practice, seeking to imbue one or more ecological visions into a medium through suitable forms of expression. The objective is to make these visions accessible to individuals and other entities. At its core, landsenses creation aims to facilitate resonance among people and foster shared behaviors. It conceptualizes all environments as integral components of a holistic landsenses system. The systematic methodology applied to physical perception and the comprehensive approach to psychological cognition in landsenses ecology research impart ecological characteristics to human perception information, forming the foundational data for landsenses creation. Nevertheless, uncovering the complete panorama of the human physical perception and psychological cognition process remains a significant journey. Our collection highlights a predominant research focus on soundscape within the auditory perception, indicating the need for increased attention to other sensory and cognitive dimensions.

Despite the global acceptance of the concept of “landsenses” still being in its early stages, its theoretical framework is evolving through the continuous efforts of researchers. This Special Issue aims to garner attention from scholars worldwide, shedding light on the ongoing developments and significance of landsenses in the realm of research.