Urban Green Spaces and Mental Well-Being: A Systematic Review of Studies Comparing Virtual Reality versus Real Nature

Liyuan Liang, Like Gobeawan, Siu-Kit Lau, Ervine Shengwei Lin and Kai Keng Ang ()
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Liyuan Liang: Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 1 Fusionopolis Way, Singapore 138632, Singapore
Like Gobeawan: Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 1 Fusionopolis Way, Singapore 138632, Singapore
Siu-Kit Lau: Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore
Ervine Shengwei Lin: Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore
Kai Keng Ang: Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 1 Fusionopolis Way, Singapore 138632, Singapore

Future Internet, 2024, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Increasingly, urban planners are adopting virtual reality (VR) in designing urban green spaces (UGS) to visualize landscape designs in immersive 3D. However, the psychological effect of green spaces from the experience in VR may differ from the actual experience in the real world. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies in the literature that conducted experiments to investigate the psychological benefits of nature in both VR and the real world to study nature in VR anchored to nature in the real world. We separated these studies based on the type of VR setup used, specifically, 360-degree video or 3D virtual environment, and established a framework of commonly used standard questionnaires used to measure the perceived mental states. The most common questionnaires include Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), and Restoration Outcome Scale (ROS). Although the results from studies that used 360-degree video were less clear, results from studies that used 3D virtual environments provided evidence that virtual nature is comparable to real-world nature and thus showed promise that UGS designs in VR can transfer into real-world designs to yield similar physiological effects.

Keywords: virtual reality; environmental psychology; urban planning; smart cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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