Microclimates Potentially Shape Spatial Distribution of Facial Expressions for Urban Forest Visitors: A Regional Study of 30 Parks in North China

Bin Mao, Fang Liang, Zhaozhong Li and Wenqing Zheng
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Bin Mao: Department of Art and Design, Taiyuan University, Taiyuan 030012, China
Fang Liang: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030600, China
Zhaozhong Li: Department of Art and Design, Taiyuan University, Taiyuan 030012, China
Wenqing Zheng: Department of Art and Design, Taiyuan University, Taiyuan 030012, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Promotion of mental well-being is a desired goal of service in sustainable urban forest management. Microclimate is impacted by forest settings which makes ecosystem services perceived by users. Changes of regional meteorological factors drive responses of emotional perceptions as spatial distribution pattern in accordance with regional urban forest landscapes. In this study, we collected a total of 1422 pairs of happy and sad scores for visitors in 30 urban parks around Shanxi province in North China, where local meteorological were obtained specially for each location as daily matched records. Happy expression scores increased along a latitudinal gradient from south to north. Microclimate did not have any relationship with emotional expressions, but factors of rainfall, wind velocity, average temperature, and relative humidity all had potential contributions to shape distributions of happy and sad scores. The relationship between meteorological records of wind velocity and average temperature and their potential contributions to happy scores can be described by quadratic polynomial functions. Overall, we recommend an environment of urban parks that can optimize emotional well-being with environments of wind velocity of 5.36 m s −1 and average temperature of 6.05 °C in cities around Shanxi in North China. Therefore, microclimates can shape the regional distributions of urban forest ecosystem services of promoting mental well-being, in a way as implicit drivers instead of explicit forces.

Keywords: urban forestry; ecosystem functional service; mental well-being; landscape planning; social network service; facial sentiment; emotional expressions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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