Well-Being and Sustainable Utilization of Forest Environment with Diverse Vegetation Distributions

Yu Gao, Yingna Zhang, Weikang Zhang, Huan Meng, Zhi Zhang and Tong Zhang ()
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Yu Gao: Forestry College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110065, China
Yingna Zhang: Forestry College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110065, China
Weikang Zhang: Forestry College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110065, China
Huan Meng: Forestry College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110065, China
Zhi Zhang: Forestry College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110065, China
Tong Zhang: Forestry College, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110065, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: Forest landscape space is the basic unit of forest landscape resources. Healthy forest landscape resources can not only improve the sustainable cycle of forest ecological service function, but also have a positive impact on human health and well-being. Evidence supports the view that the forest environment is beneficial to people’s health, and further discussion of the dose response between environmental attributes and physical and mental recovery has been widely carried out by scholars. As an important component of environmental attributes, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between vegetation distribution and users’ health in order to better plan, design, and utilize forest environmental resources. This study mainly used the virtual immersive forest environment video in VR, and used the difference test in SPSS 23.0 to clarify whether the distribution of vegetation in the forest environment will affect the physiological and psychological recovery effect of users. The main results are as follows: (1) Experiencing the forest environment can promote users’ physiological and psychological health, and its recovery effect is significantly better than the indoor environment ( p < 0.05). (2) The distribution of vegetation in the forest environment will affect users’ physiological and psychological recovery effect. Among them, in the cluster and randomly distributed forest environments, the relaxation and concentration of users can be improved mainly by alleviating their negative emotions. In the evenly distributed forest environment, users mainly achieve the purpose of relaxation by improving their vitality and positive emotions. These results show that the distribution of vegetation is one of the factors for the restoration of forest environment. In the future design and management of the forest environment, the health and well-being of users can be effectively enhanced by getting involved with the vegetation distribution in the site, aiming to provide a scientific basis for the promotion of the rehabilitation function of forest landscape space and its sustainable utilization, thus promoting the sustainable development of forest resources and improving people’s quality of life.

Keywords: forest environment; sustainable utilization of forest landscape; vegetation distribution; wellbeing; recovery effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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