Wetland in the urban or peri-urban areas has been recognized as an important component of urban ecosystems and provides ecological and environmental services. Wetland park emerged as a kind of restoration of natural wetlands in the context of increasing pressure on land and eco-environment caused by urban sprawl, which has played an essential role in providing recreational spaces/opportunities and improving social interactions. However, little research has been conducted on the theoretical formulation elaborating individuals’ perceived quality of wetland parks when people are engaging in activities therein. This study is an attempt to develop a method to measure the quality of wetland parks based on individuals’ various perceptions and attitudes. From the view of human-nature interaction, the perceived quality is hypothetically conceptualized as a composite of two dimensions, such as comfort perception and environmental satisfaction. A series of questionnaire-based surveys were conducted among respondents (N = 936) in Yanghu wetland park in Changsha, China. Based on the measured items from on-site surveys, second-order factor structural equation modeling is applied to estimate the hypothesis of a hierarchical structure for elaborating how the quality of wetland park is perceived by individual respondents. The results test the hypothesis that the quality of wetland park as a second-order theoretical construct can be conceptualized by two first-order theoretical constructs, individuals’ comfort (loading = 0.749), and environmental satisfaction (loading = 0.828). In addition, a significant influence of attitudes toward green space on the perceived quality of wetland park has been identified.

The counties have experienced urban expansion and landscape pattern fragmentation. As carriers of new urbanization, the balanced development between urban expansion and landscape connectivity in the counties needs to be emphasized. The uncontrolled expansion of land should be discouraged and planners need to clarify land use expansion patterns. Using Changsha County as the study area, the characteristics of the landscape pattern between 2000 and 2020 were analyzed. The morphological spatial pattern analysis and landscape connectivity method (CMSPACI), as well as the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, was used to construct the ecological network. We also explored the most appropriate corridor width using the buffer zone to guide future land use planning and ecological network planning. The results show that based on CMSPACI the total area of ecological sources identified was 304.91 km², encompassing a large area of forest parks. The total length of the 25 ecological corridors identified by the MCR model was 431.97 km. Ecological sources and corridors are missing in the central region; so, their pattern was optimized using landscape connectivity and the absence of location as selection criteria. The optimized network indices showed significant improvement. The width of the ecological corridors should be controlled in order to be in the range of 30 m to 50 m to maximize the effect of the corridors on species dispersal and migration. Our proposed research framework for the construction and optimization of EN in Changsha County can provide ideas to balance the contradictions between urban expansion and landscape connectivity in Changsha County.

Green city areas are crucial in mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI). However, the cooling effect of green city areas can be influenced by the surrounding complex urban spatial environment. This study focuses on Changsha, a subtropical city in China, where 40 green city areas were screened and analyzed. The study aims to quantify the specific impact of urban spatial morphology on the cooling effect of green city areas. Through statistical correlation and regression analysis, this study focused on six urban spatial morphology indicators: building density (BD), building floor area ratio (BFR), building volume density (BVD), building evenness index (BEI), building average height (BH), and building height standard deviation (BSD). The results indicate that the cooling effect of green city areas could be influenced by urban spatial morphology. Factors such as BD, BFR, BH, and BSD were found to be significantly correlated with the cooling effect of green city areas, with BH showing the strongest influence. BD and BFR were negatively correlated, while BH and BSD were positively correlated. The range values of BD, BFR, BH, and BSD were determined to achieve the optimal conditions for the cooling effect of green city areas. Additionally, the relative position of the green city areas in the neighboring urban areas affects the cooling effect of the green city areas. The cooling effect is most pronounced in the urban area situated to the south of the green city areas. These findings provide a solid foundation for urban planning around green city spaces and offer scientifically sound evidence for mitigating the UHI.

Human activities pose significant impacts on ecosystem services (ESs) in mining areas, which will continually increase over time and space. However, the mechanism of ES change on spatiotemporal scales post-disturbance remains unclear, especially in the context of global climate change. Here, we conducted a global literature review on the impact of two of the most frequent disturbance factors (mining and restoration) on 27 different ESs, intending to synthesize the impacts of human disturbance on ESs in mining areas via a meta-analysis, and analyze the spatiotemporal variability of ESs after disturbance. We screened 3204 disturbance studies published on the Web of Science between 1950 and 2020 and reviewed 340 in detail. The results of independence test showed that human disturbance had a significant impact on ESs in the mining areas (p < 0.001). The impacts (positive and/or negative) caused by mining and restoration differed considerably among ESs (even on the same ESs). Additionally, spatiotemporal scales of human disturbance were significantly related to spatiotemporal scales of ES change (p < 0.001). We found that the positive and negative impacts of disturbances on ESs may be interconversion under specific spatiotemporal conditions. This seems to be associated with spatiotemporal variability, such as the temporal lag, spatial spillover, and cumulative spatiotemporal effects. Climate changes can lead to further spatiotemporal variability, which highlights the importance of understanding the changes in ESs post-disturbance on spatiotemporal scales. Our research presents recommendations for coping with the twofold pressure of climate change and spatiotemporal variability, to understand how ESs respond to human disturbance at spatiotemporal scales in the future, and manage disturbances to promote sustainable development in mining areas.

Background: Modern medical research shows that a rationally planned landscape environment helps patients recover. With the growing number of hospital patients and the tightening of per capita medical landscape land, the use of limited landscape resources to serve patients has become challenging.Methods: This study focused on the landscape environment of 10 hospitals in Guangdong Province, China. Based on the KANO theoretical model, a survey questionnaire was designed and administered to 410 participants. The data were analyzed based on demand attributes, importance, sensitivity, and group differences.Results: The maintenance requirements were the most important item in the sensitivity ranking. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that the users need a safe, quiet, and private environment, owing to their higher requirements, including visual healing, rehabilitation activities, shading and heat preservation, and medical escort. Moreover, adolescents and older adult patients have common and contradictory environmental needs. For example, the landscape environment should provide both an active space and a quiet rehabilitation environment.Conclusion: This study evaluates how landscape resources can be better utilized from the perspective of the user and expands the theory of healing landscapes, which has practical implications for hospital renovation and landscape environment strategies.

As critical urban blue–green infrastructure, urban wetland parks serve as vital venues for visitors to obtain restorative experiences. However, existing studies primarily emphasize their ecological and economic benefits, with comparatively limited attention paid to their roles in promoting public mental health and enhancing well-being. Using Yanghu Wetland Park in Changsha as a case study, this research investigates how restorative environmental perception influences visitors’ well-being through two mediating variables: environmental preference and place attachment. A total of 251 valid responses were collected through field surveys and questionnaires. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to empirically examine the relationships among the variables. This study enriches the theoretical framework of environmental psychology and urban landscape behavior research. It also provides evidence-based insights into the planning and design of urban wetland parks, contributing to the enhancement of public well-being and overall life satisfaction.