Assessing urban greenery impact on human psychological and physiological responses through virtual reality

The integration of greenery in urban environments is essential for enhancing thermal comfort and psychological well-being. However, the specific effects of the green view index (GVI) on these aspects remain underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by examining the impact of GVI on human thermal and psychological perceptions using immersive virtual environments. Psychological responses, including thermal sensation vote, thermal preference vote, street greenery satisfaction vote (SGSV), street greenery pleasure vote (SGPV), and street greenery relaxation vote (SGRV), along with physiological responses, low-frequency to high-frequency ratio (LF/HF) and skin conductance level (SCL) were collected and analyzed. The results indicated that increasing the GVI significantly improved thermal comfort and psychological well-being in both warm and cool environments, with a notable cooling effect observed under warm conditions. SGSV, SGPV, and SGRV remained high with increasing GVI in both warm and cool environments. Physiological responses showed that effects of greenery were reflected in values of LF/HF and SCL. However, the variations in physiological responses with different GVIs were not statistically significant.