The benefits of reforming vacant space into green lands

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the benefits of the green land in urban areas. Greenery areas have been recognized as a landscape that benefits humankind, especially in helping people release from daily work pressure. According to Kaplan and Kaplan's Attention Restorative Theory (ART), natural experiences can benefit human's attention restoration. Hartig et al. (1996), following the ART, developed a measurable scale named Perceived Restorative Scale (PRS) which could be used to evaluate the effect of the green landscape in regard to the attention restorative levels. By adopting the PRS scale, this study tests the relationship between greenery structure indices and the perceived attention restorative effect. Respondents were temporarily given a camera on site to record the landscape image that they preferred in the testing site. The images of the testing landscapes were digitized to calculate their area, shape index, compactness, patch density, and elongation. The results of this analysis support the ART theory that the greenery effect has benefits on the perceived restorative effect. Suggested opportunities for green lands in urban areas were proposed. Dealing with various kinds of vacant land in the urban areas, landscape planning and designers could reform these lands with plants to create a healthier landscape. A better people-plant relationship can be provided for the urban residents to benefit their health condition.