Development of an Evaluation Index for Forest Therapy Environments

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Public Health
• Forestry

Background:

• Limited research exists on evaluating forest therapy environments.
• Previous studies focused on forest activities, not the environment itself.

Purpose of the Study:

• To derive representative forest therapy environments.
• To establish objective evaluation criteria for forest therapy settings.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of 13 studies from major databases (Scopus, PubMed, etc.).
• Conformity evaluation and addition of six objective field measurements (phytoncide, oxygen, etc.).
• Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for weighting evaluation items.

Main Results:

• Derived five categories and 25 detailed items for forest therapy environments.
• Identified landscape, forest air, sunlight, sound, and anions as key evaluation factors.
• Developed site-specific representative forest therapy environments.

Conclusions:

• Established novel evaluation items and criteria for forest therapy environments.
• Provided foundational data for managing forest therapy settings.
• Recommended strategies for optimizing environments for visitor well-being and customized services.