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Assessing health-regulating ecosystem services in rural landscapes: An integrated approach using physiological and
Jie Xu1, Yumeng Qian2, Kejia Zha3
1Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, 648 Matsudo, Matsudo, Chiba, 271-8510, Japan.
Journal of Environmental Management
|July 1, 2026
Summary
Rural green infrastructure management can be improved using a new framework that links landscape features to health benefits. This multimodal approach quantifies restorative ecosystem services for better rural planning and revitalization.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Ecology
- Public Health
Background:
- Effective rural green infrastructure management is crucial for health-oriented revitalization.
- Quantifying restorative ecosystem services requires robust, evidence-based tools.
- Existing research often lacks real-world application in rural walking settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and test a multimodal evaluation framework for assessing health-relevant restorative responses to rural landscapes.
- To examine the relationship between landscape structure and physiological/psychological recovery during walking.
- To inform the design and optimization of rural greenways and ecological spaces.
Main Methods:
- Integration of subjective mood assessment (Profile of Mood States - POMS), physiological stress indicators (Galvanic Skin Response - GSR and Heart Rate Variability - HRV), and deep-learning visual semantic analysis (SegFormer).
- Standardized walking experiment across four rural landscape typologies (flat-farmland, hilly-forest, lowland-water-network, plain-development).
- Continuous collection of physiological and psychological data from human participants.
Main Results:
- Specific visual-semantic features correlated with physiological recovery: sky openness and reduced built elements improved HRV; higher vegetation coverage reduced GSR.
- A dynamic temporal effect was observed, with landscape quality and continuity becoming more critical for physiological regulation over time.
- Transitions from built to natural environments were identified as key phases for positive physiological change, highlighting the importance of landscape element sequencing.
Conclusions:
- The study provides an operational multimodal framework for evaluating and optimizing rural restorative environments.
- Findings offer an empirical basis for integrating health outcomes into rural environmental management and planning.
- The research extends restorative environment theory into practical rural settings, supporting health-oriented revitalization efforts.