Emotional responses evoked by tree canopy landscape elements: a study based on two evaluation approaches

Tree canopy landscapes are an important component of urban forests and have the potential to influence human emotions. However, their influence on emotional responses remains unclear. The aims of this study were: (1) to determine whether the canopy landscape affects human emotions; (2) to clarify the influence of canopy landscape on individual emotional indicators; and (3) to identify the ratio of canopy landscape elements with the most beneficial effects on human emotions. Different canopy landscape images were generated, and the self-reported emotions and neural activity of the subjects assessed before and after they viewed the images. The results of the statistical analysis were intuitively displayed by a ternary phase diagram. We found that the canopy landscape affected human emotions and different proportions of canopy landscape elements led to significant differences in excitement, depression and confusion. Higher proportions of blue elements and lower proportions of green and other elements characterized the canopy landscape with the most beneficial effect on human emotions. These findings will promote further research on canopy landscapes, inform the planning and design of urban forests, and contribute to the field of landscape architecture.