Exploring the Impact of Campus Landscape Visual Elements Combination on Short-Term Stress Relief among College Students: A Case from China

Abstract

Although the effect of campus landscape space on stress relief among college students has been confirmed, few existing studies have considered the impact on stress recovery from the perspective of factor combination, and the key visual elements and the most effective combination of visual elements to relieve stress are still unclear. This study attempts to conduct a natural experiment within Chinese campuses, measuring physiological indicators of stress such as heart rate (HR), frequency domain index of heart rate variability (LF/HF), skin conductance level (SCL), skin temperature (SKT), and respiratory rate (RESP) using physiological instruments. It explored the effects of visual elements and their combinations in campus landscape spaces on short-term stress relief among college students through semantic segmentation, multifactorial analysis of variance, and post hoc multiple comparison methods. Research results demonstrate that the presence of water elements in the field of vision can effectively improve the stress relief effects of landscape spaces. Reasonable combinations of natural landscape elements and artificial landscape elements in the design can also effectively promote stress relief among students. Building facade area and sky area, water area and sky area, and plant species and pavement area are three combinations of factors with the strongest interactive effects. “Natural water scenery” and “exquisite artificial” are two campus landscape design patterns most conducive to short-term stress relief.