Relations between naturalness and perceived restorativeness of different urban green spaces

Green spaces have positive effects on human well-being and quality of life in cities. So far, studies in this field mainly compared preferences for, and outcomes of contact with, natural vs. built environments. Less attention has been given to the study of the psychological effects of contact with green spaces differing in their degree of naturalness. This paper thus aims at understanding the relation between ecological (e.g., level of naturalness) and psychological factors (e.g., perceived restorativeness) in shaping evaluations of different urban and peri-urban green spaces. Five typologies of green space have been identified in the city of Bari (southern Italy), ranging from minimum (i.e., high level of man-made elements) to maximum levels of naturalness (i.e., low level of man-made elements). A set of pictures of the different urban green space typologies was shown to fifty undergraduate students of the University of Bari, and then measures of perceived restorativeness were taken. Results show that perceived restorativeness is the highest in peri-urban green spaces, and increases significantly as a function of the level of naturalness.