Investigating the physiological and psychological effects of three different landscape types on visitors in urban parks (case study: Sydney Olympic Park)

Urban parks provide good opportunities to improve the physical and mental health of people. Many studies in this field have addressed the relationship between nature and improving people's health, but less research has been done on the effects of certain landscape components on physical and mental health. In this study, the effects of three different landscape types including lake, green hill and grass area with geometric design in Sydney Olympic City Park on psychological and physical activities of individuals based on physiological indicators (blood pressure, blood sugar and electroencephalogram) as well as psychological criteria are investigated. The research method is descriptive-survey and the data collection method is based on physiological changes and perceived mental experience based on blood pressure monitor, blood glucose monitor, and EEG electroencephalography device on 60 visitors to the park. The POMS questionnaire was also used. Paired t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the mean values of physiological data and in case of differences between the effects, Bonferroni test was used as a post hoc test. Wilcoxon test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyze the mean of psychological data and statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software and finally based on P-value <0.05 or <0.01 was used to show statistically significant results. The results show that the three types of landscape selection lead to different physiological reactions and mental states of individuals. Thus, the green hill is associated with more health experiences compared to the other two places studied (lake and grass area) and the topographic landscape with forest perspective has a higher level of health.