Optimizing forest-dominated campus environment: The impact of campus green and blue spaces on well-being and institutional per-formance

Abstract

The built environment of a campus is characterized by forest-dominated landscapes, which may determine the competitiveness of host university by influencing the emotional perceptions of experiencers. Relevant evidence has been derived from studies in parks and neighborhood landscapes but less is known about the emotions of experiencers in indoor and outdoor settings. 
In this study, 50 top universities were randomly chosen from a list of highly competitive rankings along a competition gradient, with campuses distributed over a wide geographical range from mainland China. Volunteers were recruited from indoor and outdoor locations (either number of 50 individuals per campus) to collect facial photos as a source of data used for analyzing expression scores for happy, sad, and neutral emotions (n = 4824). The positive response index (PRI) and emotional nonparametric relation index (ENRI) were calculated to comprehensively assess emotions. 
The neutral score decreased with an increase in university competition evaluated using the A+ discipline number. The blue space area benefited presentations of PRI and ENRI in the cohort mainly at outdoor places, and the green space area increased the exposure of happy scores for the indoor population. 
The campuses of top universities with more competitive disciplines were built with larger areas of blue and green spaces and larger cohorts with less calm facial emotions. It is recommended that top universities aiming to enhance competitiveness prioritize incorporating well-designed green and blue spaces with size and distribution tailored to campus usage patterns.