A study on landscape feature and emotional perception evaluation of waterfront greenway

Abstract Waterfront greenway is important spatial carriers for urban residents to engage in walking tours and fitness activities. Improving the quality of its walking spaces can have a positive impact on the mental well-being of pedestrians. This enhancement is a crucial aspect of building healthy cities. This study focused on urban waterfront greenway landscapes. Field surveys combined with questionnaire scales were used to assess pedestrians’ emotional perceptions, while concurrently collecting image data of waterfront greenway walking spaces. Semantic segmentation was employed to identify elements, and landscape metrics were calculated using relevant formulas. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between landscape metric features and emotional perceptions. And established a multiple regression model of pedestrian spatial perception on waterfront greenways to investigate the influence mechanisms of emotional perception and landscape metrics. The study indicates that greenness, proportion of water area, and vegetation diversity positively impact emotional perception of waterfront leisure greenway walking spaces, whereas path width negatively affects emotional perception. Specifically, the magnitude of influence is ranked as follows: greenness (0.491), proportion of water area (0.356), proportion of trails (−0.272), and vegetation diversity (0.130). The design guidelines for urban waterfront greenway spaces were proposed, guided by quantitative studies on landscape elements of waterfront greenway spaces and based on the measurement features of these elements. Moreover, the environmental experience of the waterfront green walking spaces was further enhanced, satisfying the public’s visual perception and psychological needs. The contribution of this study is to lay the foundation for the development of spatial control items for urban waterfront greenway.