Enhancing Restoration in Urban Waterfront Spaces: Environmental Features, Visual Behavior, and Design Implications

Urbanization poses mental health risks for urban dwellers, whereas natural environments offer mental health benefits by providing restorative experiences through visual stimuli. While urban waterfront spaces are recognized for their mental restorative potential, the specific environmental features and individual visual behaviors that drive these benefits remain inadequately understood. Grounded in restorative environments theory, this study investigates how these factors jointly influence restoration. Employing a controlled laboratory experiment, subjects viewed real-life images of nine representative spatial locations from the waterfront space of Guangzhou Long Bund. Data collected during the multimodal experiments included subjective scales data (SRRS), physiological measurement data (SCR; LF/HF), and eye-tracking data. Key findings revealed the following: (1) The element visibility rate and visual characteristics of plant and building elements significantly influence restorative benefits. (2) Spatial configuration attributes (degree of enclosure, spatial hierarchy, and depth perception) regulate restorative benefits. (3) Visual behavior patterns (attributes of fixation points, fixation duration, and moderate dispersion of fixations) are significantly associated with restoration benefits. These findings advance the understanding of the mechanisms linking environmental stimuli, visual behavior, and psychological restorative benefits. They translate into evidence-based design principles for urban waterfront spaces. This study provides a refined perspective and empirical foundation for enhancing the restorative benefits of urban waterfront spaces through design.