Perception and aesthetics of the urban environment: Review of the role of vegetation

Abstract

This paper is a review of the role that urban vegetation plays in regard to human behavior and the perception of urban environments. This includes a review of the functions or benefits of urban vegetation to human use-economic benefits, instrumental or physiological functions and perceptual functions including visual, sensory benefits and symbolic aspects. The second part of the paper reviews the roles of urban vegetation in performing these various functions at different environmental scales and in different contexts. Finally, there is a review of means to assess change in the quality of urban vegetation in the environment as well as using vegetation to improve urban environmental perceptual quality.