Posted Sentiments toward Experiences in Degraded Forests Are Shaped Jointly by Landscape Structure and Microclimate

Degraded forests still retain a high dose of nature that may evoke positive sentiments of visitors. This function reminds policy makers to reevaluate the development of degraded forests by using their nonmaterial services. Forest visitors have a general habit of taking facial photos and share with internet friends. This results in the formation of a dataset that comprises scores of posted sentiments toward visitors' experiences in degraded forests. People post facial photos with emotions exposed to a subjective extent that can be impacted by perceived experiences with joint landscape and microclimate, but their combined effects have not been well demonstrated on a large geographical scale. In this study, a total of 30 degraded forests were selected from suburban areas of 22 cities in Southeast China. There were 2,751 facial photos of forest visitors that were collected and screened from a database of social network platform of China, namely, Sina Weibo. Happy and sad expressional scores were rated by the FireFACE software, and their spatiotemporal distributions were mapped. Both horizontal and vertical planes of objective forest landscapes were remotely evaluated by projected area and vegetation height, respectively. Microclimatic conditions were characterized by meteorological records on the same days when photos were posted. Exposed happiness was distributed as a geographical gradient from lower scores in the northeast region of study area to higher scores in the southwest. Wind velocity (WV), tree height, and elevation generated positive contributions to regressed happy score. However, combined low WV and high sunshine duration hour benefitted the regression of higher sad scores. Our results revealed that people would like to pose more smiles in degraded forests with unhindered wind flows under tall and dense canopies located on highlands. Furthermore, policy makers could consider developing degraded forests as a type of infrastructure that can trigger the promotion of users' mental well-being, instead of focusing only on negative consequences following ecological degradation.

Automated summary

This study found that people are more likely to feel happy when they are in degraded forests with low wind speeds, ample sunlight, tall vegetation, and high altitude. This suggests that policy makers should reassess the development value of degraded forests and pay attention to their nonmaterial services. Furthermore, policy makers could consider developing degraded forests as a type of infrastructure to promote people's mental well-being.