Work

Predicting Perceived Restorativeness of Urban Streetscapes Using Semantic Segmentation and Machine Learning: A Case Study of Liwan District, Guangzhou

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Urban streetscapes are among the most frequently encountered spatial environments in daily life, and their restorative visual features have a significant impact on well-being. Although existing studies have revealed the relationship between streetscape environments and perceived restorativeness, there remains a lack of scalable, data-driven methods for quantifying such perception at the street level. This study proposes an interpretable and replicable framework for predicting streetscape restorativeness by integrating semantic segmentation, perceptual evaluation, and machine learning techniques. Taking Liwan District of Guangzhou as a case study, street-view images (SVIs) were collected and processed using the Mask2Former model to extract the following five key visual metrics: greenness, openness, enclosure, walkability, and imageability. Based on the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), an online questionnaire was designed from four dimensions (fascination, being away, compatibility, and extent) to score a random sample of images. A random forest model was then trained to predict the perceptual levels of the full dataset, followed by K-means clustering to identify spatial distribution patterns. The results revealed that there were significant differences in visual characteristics among high, medium, and low restorativeness street types. The proposed framework enables scalable, data-driven evaluation of perceived restorativeness across diverse urban streetscapes. By embedding perceptual metrics into large-scale urban analysis, the framework offers a replicable and efficient approach for identifying streets with low restorative potential—thus providing urban planners and policymakers with a novel tool for prioritizing street-level renewal, improving public well-being, and supporting perception-oriented urban design without the need for labor-intensive fieldwork.

Source: Buildings

DOI: 10.3390/buildings15203671

Authors: Wenjuan Kang, Ni Kang, Pohsun Wang

Institution: City University of Macau

Language: English

Topic: Urban Green Space and Health

Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137