Toward a comprehensive understanding of eye-level urban greenness: a systematic review

Abstract

The provision of urban green spaces has been widely acknowledged to offer numerous benefits to individuals and communities. Recently, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of evaluating urban greenness from a human-centered perspective, partly due to the rapid development of eye-level greenness measurement. To provide a comprehensive overview of measurement approaches and topics related to eye-level urban greenness, we conducted a systematic review of 77 relevant papers. Our review revealed that street view images are the primarily utilized data source to quantify eye-level urban greenness in urban analysis. Additionally, simulated eye-level urban greenness represents a new frontier for the general public and urban planners, offering the potential to acquire universally applicable quantitative greenness data. Our findings further suggest that eye-level urban greenness has been explored across various domains, including physical behavior, public health, urban planning, human perception, and inequity. Such exploration has highlighted a significant association between eye-level urban greenness and individuals and communities. Our review generates new insights on the integration of urban greenness into urban planning and design, encouraging a greater focus on eye-level urban greenness as a critical component of urban environmental quality.