Adaptive human behaviors during heat waves: the role of multidimensional landscape perceptions

The frequency of heat wave disasters significantly impacts residents’ living conditions and their physical and mental health. To improve people’s recreational experience and participation in urban open spaces, this study integrates climatic measurements, behavioral observations and questionnaire surveys to explore the behavioral characteristics of crowds and uses multiple regression modeling to investigate the key factors affecting the crowd’s participation in social activity from multidimensional landscape perception perspective in different heat stress weather. The results show that: (1) the thermal experience factors affecting visitors’ participation in social activities under different heat stress are different, with thermal sensation being the influencing factor in high heat stress and thermal comfort being the influencing factor in moderate heat stress, (2) landscape coloration and plant odor are key factors that motivate people to engage in social activity in high heat stress; whereas layout harmonization and landscape coloration are key factors in moderate heat stress, (3) visual perception exhibits stability in thermal environment adaptation across different heat stress levels, while the influence of olfactory perception on thermal adaptation becomes prominent only under high heat stress. The research results help to deepen the understanding of the complex interactive relationship of ‘environment-perception’ in cities, and provide recommendations for the improvement of urban thermal environment considering multidimensional landscape perceptions in humid-hot zones.