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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1432556

Virtual Reality in planning, design, and management of urban green and blue infrastructure

Provisionally accepted
Maria Schewenius Maria Schewenius 1,2*Marita Wallhagen Marita Wallhagen 2
  • 1 Stockholm Resilience Centre, Faculty of Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2 Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Gavle, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    There is a need for new tools in urban planning, design, and management (urban PDM) of green-blue infrastructure (GBI) to better support resilience and sustainable development. Virtual Reality (VR) emerges as a potential tool in this context. GBI provides a diversity of ecosystem services that increase the capacity of urban environments to absorb change while continuing to develop (adaptive capacity), a key factor in resilience and sustainability. However, there is a lack of tools capable of effectively capturing and communicating the designs, functions, and uses of GBI. Despite this need, research on the contributions of VR as a tool in urban PDM of GBI remains limited. To address this gap, an exploratory experiment using inductive qualitative data analysis was conducted. Participants of different ages and with different expertise viewed 360-degree video clips from urban areas through VR, completed a questionnaire, and participated in interviews. The results showed that the 360degree video VR experience enhanced participants' understanding of the viewed sites. Specifically, participants paid attention to details, captured the context, responded by generating emotional engagement, identified site development potential, and described an immersive experience. These results align with key principles for the sustainable management of ecosystem services, such as participation, learning, diversity, place-making, and stewardship; and adaptive capacity aspects such as processes and results grounded in complexity-embracing creativity. Our analysis shows that 360-degree video VR can increase the understanding of complexities, connections, and nuances in the urban environment. We conclude that 360-degree video VR could serve as a valuable complement to traditional tools in urban PDM, enriching decision-making with information that can support adaptive capacity, resilience, and sustainability.

    Keywords: virtual reality, urban ecosystem services, Green-blue infrastructure, urban planning & design & management, urban PDM, adaptive capacity, urban resilience, Urban sustainability

    Received: 14 May 2024; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Schewenius and Wallhagen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Maria Schewenius, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Faculty of Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.