Exploring Users' Perceptive Response and Landscape Aesthetic Value of Rain Gardens

Recently, growing emphasis has been placed on the installation of rain gardens. However, previous rain garden studies have mainly focused on physicochemical effects such as rainfall runoff management and water quality improvement. Therefore, this study aims to investigate general perceptions of rain gardens and landscape aesthetics among rain garden visitors. To achieve this goal, a survey of 100 rain garden visitors was conducted, gathering information about their general perceptions of rain gardens and landscape aesthetics at three pre-selected rain garden locations. Results showed that rain garden recognition was limited to 34% of the respondents, indicating that most people were not aware of rain gardens and were unable to notice differences between rain gardens and traditional gardens. However, stronger support for rain gardens was observed among those who were aware of the concept, those who recognized that rain garden planting types are differentiated from traditional gardens, and those who rated positively the landscape aesthetic value of rain gardens. The main findings are expected to encourage further studies of quantitative indicators by conducting a correlation analysis between aesthetics and functionality of rain gardens.