Integrating human multi-dimensional landscape perception into ecological restoration of urban green spaces: barriers and solutions

Ecological restoration (ER) has become increasingly important for addressing environmental problems and enhancing ecosystem services in urban areas. However, just relying on ecological restoration measures to improve environmental quality is not enough to meet urban residents’ growing demand for the mental and experiential benefits of green spaces. Integrating human perception into ecological restoration through landscape planning and design (LPD) or landsenses creation (LC) offers a potential approach to addressing this limitation. This study combines methods like bibliometric analysis, evidence integration from published cases, and expert surveys to identify the potential functional links and obstacles in achieving synergy between ER and LPD/LC. The results show that direct linkages between ER and LPD/LC at the keyword level remain weak, while their connections increasingly emerge through shared thematic domains. Ecosystem services emerge as a critical interface linking the two fields. ER primarily addresses supporting and regulating services, whereas LPD/LC focuses on cultural and regulating services. In ER-LPD/LC projects, cultural services get the most attention, followed by regulating and supporting services. However, ER-LPD/LC projects remain constrained by insufficient interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological development, limited coordination among government departments, low stakeholder awareness and support, inadequate mechanisms for sustained public participation, and difficulties in translating multidimensional project benefits into sustainable financial support. Accordingly, advancing ER-LPD/LC requires strengthening interdisciplinary theories and methodologies, cross-departmental coordination, sustained public participation, and sustainable financial support. These findings provide practical guidance for coordinating ecological functions and human-oriented benefits in urban ecological restoration and environmental management.