Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF VISUAL STIMULI ON HUMAN THERMAL SENSATION - TARGETING WATER LANDSCAPE

Kenta Fukagawa, Yoshihito Kurazumi, Yoshiaki Yamato, Kunihito Tobita, Emi Kondo, Reiko Hashimoto and Yoshitaka Ohgi

Abstract

In recent years, the increase of temperature, especially in urban area, is becoming a serious problem. This causes more death by the heat stroke. This problem is considered to be caused by the increase of both artificial ground surface and the exhaust heat, according to energy consumption increase. For that reason, the effects of natural environment such as green space, river and irrigation pond to lower the thermal environment are studied. In addition, there are also many researches to reduce the exhaust heat to avoid the severe influence on the surrounding environment, such as the studies for more adequate air-conditioning system, and researches targeting the physiological reaction of the human. When to discuss the factors which affect human thermal sensation, there are 6 factors which are divided into 4 environment side factors and 2 human side factors, lo-value and metabolic rate. However, these factors don’t include the effect from the 5 senses of human, such as eyesight, hearing, and so on. For that reason, the purpose of this research is to clarify the effect of human senses, focusing on the eyesight, on the thermal sensation.