Context Landscape sensation is essential for the delivery of cultural ecosystem services (CESs), yet the pathways through which these services are delivered remain inadequately understood. Exploring how people obtain CESs from landscapes facilitates better understanding of the tradeoffs and synergies between ecosystem services and landscape sustainability.

Objectives This study aimed to elucidate the sensory pathways that links landscape attributes to CESs, focusing on the roles of cognitive and affective experiences.

Methods We analyzed social media comments for the measurement scale of cognition. We employed partial least squares structural equation modeling to integrate sensation, cognition, affect, and satisfaction, using questionnaire data (n = 503).

Results Cognitive comprehensions and affective responses play a crucial role in interpreting CESs while sensory experiences do not directly determine people’s satisfaction with CESs. The effective pathways are achieved through the sole mediator of cognition or by serial mediators of cognition and affect. Of the two mediators, cognition has a more profound mediating effect than affect.

Conclusions Both physical and biological components, such as landscape sensory attributes, as well as cognitive and affective responses, influence human nature interactions. These components should be considered when promoting the sustainability of human dominated landscapes.