An integrated method for the mapping of landscape preferences at the regional scale

Abstract

Significant progress has recently been made in developing effective tools for the quantification and mapping of landscape preferences. However, while much landscape planning and decision-making operates at the regional scale, capturing public’s preferences of specific landscapes at scales beyond the local remains a challenge especially in geographically diverse areas. This paper presents a new method for the mapping of landscape preferences at regional scales by combining elements from landscape and ecosystem service research. This makes two contributions to existing literature: First, it advances existing 'generic feature mapping' approaches for extrapolating people’s perceptions and valuations of locally specific landscapes to regional maps using photographic questionnaires. Second, we approach preferences of landscapes from an ecosystem service perspective, specifically identifying i) both the perceived supply and socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services, and ii) multiple services across the cultural, regulating, and provisioning category. Overall, we argue that these features make it possible to more accurately represent the multiple aspects of landscape preferences at a regional scale. The proposed method can be applied to regions of different size, varying geographical complexity, and for different beneficiary groups. The method is demonstrated for the mountain region of South Tyrol (Italy), located in the Central Alps.