Identification of important terraced visual landscapes based on a sensitivity-subjectivity preference matrix for agricultural cultural heritage in the southwestern china

Abstract

Landscapes illustrating agricultural cultural heritage can serve as an important attraction to encourage tourism in support of rural revitalization in mountainous areas. These landscapes can aid in clarifying the regional scale of agricultural areas and identifying the visual landscape resources that play an important role in promoting the rational and sustainable use and development of resources in mountainous landscapes. Taking the terraced agricultural landscape with cultural resources in the southwestern mountainous region of China as the research object, a landscape visual sensitivity analysis was conducted on this region. This was done using GIS spatial analysis based on the data of relative slope, relative distance, and occurrence probability in the region and scenic beauty evaluation based on 176 questionnaires. Based on the importance-performance analysis, a sensitivity-subjectivity preference matrix of the visual landscape of having terraced agricultural and heritage resources in the southwestern mountainous area of China was constructed. Next, the visual landscape in the study area was classified into four types of areas, and corresponding landscape protection and planning suggestions were proposed. The study shows that the villages of Liushe, Qinglong, and Jiupang are in the “critical visual landscape area” and are evaluated as having high sensitivity-high preference evaluation; the villages of Baidu and Bailu are in the “natural development area” with low sensitivity-high preference. Furthermore, Zhanliu village is in the “priority improvement area” with high sensitivity-low preference; lastly, the villages of Jiulong, Liuzhai, and Liufu are in the “second priority improvement zone” with low sensitivity and preference. The findings of this study can provide a reference for determining the timing and direction of landscape development of agricultural heritage in the terraced mountainous areas of southwestern China; the landscape visual evaluation method employed here has implications for the identification of key areas in other mountainous landscapes.