The Visual Quality of Urban Park Scenes of Kowloon Park, Hong Kong: Likeability, Affective Appraisal, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

The urban park is a place where urbanites can escape from the stresses of everyday life. Using a set of fifteen photographs as visual stimuli, we attempted to identify those scenes that are liked by visitors to Kowloon Park, Hong Kong. The visual quality of an urban park scene is measured by its likeability, referring to the probability that the scene will evoke a strong and positive response among the users of the park. Because Hong Kong is an international metropolis, the respondent sample included both Hong Kong residents and tourists. The principal component analysis revealed the three underlying ‘dimensions’ of the appraisal aspects of the data: the ‘affective’ component, the ‘management status’, and the ‘naturalness’ of the scene. The results replicated the affective responses of park visitors toward the scenic aspects of urban park spaces, in which scenic beauty can be used as a proxy for acceptable management. Overall, the study has yielded useful information for park professionals to provide enjoyable urban park spaces in metropolitan areas to meet the needs of their citizens and visitors.