Landscape Amenities Research Articles

Towards more biodiverse agricultural landscapes: How to make species-rich grassland a desirable and feasible option for dairy farmers

Species-rich grasslands are promoted by public and private actors for reasons of biodiversity, landscape amenity and animal health. There is little understanding of the considerations of farmers when they opt for or against species-rich grasslands. We held a workshop with 20 farmers and conducted in-depth interviews with 15 livestock farmers in Alblasserwaard - Vijfheerenlanden, a peat meadow landscape in the West of the Netherlands. In these discussions we made an inventory of opportunities and barriers that the farmers experience in terms of willingness, ability and support from society. In our analysis we distinguished four farming styles accommodating species-rich grasslands, which differ in the way willingness, ability and support from society are experienced by the farmers. Based on these findings, we make generic and farming style-specific recommendations for public policy and parties in the supply chain for effectively promoting species-rich grasslands among livestock farmers. We propose that a diverse public-private policy mix is essential to reach as many farmers as possible, acknowledging their heterogeneity and addressing their multiple needs.

Analysis of the application effect of ecological adaptability concept in rural landscape design based on TACSI-IPA evaluation

Abstract In this research, we apply the innovative TACSI-IPA system to study how ecological adaptability can transform rural landscape design, focusing on elevating design excellence and customer contentment. We innovatively blend the TACSI model—centered on capturing tourist attraction nuances—with a sophisticated latent variable approach for a deeper dive into customer satisfaction metrics. The introduction of IPA analysis allows us to intricately map out tourists’ satisfaction levels and interests, leading to more targeted evaluation outcomes. Our practical work in Zhangzhou Wuqiao Village has shown remarkable improvements in the appreciation of both its natural and crafted landscapes. Specifically, the plant and water landscapes achieved coordination scores of 2.25 and 4.46, respectively, with the crafted amenity landscape receiving widespread acclaim and an impressive satisfaction average above 4. A comparative lens against traditional villages underscores Wuqiao Village’s standout visual appeal.

Modelling the potential of rainwater harvesting to improve the sustainability of landscape and public garden irrigation

Access to water for irrigating amenity landscape and public gardens is under intense pressure due to the rising competition for water between different sectors, exacerbated by increased drought risk and climate change. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) has the potential to reduce the economic impacts of restrictions on irrigation abstraction in dry years and to build resilience to future water shortages. This study investigated the hydrological viability of RWH for the landscape and public garden sector based on an analysis of five Royal Horticultural Society gardens. A RWH model was developed and combined with on-site observations, key informant interviews and GIS analyses, to estimate irrigation demands and the volumes of harvested rainfall for contrasting agroclimatic years. The results showed that gardens located in wetter regions and with low irrigation water demand to harvestable area ratio had a higher RWH potential and could almost exclusively rely on rainwater to meet irrigation demand, even in dry years. RWH potential is more limited for gardens in drier regions where they would require larger areas to harvest rainwater and for storage. Appropriately designed rainwater harvesting systems offer the potential to remove most of the risk of irrigation abstraction restrictions during dry years and associated impacts on amenity planting quality and visitor experience.

Economic development and conservation impacts of China's nature reserves

Protected areas are a dominant but contentious instrument of conservation policy. Restrictions on resource extraction and land use constrain livelihoods but may also support alternate pathways to development through sustainable use, tourism, and landscape amenities. We investigate the economic development and environmental impacts of China's Nature Reserves using county-level panel data between 1980 and 2010. We find small positive impacts on an aggregate household development index and that Nature Reserves maintained natural land cover within their boundaries. We also find employment shifts from resource-extractive to service-based activity, but an overall negative impact on reported employment. Household development gains and shifts towards service-based employment were greater closer to locations that were already more developed and had higher baseline assets. These results indicate both the promise of protected areas as a sustainable development strategy and the need for institutional mechanisms to ensure that local benefits and employment opportunities are broadly distributed.

The acacia plantation boom in Thừa Thiên Huế Province, Central Vietnam: A survey of tree farmers’ shifting livelihoods, environmental perceptions, and occupational perspectives

The rise of exotic-species-based plantation forestry in biodiverse tropical countries transforms livelihoods and environmental qualities in various ways. Through 180 structured interviews of different types of acacia plantation owners (producers of woodchips/sawlogs, with/without membership in a recent Forest Stewardship Council [FSC] program) we investigated such transformations in three districts along a lowland-upland gradient in Thừa Thiên Huế Province, Central Vietnam. We focused on how trajectories of livelihood and income changes related to the farmers’ perceptions on environmental changes, and how this, in turn, was linked to the farmers’ assessments of opportunities, risks, and concrete plans in tree cultivations. Sawlog producers (especially with FSC-certification) in the lowlands had been among the first to plant acacias in the 1990s, and in 2018 usually owned large plantations. In contrast, most farmers producing just woodchips were smallholders. Before acacias the farmers’ livelihoods were often more diversified in terms of agricultural products. Since then, many farmers (especially in the lowlands) abandoned rice/cassava production and/or livestock keeping to concentrate on wood production, willingly and/or as an outcome of land conversion (enclosure) to privatised plantations. Farmers’ incomes and material assets usually increased (especially FSC-farmers), but most smallholders still depended on incomes from subsidiary wage labor. Within a context of ‘development’ improvements were also seen in infrastructure (buildings, roads, water provisioning) and public services (education, health). Considering acacia planting most farmers (especially FSC-farmers in the lowlands) saw environmental improvements in terms of soil fertility and landscape amenity, but not wildlife habitat. Most farmers also saw plantation value (especially on longer rotations) in terms of natural hazards mitigation (i.e. floods, droughts, soil erosion), but storms were also noted as the main risk to plantations (especially in the uplands). Another emerging risk was posed by plant diseases affecting acacias in the mid-/lowlands. Projective future plans to change plantation areas and/or crop rotations depended on the farmers’ economic strengths in terms of plantation land or other capital. Regarding future risks most farmers noted environmental impacts (storms, plant diseases) rather than economic factors (with wood market prices considered stable). Overall, the results suggest an appreciable value of acacia plantations to farmers, however with some marked distinctions between richer (FSC-certified) and poorer (smallholder) farmers as well as farmers in different regions with distinct terrain and land use management histories. We discuss such distinctions whilst also noting relevant study limitations connected to the complex socio-politics of land titling and uses, especially in the uplands.

Visitors’ perceptions of traditional homestead windbreaks from user-generated comments

Visitors’ perceptions of traditional homestead windbreaks on the Ryukyu Archipelago were determined in this study by analyzing the user-generated comments (UGC) on Instagram. It was found that an overwhelming majority of tourists used phrases like “spiritual,” “greenery,” “nature,” and “healing” to describe their feelings while visiting the dense windbreaks, in comparison with local residents’ perceptions of “windbreak” and “firebreak” in their stories. By analyzing the Instagram UGC, useful information related to tourists’ assessments, perceptions of windbreaks, and disadvantages of trees with numerous mosquitoes, was obtained. Many tourists assessed dense tree lines as sacred and spiritual. Furthermore, many tourists preferred a comfortable tour by riding a bicycle and a micro kickboard without walking too much. This study demonstrated Instagram as an important source of tourists’ perceptions of landscape amenities, which can inform tourism management organizations (TMO). It is recommended that homestead windbreaks are promoted on the websites of TMO of isolated islands and remote areas, and as a popular destination that is part of local culture and alternative tourist attractions.

Testing the Affect of Modified Sense of Place, Conservation Ethic, and Good Farmer Identity Measures on Predicting the Adoption of Cover Crops in Working Landscapes in Iowa

While sense of place (SOP) has been used in amenity landscapes to understand pro-environmental behavior, in working landscapes, SOP has not been a valid or reliable predictor for explaining conservation behavior. In this paper, we advance theory on SOP in working landscapes by assessing the relationship between several new and modified sense of place measures and farmer adoption of cover crops in Iowa. We used data from a 2018 survey of Iowa farmers and a Bayesian logistic regression, finding that physical dependence and economic dependence are distinct dimensions of SOP in working landscapes and the addition of a measure beyond SOP of who farmers feel responsible to when making land management decisions provides insights on how social groups are influential in farmers’ decision-making. Our results suggest the SOP conceptual framework has the potential to help explain conservation behavior in working landscapes, and identifies opportunities for further reconceptualization and testing.

A saliency mapping approach to understanding the visual impact of wind and solar infrastructure in amenity landscapes

ABSTRACT Shifts from fossil fuels toward renewable energy (RE) introduce profound changes to landscapes, including visual impacts that are often investigated during environmental and social impact assessment. Moreover, RE transitions are among many visual changes happening in rural areas that are increasingly serving amenity functions and becoming destinations for wide ranges of users. This diversity introduces complexities during infrastructure siting discussions. Emerging grape and wine production landscapes in Canada serve amenity and production purposes, and this study was designed to understand the impacts of RE development using case studies of solar panels and wind turbines in two vineyard landscapes in Ontario (ON) and British Columbia (BC). We applied novel mixed methods, including content analysis and saliency-based visual impact analysis, to textual and image-based representations posted on Instagram of those vineyards. In this case, the addition of low-density RE infrastructures did not seem to disturb the vineyard experience. The technique presented can be applied in a wide range of infrastructure siting contexts, both before and after construction, but requires additional research and calibration.

Identifying localized amenities for gentrification using a machine learning-based framework

The process of gentrification changes the composition and character of urban neighbourhoods in cities worldwide. Amenities such as art galleries, designer boutiques, fine dining, and specialty cafés interact with most gentrification processes and could act as indicators for measuring gentrification. Previous literature has explored the role of amenities in gentrification, and some have found distinctive amenity landscapes in different spatial contexts. However, there is a lack of a more generalized approach for identifying gentrification-related amenities across different regions. This study proposed a machine learning-based framework to identify localized gentrification amenities. Specifically, amenities were represented by Points of Interest (POIs) and matched to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), an industry classification system commonly used in amenity-related studies. Bridging POI categories and the NAICS hierarchy enables a dialog between big data and conventional statistical data. Then, given typical gentrification neighborhoods in an area, featured amenities can be identified via a supervised gradient boosting method. The framework was applied to Shenzhen, a major Chinese city. Results showed that Shenzhen has a distinct amenity landscape in its gentrified neighborhoods; for example, bubble tea beverage shops were recognized as a dominant amenity, as opposed to the cafés in many Western cities, as well as financial institutions, digital electronics, and car-related amenities. The proposed machine learning-based framework not only provides a generalized approach to identifying gentrification-related amenities in different regions, but also enables dynamic and fine-grained tracking of gentrification on the basis of big data.

Characterizing Garden Greenspace in a Medieval European City: Added Values of Spatial Resolution and Multi-Temporal Stereo Imagery

Domestic gardens provide residents with immediate access to landscape amenities and numerous ecological provisions. These ecological provisions have been proven to be largely determined by greenspace composition and landscape, but the fragmentation and heterogeneity of garden environments present challenges to greenspace mapping. Here, we first developed a recognition method to create a garden parcel data set in the medieval Leuven city of Belgium, based on the land use layers and agricultural land parcels. Then, we applied multi-sourced satellite imagery to evaluate the added value of spatial resolution, plant phenology and 3D structure in identifying four vegetation types. Finally, we characterized the greenspace landscapes in garden parcels. Compared with single ALOS-2 imagery, SPOT-7 imagery and Pleiades-1A imagery increased the overall accuracy by 4% and 8%, respectively. The accuracy improvement (21%) produced from multi-temporal stereo Pleiades-1A imagery strongly verified the significance of plant phenology and 3D structure in garden mapping. The average greenspace cover in garden parcels was 71% but varied from 56% in urban gardens to 82% in rural gardens. The garden greenspace landscape is fragmented by the artificial structures in urban areas but has a more aggregated size and less complex shapes in rural areas. This study calls for greater attention to be paid to gardens, and for multi-disciplinary studies conducted in collaboration with urban ecologists and landscape designers to maximize the benefits to residents of both immediate landscape amenities and ecological provisions, in the face of global environmental changes and public health risks.

Territorial development, tourism, and the protection of World Heritage Sites: issues of geopolitical conflict

This paper uses critical geopolitical analysis to examine local conflicts over development projects that could threaten the environment, economic development, and/or landscape amenities of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In particular, it examines the case of the contested construction of a hydroelectric dam in Portugal, close to the Alto Douro Wine Region, a World Heritage Site. Tourism issues are key in sites where the World Heritage listing, which can bring substantial revenue, is threatened by a development project. These development disputes are primarily conflicts of interest between various stakeholders, acting at different scales and defending their own concerns and perceptions, from local protesters to state representatives on the World Heritage Committee. As with other types of conflict, World Heritage listing reinforces the planning conflict by generating multiple interests, responding to contradictory functional, heritage, landscape, and identity considerations.

도시농업 관점에서의 텃밭 가치측정을 위한 기준 연구

This study intended to prepare the criteria for measuring the value provided by city farming and gardening activity which is the type of urban agriculture, and to figure out the priority of each criteria. To this end, the methodology of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to conduct a survey. We surveyed 59 persons of the experts specializing in urban agriculture, such as university teachers, academic researchers, public officials, field specialists. To summarize the survey result comprehensively, based on the relative importance and the overall importance concerning the index of gardening value, it is found that the respondents prefer the health, socio-cultural and environmental aspects to economic aspect on value for the city farming and gardening activity. It can be concluded that urban farming and gardening activity highly contributes to forming a sound lifestyle for urban residents and landscape amenities along with a sense of community that arise in the process of producing and growing plants rather than means of earning income economically. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the socio-cultural and environmental value along with the residents’ health value rather than the economic benefits in planning and designing the city farming and gardening spots. It is also important to put first priority on them in designing urban agricultural policy from the point of views on value criteria perceived by city residents.

Spatial Distribution of Forest Ecosystem Service Benefits in Germany: A Multiple Benefit-Transfer Model

We investigate the economic benefits of fundamental forest ecosystem services (FES) for the population in Germany at national level in monetary terms and estimate the spatial distribution of these benefits at county level. Specifically, we consider the benefits of timber production, of global climate protection due to carbon sequestration, of recreation for local residents, and of services for nature protection and landscape amenity. Combining information from official statistics and data from valuation studies that are compatible with economic demand theory, we identify spatial drivers of FES benefits and derive generic valuation functions for each of the services. Using a Geographic Information System, these valuation functions are applied to the conditions in the Local Administrative Units (municipalities), resulting in Benefit Function Transfer estimates for each service and each municipality. Afterwards, results are aggregated to NUTS-3 level (counties) and mapped. Aggregate annual benefits of timber production to society as a whole, of climate protection and of recreation services together exceed the ten billion Euro mark—far more than what is reflected in market statistics. Scenarios illustrate the potential for enhancing nature protection benefits particularly by restoring forest biodiversity, as measured by an avifaunistic indicator. The spatial analysis reveals distinct distributional patterns for each of the services. We conclude that a spatially explicit valuation for an entire country is possible even with limited data, which can help policy makers improve the institutional setting in a way that the protection and use of the forests become more sustainable and efficient. After pointing at several caveats, we finally suggest various possibilities for further model development.

Do landscape amenities impact private housing rental prices? A hierarchical hedonic modeling approach based on semantic and sentimental analysis of online housing advertisements across five Chinese megacities

Real estate premium associated with landscape amenities is a well-studied topic with a primary focus on housing prices. Presumably, the willingness-to-pay for landscape amenities should be very different between homeowners and tenants. Thus far, how landscape amenities affect residential rental prices is not well understood. This paper takes advantage of the big data of online housing advertisements to unravel how landscape amenities are capitalized into rental prices across five Chinese megacities (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Wuhan). Natural language processing, the latent Dirichlet allocation in particular, is first employed to semantically analyze the geo-textual advertisements. It reveals that ‘landscape amenities’ is a typical topic and ‘park’ is a typical component for housing advertisements in the five megacities. The lexicon-based sentimental analysis further shows that the strength of the sentiments associated with the ‘landscape amenities’ varies with cities. A series of hierarchical hedonic models based on the extracted semantic and sentimental aspects are then established for each megacity after segmenting the rental market into submarkets. The capitalization effect of landscape amenities is significant in Beijing, Hangzhou and Wuhan, while it is not significant in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Finally, variance decomposition analysis and marginal implicit price calculation unveil to what extent landscape amenities contribute to residential rental prices. Based on these findings, we discuss several major implications for urban planning. Our study unsettles the popular presumption that landscape amenities are key determinants of real estate values. It renews our understanding of the economic values of landscape amenities theoretically and methodologically.

Adaptive responses to landscape changes from onshore wind energy development in the Republic of Ireland

Covering 26 years of Irish onshore wind energy development, this article tracks patterns in landscape changes from wind farm construction and identifies adaptive responses in public policy and by stakeholder groups. Wind farms face well-documented challenges with social acceptance due to landscape changes; however, little research has examined interactions between landscape change and social adaptations over the long-term. This article systematically reviews 20 policy documents, undertakes spatio-temporal linear modeling of 212 wind farms using 9 landscape change metrics, and analyzes 5 stakeholder group interviews on adaptive responses to landscape changes. Upward trends occur in turbine height, impact accumulation, placement in agricultural landscapes, construction delays, and new farms built per year. Downward trends occur in the number of turbines per farm, visual disruption of protected areas, and placement in wetlands. Key patterns in stakeholder groups’ adaptations include conflicting interpretations of landscape amenities and evolution, and expanded community outreach, networking, and public participation after exposure to infrastructure. Stakeholders adapt to existing infrastructure separately from adapting strategies to respond to new wind farms. Overall, a mutual relationship emerges wherein landscape changes from wind farms respond to policies and stakeholder activities, while policies and stakeholder groups adapt to the physical realities of landscape change.

Soil and Water Management for Revegetation on Small-Acreage Properties

A commentary discussing topics broached in ‘ Forest recovery in an Australian amenity landscape: Implications for biodiversity conservation on small-acreage properties’ ( Meadows et al., 2018 ).

“Different Shades of Green”, the 6th European Turfgrass Society Research Conference: Agronomy Journal Special Section

The European Turfgrass Society (ETS) held its 6th Research Conference in Manchester, UK, from 2 to 4 July 2018. The meeting followed the ones in Italy (2008), France (2010), Norway (2012), Germany (2014), and Portugal (2016). The theme of this year’s conference, “Different Shades of Green”, was chosen to reflect the wide diversity of turfgrasses utilized for amenity and landscape applications and the many different athletic grass fields found all over the world. Managing turfgrass sport fields and amenity landscapes in a sustainable manner has become the focus in turfgrass maintenance and the theme should reflect this fact. Political, social, environmental, and economic drivers are increasingly aiming on the well-being and future of our planet for the good of all. However, most turfgrass areas are part of a leisure industry, and a balance must be found between the demands and expectations of customers who pay for and use the sporting and landscape amenities and the sustainable maintenance approach. We cannot forget that players are our raison d'être! The challenge of a modern turfgrass manager is to utilize resources in a manner to meeting the needs of users without unduly affecting the wider environment. Therefore, one of the objectives of the ETS is to allow for a holistic view of turfgrass areas particularly with respect to its influence on urban and environmental quality. Other objectives include facilitating research cooperation, share knowledge on good management practices, and disseminate relevant and science based information forum to its members and to the public at large. The papers presented at the Conference covered a variety of topics from speakers representing many different parts the world. Some presentations are summarized as short abstracts and were published in a special edition of the European Journal of Turfgrass Science. Full papers are published in this special section of Agronomy Journal. A total of 19 manuscripts were submitted to Agronomy Journal, of which 11 were accepted for publication after peer review. Topics covered include turfgrass morphology (Pornaro et al., 2018), cultivar identification (Yang et al., 2018), and turfgrass performance affected by management approaches such as mowing and fertilization (Guertal and McElroy, 2018; Pease and Stier, 2018; Schwartz et al., 2018). Several projects investigated the use of organic products or maintenance strategies for disease control (Aamlid et al., 2018; Mattox et al., 2018; Schmid et al., 2018; Wang et al, 2018). Findings on irrigation water conservation and salinity remediation are reported by Serena et al. (2018) and Schiavon and Baird (2018), respectively. We would like to thank Dr. John Stier, University of Tennessee, and Dr. Mike Richardson, University of Arkansas, who served as editors for this special section. We would like to also thank the Associate Editors and the numerous anonymous reviewers who provided valuable input. Without their help, this special section would not have been possible.

Network design, built and natural environments, and bicycle commuting: Evidence from British cities and towns

Rates of cycling to work vary significantly from one urban area to another but the reasons for these variations are not well understood. Existing literature highlights the importance of built environments, urban amenities, and high-quality bicycle networks in promoting cycling. However, few studies measure the respective contributions and weigh the collective magnitude of effects of these influences together. We present a multivariate model that reflects the influences of such factors for 36 cities and towns in Britain. The models reveal a complex web of forces shaping cycling to work, confirming that there is no single, silver-bullet factor even in cities with remarkably high commuter cycling. The model results highlight the importance in joining up network level interventions, for instance to reduce both route circuity and on-road stress, which are objectives often being pursued separately. The results also highlight the importance of non-transport aspects such as land use mix and landscape amenities along commuter routes, and the role of city-specific cycling culture. They also underscore the need for closer collaboration between promoters of commuter cycling and wider urban disciplines to create low-stress routes and supportive built environments in cities and their outskirts.

Conservation and contingent valuation of farming landscape amenities by visitors: A case study of terraced paddy fields in Central Japan

The contingent valuation method was used with a payment card approach to estimate visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) to conserve a traditional agricultural landscape of terraced paddy fields in coastal rural Japan. Eighty percent of participants indicated their WTP toward a conservation fund, with estimated mean and median WTP of JPY 953.5 (~ USD $8.99) and JPY 456.4 (~ USD $4.30) per visit per person. Personal income and proximity to residence both positively influenced WTP amount; visitors’ attachment to land and loyalty were positively associated with their willingness to pay for landscape conservation. Actual conservation costs are currently mostly funded by the public municipal budget (56%) and urban volunteers (43%), but government funding sources are declining and becoming unreliable. These findings suggest that visitor donations may supplement existing funding sources for the conservation of terraced paddy field landscapes. However, farmer successors are needed for farm management to sustain traditional farming and rural communities, since a living farm and a vigorous community are essential for rural tourism.

The mapping of rural Serbia according to the index of natural amenities

Amenities are recognized as a new source of comparative advantage of rural areas, which is strategically used for the popularization of the reverse migration flow from urban to rural areas, as well as for enforcing a new development approach defined as the ?rural industrialization?. Climate conditions, topography, forest land and water resources have been identified as the main drivers of the migration flow from urban to rural areas. Additionally, they are highly related to economic growth in rural areas with high natural amenities. The current paper has two aims. The first is to highlight the importance of the concept of rural amenities for economic development, with special emphasis on the natural amenities. The second aim is to describe the concept of natural amenities on the example of rural areas in Serbia by introducing a set of measures of natural amenities, as well as a summary natural amenity index which allows the classification of the rural areas in Serbia with respect to their natural amenities. Natural amenities have a significant influence on the total amenity value of rural areas in Serbia. There are significant differences in climate conditions and landscape amenities among rural areas. The mapping of rural Serbia according to the developed index of natural amenities is only the first necessary step in creating an efficient rural policy for the purpose of ensuring sustainable rural development in the future. Rural areas with high natural amenities in Serbia include Raska, Zlatibor, Moravica, Pcinja, Bor and Toplica.