Appreciation Of Landscape Research Articles

Landscape scenarios visualized by Baka and Aka Pygmies in the Congo Basin

We describe our attempts to use visualization techniques to engage the Baka and Aka in the North-West Congo Basin in a debate about their preferred future options. Baka and Aka Pygmies in the Sangha Tri-National landscape live in extreme poverty and score poorly on most development indicators. Their traditional livelihoods have suffered as their forests are taken over by outsiders for farming and logging. Conservation programmes deny them access to their traditional hunting and gathering forest territories. Over ten years we spent time with the Baka and Aka in their camps and joined them on trips into the forests. We used visualization techniques to enable them to portray their present perception of their landscapes and their preferred future scenarios. We compared their representations with those of non-Pygmy communities in the same area. Baka and Aka showed a richer and more nuanced appreciation of the forest landscape in their representations of the present but converged with the non-Pygmies in representations of their preferred future. Agriculture, health, education and employment opportunities emerged as significant elements portrayed in drawings of desired future scenarios. Visualization cannot provide a definitive diagnosis of the very diverse desires of Pygmy communities. Our study suggests that visualization techniques strengthened the ability of Pygmies to communicate their views to other actors in their landscape and to external decision makers. Decisions about programmes to help the Pygmies have often been made by well-intentioned outsiders and the Pygmies themselves had little input. We conclude that visualization empowered Pygmies in discussions and expanded their options for influencing decisions that would impact on their future.

Light Art, Perception, and Sensation

ABSTRACTIn this article, I focus on how four artists working with light can reveal the different capacities of illumination and darkness in shaping human apprehension of the world. These artists, I contend, foreground the very particular human ways in which the visual system operates in making sense of the world, for their work explores the different ways in which we sense space at various scales, from the body to the landscape. In Kielder Forest, Northumberland, a Skyspace, created by James Turrell isolates the qualities of daylight and focuses attention on the impact of the sky’s light on the landscape. Carlos Cruz-Diez’sChromosaturation highlights the ocular perception and emotional experience of colour, while Olafur Eliasson’s Model for a Timeless Garden highlights the temporality of visual perception as well as the persistence of notions about the sublime to appreciation of landscape. Both works underscore the partialities of specifically human ways of perception. Finally, Tino Seghal’s This Variation investigates the impact of darkness on the perception of space and its potential for fostering conviviality and sociality.

The appreciation of nature and landscape by tourism service providers and visitors in the Ore Mountains (Germany)

The paper presents empirical studies on the appreciation of nature and landscape in the Eastern Ore Mountains (Saxony, Germany) by tourism service providers (TSP) and visitors. Attractive landscape and experience of nature are the most important reasons to visit this region and to spend leisure time there. Particularly mountain meadows, raised bogs and mixed forests are highly appreciated. Deforestation, industrial development and the decline of biodiversity would reduce attractiveness for visitors. We also assessed whether the tourism sector is prepared to contribute to the funding of nature conservation and landscape management. Use of general tax revenues is favoured, but other modes would also be accepted, e.g. a nature tax. Willingness to pay (WTP) is ranging between €0.75 and €1.36 per guest per night by TSP, or between €1.06 and €2.73 per day by visitors. With respect to landscape preference and WTP we found in some cases significant differences among visitors, depending on region of residence, age and education level. A major part of the annual costs for nature conservation and landscape could be covered by public funds (taxes), if the results of the WTP approach were understood as a sign of societal demand and a call to action.

Trail use and perception of a diverse mountain farming landscape by hikers in the protected area Allgäuer Hochalpen in the German Alps

This paper assesses the use and appreciation of an Alpine mountain farming landscape with their necessary management and infrastructure in the protected area Allgäuer Hochalpen. We used a method mix to analyse official and informal trail use, combining aerial photos, pictures posted on the internet, interviews with farmers and hikers as well as observations. To assess the appreciation of different landscape elements, photos posted on the internet and their description were evaluated and interviews conducted with hikers. Only about half of the interviewees are bound for longer hikes, most of them return to the gondola after hiking for one hour. Informal trails in the study area were only used by less than 0.5% mainly to reach a mountain top or to hike around the entire lake. It could be shown that panoramic views, the lake and meadows that depending on traditional mountain farming are best liked by the interviewed hikers, who perceive it as a natural landscape. They disliked traces of the necessary infrastructure and landscape management. Since informal trail use and lack of knowledge about the protection status is not an issue in the study area, the focus should be shifted more towards raising awareness and communicating the importance of mountain farming and its contribution to biodiversity and scenic attractiveness.

Bird song diversity influences young people's appreciation of urban landscapes

Increased losses of green areas in cities reduce people's experience of flora and fauna. Earlier studies have shown that biodiversity has benefits for urban inhabitants but the influence of animal sounds on people's experience of green space is poorly known. A sample of young urban people (N=227) rated their reactions – positive or negative – to three bird song combinations: House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), 7 spp. i.e. Willow Warbler, Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), Great Tit (Parus major), European Robin (Erithacus rubecula), Common Blackbird (Turdus merula), Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), three urban settings (residential areas with varying amount of greenery) and nine combinations of song and setting. Bird song was generally considered positive and singing by several species was more highly rated than singing by a single species. On average, urban settings combined with bird song were more highly appreciated than the settings alone and even more so where there was singing by several species rather than just one. We conclude that our data support the idea that bird song contributes to positive values associated with urban green space. Urban planners should consider preserving a variety of habitats in cities for hosting a diversity of birds and thereby boost conservation of songbird diversity and recreational experiences for urban people.

Environmental Thinking and Cultural Values: a Reflection on Environmental Globalisation and the Mediterranean Culture

Abstract Europe and especially the Mediterranean are quite a good example, not only of the effects of the economic globalisation, but also of how different forms of globalisation have affected cultural and environmental values. The historical development in the understanding of the relationships between man and nature shows an important shift in Europe, and especially the Mediterranean from a first phase starting around the fourteenth century, dominated by appreciation of cultural landscapes shaped by man, to a different phase, starting in the late nineteenth century and continuing today, where natural landscapes became more important. In the second half of the twentieth century, the attention to sustainable development and environmental conservation favoured conservation of natural habitats and associated biodiversity, often criticising the cultural landscapes previously appreciated. These views, originating mostly in North America and in central Europe, have profoundly affected the way landscape is managed and perceived today, with a shift in attention from cultural landscapes towards natural landscapes. Today, there is an attempt to safeguard and make the most of these landscapes, but nature conservation poses difficulties, creating a conflict based on a different set of values for the management of these areas.

O LUGAR E A PAISAGEM COMO CATEGORIAS ANALÍTICAS PARA O ESTUDO DAS PRÁTICAS SOCIAIS E TURISMO NO MUNICÍPIO DE IRATI-PR

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/geouerj.2013.6823 The objectives of this article are: To investigate the (in) congruence between tourism planning for the city of Irati-PR and social practices of appropriation and appreciation of landscapes experienced by residents, while the collective heritage of the local population. Empirically verify the degree of appreciation of the landscapes of the population lived in the daily iratiense in terms of matrices evaluative places; compare the points / attractions highlighted in tourism planning project with the landscapes encountered by residents iratienses. The methodological procedures Versam in a questionnaire for the local population, and photographic record of the landscapes mentioned in the questionnaires by local resident. As a result it was found thatlandscapes promoted for tourism are, in a sense, like the landscapes and daily lived,where the local population realizes their social practices.

Local population and visitors: perceptions and preferences of landscape in a touristic destination

A remarkable feature of the tourist areas is the cultural change of local populations. One of its implications could be the variation of the appreciation by these societies of its traditional landscapes. Thus, the accelerated cultural changes may be influencing the character and personality of a society. The phenomenon can have diverse consequences both for tourism and for local people themselves. Most visitors, meanwhile, feel the landscape and the climate as the main attractions of a destination. The mountains, the coast, the historical heritage and the traditional rural landscape are the focus of the extended visit. All these sites seem to have to offer a high climatic comfort, and the landscape must not show too much signs of abandonment. Correspondences ‘visitors-landscape’ and ‘local population-landscape’ deserve to be compared. Previous work has described and mapped the former correspondence in terms of ‘demand’ and ‘offer’. The relationship ‘landscapesocio-economic structure’ of the local population has also been studied, allowing us to create scenarios of change. In this paper we focus on the assessment of landscape by local populations and compare it with perception of visitors. The results show the complementarity between the appreciation of the local landscape by visitors and native population. While the former value the most the variable ‘sun’ as the essential aspect in their perception of the landscape and primary motivation for their visit, the latter values the rural cultural landscape as something associated with their traditional environment, showed as a reason to be proud. This could be explained by means of a relaxed visit to the island from an anthropologist’s perspective. These results can also be mapped and could

The Aesthetic Appreciation of Landscape Through Photography: A Philosophical Narrative

The Aesthetic Appreciation of Landscape Through Photography: A Philosophical Narrative

LANDSCAPE VISUALISATION ON THE INTERNET

Abstract. The Victorian Resources Online (VRO) website (http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/vro) is the principal means for accessing landscapebased information in Victoria. In this paper we introduce a range of online landscape visualisations that have been developed to enhance existing static web content around the nature and distribution of Victoria's landforms and soils as well as associated processes. Flash is used to develop online visualisations that include interactive landscape panoramas, animations of soil and landscape processes and videos of experts explaining features in the field as well as landscape "flyovers". The use of interactive visualisations adds rich information multimedia content to otherwise static pages and offers the potential to improve user's appreciation and understanding of soil and landscapes. Visualisation is becoming a key component of knowledge management activities associated with VRO – proving useful for both "knowledge capture" (from subject matter specialists) and "knowledge transfer" to a diverse user base. A range of useful visualisation products have been made available online, with varying degrees of interactivity and suited to a variety of users. The use of video files, animation and interactive visualisations is adding rich information content to otherwise static web pages. These information products offer new possibilities to enhance learning of landscapes and the effectiveness of these will be tested as the next phase of development.

Historic landscape characterisation in the urban domain

Landscape characterisation has emerged as an important means for assessing the context and broader setting for decision-making as it facilitates thinking outside of the site boundary. Within the domain of heritage planning, this is congruent with a new appreciation of the cultural landscape as heritage with the current English Heritage programme of historic landscape characterisation emerging as an important tool to support this approach. Although initially providing a predominantly rural emphasis, historic landscape characterisation surveys now provide comprehensive coverage of many urban areas and so potentially offer the urban planner and designer with a key source of map data outlining current urban character and its readable historic time-depth. The summarised findings result from participatory action with Sheffield City Council in exploring potential urban applications of historic landscape characterisation. The emerging themes were drawn from numerous practice scenarios and aim to outline opportunities for incorporating historic landscape characterisation in urban decision-making and design.

Shared appreciation of woodland landscapes by land management professionals and lay people: An exploration through field-based interactive photo-elicitation

Woodlands and forests perform multiple functions for contemporary society. Their management affects, and is affected by, numerous stakeholders each of which relate to and appreciate woodlands in distinct ways. Capturing these stakeholder preferences for inclusion within increasingly collaborative planning and management processes is recognised as an important task. This paper describes and analyses an innovative, strongly qualitative method (field-based interactive photo-elicitation) via which to achieve this. Small groups of research participants were taken to visit, and thus experience, three predominantly oak woodlands in the UK, representing different levels of deer browsing. The impact of large herbivores is strongly related to the functions that woodlands can perform, but their management can be particularly contentious and thus perhaps a key challenge to stakeholder collaboration. The participants’ were encouraged to record this experience through taking photographs, and making notes. These photographs and notes formed the stimulus for group discussion, immediately following the field visits. Data analysis followed an inductive (‘grounded’) approach and identified seven key themes in the participants reported preferences for woodland landscapes. We conclude that the method advances the field of landscape preference assessment and can capture stakeholder preferences in a rich and cost-effective manner. The research identified substantial shared appreciation of woodland landscapes across ‘professional’ and ‘lay’ social groups, challenging several previous studies.

Fossati's and Messori's Viaggio in un paesaggio terrestre: An Imaginative Journey Through Writing, Photography, Landscape, and Painting

In this essay I analyse a recent phototext, Viaggio in un paesaggio terrestre (2007), by the photographer, Vittore Fossati, and the late writer, Giorgio Messori. I demonstrate how it engages with a tradition of visual and literary landscape representations that celebrate an affective, imaginative approach to the exterior and to art, from the chosen masters of European art to contemporary artists, such as Luigi Ghirri and Gianni Celati. I will argue that Fossati's and Messori's work makes an original contribution to the critical debate on landscape that is in line both with classical reflections, such as those by Petrarch and Ritter, and with current aesthetic theories of landscape, which seek to recover an all-round appreciation of landscape, including sensorial perceptions, imagination, and memory. Finally, I will show how Fossati and Messori succeed in redressing the tradition of the photobook and of the illustrated book, showing 'come fotografia e scrittura potessero andare assieme, come qualcosa “che scalda il cuore”'.

About The Artist: Mario Franco

About The Artist:Mario Franco Eva Karene Romero, Assistant Editor Mario Franco, born and raised in Asunción, Paraguay, has been a photographer for over 30 years. His subject of preference has consistently been the urban landscape of his hometown. Franco has a history of using photography to highlight architectural detail and educate on the buildings of the city and their historical protagonism. He published a series in the national newspaper, Última Hora, entitled: "Asunción, un paseo por el tiempo." His knowledge and appreciation of the urban landscape has also lead him to assist in the production of multiple tour guides, magazines and conservation and restoration projects. Although much of Franco's work and expositions in Paraguay, Portugal, Italy, Germany and the United States have been dedicated to polishing and photographing the oft overlooked gems of Asunción's urban landscape, instances of decay and destruction are not absent from his portfolio. At times, his sense of humor is visible in playful juxtapositions. As an instructor of photography, Franco has inspired many subsequent generations of photographers to learn new ways of seeing their environment. In 2006, Franco founded El Instituto de la Imagen, an educational organization dedicated to providing a variety of photography and film classes, workshops and field trips to an ever-growing body of students. The Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies is pleased to feature a number of Franco's prints throughout this issue. [End Page 9] Eva Karene Romero, Assistant Editor The University of Arizona Copyright © 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Arizona

Perspectives on Quaternary outreach and aspirations for the future

Outreach arising from the study of the British Quaternary offers many benefits for society, especially because of its relevance for understanding contemporary environmental issues and environmental change. Outreach is also important for the long-term health of the academic discipline and research agenda. Through engaging with the formal education system, institutions, policy makers, planners and with the public at large, Quaternary specialists can do much to advance interest in and appreciation of the British landscape and its Quaternary record. This opinion and review article considers the importance and benefits of outreach in its many forms, makes the case for practitioners to continue and increase their involvement, offers examples of good practice, and sets out aspirations for the future.

Profiles of private forest owners and the importance of landscape-scale management in the timber trade process of Finnish wood procurement

Summary In the decision-making process that determines timber sales between private forest owners and the Finnish forest industry, opinions frequently confl ict about the extent to which the forest landscape should be managed. The objective of this study was to investigate whether it would be useful to develop a landscape visualization tool that would help forest owners understand the consequences of harvesting so they could make a more informed decision on whether to sell their timber. We evaluated responses to a survey sent to forest owners in two regions of Finland to provide insights into owner appreciation of the forest landscape. The 545 forest owners who responded also evaluated the value of computer visualizations and a set of computer-generated images of the landscape. Our analysis concentrated on whether visualizing the landscape would affect sales decisions and – since women are increasingly becoming forest owners – how gender affected perceptions of the landscape and decision making. Visualization proved to be a popular tool for all forest owners. However, male and female forest owners had different perspectives on the forest landscape. Factors that differed between men and women for the statements with the strongest weightings in the principal component analysis explained 26 per cent of the overall variation in perceptions. Women particularly wanted to be able to visualize the post-harvesting landscape and preferred different types of visualization than men. Values associated with forest landscapes and their visualization seem more important to women and may therefore affect their sales decisions more than those of men. Based on these results, it will be useful to design and implement a decision support tool that will help forest owners visualize the consequences of harvesting and help the Finnish forest industry provide a more environmentally friendly service that accounts for the owner’s landscape-related goals.

Physiological Work Loads During Trekking and Autonomic Nervous Activities at Appreciation of Landscape for Middle and Old Men in Oze National Park

Physiological Work Loads During Trekking and Autonomic Nervous Activities at Appreciation of Landscape for Middle and Old Men in Oze National Park

Tropics and the Traveling Gaze: India, Landscape and Science, 1800–1856, by David Arnold

Reviewed by: Tropics and the Traveling Gaze: India, Landscape and Science, 1800–1856 Vinita Damodaran (bio) Tropics and the Traveling Gaze: India, Landscape and Science, 1800–1856, by David Arnold; pp. 298. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006, $50.00. An eminently readable book, Tropics and the Traveling Gaze unravels the mysteries of the tropics in India as constructed by nineteenth-century Europeans. It is not environmental history in the strictest sense—a study of what David Arnold calls the "real" world of nature—but a postmodern interpretation of landscape as a cultural text. Arnold uses a range of sources, including Paul Carter, Michel Foucault, and Bernard Cohn, to suggest that the "tropics were invented as much as they were encountered" by the British in India and to argue that the idea of the tropics as "warm, fecund, luxuriant, paradisical and pestilential" was a critical ingredient in the larger colonising process (5–7). Arnold focuses on the idea of scientific tropicality and notes that the British brought to bear on their idea of India very different landscape perceptions and ideologies that influenced agricultural practices, scientific and technological interventions, and state management of the land. For Joseph Hooker and Hugh Cleghorn, the recognition of India's diversity did not preclude attempts to characterise India as a whole or to "look for environmental tropes that would make it possible to locate India within a larger schema" (33). Hooker became one of the most influential exponents of the idea of the tropics. The links between landscape and culture are exposed by this study, where missionary discourses of pestilential landscapes are linked to corruption and heathen Hindu practices. Arnold explores the landscape sensibilities of Francis Buchanan, James Tod, and Bishop Heber among others, as he untangles the twin discourses of romanticism and improvement. [End Page 710] Arnold's argument echoes other work: that of Bernard Smith concerning the South Pacific, for example, and that of Graham Burnett concerning British Guyana. Smith shows how "exotic" topography was elevated to the high places reserved for ideal landscapes by the late eighteenth century. Arnold argues that the idea of the tropics functioned similarly—as a category distinct from the temperate—and had its effect on "scenic appraisal" and "scientific practice." There are problems, however, with Arnold's suggestion that the idea of the "tropics" was simply a tool for dispossessing native peoples and for codifying alien spaces. One must be careful in emphasising, as Arnold does, the discursive subordination of India through such means as travel writing and the scientific, artistic, and literary appropriation of the Indian landscape. Better, instead, to consider the ways in which travellers, artists, and botanists participated in and engaged with the land and the people. It is difficult to establish the coincidence of aesthetic appreciation of landscape, geographical science, and colonial appropriation. Arnold is clearly a bit uneasy about this as he examines the scientific work of Hooker and Brian Hodgson. Their travels, for example, cannot merely be seen as a representation of place used to root colonial claims to possession but instead demonstrate a far more ambiguous relationship with the place and its native inhabitants. Botanists and travellers in the 1840s often contended with indigenous knowledge and ideas of place. As Arnold himself notes, native collectors were important in unlocking the plant wealth of South Asia. Forbes Royale, for instance, relied on indigenous knowledge for naming plants and identifying their therapeutic uses. While this appreciation of indigenous ideas diminished by the latter half of the nineteenth century, it was still a force to reckon with in the earlier period. Studies by historians Richard Grove and Satpal Sangwan have shown the vital relationship between colonial scientific discourse and early environmentalism in the tropics. The acquisition of a global knowledge of plants and fauna constituted one of the early steps to determine the influence of man on nature. These studies suggest that scientists in India and other parts of the colonial periphery played a revolutionary role in the evolution of ecological consciousness in the early nineteenth century long before such developments in Europe. We now know that far from being proponents of an all-embracing orientalist prejudice, Europeans (until the mid-nineteenth century...

Beneath the sand—remote sensing, archaeology, aggregates and sustainability: a case study from Heslerton, the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, UK

The Vale of Pickering, in Yorkshire has been the setting for one of the largest archaeological research projects in Europe for more than 30 years. The accrued data includes over 1000 ha of fluxgate gradiometer measurements that can be interpreted with reference to 200 ha of subsurface mapping, 25 years of aerial photographic survey, two large-area multispectral and vertical photographic surveys, a Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) survey and area excavations in excess of 22 ha. Crucially, this multifaceted approach has revealed flaws in our appreciation of the archaeological landscape based on isolated ‘sites’. This paper summarizes aspects of the approaches and results using a variety of remote sensing techniques to characterize the nature and extent of the archaeological resource in an aggregate rich environment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Viewer appreciation of highway landscapes: The contribution of ecologically managed embankments in Quebec, Canada

Ecological management along highway corridors, involving a reduction in the frequency of the mowing of embankments, substantially changes their appearance. Plant colonies of varying heights, textures and colours are established. The effect of ecological management on aesthetic appreciation of motorway corridors is not well understood. It was studied along the Laurentian Autoroute in Quebec, Canada (A-15 North), by comparing sections managed under intensive and ecological management. A general characterization of the highway landscape was compared with the results of photographic inventories carried out by 38 regular users equipped with disposable cameras. A questionnaire was later sent to participants to evaluate the impact of the ecological management of embankment vegetation on the overall appreciation of the landscape. The results showed that blooming plant colonies were little noticed by the great majority of users. Elements of the natural setting did have aesthetic qualities, which were appreciated by users. The results also revealed that proximity with natural settings was greatly appreciated. Ecological management can thus facilitate the establishment of a pleasing connection between natural setting and user by replacing the lawns on the talus with indigenous vegetation. The results also suggest that user appreciation is not strongly linked to the highway embankment, but more likely to what the traveler is able to see. Ecological management of highway corridors has a role to play in the improvement of natural values and aesthetic appreciation, as long as embankment management is also linked to the landscape management of the surrounding landscape. This case study presents the opportunity to propose certain guidelines, which could inspire highway corridor management aimed at providing greater enjoyment by highway users.