Ecological Perception Research Articles

Does the management of woody edges in urban parks match aesthetic and ecological user perception?

Abstract In recent times, the focus in urban park management has shifted from mere aesthetics to the difficult task of striking a balance between ecology and the aesthetic outlay of those parks. Park managers design the spatial arrangement, the structure and the ecological diversity of vegetation to mimic natural ecosystems. However, the ecological benefit is often associated with a decrease in the aesthetic value for users. To better understand this trade-off, we eye-tracked 196 users in Rennes (France) to test if ‘ecological’ management of woody edges was in accordance with their aesthetic preferences and ecological perception. We identified which were the visual areas of interest for users in four types of managed woody edges and analysed which were considered as the most aesthetic and the most ecologically valuable. Finally, we analysed if both aesthetic user preferences and ‘ecological’ management of woody edges were compatible. Based on a classification of increasing management complexity of woody edges, we showed that users’ aesthetic preferences were mainly focused on tree and shrub layers, while users identified the herb and shrub layers as the most favourable area for maintaining biodiversity. Thus, the more complex the edge, the more the relationship between aesthetic preferences and ecological management is for park management. More precisely, in complex woody edge structures, some vegetation layers such as shrub could represent a specific lever to fulfil both aesthetic and ecological purposes.

Down the Slant towards the Eye: Hopkins and Ecological Perception

This essay reads Gerard Manley Hopkins's poetry for its “ecological perception”: a perceptual modality involving the dynamic interaction between human bodies and environmental givens or potentialities. Linking Hopkins's syncretic ideas about perception to the psychologist J. J. Gibson's account of our sensitivity to environmental “affordances,” the essay assesses three scales of ecological perception in Hopkins (arboreal, atmospheric, apocalyptic) and stresses the particular relevance of the intermediate (atmospheric) scale for our experience of environmental crisis. In “The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe,” Hopkins recognizes the “teleconnections” bridging global systems and specific sites without remaining rooted to the local or bioregional (arboreal) or rushing to a vantage beyond planetary confines (apocalyptic).

Community perceptions and responses on bamboo spread in native forests: a case study from Sri Lanka

ABSTRACTBambusa bambos (L.) Voss. expands rapidly in native forests in the dry and intermediate climatic zones in Sri Lanka, raising concerns among environmentalists in recent years. No studies have been undertaken so far to evaluate ecological and socio-economic perceptions of the local communities on this issue. In landsenses ecology, physical senses of the community play a critical role in land-use planning and sustainable management. Thus, a survey was conducted using 78 villagers live in three hamlets bordering native forests where B. bambos shown a high prevalence. The study community is a typical rural population with an agriculture-centered existence. Despite low income, their commercial dependence on forest resources was minimal. The villagers are well aware of the bamboo spread and its ecological consequences, though their overall perception on the issue was highly divided. However, their perceptions changed depending on the distance to nearby forests from their abodes. Higher the distance from where they live to bamboo-rich forests, their perception on B. bambos become positive and vice versa. The heightened fire incidences and increased presence of elephants following the bamboo spread have contributed decisively on their negative perception, suggesting the importance of physical senses in planning land-use interventions. The study concludes that any future management interventions to mitigate some of the ecological and social impacts caused by the B. Bambos spread need to consider the community’s perceptions and views as well as their active partnership to reap successful outcomes.

Праліси як еколого-освітній і науково-пізнавальний об’єкт Українських Карпат

The virgin forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians are unique ecosystems in which preserved natural, protected, recreational, historical and cultural objects. That is why a comprehensive study of the forest ecosystems of the Ukrainian Carpathians is needed in order to preserve these unique treasures of our country. The Ukrainian Carpathians are characterized in ecological, educational and scientific-cognitive aspects, as a significant number of objects and monuments of nature, history, architecture and culture are concentrated here. In the region under study, there is a well-developed network of nature reserve fund, the objects of which are basic for the organization of tourist activity. The importance of virgin forests as an ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive object of the Ukrainian Carpathians is revealed. The purpose of the research was to study the forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians, as an object of ecological, educational and cognitive perception. The object of the research was the forest ecosystems within the conservation areas of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The subject of the study was the consideration of forest ecosystems as an ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive object. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: to give a complete definition of the term “primaeval” forests and their varieties; to identify, establish distribution areas and forest areas in the Ukrainian Carpathians; to analyze their ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive functions. It is revealed that the centres of distribution of forest ecosystems in the Ukrainian Carpathians are nature conservation areas, namely: Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Carpathian National Park, Uzhansky, Synevyr Verkhovyna, Cheremosky, Hutsulshchyna, Vyzhnytsya, Zacharovanyi Krai. It is stated that ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive objects in the region are natural undisturbed by the anthropogenic activity of the place. The best network of ecological-educational and scientific-educational trails is set up in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve. The most popular are the eco-routes “To Goverla Mountain from Lazeshchyna”, “Kevelsky Forests to Petros”, “Beech Forests of Velyka Ugolka”, “To Sokolino Berdo”. It is revealed that the ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive potential of the forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians is special. The primaeval forests are widespread in the Ukrainian Carpathians, and their area is about 50 thousand hectares, and much of it requires identification. Forests have a special status in Ukraine and are strictly protected in nature reserves and perform ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive functions, since within them preserved natural, intact, virgin objects and also represent the cultural heritage of the region. Key words: Ukrainian Carpathians, virgin forests, quasi-virgin forests, ancient forests, ecological-educational and scientific-cognitive objects.

Understanding The Impact Of Social Empowerment Perception Toward Purchase Intention Of Social Enterprise Craft Products

Social entrepreneurship is an arising trend that exists as an alternative to the economy and helps fulfilling social needs that commercial entrepreneurs can’t fulfill. The research attempted to investigate the impact of social empowerment perception toward the purchase intention of craft products from social enterprise. There is an interesting finding that shows social empowerment perception has no significant influence on purchase intention in craft products of social enterprise. Rather, the labeling that explains the social cause and how products were made has strongest influence, followed by customer’s attitude on social enterprise and ecological perception on the product. Therefore, social entrepreneurs in Indonesia may be recommended to optimize products in those three aspects in order to influence purchase intention of customers

Lynne Tillman's Literary Ecologies: Affect, Cognition, and Signification inAmerican Genius, A Comedy

Attuned to the need for ecologically informed criticism addressing the ‘affective turn’ in contemporary fiction, and following upon psychoanalytic critiques of the fantasies underlying neoliberal ideology, this article engages critically with questions concerning affect and meaning through a deliberate reading of Lynne Tillman's American Genius, A Comedy (2006). Tillman's encyclopaedic novel – narrated by an erudite, obsessive woman, Helen, afflicted with an irritating skin condition – is read as a cognitive-affective fiction that provides an oblique psychoanalysis of post-9/11 America: a neoliberal culture of would-be victims where the ascendant sensibility is hyper-sensitivity. While some literary theorists have recently advocated for phenomenological approaches less focused on interpretation and critique and more receptive to corporeal experiences, Helen's digressive, repetitive, skin-fixated narration reminds readers just how irritating, and funny, tangibility and ‘presence effects’ can be – precisely because of the curious way affects inevitably generate meaningful thinking. Tillman's artful syntax registers a heightened sensitivity to how affective forces in the environment, including language, stimulate our embodied minds and shape our thinking, feeling, and interactions. Much affect-studies scholarship claims affect circumvents semantics and resists being captured in language. But Tillman's writing, this article argues, contests notions of ineffable affect. Tillman's investment in transcribing affective phenomena, it is claimed, belies neither an individualistic or a solipsistic concern with subjective response, nor a radical materialist commitment to pushing the materialities of communication to the brink of meaninglessness. Affect, American Genius ingeniously demonstrates, is integral to eco-critical thinking. This account of affective circulations in American Genius demonstrates how Tillman successfully takes up the challenge of conveying, in prose, the complex, infra-linguistic affective processes underlying embodied communication and cognition. After introducing the novel, Section Two, ‘Ambivalent Belief’ explains how its opening prepares readers to confront what Slavoj Žižek calls the contemporary crisis of belief. Section Three tests and ultimately rejects the hypothesis that American Genius expresses a meaningless posthistoricist aesthetic; rather, Tillman's ecological aesthetic entails a meticulous staging of how imbricated cognitive processes are within the biological human body and political social body. Through her recursive prose, Tillman creates a mediating space for staging affectively inflected meta-cognitions. Section Four analyses passages where these meta-cognitions involve ecological perceptions. The critical focus throughout is on form. Deliberate readings reveal how, sentence by sentence, Tillman's ‘skintax’ evokes multidimensional corporeal processes that constitute the affective dimension of thinking. ‘Sensitivity and Making Sense’, the Fifth Section, identifies the ethical core of Tillman's eco-aesthetic and unpacks passages that expand the concept of sensitivity in ways that attune readers to affective modulations of the social that are potentially transformative.

FlEECe, an energy use and occupant behavior dataset for net-zero energy affordable senior residential buildings

The behaviors of building occupants have continued to perplex scholars for years in our attempts to develop models for energy efficient housing. Building simulations, project delivery approaches, policies, and more have fell short of their optimistic goals due to the complexity of human behavior. As a part of a multiphase longitudinal affordable housing study, this dataset represents energy and occupant behavior attributes for 6 affordable housing units over nine months in Virginia, USA which are not performing to the net-zero energy standard they were designed for. This dataset provides researchers the ability to analyze the following variables: energy performance, occupant behaviors, energy literacy, and ecological perceptions. Energy data is provided at a 1 Hz sampling rate for four circuits: main, hot water heater, dryer, and HVAC. Building specifications, occupancy, weather data, and neighboring building energy use data are provided to add depth to the dataset. This dataset can be used to update building energy use models, predictive maintenance, policy frameworks, construction risk models, economic models, and more.

Emotional and Behavioral Risk Configurations, Students With Disabilities, and Perceptions of the Middle School Ecology

Perceptions of the ecology and middle school transition are examined in relation to interpersonal competence patterns (ICPs) of approximately 3,000 sixth graders (46.2% boys) including 415 students with disabilities from 26 metropolitan schools. Teacher ratings of students’ academic competence, externalizing and internalizing behavior, popularity, physical attractiveness/athletic ability, and friendliness are used to determine students’ ICPs. Using latent profile analyses, distinct ICPs are identified, including Model (high adaptive), Average, Tough (popular-aggressive), Passive (shy, withdrawn), and Troubled (low adaptive) for boys and girls, respectively. Although students with disabilities are overrepresented in Passive and Troubled ICPs and underrepresented in the Model ICP, 804 students without disabilities (367 boys) were identified in risk ICPs (i.e., Passive, Tough, Troubled) compared with 197 students with disabilities (128 boys). Risk ICPs are differentially associated with students’ perceptions of the school ecology and the transition experience of students with disabilities. Implications for Multitiered Systems of Support and the tailoring of interventions are considered.

Using the Phylo Card Game to advance biodiversity conservation in an era of Pok\xe9mon

Broader realization of both increasing biodiversity loss and pressures on ecosystems worldwide has highlighted the importance of public perceptions of species and the subsequent motivations towards improving the status of natural systems. Several new proposals have arisen in reference to environmental learning, including mimicking popular gaming media. Inspired by the popular game Pokémon, the Phylo Trading Card Game (Phylo game) is one such emerging possibility. It was invented as an open-source, competitive, and interactive game to inform players’ knowledge of species, ecosystems, and negative environmental events (e.g., climate change, oil spills, wildfires). The game has now achieved global reach, yet the impact of this game on conservation behavior has never been tested. This study used a randomized control trial to evaluate the Phylo game’s impact on conservation behavior (i.e., Phylo condition). This was compared to an information control condition with a more traditional learning method using a slideshow (i.e., Slideshow condition). A second card game was used to control for the act of playing a game (i.e., Projects condition). We found that ecological perceptions (i.e., the perceived relationship of species to their ecosystems) and species knowledge increased after both the game and the slideshow, but the Phylo Game had the added benefit of promoting more positive affect and more species name recall. It also motivated donation behavior in the direction of preventing negative environmental events instead of directly aiding an individual species or ecosystem. Our findings highlight the potential value of this game as a novel engagement tool for enhancing ecological literacy, motivations, and actions necessary to meet ecological challenges.

Multi-Site Case Studies About Zoo and Aquarium Visitors’ Perceptions of the STEM Learning Ecology

Informal learning institutions like zoos, aquariums, science centers, and botanic gardens are popular among the American public. Many offer science-related activities, suggesting an “ecology” of sites varying in degree with regards to science and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) learning in general. Understanding public perceptions of the STEM learning ecology can inform decisions about increasing STEM literacy in the United States. The current qualitative study used interactive workshops to understand the public’s perceptions of zoos and aquariums (Z/As) in particular, compared to other settings, for their potential to support STEM learning. Visitors identified a wide range of settings in institutions and their everyday lives where they experienced STEM learning opportunities. The primary STEM discipline they encountered was science, even though the opportunities were not explicit. They also recognized that these settings offer the potential for learning about technology, engineering, and math through staff facilitation. They distinguished Z/As from other cultural organizations because of opportunities to learn about science as it related to animals. Implications for STEM learning in informal settings are discussed for its potential to engage the public in STEM outside of the formal education context.

Environments Past: Nostalgia in Environmental Policy and Governance

A variety of factors shape environmental policy and governance (EPG) processes, from perceptions of physical ecology and profit motives to social justice and concerns with landscape aesthetics. Many scholars have examined the role of values in EPG, and demonstrated that attempts to incorporate (especially) non-market values into EPG are loaded with both practical and conceptual challenges. Nevertheless, it is clear that non-market values of all types play a crucial role in shaping EPG outcomes. In this article we explore the role of nostalgia as a factor in EPG. We examine literatures on environmental values, governance and affect in light of their relationships with environmental policymaking, first as a means to decide whether or not nostalgia can be rightly described as an ‘environmental value’. We suggest that, from a philosophical perspective, nostalgia is by itself environmentally neutral, and is not usefully described as a ‘value’. However, as an emotional state that longs to preserve or recover something of the past – whether fading or no longer present – that is fondly remembered, nostalgia does represent a potentially strong ‘motivator’ for EPG decisions. Despite this somewhat ambivalent assessment of nostalgia as an environmental value, we argue that nostalgia and nostalgic longing to return to ‘better’ or ‘cleaner’ environments can lead to potentially significant impacts on ecosystems and landscapes, both positive and negative depending on what it is that people want to preserve or restore. Thus we conclude that we neglect understanding the role of nostalgia in EPG at our peril: first, because preservationist goals have always been an important part of environmental responsibility; and second, because many people will be swayed regarding environmental action through a mobilisation of nostalgia by political leaders and interest groups alike. We end our article with suggestion of avenues for further empirical investigation.

Communal farmers’ ecological knowledge and perceptions of grasses in the central Eastern Cape province, South Africa: similarities with field studies and scientific knowledge and their implications

The local ecological knowledge (LEK) and perceptions of grasses were investigated in six semi-arid communal areas in the central Eastern Cape province, South Africa, and compared with field studies and scientific knowledge. Of the total of 21 grasses identified in the field survey, communal farmers had vernacular names only for 11 species. Respondents rated Digitaria eriantha and Pennisetum clandestinum to have the highest (p < 0.05) grazing value. Respondents’ ratings of Eragrostis obtusa and Sporobolus africanus as having similar (moderate) grazing values to Themeda triandra is against the established knowledge. Respondents’ ratings of T. triandra and S. africanus as having higher (p = 0.01) ecological value than the other grasses concur with the scientific knowledge, whereas their nomination of E. obtusa and D. eriantha as providing less ecological benefits than Aristida conjesta disagrees with some ecologists. The study hinted at the complementarity and discrepancies between LEK and scientific knowledge that need ratification. The respondents’ lack of detailed knowledge is suggestive of a gradual eroding of LEK among the local communities that will adversely impact the local people’s ability to implement sustainable rangeland utilisation practice. The current study also recognised farmers’ familiarity as well as training needs that would expound their knowledge and management of grasses.

User Research And Persona Building Method In Mobile Games

This research aims to find the determinant of user research and persona building :mobile games to design questionnaire. The method presented in this paper is comparing tlsimilarities and differences of mobile games and PC games to conclude the characteristics of mobile games. Besides, we formulate the principles in cognitive psychology that might guiethe design of questionnaire of mobile games user persona. In this study, we conclude thmobile games are easier to operate, interrupted and have limited development of hardwadevices and storage comparing with the PC games. In addition, mobile games are easier 1begin and need more SNS support. Moreover, this research analyzes the cognition fields for thmobile games in the five sense of people, human ecological perception and human aesthetperception.

The Visual Properties of Built-Environment Affecting the Pattern of Human Movement - An Experimental Study Based on the Ecological Perception Theory -

The Visual Properties of Built-Environment Affecting the Pattern of Human Movement - An Experimental Study Based on the Ecological Perception Theory -

The affordance of virtual reality to enable the sensory representation of multi-dimensional data for immersive analytics: from experience to insight

Using the theory of affordance from perceptual psychology and through discussion of literature within visual data mining and immersive analytics, a position for the multi-sensory representation of big data using virtual reality (VR) is developed. While it would seem counter intuitive, information-dense virtual environments are theoretically easier to process than simplified graphic encoding—if there is alignment with human ecological perception of natural environments. Potentially, VR affords insight into patterns and anomalies through dynamic experience of data representations within interactive, kinaesthetic audio-visual virtual environments. To this end we articulate principles that can inform the development of VR applications for immersive analytics: a mimetic approach to data mapping that aligns spatial, aural and kinaesthetic attributes with abstractions of natural environments; layered with constructed features that complement natural structures; the use of cross-modal sensory mapping; a focus on intermediate levels of contrast; and the adaptation of naturally occurring distribution patterns for the granularity and distribution of data. While it appears problematic to directly translate visual data mining techniques to VR, the ecological approach to human perception discussed in this article provides a new framework for big data visualization researchers to consider.

콜리지의 시에 나타난 생태적 경험과 인식

콜리지의 시에 나타난 생태적 경험과 인식

Nocturnal Rhythms and Collective Practices

Choreographies of assembly are grounded in the relationship between urban design and collective, bodily modes of reproducing, inhabiting, and reimagining urban space. Through a case study of urban regeneration, culture-led development, and social movements in Montreal, this article examines the particular nocturnal spatio-temporal rhythms of gathering in public space. For a long time, the night was left in the shadows by urban development experts who focus their attention on daytime plans and activities. However, following the rise of nighttime economies, sleepless societies, and ‘24/7’ cities, the night has received increasing attention since the 1990s (Crary; Gwiazdzinski and Straw). Critical engagements with the night as an object of study have shed light upon temporality, rhythms, and links between space and time. Such perspectives rethink urban life in terms of rhythm. Drawing from Henri Lefebvre’s theory of “rhythmanalysis,” this article focuses on the aesthetic, bodily, and sensorial experiences of collective practices. This article takes up Lefebvre’s notion of polyrhythmia—the idea that the living body is an association of a multiplicity of rhythms—to study the polyrhythmic qualities of collective and bodily practices in urban space at night. This night-focused study draws out the complex relations between collectivity, movements, and urban design. Moreover, a rhythmic study of the city at night foregrounds the multimodal perception process, following James Gibson’s theory of ecological perception. Hence, this article asks: how does the night affect our collective experience of the city?

Book Review: Environmental Communication Pedagogy and Practice

Following the publication in the past two decades of a handful of textbooks for undergraduate and graduate studies of environmental communication, this book is specifically designed to assist educators working in related fields today. As the editors note in their introduction, environmental communication research, pedagogy and practice are hinged on some core assumptions: that the ways we communicate shape our ecological perceptions, that ‘these perceptions inform how we act with/in the more-than-human world’, and that human representations of the biosphere ‘are informed by social, economic and political interests’ (pp. 2–3).

Ethnoprimatology without Conservation: The Political Ecology of Farmer–Green Monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus) Relations in St. Kitts, West Indies

The driving force behind the mixed-methods ethnoprimatological endeavor is to effectively conserve nonhuman primates. In this article, I argue that ethnoprimatological research can meet this goal only by discarding the purely science views of conservation that dominate the current literature. By considering more than local ecological perceptions, their ideological agendas, and their levels of power via a political ecology framework, ethnoprimatologists can simultaneously socialize the ecosystems we study and contribute our ethological skills to advance traditionally humanist disciplines’ increased attention to a wider field of agents and structures that matter. I support these arguments through an examination of farmer–green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus) relations in St. Kitts. Kittitian farmers’ narrative revealed three scales that collectively construct what is locally known as “the monkey problem:” increased rates of local contact between farmers and monkeys on farms, contestations over the future of St. Kitts’ land, and global debates over appropriate strategies to manage the monkey population. I show that although “the monkey problem” in St. Kitts does not involve an endangered or threatened species, my analysis of this construct has implications for primate populations that are threatened. This is because the root cause of this “problem”—the globalized discourse of nature conservation overpowering and problematizing local views about people–animal interactions—characterizes so many of the locales home to primates of conservation concern.

A perception based estimation of the ecological impacts of livelihood activities: The case of rural Ghana

Rural livelihoods are known to be heavily dependent on the natural resource base. Over reliance, over the years, has resulted in the decline of rural ecological quality. Meanwhile, natural resource abundance is key to the survival of rural poor households’, as their livelihoods largely depend on them. To formulate appropriate tailored conservation policies, an empirical understanding of how rural people perceive the impacts of their livelihood activities on the environment would be critical. This understanding, however, is limited especially in African context. Using Ghana as a case, this study had two aims; the first was to estimate the relative impacts of livelihood activities on the natural environment, and the second was to estimate the willingness of rural household heads in natural resource conservation. Data were collected from 25 community development stakeholders, and two hundred household heads. The Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) technique of Linear Additive Weighting and Logistic regression were employed. The overall study results showed a moderate (0.497) ecological impact of livelihood activities. On one hand, farming was found to be the activity with the most detrimental ecological impact (0.891), followed by gari processing (0.549), and other activities (0.447). Labour work and petty trading, recorded the least ecological impacts, with scores of 0.338 and 0.344, respectively. On the other hand, the level of household heads income, medicinal values of certain natural resources and access to extension services, were the significant factors that influence household heads willingness to conserve natural resources. Another significant but negatively correlated variable is the gender status of the household heads. The study results have implication on the incorporation of local ecological perceptions in rural conservation policies.