Visual Landscape Research Articles

Audio-visual interaction and visitor characteristics affect perceived soundscape restorativeness: Case study in five parks in China

The capacity of urban parks to contribute to soundscape restorativeness, understood here as contributions to people’s recovery from attentional fatigue and reflection on life issues, is receiving increased interest in research and policy. However, scientific understanding of the influential mechanism of perceived soundscape restorativeness is still not clear. This paper aims to explore the effects of audio-visual interaction on perceived soundscape restorativeness (PSR) of urban parks, considering visitors of different social and demographic characteristics. The research design comprises a survey of 419 visitors to five urban parks in Fuzhou, China, general structure equation modeling, and multi-group model analysis. The results show a substantial dependence of visitors’ PSR values on respective perceptions of soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness, especially soundscape pleasantness. Visual landscape characteristics showed mediating effects on the influence of soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness on the perceived soundscape restorativeness (19.3 % and 28.3 % of the total effect, respectively). Age was the most influential social and demographic characteristic affecting the PSR, followed by gender, while occupation and educational background showed only limited effects. Future development of urban parks should strongly integrate soundscape design considerations to enhance positive PSR effects for visitors.

Design of Urban Garden Landscape Visualization System Based on GIS and Remote Sensing Technology.

Urban green ecological space is an important manifestation of the environmental characteristics of a green city. The research results show that the urban green ecological space has obvious cooling and humidity effects, which are very important for reducing the urban heat island effect. Remote sensing technology describes the slow-release effects of urban green parks in different seasons from the two perspectives of thermal slow-release intensity and thermal slow-release distance. In this paper, UAV remote sensing is used to extract the internal and external factors of the urban green environment characteristics and to identify the main factors that affect the slow-release heat effect and seasonal changes of the urban green environment. In addition, it analyzes the factors that affect the urban environmental temperature within the environmental temperature slow-release range of urban green space, establishes a model to predict the environmental temperature within the thermal slow-release range outside the park, and realizes the largest thermal slow release in the urban greening ecological space. These are new technologies created in the context of digitization, which include image understanding and synthesis, which involve the use of computer graphics and image processing technology to convert data into graphics or images displayed on the screen to achieve an interactive process.

Applying spatio-chemical analysis to grassland ecosystems for the illustration of chemoscapes and creation of healthscapes

Grasslands are heterogeneous landscapes composed of a diversity of herbaceous and shrub vegetation that varies not only taxonomically, but biochemically in terms of primary and secondary compounds. Plant Secondary Compounds (PSC) have specific nutritional, medicinal, and prophylactic properties, to which benefits depend upon dosage, type, arrangements, and concentration that changes between and within plants across time and space. The knowledge of the plant content of PSC and their distribution in grazing environments would therefore contribute to the design and creation of healthier foodscapes for ruminants; in other words, healthscapes. Geographic information systems (GIS) have been used extensively for landscape visualization and assessment, through several spatial analysis techniques applied for the creation of virtual maps to add valuable information to a particular environment. Given the knowledge of plants and their composition, GIS emerges as a readily available and low-cost tool to assess and evaluate the distribution of plants with beneficial PSC in large and heterogeneous foodscapes. We present and propose for the very first time, the application and use of GIS to determine the spatial distribution of PSC rich plants with nutraceutical properties to illustrate, visualize, and generate healthscapes for grazing ruminants. We present healthscape maps created using botanical composition analyses and advanced image classification methods to illustrate the distribution of plants regarding their PSC and nutraceutical properties. Such maps add an extra dimension and perspective to plant chemical composition, enabling graziers to visualize in space and time centers of nutrition and prophylactics or medicines, contributing to advanced grazing management decisions toward more productive, sustainable, and healthy grazing systems. The valuable information behind the mapped PSC advances the understanding of the nutritional ecology of grazing environments and foodscapes, introducing a new dimension to the holistic management of pastoral livestock production systems.

Kiukainen Culture Site Locations—Reflections from the Coastal Lifestyle at the End of the Stone Age

The Kiukainen culture constitutes a poorly known phase at the end of the Stone Age in Finland, approximately 2500–1800 cal. BC. It is best known for its pottery, and most of the finds are from the coastal area of the Baltic Sea between Helsinki and Ostrobothnia. Previous research on the culture was done several decades ago, so this study aims to define the geographical distribution of the sites known thus far and discuss the landscape around the settlement sites. Creating an overall view of the culture and lifestyle of the people is also an important part of the study. First, it focuses on different collections of Kiukainen pottery and then maps the location of all the sites where pottery has been found. For the landscape visualizations, three different areas were chosen for closer evaluation. Elevation models were, then, used to visualize the Stone Age coastal landscape. Altogether, we identified 99 settlement sites with a confirmed connection to Kiukainen culture. One common feature of the locations is a connection to the sea. The sites are located in various types of environments, but they all have easy access to seafaring and good landing possibilities from the sea.

The visual communication of Brexit in Northern Ireland: decoding public imagery on identity, politics and Europe

ABSTRACT The specific historical and political context of Northern Ireland has contributed to the development of an expansive visual landscape conveying symbolic meanings and messaging through words, pictures and colours. Murals, posters and graffiti are common ways in which this is seen, drawing a link between the past and the present, with real-time political developments not only inspiring new additions to this landscape but also shaping how existing images are understood in a contemporary context. Brexit, in interacting so intimately with matters of identity, economics, politics and the ‘constitutional question’ in Northern Ireland, has been one such development. This paper presents key findings from a study in which Brexit’s impact on the visual landscape in Northern Ireland was traced between March 2019 and June 2020. Through close analysis of images gathered from across Northern Ireland, alongside consideration of political developments during this time and desk-based research, we examine not only the emergence of Brexit in such imagery, but also what this unveils about the interaction between Brexit and localized perspectives on its impact with regard to politics across the spectrum, and across different parts of Northern Ireland.

Spatial Analysis for the Landscape Visual Aesthetic Quality of Urban Residential Districts Based on 3D City Modeling

The landscape visual aesthetic quality (LVAQ) of urban residential districts is an important index for measuring urban livability and is a tripartite concern among urban managers, real estate developers and residents. The LVAQ of residential districts is determined by their visual openness and the aesthetic degree of the surrounding landscape, a value combining subjective evaluation and objective analysis. Although existing studies have carried out empirical analyses on the LVAQ of residential districts and have summarized some influencing factors, they have largely overlooked the specific impact and interactions of various factors, failing to establish 3D city models meeting LVAQ analysis requirements and falling short in developing appropriate evaluation approaches suitable for whole city scale. In this study, we propose a spatial simulation analysis for the LVAQ of residential districts based on 3D city modeling, aesthetic evaluation and viewshed analysis. In order to improve the accuracy of the study, we collected massive RS data and established a 3D city model covering a large amount of architecture and landscape information. We analyzed three representative cases and calculated the LVAQ of 1258 residential districts in Changsha City, Hunan, China, evaluating the results with various construction and planning indicators. Our results show that the LVAQ of residential districts is affected by their own construction conditions and the surrounding districts and landscape areas. Various architectural and planning indicators have restrictive and direct effects on LVAQ. Optimizing the layout of landscape areas and the construction mode of residential districts through urban planning and urban renewal may help improve their LVAQ. This study helps better understand the general principles that affect the LVAQ of residential districts and supports the development of urban scale LVAQ analysis methods for residential districts. The findings are expected to provide methodological support for the landscape analysis and evaluation of urban residential districts in China and other developing countries and provide optimization ideas for urban human settlement environment sustainability.

Developing platform of 3-D visualization of forest landscape

The recording and simulation data of forest landscapes are massive, high-dimensional, and abstract, requiring intuitive representation. 3-D visualization is an efficient tool to comprehend possible landscape changes generated by real-world or forest landscape models. Based on current advantages of game engines (realism and convenience), we developed a platform for 3-D visualization of forest landscapes (FLV). FLV streamlines multiple software and programming languages to break barrier between geographic data and game engine and transforms outputs of forest landscape models into visualization parameters. Compared with previous 3-D visualizations, FLV has better realism, efficiency, and navigation. We used simulation data of post-volcanic eruption forest landscape recovery in Changbai Mountain as a case study and demonstrated functionalities of FLV. FLV can visualize seamlessly from individual tree to forest stand and landscape scales, and from individual year to decades and centuries temporal scales. It offers potential solutions for the digital representation of complex environmental change.

Wavelet Transform-Based 3D Landscape Design and Optimization for Digital Cities

As a hot concept, the digital city has developed rapidly in recent years. The digital city uses information technology to realize all the contents of the past, present, and future of the city on the network, and can build a three-dimensional visual landscape. However, the traditional information fusion model has the problems of noise susceptibility and low efficiency in landscape design. In order to solve the above problems, this article proposes a wavelet transform-based 3D landscape design and optimization method for digital cities, which removes the noise influenced by wavelet change and builds an information fusion model based on neural network to complete the design optimization of the three-dimensional landscape of the digital city. Firstly, for the wavelet change denoising problem, an effective denoising algorithm for natural noise and abnormal noise is proposed by combining convolutional neural network and wavelet transform. The algorithm extracts mixed feature information of local long path and local short path based on the information retention module, and decomposes the information by combining wavelet transform, inputs the different components obtained from the decomposition into the network for training, and removes the noise by subsequent feature screening of the network structure. Then, aiming at the optimization of 3D landscape design, an information fusion model based on long-short time memory network and radial basis backpropagation network is proposed for fusing multiple sources of information in the digital city to evaluate the landscape. The method collects digital city feature information at the information layer and preprocesses the feature information by a rate detection algorithm. Then, LSTM and RBF-BP neural networks in deep learning are used in the feature layer for adaptive learning of multiple feature signals, and finally, fuzzy logic is used to control the system decision output to improve the efficiency of 3D landscape design. Finally, the simulation experimental results show that the proposed denoising method in this article can better retain the texture details in the images and the denoised images have better visual effects; the proposed information fusion model has higher accuracy compared with the traditional methods. Combining this method to design and optimize 3D landscapes in digital cities can improve the efficiency of landscape design.

Visual Landscape Study with the Visual Resources Assessment Procedure Method at Pekanbaru City Government Offices

Pekanbaru City Government Office is a central office area as the city's central image that accommodates all government facilities, facilities, and infrastructure. This area has natural and artificial potential for design development in the area. The situation in terms of the landscape in this area is the lack of assessment and utilization of the visual aesthetic potential of the landscape in the Pekanbaru City Government Office area. The purpose of this study is to determine the visual aesthetic potential of the site by utilizing and optimizing natural and artificial visuals. This study uses a modified Visual Resources Assessment Procedure (VRAP). The results showed that the increase in the visual aesthetic value of the Pekanbaru City Government Office landscape design by examining the visual aesthetic aspects of the landscape as the basis for developing landscape design.

Introduction

Introduction Jim Hicks “RIEN N’ARRIVE ni comme on l’espère, ni comme on le craint”: thus does the Holocaust survivor Jean Améry begin his celebrated anatomy of torture, citing Proust. “Nothing actually happens as we hope it will, nor as we fear it will.” For most folks, I imagine, this was not their first association when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, though it was mine. Améry clarifies his claim: it’s not that torture exceeds our imagination (“it’s not a quantitative question”); actual torture isn’t imagination at all, it’s reality. “You can spend your whole life measuring the imagined against the real,” he notes, “and never get anywhere.” When Améry details his experiences in the Nazi prison at Breendonk, he is describing an extreme event, one which cannot directly be compared with any other. Yet, in speaking of this unspeakable experience, he begins by emphasizing “the first blow,” an act that, as he notes, itself has “very little criminological significance” and is a “tacitly practiced, accepted, and normal measure taken against stubborn prisoners,” “applied in more or less strong doses by almost all police officials, including those in Western democracies.” And the “first [blow] makes the prisoner realize that they are helpless, and thus it contains the seed of all that is to come.” With this first blow, Améry tells us, “trust in the world collapses. The other who is physically opposite me, and with whom I can exist only as long as he does not come into contact with the surface of my skin, forces his entire physicality upon me [. . .] He touches me and thereby destroys me. It’s like rape, a sexual act without one’s consent.”1 [End Page 409] So that’s it. Our bodies, ourselves. Our bodies, that are not public space. Experiences of this sort, which I can only attempt to imagine, have long been a reality for many, and it takes writing at Améry’s level to bring it home for others. In these dark times, those extreme events, those first blows, are also the foci around which our fall issue revolves. A stunning selection of poems from Tommye Blount revisits the costume drama that accompanies the violence of White supremacy, and this history animates as well a tour de force diptych from Courtney Faye Taylor. Elsewhere Alison C. Rollins rings in the changes that time takes from each and every body, and Kassy Lee, in two poems that bookend our issue, takes time and history elsewhere, both received and rejected. Places, we know, are saturated with their own particulate histories, and events that bring home unimaginable realities have GPS coordinates of their own, best tracked by writers. In this issue we bring you Samwai Lee’s dark fable “Graceless,” impossible to read without channeling the present-day lives of her fellow Hong Kongers. Also Hilary Plum’s “Philly,” a city where the adjunctification of academia registers as any-thing but brotherly love. And a devastating excerpt from Raharima-nana’s Malagasy epic “Nour, 1947,” lyrically translated by Allison Cha-rette. In some instances, of course, the unimaginable is deeply personal, yet the trauma no less real, or relevant, as we are reminded by J Brooke, in their essay “Tanker.” We should not, for all that, assume that every life-changing event is rooted in trauma. Bodies and their changes can also be comic, as a culinary fest story from Sylva Fischerová (given a sumptuous English menu by Deborah Garfinkle) reminds us, as does a lovely little post-culinary tale from Ambreen Hai. The conversation between MR art editor Mario Ontiveros and the video and installation artist Parastoo Anoushahpour offers insights of many kinds; here, however, I’ll note only the artist’s interest in “visual landscape,” in “sound, image, mood, and space” where alternative narratives emerge. For this to happen, she notes, “different bodies are needed; each comes with their own imagination and desires, even though we are working on the same project. Collaboration does things that you could never accomplish, I think, with one brain.” Given where we are today, collaboration is our only road...

Introspective Visual Quality Assessment of Dual Thoroughfare Streetscapes in Davao City

This study sought to assess the visual quality of dual thoroughfare streetscapes in Davao City, specifically identifying existing visual components in terms of landscape layer, landform, vegetation, light and colour, compatibility, archetypal elements and its character of peace and silence. Davao City had a consistent score in its streetscapes, garnering not the highest but a relatively high score. The results showed that the presence of landscape layers, light and colour, vegetation, and character of peace and silence seem to be the most critical visual components in its overall contemplative score. Of the city’s streets, the highest visual quality score was Roxas Avenue with a mean of 4.44. The lowest was the Manambulan-Tagakpan Road with a mean of 4.07. Based on the overall ranking system in the contemplative score Davao City obtained a relatively high rank. The presence of vegetation, particularly the young to fully grown trees, also produces more shade which provides thermal comfort and a cooler experience in the streetscape. The association between the individual visual landscape component scores against the overall visual quality resulted in a landscape layer of 0.825 and vegetation of 0.824, which showed a significant correlation. The significant findings among the components is the indication of landforms which greatly contributed to the total score.

Investigating the impact of urban landscape composition and configuration on PM2.5 concentration under the LCZ scheme: A case study in Nanchang, China

Urban landscape pattern alters the distribution of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by affecting “source and sink” directly and microclimate indirectly. Most previous works investigate their relationship by landscape metrics that are difficult to be applied in sustainable urban planning. This study innovatively linked PM2.5 with the local climate zone (LCZ) which is a visible landscape pattern classification framework at urban scale. Impacts of urban landscape composition and configuration on PM2.5 were evaluated through PM2.5 differences analyzes of inter-LCZ categories and intra-built category and correlation analysis between PM2.5 and landscape metrics adopted in LCZ scheme. Results show that significant PM2.5 differences exist both inter-LCZ categories and intra-built category, implying LCZ scheme can reflect the urban spatial variation of PM2.5. The natural category always has a lower PM2.5 concentration than the built category. PM2.5 concentrations “compact > open” and “high-rise > mid-rise > low-rise” in built category generally exist throughout the year. Height of roughness elements (HRE) and aspect ratio (AR) show the most significant correlation with PM2.5. This study provides a novel perspective investigating the impact of urban landscape pattern on PM2.5 and scientific guidance for sustainable urban planning in regard to air pollution mitigation.

The Fitting memory. How the Covid-19 pandemic blended past with present?

Covid-19 brought back memories of past pandemics. In society, a pandemic imaginary was installed, framing an imaginary landscape, alongside a rationalized pandemic intellect to which the media contributed a lot. We live immersed in tele technologies, adding present to the past and past to the present. At a time when home confinement became the rule, this was even more highlighted. In this screen technological Era, social practices were even more subject to the five great sociotechnical effects that condition information and the way it articulates memory and the present: ubiquity, instantaneity, acceleration, mobilization and presentism. This article intends to demonstrate the presence of the imaginary of past pandemics in the present (Applying Einstein's Theory of General Relativity), the way in which we appropriate these memories to create solutions and the way in which we mix the present with the solutions that came from the past.

Landscape assessment of forest trail using geotagged visitor employed photography: the case of the inariyama trail in the Takao Quasi-National Park, Tokyo

ABSTRACT An evidence-based understanding of visitors’ landscape preferences is important for holistic forest planning and management. In this study, a visual landscape assessment was conducted to 1) determine the locations and recreational value of scenic hotspots (popular locations) and 2) identify the landscape types that visitors most preferred along the Inariyama Trail in the Takao Quasi-National Park in Tokyo by using geotagged visitor employed photography and asking the 60 participants to score their photographs based on five assessment measures. Nine hundred geotagged photographs were collected, and the subsequent hotspot analysis was conducted using a combination of Getis-Ord Gi* statistics in GIS. Analysis of means (ANOM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to determine what and how visitors preferred landscapes in the site. The main findings of this study were as follows: 1) seven hotspots, comprising prominent landscape features and spatial changes, were identified, and 2) Prospect and Look-up were the most highly valued landscape types. These results reveal the importance of Look-up views, which have thus far been underrepresented in landscape assessments, and that hotspots are influenced by landscape features as well as spatial changes. Therefore, through the application of GIS technology, this study lays a foundation for future research as well as the planning and management of forested landscapes that harmonize recreation and other uses.

Audio-Visual Analysis of Visitors’ Landscape Preference for City Parks: A Case Study from Zhangzhou, China

Soundscape perception is increasingly recognized as an important part of landscape preference and environmental experience. However, few studies have juxtaposed visual landscape preference and soundscape preference to compare their contributions to overall landscape preference. This paper aims to quantify and compare the contribution of audiovisual perception to visitors’ overall park landscape preference. The landscape preferences of visitors at seven sample sites in a city park were investigated through field questionnaires in three dimensions: visual landscape, acoustic landscape, and audiovisual landscape. The results showed that visitors’ visual landscape preference (VLP = 7.53) was generally higher than soundscape preference (SP = 7.08), while the influence of auditory preference (57%) on overall landscape preference (OLP) was found to be greater than that of visual preference (43%). The ratio of audio/visual contribution to the overall landscape preference decreased as the average sound level of the sample sites increased. Of all the population characteristics, only the educational level (sig = 0.034) could be used as an effective predictor of OLP (Impact coefficient = −0.103). In addition, older visitors rated OLP lower than young visitors, and females rated OLP lower than males. It was found that visual harmony, color richness, color contrast, plant coverage, and plant diversity were the main visual landscape attributes that influenced visitors’ visual preferences, while acoustic harmony, quietness, sound vitality, and acoustic richness were the main soundscape attributes that impacts visitors’ auditory preference. The results of this study may be useful for park landscape design and regeneration.

Potential mutual efforts of landscape factors to improve residential soundscapes in compact urban cities

Multifaceted approaches covering various environmental dimensions are essential for improving urban residential soundscapes efficiently in compact urban cities. Particularly, visual landscape factors have been considered as influential for soundscapes. Nevertheless, how potential landscape attributes mutually contribute to the improvement of soundscape qualities across different urban environmental contexts has not been comprehensively investigated. The present study demonstrated evidence of mutual efforts of landscape factors for improving residential soundscapes in compact urban areas. From cross-sectional surveys across public residential blocks in Singapore, seven combinations of window views based on five visual landscape components and their intrinsic qualities were identified. Multivariable analyses adjusting for urban neighborhood contexts, demographic confounders, and physical landscape/soundscape covariates were conducted. The results found that urban residents having a natural and/or open view through a window perceived greater soundscape pleasantness compared to their counterparts (i.e., artificial and closed views). In contrast, window views modified by man-made structures of buildings (i.e., human-modified views) negatively affected soundscape pleasantness, regardless of whether these views were slightly or heavily modified. Although the majority of high-density residential estates may face such low-quality window views in real situations, their adverse effects can be supplementally controlled by implementing water-type neighborhood landscapes or waterscapes. The findings of the present study offer valuable insights into prominent landscape attributes and their mutual and multifaceted contributions for urban soundscape improvements in real-life residential scenes, offering practical implications and sustainable design approaches for urban residential planners and managers.

Homeland politics, imagined homeland, and the formation of Oromo diaspora identity

ABSTRACT This article looks at how homeland politics have shaped the perceptions of the homeland and host countries among the Oromo diaspora community. Unfavorable political conditions in Ethiopia have encouraged ethnic Oromo living in North American diaspora communities to construct alternative physical and social landscapes that evoke feelings of nostalgia while maintaining their engagement with homeland affairs. These imagined landscapes have gradually become an integral part of their enduring memories, and most of the forced emigres are now keen to involve themselves in the social and economic issues of their place of birth, rather than simply focusing on their daily routines in their host countries. This demonstrates an ongoing nexus between the country of origin and host countries that maintains and encourages transnationalism.

Digicel! Topap long ples ia! An international telecommunications company making itself at home in the urban landscapes of Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga

AbstractMobile phone usage has increased at an unprecedented rate across the Pacific over the past 10–15 years, radically transforming the way communication takes place. The catalyst for this transformation is generally attributed to the breakdown of monopolies previously held by national telecom corporations over their own domestic markets, and the entrance of one particular new provider, Digicel. This paper examines the strategies through which Digicel has managed to insert itself into the visual landscape of the urban spaces of Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga. Through multimodal analysis of digital photographs from the landscapes of these countries' capital cities, the paper shows how the global company makes use of a range of techniques to establish its own place and identity as a local network. These techniques include the demonstration of largesse and dominance over competitors, slogans that stake a claim to belonging, and the use of local language terms and images that juxtapose the local with the global. Through these techniques, Digicel manages to position itself simultaneously as the provider both of fast and reliable global communication technologies and of a truly local, national service, while also radically transforming the physical spaces of our cities as it has made itself at home here.

Perceptions of land use and land cover analysed using geospatial data

Considering how individuals perceive landscape is important when undertaking land management decisions. However, understanding how the community perceives a landscape is complex involving their experiences in that landscape, their lived experiences and other socio-cultural processes. One of the key challenges to understanding perception is linking the landscape properties to what is experienced when individuals interact with the landscape. Increasingly the use of geospatial data offers a tool for understanding the landscape and perceptions. This study compares satellite estimates of land use with the perceptions of the inhabitants of Yungay, Chile. Viewshed analysis is used to reconcile the differences seen in the satellite image cover estimates and those of the participants. It was found that restricting the cover estimate to the visible landscape, provided similar estimates of cover to those made by the participants. This varied between demographic groups. With differences between participants living in urban and rural settings particularly evident.

Developing Protection-Use-Strategies Based On Sustainability in Protected Areas: Suuçtu Nature Park Case

This study aims to evaluate the current conservation and use status in a nature park and to develop planning strategies that will provide sustainable use of protected areas for the future. Suuçtu Nature Park in Bursa Province Mustafakemalpaşa district was chosen as the study area. The method of the study consisted of three stages. In the first stage, the current situation was revealed by conducting fieldwork, observations, and interviews. In the second stage, SWOT analysis was carried out to determine the recreational opportunities offered by the area and to evaluate the potential of the study area. It has been determined by SWOT analysis that Suuçtu Nature Park is a strong character due to its unspoiled natural and cultural values, ideal climate characteristics, geological structure and high visual landscape value. In the third stage, conservation and tourism strategies for the future were developed with the TOWS matrix. As a result of the study, by considering the protection and usage conditions of the area, land use strategies have been developed in line with ecological-based tourism and recreation uses in the protected areas.