Landscape Photographs Research Articles

City Branding in #stayhome Era: Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Official Tourism Instagram Account Uses of New York City and London

The purpose of this research is to explore how Instagram was utilized in city branding context during COVID-19. By applying visual and textual content analysis method, this study aimed to identify any shifts in Instagram uses of two iconic tourism destinations, which were hit by the crisis particularly hard: New York City, and London. According to data collected from official tourism accounts of above-mentioned cities, the first confirmed cases significantly impacted city branding practices of both cities. The findings indicate that the most frequently used hashtags have changed, the number of informative posts has increased, the number of landscape photos in the post content has increased, while the number of photos containing elements such as cultural events, shopping and people has decreased. Furthermore, a significant decline in the number of inviting posts was observed. The study provides significant insights both to the city branding professionals, and to the scholars of this understudied area.

Assessing landscape aesthetic values: Do clouds in photographs influence people's preferences?

Photo-based surveys are widely applied to elicit landscape preferences and to assess cultural ecosystem services. Variations in weather and light conditions can potentially alter people's preferences, as sunny landscapes are more positively perceived than those under inclement weather conditions. To assure comparability across pictures, studies usually include photographs taken at sunny days (i.e., blue sky). However, the influence of clouds in sunny landscapes on people's preferences has been rarely considered, although color contrasts between clouds and the blue sky may attract people's attention. This study therefore aimed to assess the effects of clouds in landscape photographs on people's preferences by (1) examining differences in preference between pairs of landscape photographs (i.e., with clouds and without clouds), and (2) explaining variations through variables from eye-tracking simulation, photo content analysis, and Geographic Information System (GIS)-based analysis. Our results indicate no significant differences in preferences between pictures with and without clouds when the pictures with clouds contained a proportion of sky around 22% and a cloud cover of about 39%. However, a higher proportion of sky positively influenced landscape preferences, while a higher proportion of clouds, especially in combination with a lower proportion of sky, had negative effects. These findings suggest that landscape preference studies should pay attention not only to the appearance of the sky in terms of cloudiness, but they also should control the proportion of sky across different pictures to obtain comparable results. Future research should address limitations regarding the transferability of our findings to other types of landscapes and regarding potential differences in perceptions between respondents with different socio-cultural characteristics. Moreover, landscape preferences under changing weather conditions or different cloud types as well as diurnal and seasonal changes should be further explored.

Meet the First Authors.

Meet the First Authors.

Are wind turbines integrated into landscape? an analysis of its social perception in a spanish mediterranean area

ContextRenewable energy sources development has introduced wind farms as a regular landscape element. However, as human-made elements, wind farms influence on landscape's scenic beauty differently according to the socio-demographic characteristics of the beholder.ObjectivesIn this regard, the study analyses the population's visual perception of wind farms into Mediterranean landscapes with reference to three social variables: gender, age and education level.MethodPeople's preferences were assessed through two on-line surveys with several landscape photographs, with and without wind turbines. Subsequently, the score of each photograph was statistically analyzed regarding the landscapes showed and the respondents' socio-demographic variables.ResultsThe results demonstrate how vegetation had a positive effect in landscape' scenic beauty, especially forest, as well as people do not perceive negatively wind turbines presence. In fact, their implementation in deteriorated or low scored landscapes improves its scenic beauty. Lastly, despite the fact that gender, age and education do not influence on people's perception, there is a trend between these factors and wind turbines influence on landscape.ConclusionsIn addition to reinforce the vegetation positive effects on landscape’ scenic beauty, wind turbines have become a new landscape element that, in general, do not have a negative impact on its scenic beauty but, according to age, different consideration appeared.

How restorative landscapes can benefit psychological and physiological responses: a pilot study of human–nature relationships in Sweden and Taiwan

Restorative landscapes provide people with the opportunity to experience nature. This pilot study aimed to determine whether cultural differences affect psychological and physiological responses to restorative landscapes. Two populations, one in Taiwan and one in Sweden, were experimentally compared by showing them photos of restorative landscapes from each country. The results showed that restorativeness was affected more by photos of the restorative landscape in Sweden than in Taiwan. The results showed that restorativeness in terms of psychological and physiological responses was affected. A significant variation in heart rate was observed between the populations: Taiwanese participants experienced higher heart rates when viewing unfamiliar and novel scenery when compared to Swedish participants. No significant differences between the populations were observed regarding attention capacity, working memory, and muscle tension. The psychological and physiological responses to the two countries’ distinctive restorative landscapes may have implications for designing such landscapes in urban green spaces.

Analysis of landscape influencing factors of urban waterfront greenways based on the scenic beauty estimation method, taking Tongjian Lake in Hangzhou as an example

In order to assess the unique beauty of Tongjian Lake in Hangzhou, 80 sample photographs were selected for landscape beauty degree assessment using the Scenic Beauty Estimation method. The 14 characteristic influencing factors of landscape photos were extracted according to the Scenic Beauty Estimation value, and the influencing factors with insignificant differences and small bias correlation coefficients were eliminated through multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that the main factors affecting the expression of the beauty of Tongjian Lake were water ecology, greenway morphology, landscape openness, water area ratio, vegetation color richness, and vignette matching. Combining the abovementioned analysis results, the two-dimensional plan, isometric map, and three-dimensional space are combined to show the main factors in a visual way, and on this basis, the corresponding optimization strategy is proposed. It provides a reference for future urban waterfront greenway landscape creation.

An investigation of camera movements and capture techniques on optical flow for real-time rendering and presentation

New and interesting uses for portable devices include the creation and viewing of 3D models and 360-degree photos of real landscapes. To provide a 3D model and a 360-degree view of a scenario, these apps search for real-time rendering and presentation. This study examines the impact of real-time image processing on movements in camera view and the application of optical flow algorithms. The optical flows are affected by how the objects involved motion. The way the image is recorded and the camera movements affect the relative motion. As a consequence, camera motions are responsive to optical flow algorithms. To record an image, the camera may pan around, move in a straight path, or move randomly. We have captured datasets of videos produced in different contexts to better replicate real-world scenarios. Each dataset was captured in a variety of illumination situations, camera movements, and indoor and outdoor recording sites. Here, to determine the most effective optical flow algorithms for use in near real-time applications, such as augmented reality and virtual reality, we compare results based on quality and processing delay for each video frame. We conducted a comparison study to better understand how random camera motion affects real-time video processing. These methods can be used to handle a variety of real-world issues, such as object tracking, video segmentation, structure from motion, gesture tracking, and so on.

Shouting absences: Disentangling the ghosts of Ukraine in occupied Crimea

AbstractThis article aims to illuminate absences in the semiotic landscape of Crimea, resulting from the erasure of Ukraine after Russia's occupation of Crimea in 2014. By foregrounding what is not there, the study expands semiotic landscapes studies and critical sociolinguistic research more generally by interrogating absence and its haunting effects. More than 3,500 photographs of semiotic landscapes collected over two months of fieldwork between 2017 and 2019 together with fieldnotes serve as ethnographic data. The production of absence is interrogated through an analysis of its material effects, that is, voids, holes, and blank walls. It concludes that erasure does not simply negate Ukraine. Instead, pasts remain present, visible, and audible in semiotic landscapes. Absences, as part of a relational ontology of materiality, discourse, and affect, shout about complex invisibilized histories of violence. In this way, they suggest the need to probe traditional approaches in semiotic landscape research that rely on an ontology of presence. (Absence, trace, materiality, ghost, spectre, haunting, Crimea, Ukraine, semiotic landscape, linguistic landscape, interdiscursivity)*

Application of in Information Visualization and Generative Adversarial Network in the Review of Style Transfer

Style transfer is the task that aims to adopt the appearance or visual style of an image to another image. For example, we can transfer the style of a normal landscape photo into the style of a Monet's painting, in which objects are generally drown in an impressionism way. Nowadays, style transfer has become one of the most important application in photo editing. It has attracted artists and designers from around the globe.

A Collection of Photographs by A.M. Pozdneev (from the Archives of Orientalists at the IOM, RAS)

This article presents a collection of photographs from the personal archive of A.M. Pozdneev that have been housed as a separate item (fund 44, inventory no. 3, file 15). These are both professional and amateur photographs that tell the story of the scholarly and public life of Aleksey Matveevich Pozdneev. There are also a few photographs of places he visited officially. The most remarkable achievements of the researcher were expeditions to Mongolia that he undertook in 18761878 and in 18921893. Pozdneevs amateur photographs of Mongolian landscapes, local landmarks and people prove that the trips were carefully and meticulously organized. The documents from the Pozdneevs archive contain a few fragments of the travel journals which he kept during his expeditions to Mongolia and which were helpful in identifying some of the photographs.

Evaluasi Fungsional Dan Estetika Pohon Pada Lanskap Jalan Uluwatu I, Jimbaran

Functional and Aesthetic Evaluation of Trees in the Road Landscape of Uluwatu I, Jimbaran Street. Uluwatu I, Jimbaran street must have a road landscape that can provide comfort and create high beauty forroad users to support tourism infrastructure on Uluwatu I, Jimbaran street. Therefore, this study aims toevaluate the functional and aesthetic value of road landscape trees. The method used is the observationmethod. There are two aspects of tree function that are assessed, namely the shade function and the pollutioncontrol function. In the assessment of all aspects of tree function, segment 2 received the highest percentageof assessment (64.6%). Each function has an average fulfillment of 54.1% for the shading function and 51.5%for the pollution control function, which is included in the medium category. For aesthetic value, in landscapephotos of similar tree groups there are only two landscape photos that fall into the category of high aestheticvalue, namely landscape photos 3 (segment 1) and landscape photos 7 (segment 4). In the mixed tree grouplandscape photo, there is only one landscape photo that is included in the high aesthetic value category, namely landscape photo 8 (segment 4). Therefore, intensive care is needed for young trees, so that tree height, branch height above the ground and maximum canopy shape can reach the ideal value. Adding a layer of plants, also adding tree planting to create a road landscape with high functional and aesthetic value.

Expansion of the Grassland Biome in the eastern Karoo corresponds with changes in rainfall and livestock numbers

The persistent spread of shrublands is a global phenomenon observed across semiarid grassland-shrubland boundaries. Observations in South Africa, however, have detected a contrasting trend of increasing grass cover across the transition between the Nama-Karoo and Grassland Biomes over the last few decades. A west-to-east gradient of increasing mean annual rainfall, and underlying geology, controls the natural transition of Karoo dwarf shrublands to semiarid grasslands. The availability of historical vegetation surveys and landscape photographs, weather, and livestock census records, made it possible to assess the nature, extent, and drivers of vegetation change across this biome transition. Rainfall has been generally higher over the last four decades compared to the years prior to the original surveys. This, together with a reduction in livestock numbers, is the main driver of the westward expansion by ∼100 km of perennial grasses, and a general increase in dwarf shrub and total vegetation cover. Rangeland condition, as indexed by estimates of grazing capacity, has improved significantly. Despite a structural shift towards grassland-dominance, the original species complement has persisted. The rainfall-driven increase in grass fuel loads in the region, however, places these rangelands at risk of becoming altered by increasing fire frequency.

Landscapes of Despair: Book Covers and the Visual Culture of the Opioid Crisis

Why does every book about the opioid epidemic have a landscape photograph on the cover? Landscape photography has had a persistent role in media coverage of America’s opioid epidemic since at least 2016. This paper explores the phenomenon through analyses of a selection of recent, popular press book covers whose texts address the crisis, asking what this marketing strategy reveals. What do these images tell us about how we approach the opioid crisis, and how that approach may differ from previous addiction epidemics in America? How does the perceived whiteness of this epidemic influence how we visualize it? My argument is that, for the educated, urban reader whom these books are marketed to, the images are intended to evoke our existing anxieties about those other crises – climate change and American economic decline – provoking empathy with the victims of the opioid crisis. This signal to empathy may point to not only a changing approach to addiction but a shift in American culture’s attitude towards the future.

Identification of the Breach of Short-Term Rental Regulations in Irish Rent Pressure Zones

The housing crisis in Ireland has rapidly grown in recent years. To make a more significant profit, many landlords are no longer renting out their houses under long-term tenancies but under short-term tenancies. Regulating rentals in Rent Pressure Zones with the highest and rising rents is becoming a tricky issue. In this paper, we develop a breach identifier to check short-term rentals located in Rent Pressure Zones with potential breaches only using publicly available data from Airbnb (an online marketplace focused on short-term home-stays) and Irish government websites. First, we use a Residual Neural Network to filter out outdoor landscape photos that negatively impact identifying whether an owner has multiple rentals in a Rent Pressure Zone. Second, a Siamese Neural Network is used to compare the similarity of indoor photos to determine if multiple rental posts correspond to the same residence. Next, we use the Haversine algorithm to locate short-term rentals within a circle centered on the coordinate of a permit. Short-term rentals with a permit will not be restricted. Finally, we improve the occupancy estimation model combined with sentiment analysis, which may provide higher accuracy.

ANALISIS KOMPOSISI FOTOGRAFI PADA FOTO FASHION EDITORIAL ‘SWARNADWIPA’ KARYA NICOLINE PATRICIA MALINA

One of the activities to express yourself is through photography. Photography is not just an activity to take pictures or take pictures. However, expertise is also needed to be able to apply the basic techniques and composition of photography properly so that the resulting photos are more interesting. One Indonesian female photographer whose works are very interesting is Nicoline Patricia Malina. Nicoline is very famous for her Fashion Photography work. Nicoline's Fashion Photography works are usually used for editorial purposes. One of them is entitled 'Swarnadwipa'. In this photographic work, Nicoline uses a photographic composition of leading lines, symmetry, fill the frame, and the rule of third in portrait and landscape photo formats. Nicoline also uses a combination of gold tones which is a concept from the 'Swarnadwipa' photo series, and there are several other colors such as brown, black, gray and silver. Apart from that, Nicoline also used the Borobudur Temple building as a background for the 'Swarnadwipa' photo. This analysis uses a descriptive qualitative method, which aims to find out what photographic compositions are used in the 'Swarnadwipa' editorial fashion photo as well as to find out what the relationship between the photographic composition and the concept of 'Swarnadwipa'.

Between Destruction and Beauty: Exhibiting Photographs of Militarized Landscapes

Between Destruction and Beauty: Exhibiting Photographs of Militarized Landscapes

"I Don't Do Religion": Using Nature Photographs to Engage Patients in Spiritual Reflection.

When caring for healthcare patients, professional chaplains may find an increasing proportion of individuals in the U.S. who do not identify as religious and who may benefit from creative approaches to discussing their spiritual and existential concerns. One approach to engaging patients is using a "third voice," as shared in a personal narrative in which a chaplain uses landscape photographs to engage a patient for discussion of spiritual and existential concerns. The content of the conversation may inform decisions about treatment, quality of life, and person-centered care.

Potential of eye-tracking simulation software for analyzing landscape preferences.

Profound knowledge about landscape preferences is of high importance to support decision-making, in particular, in the context of emerging socio-economic developments to foster a sustainable spatial development and the maintenance of attractive landscapes. Eye-tracking experiments are increasingly used to examine how respondents observe landscapes, but such studies are very time-consuming and costly. For the first time, this study explored the potential of using eye-tracking simulation software in a mountain landscape by (1) identifying the type of information that can be obtained through eye-tracking simulation and (2) examining how this information contributes to the explanation of landscape preferences. Based on 78 panoramic landscape photographs, representing major landscape types of the Central European Alps, this study collected 19 indicators describing the characteristics of the hotspots that were identified by the Visual Attention Software by 3M (3M-VAS). Indicators included quantitative and spatial information (e.g., number of hotspots, probabilities of initially viewing the hotspots) as well variables indicating natural and artificial features within the hotspots (e.g., clouds, lighting conditions, natural and anthropogenic features). In addition, we estimated 18 variables describing the photo content and calculated 12 landscape metrics to quantify spatial patterns. Our results indicate that on average 3.3 hotspots were identified per photograph, mostly containing single trees and tree trunks, buildings and horizon transitions. Using backward stepwise linear regression models, the hotspot indicators increased the model explanatory power by 24%. Thus, our findings indicate that the analysis of eye-tracking hotspots can support the identification of important elements and areas of a landscape, but it is limited in explaining preferences across different landscape types. Future research should therefore focus on specific landscape characteristics such as complexity, structure or visual appearance of specific elements to increase the depth of information obtained from eye-tracking simulation software.

LUCAS cover photos 2006–2018 over the EU: 874 646 spatially distributed geo-tagged close-up photos with land cover and plant species label

Abstract. In the European Union, since 2006, a tri-annual survey has sampled land cover and land use information under the Land Use/Cover Area frame Survey (LUCAS). A total of 1 351 293 observations from 651 780 unique locations for 106 variables were collected during the five LUCAS surveys, including a total of 5.4 million landscape photos representing the observer view in the four cardinal directions as well as point photos showing the actual surveyed point. In addition to these previously published photos, additional LUCAS cover photos were recorded, showing a close-up view and thus more detail of the sampled tree, crop and plant species. Between 2006 and 2018, 875 661 LUCAS cover close-up photos were collected, showing the relevant land cover and plant species on the entire photo with the absence of any other elements of the landscape in the frame. Photos containing potential privacy content were identified following a two-stage deep learning anonymisation process, resulting in the removal of 346 photos before publication. This paper summarises the collection of LUCAS cover photos and the filtering for mandatory privacy issues and also provides links to download the data along with the photo metadata and cross-links to the corresponding LUCAS-harmonised survey data. Moreover, after presenting the final public and open dataset consisting of 874 646 photos, potential applications relying on recent advances in geo-spatial analysis and statistical learning, such as large-scale biodiversity monitoring, are discussed. The data are available on the JRC Open Data Catalogue: http://data.europa.eu/89h/c83906d7-1817-495f-b4ba-f2e4b8859d48 (European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 2022).

How the amount of greenery in city parks impacts visitor preferences in the context of naturalness, legibility and perceived danger

Understanding how the physical characteristics of city parks impact the perceptions of visitors is a factor that designers may well find useful. Many studies have been made on the influence of the quantity of vegetation in parks, and how natural it looks, on visitor preferences, but the mechanisms underlying this impact are still insufficiently understood. We attempt to identify the nature of the relationship between naturalness, legibility, perceived safety and preference taking into account the complexity of these relationships in urban parks.We analysed the correlations between the variables and the mediating effects. We applied a within-subjects design whereby 127 participants evaluated a set of 120 eye-level photographs of park landscapes. We evaluated a number of mediation models while testing hypotheses regarding the mediating role of legibility in how the quantity of greenery and naturalness impacts perceived safety and preferences towards park landscapes.All the hypotheses presented, verified via analysis of indirect effects, were confirmed. Legibility mediates naturalness and safety – the naturalness of a park itself is not a source of fear as long as the park has a clear layout. Moreover, the influence of the amount of greenery on preferences is partly explained by naturalness and legibility: more greenery enhances a landscape’s natural feel, while a landscape that is extremely natural has lower legibility, which leads to lower preferences. Finally, perceived safety turned out to be a mediator between naturalness and preference – naturalness is not popular in a park because it lowers sense of safety.The research does not offer an indication as to whether visitors prefer parks with copious or sparse greenery, or wild-looking or sculpted vegetation. However, it has shown that parks with natural vegetation tend not to be popular when they are illegible and dangerous – nature and a large amount of greenery per se do not evoke negative feelings.