Landscape Photographs Research Articles

Wildfire imagery reduces risk information-seeking among homeowners as property wildfire risk increases

Negative imagery of destruction may induce or inhibit action to reduce risks from climate-exacerbated hazards, such as wildfires. This has generated conflicting assumptions among experts who communicate with homeowners: half of surveyed wildfire practitioners perceive a lack of expert agreement about the effect of negative imagery (a burning house) on homeowner behavior, yet most believe negative imagery is more engaging. We tested whether this expectation matched homeowner response in the United States. In an online experiment, homeowners who viewed negative imagery reported more negative emotions but the same behavioral intentions compared to those who viewed status-quo landscape photos. In a pre-registered field experiment, homeowners who received a postcard showing negative imagery were equally likely, overall, to visit a wildfire risk webpage as those whose postcard showed a status quo photo. However, the negative imagery decreased webpage visits as homeowners’ wildfire risk increased. These results illustrate the importance of testing assumptions to encourage behavioral adaptation to climate change.

Changes in Electroencephalographic Results and Heart Rate Variability after Exposure to Green Landscape Photographs Correlated with Color Temperature and Illumination Level

Background and objective Various images from visual display terminals (VDTs) as well as living lighting are important parts of our daily life; thus, properly controlling the lighting environment – that is, illuminance, color temperature and good images from VDTs – can have a substantial effect on improving the mental health and work efficiency in everyday life. We examined electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) responses to various lighting conditions in 25 university students as they viewed images of a green landscape or traffic congestion. Methods EEG was performed in darkness and when the room was illuminated with 10 different light-emitting diode (LED) color temperatures, while the EEG and HRV responses to green landscape or traffic congestion image stimuli were measured in darkness and during room illumination with three different LED color temperatures. Results We found a significant difference between darkness and high LED illumination (400 lx) at 7 (CZ, F4, FZ, O1, O2, OZ, and T6) of 30 channels, while the alpha wave activity increased during darkness. In the second experiment, the green landscape image stimuli in the 30 lx–2600 K lighting condition elicited theta wave activity on the EEG, whereas the traffic congestion image stimuli under high LED illumination elicited high beta and gamma wave activities. Moreover, the subjects exhibited better stress coping ability and heart rate stability in response to green landscape image stimuli under illuminated conditions, according to their HRV. Conclusion These results suggest that lower color temperatures and illumination levels alleviate tension, and that viewing green landscape image stimuli at low illumination, or in darkness, is effective for reducing stress. Conversely, high illumination levels and color temperatures are likely to increase tension and stress in response to traffic congestion image stimuli.

Color Image Landscape Photo Hand-Painted Effect Evaluation with PFA Algorithm

With the continuous development of society and economy, diversified presentation and publicity of landscape are becoming more and more popular among the public, such as using color pictures to display multimedia publicity videos or APP, WeChat public accounts, and other new media. There are various ways of expression. Against the limitations of color image landscape, this article introduced the PFA algorithm, during the experiment of hand-painted landscape pictures, the effect of color hand-painted images is evaluated by using the coordination degree of natural target detection scene, and the corresponding image evaluation index values are obtained for effective analysis, and the prediction model is established. The simulation results show that the PFA algorithm is effective and can support the evaluation of the hand-painted effect of color landscape photos.

Desertification Extraction Based on a Microwave Backscattering Contribution Decomposition Model at the Dry Bottom of the Aral Sea

The fine particles produced during the desertification process provide a rich material source for sand and dust activities. Accurately locating the desertified areas is a prerequisite for human intervention in sand and dust activities. In arid and semi-arid regions, due to very sparse vegetation coverage, the microwave surface scattering model is very suitable for describing the variation of topsoil property during the process of desertification. However, the microwave backscattering coefficient (MBC) trend of the soil during the desertification process is still unclear now. Moreover, the MBC of a resolution unit usually involves the contribution of soil and vegetation. These problems seriously limit the application of microwave remote sensing technology in desertification identification. In this paper, we studied the soil MBC change trend during the desertification process and proposed a microwave backscattering contribution decomposition (MBCD) model to estimate the soil MBC of a resolution unit. Furthermore, a simple microwave backscattering threshold (SMSBT) model was established to describe the severity of desertification. The MBCD and SMSBT models were verified qualitatively through landscape photos of sampling points from a field survey in November 2018. The results showed that the MBC would gradually decline with the deepening degree of desertification. The MBCD model and the corresponding least squares method can be used to estimate the soil MBC accurately, and the SMSBT model can accurately distinguish different degrees of desertification. The results of desertification classification showed that more than 68% of the dry bottom of the Aral Sea is suffering from different degrees of desertification.

Understanding the visual image of Kailash Sacred Landscape through geo-tagged landscape photos mapping

Kailash is one of the most important sacred landscape in Trans-Himalayan region and worshiped by multiple nations and religions. The visual construction of this sacred landscape is a complex process of cultural practice, and even in the era of Internet and big data, the burgeoning photo sharing websites, social media have further influenced people's gaze and imagination of Kailash. The research paper focuses on people's visual perception of Kailash Sacred Landscape and proposed a hypothesis that the images of Kailash become a product of viewer's selection of iconic symbols from landscape and then be reconstructed through visual media. The research mainly includes two parts. The first part focuses on the GIS spatial analysis of the complex visual landscape of Kailash. Viewshed analysis reveals the visual prominence of Kailash in the whole region, and also the change in people's visual perception of this mountain during the kora trek. The second part focuses on of the geo-tagged photos collected form social media. Visual content analysis based on computer vision is adopted to recognize items from collected photos. Most visual elements can be integrated into a higher-level set of 8 visual elements. According to the ratio of each element, hierarchical clustering is adopted to describe the similarity between each photo. The dendrogram of clustering result shows all the photos can be generally divided into 9 groups, which reflects different paradigms of people's visual expression of Kailash. In conclusion, this research reveals how Kailash is represented through filtered images in a web-based context. Also, it explores and extends the applications of GIS and AI technology in cultural landscape research.

Evaluating green resource branding using user-generated content data: The case study of a greenway in eastern Guangzhou, China

Examining the functional conditions of completed infrastructure will contribute new knowledge of practical performance to the original place branding. This paper evaluates greenway branding as a type of green resource branding with particular attention to media promotion, users’ outdoor activity trajectories, and the image content of geo-tagged photos. We found that greenway infrastructure in Zengcheng, Guangzhou increasingly generated concerns from more visitors and residents by the media. However, according to geographical activity information, only 35% of outdoor activities in Zengcheng take place within the greenway. Meanwhile, the average staying time of outdoor users at the greenway is shorter than that on ordinary roads. Our analysis of the number of geo-tagged photos indicates that outdoor users are more interested in the scenery outside the greenway than that in and along it. Comparing outdoor users’ staying time and the content of photos, our research shows that the public finds Zengcheng’s greenway less attractive for spending leisure time and taking landscape photos. Additionally, our image content analysis indicates that the greenway images taken by outdoor users include mainly trees, sky, and roads, while those of mountains and water are less common due to the limited variety of scenery. The implication of our research is that greenway usage can be improved by involving outdoor users in greenway planning, enhancing the variety of scenery along greenways, and establishing connections to rural resorts.

Whose park? Crowdsourcing citizen's urban green space preferences to inform needs-based management decisions

• Photo uploads to social media are linked to specific uses and are not a good indicator of subjective values. • Landscape photo composition is not linked to preferences. • A dedicated mobile app provides useful insights into in situ location specific perception and preferences, especially with regard to quieter values of urban green space. • Combined with observations of use a dedicated app can help prioritise locations for improvement. Subjective values of urban green spaces are difficult to quantify and thus easily overlooked in planning processes. Accounting for such values is an important challenge in developing sustainable cities. Crowdsourcing methods, such as big data and smart phone applications, have emerged as promising methods to improve insights into subjective perceptions and preferences. However, we know little about how well these relatively new methods actually quantify subjective values. We assessed several of these new methods by comparing observations of use (n = 1009) to three crowdsourcing methods in one large park in Amsterdam, the Netherlands: a dedicated mobile app providing in situ stated preferences (n = 377), passive social media (n = 78) and a municipal reporting app (n = 187). We show that observed use and passive social media only captured user quantity and were not able to identify green space qualities that are important for mental health functions, such as how relaxing or safe a location is. The dedicated mobile app combined with observed use helped to identify priority locations for improvement. Our findings emphasize that if inadequate measures are used in smart city developments, subjective values and specific user groups will continue to be overlooked in planning processes.

ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS OF THE PARK ENVIRONMENT AS INDICATORS OF THE SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS’ IMPACT ON AESTHETIC PREFERENCES

The article presents outlines the importance of architectural components of the park environment as indicators of the influence of socio-cultural factors on aesthetic preferences.
 The study involved 60 people, ranging in age from 22 to 74 years, which were divided into two age groups of 30 people: young people - 22-34 years (mean age 23.9 years); Mature people are 46-74 years old (average age 58.9 years). The study used a free associative experiment in which respondents distributed 45 photos of park landscapes from 18 world parks into three, equal in number, groups according to their own preferences and independently determined the factors that influenced the decision to refer them to the group of attractive, neutral or unattractive landscapes.
 Positive influence on aesthetic preferences was found on the part of historical buildings and structures on mature respondents, together with its neutral effect on young ones. At the same time, there was a neutral attitude of a group of mature respondents to the monuments of the Soviet era and a negative one on the part of the youth. Similar is the influence of abstract sculptures on the aesthetic perception of both young and mature respondents, which is negative. However, the negative impact of these elements on the aesthetic preferences of mature respondents is more significant.
 Summarizing the results of studies of aesthetic preferences and factors that influence their formation, it is advisable to note the importance of architectural components, as well as the importance of their ideological context. Along with the similarity of influence on aesthetic preferences of features of park environment, differences related to sociocultural influence on the formation of aesthetic experience were revealed due to the results of the analysis of the perception of architectural components.

Aesthetic resources of the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory (within the borders of the Irkutsk region)

The research considers the results of the aesthetic assessment of landscapes in the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory (CEZ BNT). The expert assessment based on a set of indicators was carried out in Quantum GIS using landscape photographs. Cartographic materials (landscape typological map, Forest Resource Management maps, SRTM, areas affected by fire, etc.) were also involved in the assessment. The map «Aesthetic Evaluation of the Geosystems of the Central Ecological zone of Lake Baikal within the Borders of the Irkutsk Region» was created based on the analysis of the estimated indicators of the aesthetic landscape quality. The construction of the map is based on the principle of the priority of landscape scene viewpoints; the assessment is assigned to the polygon from which the landscape scene is observed. The article contains the detailed structure of the landscape scene complexes of the CEZ BNT.

Implementation of Aerial Panoramic Photography for Environmental Studies Through VR Experiences

Technology allows us to experience situations from a different perspective. This project investigated many parts and techniques for better VR experiences. Aerial photography: Aerial photography provides a broad view of the changes in a landscape. However, aerial photography cannot offer a microscopic perspective of the changes with novel panoramas and landscape photos. A parallax compensation algorithm for stitching videos enables the user to reduce the time required to fix stitching issues in post-production. The experiment results indicated that the optimum camera height was 500 m, slightly higher than the clouds. An appropriate number of spatial samples were selected during photography to obtain high-quality images. The researchers avoided restricted flight areas and designed the image acquisition method according to the selected flight path, which were then combined in the post-processing step. Those 360-degree-aerial-images trigger young people's environmental awareness, which enhances the creator's sense of environmental protection.

From Noon to Sunset: Interactive Rendering, Relighting, and Recolouring of Landscape Photographs by Modifying Solar Position

AbstractImage editing is a commonly studied problem in computer graphics. Despite the presence of many advanced editing tools, there is no satisfactory solution to controllably update the position of the sun using a single image. This problem is made complicated by the presence of clouds, complex landscapes, and the atmospheric effects that must be accounted for. In this paper, we tackle this problem starting with only a single photograph. With the user clicking on the initial position of the sun, our algorithm performs several estimation and segmentation processes for finding the horizon, scene depth, clouds, and the sky line. After this initial process, the user can make both fine‐ and large‐scale changes on the position of the sun: it can be set beneath the mountains or moved behind the clouds practically turning a midday photograph into a sunset (or vice versa). We leverage a precomputed atmospheric scattering algorithm to make all of these changes not only realistic but also in real‐time. We demonstrate our results using both clear and cloudy skies, showing how to add, remove, and relight clouds, all the while allowing for advanced effects such as scattering, shadows, light shafts, and lens flares.

Practices of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York: (hidden) digital and embodied discourse

Abstract This paper investigates practices of urban discursive place-making in selected neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. I investigate the forms and functions of hitherto neglected multimodal data – semiotic landscapes written on the body, (hidden) Wi-Fi Service Set Identifiers, that is, SSIDs or Wi-Fi names, and #Brooklyn Tweets – and how I have compiled these into a corpus. The corpus currently consists of multivariate data including – among others – ca. 1.3 million words of semi-structured interviews with Brooklynites, ca. 8,000 photographs of the semiotic landscapes in Brooklyn, New York, and ca. 47,000 Wi-Fi SSIDs. The aim of this paper is to show which semiotic forms and constructions of both Wi-Fi SSIDs and #Brooklyn Tweets take on foregrounded practices of so-called discursive urban-place-making and how these interact in the various neighborhoods of Brooklyn and in the virtual spheres related to them. I will show how these practices carry the potential for (re-)indexing specific social values of an urban neighborhood or even the borough itself and how Brooklynites and others comment on the respective neighborhoods. They position themselves in the social, cultural, political, and economic spheres of urbanity. The mixed-methods approach draws on corpus linguistic, sociolinguistic, and stylistic methodology.

FACTORS DETERMINING THE PHENOMENA IN THE UPER TREE LINE ECOTONE IN THE POLAR URALS MOUNTAINS

The article presents the results of the analysis of long-term studies dedicated to the reaction of woody plants to various extreme factors in the Rai-Iz mountain massif and Chernaya mountain, which are located on the southeastern slope of the Polar Urals in the Sob River basin (Russia). The analysis was performed using a unique archive of landscape photos, which were made by the authors from the beginning of the 1960s until the present. The classifi cation and description of the phenomena that are caused by the infl uence of environmental factors on woody vegetation, as well as their presentation using landscape photos, allow us to expand the possibilities of using ground-based images for the purposes of environmental photo monitoring of woody vegetation at the tree line. They can be used as an independent data source to identify factors that determine a morphological structure and spatial altitude of woody vegetation.

SCRIPTS ON LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES: A MARKER OF HYBRID IDENTITY IN URBAN AREAS OF PAKISTAN

Background and Purpose: Scripts have strong relationship with religion, culture, and identity. This research was conducted to analyze how choice of different language scripts indicates identity crisis by observing placement, size, and preference of one code over the other. Furthermore, it also demonstrates the existence of plurilingual practices on linguistic landscapes.
 
 Methodology: The relationship of scripts with culture and religion was analyzed by following the theoretical framework of semiotics given by Scollon and Scollon (2003) and Huebner (2006). Data was collected through photographs of linguistic landscapes and passersby interviews. Altogether, a corpus of 1064 photographs was collected from three cities in Pakistan (i.e Rawalpindi, Islamabad & Wah Cantt) and 10 passersby were interviewed.
 
 Findings: Data analysis reveals some distinctive linguistic modifications in shop signs and billboards; including deviation in spellings, transliteration, linguistic hybridity, vocabulary, visual representation of language, lack of knowledge of Urdu vocabulary, acceptance of English vocabulary as part of Urdu language and use of sub-standard English vocabulary.
 
 Contribution: The research concludes that erroneous use of language and transliteration practices cause hybrid hybridity. Moreover, considering Urdu alternatives as an oddity, along with inability to retrieve Urdu vocabulary are major challenges for policy makers to promote and implement Urdu language policies.
 
 Keywords: Linguistic landscape, plurilingualism, script and identity, transliteration, translanguaging, linguistic hybridity.
 
 Cite as: Atta, A. (2021). Scripts on linguistic landscapes: A marker of hybrid identity in urban areas of Pakistan. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(2), 58-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss2pp58-96

Scenicness assessment of onshore wind sites with geotagged photographs and impacts on approval and cost-efficiency

Cost-efficiency and public acceptance are competing objectives for onshore wind locations. The impact of ‘scenicness’ on these two objectives has been difficult to quantify for wind projects. We analyse the link between economic wind resources and beautiful landscapes with over 1.5 million ‘scenicness’ ratings of around 200,000 geotagged photographs from across Great Britain. We find evidence that planning applications for onshore wind are more likely to be rejected when proposed in more scenic areas. Compared to the technical potential of onshore wind of 1,700 TWh at a total cost of £280 billion, removing the 10% most scenic areas implies about 18% lower generation potential and 8–26% higher costs. We also consider connection distances to the nearest electricity network transformer, showing that the connection costs constitute up to half of the total costs. The results provide a quantitative framework for researchers and policymakers to consider the trade-offs between cost-efficiency and public acceptance for onshore wind. There have been objections to onshore wind turbines for aesthetic reasons, although a quantitative methodology to provide some assessment of the risk of such public objections has been missing. McKenna et al. develop a method to use geotagged photographs of landscapes to assess potential future public acceptance of projects.

The Usambara Knowledge Project: Place as Archive in a Tanzanian Mountain Range

AbstractThe essay chronicles the early phases of a digital history project on landscape change in the mountains of eastern Tanzania. In collecting sources for a land and culture narrative, the project aims ultimately to create an archive that is locally produced in Tanzania and maintained by Utah State University Library’s Special Collections and Archives division. The project draws on more than thirty early twentieth-century landscape photographs from the Usambara Mountains in northeastern Tanzania by Walther Dobbertin, a professional photographer living in German East Africa. In the fall of 2015, team members scouted the sites for repeat photographs. The following summer, the project team began repeat photography and expanded the range of local collaborators to develop an oral history collection tied to the region’s landscape history. The essay lays out the problems, pitfalls, and successes of the preliminary collaborative work among academics, university students, archival specialists, and elders’ groups intent on collecting and preserving knowledge.

Journalism’s visual construction of place in environmental coverage

This study builds on our understanding of how visual journalism is used with environmental reporting to create a sense of place and understanding. Although most American photojournalism tends to favor close-up photos with people, environmental coverage leans opposite: sweeping landscape photos devoid of people. However, our content analysis of wire and non-wire environmental photos on U.S. newspaper front pages shows support that person-focused feature imagery is being used more, though mostly at an informational level.

Air Pollution Reduces Interpersonal Trust: The Roles of Emotion and Emotional Susceptibility.

Air pollution has been shown to have detrimental effects on physical and mental health, yet little is known about how air pollution affects psychosocial functioning in everyday life. We conducted three studies that utilized experimental methods and web crawler technology to examine the effect of hazy environmental conditions on perceived interpersonal trust, and to investigate the roles of emotion and emotional susceptibility in mediating or moderating the negative impact of air pollution. In Study 1, participants were presented with landscape photos that showed either hazy scenes or clear scenes. Those who viewed photos of hazy scenes reduced their levels of interpersonal trust. In Study 2, emotion data were collected from social media with web crawler technology, in connection with meteorological monitoring data during the same period. Hazy conditions were associated with reduced expressions of positive emotion on social media, whereas clearer conditions were associated with enhanced positive emotional expressions. In Study 3, we simulated Weibo communications in the laboratory. The findings showed that emotional susceptibility moderated the negative effect of hazy conditions on interpersonal trust, and negative emotion mediated the effect of hazy conditions on interpersonal trust. The findings advance the understanding of the impact of air pollution on interpersonal trust and social relations and the associated psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions. They have important real-life implications.

Visual characteristics of the tea plantation landscape in Wazuka town as a suburban rural area

Wazuka town is located in the southeastern part of Kyoto prefecture and is known as a tea plantation production area. The landscape created by the livelihood has been inherited. This study aimed to show the visual characteristics of the tea plantation landscape in Wazuka town from the viewpoint of visitors and obtain basic knowledge on the enhancement of landscape planning and revitalization of suburban rural area. First, based on the impression evaluation of the tea plantation landscape through a photo projective method, factor and cluster analyses were performed. The first factor was interpreted as the “openness” and the second factor as the “uniqueness”. Second, in classifying landscape photographs, four types were shown: high openness, high uniqueness, moderate openness and uniqueness, and low openness and uniqueness. Third, the relationship between the types of landscape photography and landscape components was analyzed. In conclusion, it was shown that the tea plantation occupancy rate is approximately 60％ or more as a landscape, which has the uniqueness of a tea plantation. Moreover, it was shown the uniqueness of a tea plantation, in cases of the upward view and where the tea plantation occupancy rate is high on the slope, regarding the landscape where the tea plantation occupancy rate is less than 60％.

A divergent approach to pareidolias—Exploring creativity in a novel way.

Pareidolias, the illusory perception of patterns like faces or animals in backgrounds or textures (e.g., clouds), may be a potentially interesting paradigm to assess creativity. The present study investigates the relationship between production of pareidolias, divergent thinking, and associative thinking. To analyze creative aspects of pareidolias a tablet-based task was devised, the Divergent Pareidolias Task (DPT), where participants were presented with photographs of natural landscapes and they were asked to produce pareidolias. Pareidolic outputs were analyzed in terms of fluency, flexibility, and originality. Creativity-related cognitive tasks (i.e., tasks assessing alertness, cognitive inhibition, and verbal intelligence) and a short interview assessing creative interests in everyday life were additionally administered. Regression analyses revealed that divergent thinking, in terms of fluency of the Alternative Uses Task significantly predicted fluency and originality of pareidolias produced in the DPT. Moreover, fluent and rarer associations in an Associative Fluency Task were predictive of fluent and original aspects of pareidolias in the DPT, respectively. Taken together, the results of this pilot study indicate the involvement of creative processes in the production of pareidolias and suggest that the DPT could represent a possible future way to investigate divergent aspects of creative cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)