Landscape Preferences Research Articles

An investigation into the shifting landscape preferences of rural residents in Taiwan and their relationship with ecological indicators.

Rapid urbanization has significantly altered landscape environments in both urban and rural regions, and these landscapes have been demonstrated to play a pivotal role in human well-being. This study develops a coherent framework that integrates landscape change, landscape ecological indicators, and landscape preferences within the context of the evolving landscape environments of rural communities in Taiwan. Four distinct types of rural communities were selected, and a quantitative methodology was employed to investigate the variations and transformations in landscape preferences among rural residents in the context of landscape change. A qualitative methodology was employed to investigate the relationship between landscape ecological indicators and landscape preferences. The study's findings indicate significant temporal variations in residents' landscape preferences, with landscape beauty, stewardship, and coherence emerging as key determinants in the evaluation of these preferences. Landscape ecological indicators were found to be significantly correlated with variables such as landscape complexity, landscape beauty, openness, naturalness, and comprehensive landscape assessment. The findings of this study indicate that design planners, land managers, and public sector organizations can employ multidimensional thinking in the management of rural landscapes to align with the visual aesthetic preferences of rural residents.

The influence of visual and auditory environments in parks on visitors’ landscape preference, emotional state, and perceived restorativeness

Various auditory and visual factors influence people’s perception and restoration experiences in the spatial environments. However, few studies have treated these factors as a comprehensive system phenomenon to reveal their integrated effects. Therefore, a specific explanation of the primary pathways and factors that contribute to the main effects of park soundscapes and visual features and the resulting perceived restorativeness remains unclear. The study surveyed 861 visitors in five urban parks in China and collected audiovisual information. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the research explored the direct, indirect, and moderating effects of common audiovisual environments in parks on perceived restorativeness, emotional states, and preferences. The results indicate that most natural-related visual and auditory factors provide direct benefits for people’s perceived restorativeness, emotional state, and preference. Additionally, certain landscape features and types of sound sources, such as trees and water sounds, have indirect effects on activating restoration through preference and emotion mediation. The study also reveals the moderating effects of landscape features and sound source types on emotional and perceived restorativeness. Another noteworthy finding is the significant relationship between bird songs and the positive impact on perceived restorativeness, emotional state, and preference, which is closely related to acoustic quality indicators. These findings offer new insights for creating urban park spaces through visual and auditory interactions.

Research on Preferences for Urban Wilderness Landscape in Shanghai Based on Public Cognition

Research on Preferences for Urban Wilderness Landscape in Shanghai Based on Public Cognition

Which landscape do you prefer? The role of emotions on choices for landscape management

Landscape preferences refer to the subjective likes and dislikes people have regarding various types of landscapes. However, the specific role that emotions play in this question and their impact on influencing choices for landscape is still poorly studied. To address this gap, we hypothesise that landscapes evoke emotions and we explore whether they have a role in shaping landscape preferences. Using 109 semi-structured interviews we captured the diversity of emotions on different landscapes in SE Spain, employing a random parameter logit model to explain how emotions could influence the probability of choosing a landscape. Results revealed that different landscapes were perceived as preferred, with specific emotions associated with them. Results also showed that two main factors significantly influenced landscape preference choices: specific positive emotions and distinct landscape typologies. These insights may contribute to reframe human-nature relationships in landscape management, considering emotional bonds and human behaviour as important aspects for guiding conservation policies.

Exploring the Link Between Social Media Engagement, Social Anxiety, and Environmental Preferences in University Students

As mental health issues become increasingly prominent, social anxiety is prevalent among university students and significantly affects their social behaviors and environmental preferences. With the increasing reliance on social media, understanding how these behaviors shape preferences for physical social environments is crucial for designing supportive campus spaces. This study investigates the relationship between social anxiety, social media usage, and environmental preferences in campus settings. We aim to identify the key environmental factors that can promote healthier social interactions for students with varying levels of social anxiety and social media use. Data were collected from university students through a structured questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, online and offline behavior, social media usage intensity, social anxiety level, and environmental preferences. Using K-means clustering, participants were grouped into four clusters based on their social media usage and social anxiety levels. ANOVA and Multivariate Multiple Regression (MMR) were conducted to examine differences in environmental preferences across these clusters. Significant differences in environmental preferences were observed across the four clusters. Gender and grade influenced social anxiety levels, with females and undergraduate students reporting greater anxiety. Individuals with high social media use, regardless of their anxiety levels, generally exhibited stronger preferences for various environmental dimensions, including openness, convenience, facility provision, safety/comfort, and cultural landscape. However, individuals with higher social anxiety tended to prefer enclosed, facility-rich, and more controlled environments. The relationship between social anxiety and preferences for convenience, safety/comfort, and cultural landscape was minimal or non-significant. This study highlights the importance of considering both behavioral and psychological factors when designing university social environments. By identifying specific environmental preferences of students with high social anxiety, the findings offer evidence-based recommendations for creating more inclusive and supportive campus spaces that promote positive social interactions and well-being.

Unearthing Shan–shui in the contemporary park: landscape preferences are influenced by archetype

ABSTRACT Archetypes, having both unique metaphysical and neurological underpinnings, are instrumental in forming the human experience of the external world. China, in particular, has demonstrated a rich historical tradition of cultivating and perpetuating Shan–shui aesthetics. Due to the inseparability of Shan–shui archetypes and Shan–shui landscapes, this research proposes that the Chinese population’s preference for such landscapes can be attributed to two factors. First, there is an innate biological affinity for nature to humans. Second, cultural influences establish a subconscious emotional connection to these landscapes. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to analyze the contemporary Shan–shui landscapes in the Olympic Forest Park (artificial Shan–shui) and Yuji Island Park (natural Shan–shui). By examining questionnaires in line with biological and cultural principles, the statistical analysis results substantiate a strong preference for the Shan–shui landscape. Through correlation analysis, stepwise multiple regression, and factor analysis, it is demonstrated that, beyond satisfying biological selections, the Shan–shui landscape evokes emotional resonance due to its cultural proximity to the ideal environment shaped by the Shan–shui archetype. Therefore, this study posits that landscape preferences are significantly influenced by the archetype.

Ecosystem service values support conservation and sustainable land development: Perspectives from four University of California campuses

Urban landscapes homogenize our world at global scales, contributing to “extinction of experience”, a progressive decline in human interactions with native greenspace that can disconnect people from the services it provides. College age adults report feeling disconnected from nature more than other demographics, making universities a logical place to explore interventions intended to restore a connection with nature. This study surveyed 1088 students and staff across four university campus communities in Southern California, USA and used multicriteria decision analysis to explore their landscape preferences and the implications of those preferences for combatting extinction of experience. Our results suggest that perspectives of, and preferences for, different greenspace forms vary significantly (i.e., they are not perceived as substitutable). Support for native ecosystems, particularly coastal sage scrub (top ranked landscape) was generally high, suggesting that disaffection with wild nature is not particularly widespread. Programs for replacing turf grass lawns (lowest ranked landscape) with native plants were also well supported, but support for stormwater bioswales was more moderate (and variable). This may reflect their relative newness, both on university campuses and in urban spaces more generally. Not all members of campus communities preferred the same landscapes; preferences differed with degree of pro-environmentalism and university status (undergraduate student, graduate student, staff). Even so, all respondents exhibited landscape preferences consistent with at least one approach for combatting extinction of experience, suggesting that ecologists, engineers and urban planners have a viable set of generalizable tools for reconnecting people with nature.

Using a location-based game to collect preference information for urban and rural forest planning

Location-based games provide an opportunity to collect crowdsourced, spatially explicit data that can be used in decision-making processes in forest planning. While these games have been more widely used in collecting mapping and modelling data, there is limited research on their suitability for collecting location-based data on human preferences, opinions, and emotions in these contexts. Collecting human-centred data can be resource-intensive and costly, hence exploring the potential of location-based games is important. This study investigates the use of geocaching in gathering meaningful data in urban and rural settings. A methodology was developed wherein surveys were embedded in geocaches on trails located in urban and rural forests in Finland. These surveys collected quantitative, qualitative, and photographic data relating to human-forest relationships and landscape preferences. The findings indicate that trails closer to urban areas with higher population density showed increased cache log volume and survey response rates. Moreover, trails tended to collect most information in the first summer after establishment. It is recommended that future studies employing this methodology create shorter, easily accessible, circular trails and that survey questions should be clear and incorporate a method to verify that submitted responses reflect experiences at the chosen location. Furthermore, forest planning professionals and researchers seeking to utilise location-based games in data collection are advised to engage with the communities active in playing them to ensure success..

Wild or neat? Personal traits affect public preference for wildness of urban lakeshores in France and China

Urban natural spaces with high wildness degrees could harbor greater biodiversity and provide more experiences of nature for urbanites than green–blue spaces that are perfectly manicured and regularly maintained. Existing empirical studies have suggested that people tend to prefer moderately wild landscapes. However, urbanites’ preferences for varying wildness degrees of urban landscapes have rarely been studied in developing countries with fast-growing cities. Using a photograph-based survey, this study compared citizens’ preferences for an urban wildness gradient of urban lakeshores between developed (Tours, France) and developing (Wuhan, China) contexts. In Tours and Wuhan, respectively, 120 and 295 questionnaires were collected, focusing on lakeshore visitors only. Bootstrapping and thematic analysis of the survey responses affirmed that urban lakeshores with medium-degree wildness are consistently preferred across developed and developing contexts, a result that can be attributed to the perceived balance between landscape coherence/legibility and complexity/mystery. Moreover, some respondents (25.8 % from Tours and 32.6 % from Wuhan) showed a strong preference for complex and unstructured lakeshore landscapes with high wildness for different reasons. In Tours, respondents’ preference for high wildness degree was associated with more frequent visits to lakeshore areas. In Wuhan, a similar preference was associated with increasing age. While increasing the wildness of urban lakeshores from low to medium could adequately meet public preferences, attracting more frequent visits and helping younger residents to appreciate urban wildness should be considered for successfully restoring/enriching biodiversity and mobilizing public support for wild urban landscapes.

Landscape properties and density dependence shape the movement patterns of three threatened butterflies

ContextConservation of endangered species necessitates an in-depth understanding of their ecological requirements. Particularly in landscape ecology, the behavioural tendencies of threatened butterfly species in Gotland, a biodiversity-rich island in the Baltic Sea, become crucial.ObjectivesThe primary aim of this study was to elucidate the movement patterns of three threatened butterfly species—Euphydryas aurinia, Parnassius apollo, and Phengaris arion—in Gotland and to identify the influence of specific land characteristics on these patterns.MethodsOur study, conducted from 2017 to 2020 across 60 km2 in Gotland, involved detailed capture-mark-recapture (CMR) efforts of 29,584 captures including 16,223 unique butterflies. We investigate the departure and arrival events of butterflies, specifically focusing on the associations between movements when individuals leave or enter a hectare grid different from their previously recorded location and key landscape features: open vegetated land, ground moisture, and forest cover. We model landscape features to examine the interplay between these and butterfly movement patterns, providing insights into preferred landscape features and conservation strategies.ResultsAmong the 4821 arrivals and 5083 departures documented, the species exhibited differential responses to the evaluated habitat features. Both E. aurinia and P. apollo displayed a positive density-dependent dispersal, while P. arion’s movements were not significantly associated with any of the examined habitat features. Landscape properties like open vegetated land and ground moisture index statistically influenced the likelihood of arrival and departure.ConclusionsThe study accentuates the relationship between land cover and the behavioural tendencies of the subject butterfly species. It has broader implications for the targeted habitat management strategies that would benefit threatened butterfly populations in Gotland.

Exploring the dose-response of landscape preference: A case study in Singapore

Despite pursuing greening initiatives, cities might experience excessive greenery at the neighborhood level. The intension of this research is to promote ecosystem services and avoid the mantle of so-called “green urbanism”. Hence, examining the dose-response relationship is essential to understanding the intricate interplay between residential greenery quantity and landscape preference. Drawing upon preference assessment data from multiple neighborhoods with 30 typical scenes (n = 147), we employ Kaplan's landscape preference matrix (KLPM) to quantify the spatial distribution of greenery and individuals' preference assessment from the perspectives of Mystery, Coherence, Legibility, and Complexity. Results from multiple and ridge regressions indicate that the dose-response curve follows a polynomial shape, with landscape preferences reaching a threshold as the NDVI value increased from 0.35 to 0.42. Beyond the threshold, the trend of landscape preference levels tapers off and eventually plateaus. Therefore, the conclusion of our cross-sectional experiment adequately reflects the threshold effect of landscape preference toward greenery quantity. Furthermore, the weight of Mystery, Coherence, and Legibility in KLPM all showed a positive strong correlation, but the dose-response relationship cannot be fully explained by Complexity. These results inform how designers can more effectively promote optimal doses of nearby nature to circumvent worldwide overheated "Garden City” initiatives.

Assessing Immediate and Lasting Impacts of COVID-19-Induced Isolation on Green Space Usage Patterns.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly influenced urban lifestyles, particularly the utilization of green spaces. While existing studies have primarily focused on the immediate effects of COVID-19-induced isolation, less attention has been given to the enduring impacts on green space usage patterns. This study addresses this gap by conducting three comprehensive surveys in Dezhou, China-before, during, and after the first wave of social isolation (December 2019, March 2020, December 2020). These surveys assessed socioeconomic conditions, commuting habits, green space usage habits, and landscape preferences, specifically focusing on usage frequency, duration of stays, and activities undertaken. Using Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman's rho correlations, we identified significant long-term changes, including an increase in the frequency of visits by previously infrequent users, a reduction in visit durations, and a rise in high-intensity activities. These trends persisted 9months post-isolation, highlighting the pandemic's lasting impact on green space usage and its critical role in enhancing public health and pandemic preparedness through thoughtful urban environmental design. This study not only sheds light on behavioral adaptations during a public health crisis but also offers evidence-based strategies for urban planning to bolster societal resilience in the face of future pandemics.

Surveillance as a variable explaining why other people’s presence in a park setting affects sense of safety and preferences

Research on preferences towards urban parks very rarely takes into account the impact of other people’s presence in a park setting. We examined how the number of people in the vicinity and their distance affect sense of safety and preferences towards park space, and what role surveillance (being seen or heard) plays in these relationships. We analysed the correlations between the variables and the mediating effects. For this purpose, we employed a within-subjects design in which 194 participants evaluated a set of 112 eye-level photographs of park landscapes with regard to perceived safety, landscape preference and surveillance. We calculated how many people were in the field and determined their distance on the basis of photos. We analysed a number of mediation models testing hypotheses about the mediating role of surveillance and safety in the impact of other people’s presence on safety and preferences. Most of the hypotheses presented, and verified by the analysis of indirect effects, were confirmed. The number of people does not affect preferences, but does affect safety, and this explains why the sense of being monitored (being seen or heard) grows along with the number of people present. On the other hand, the influence of distance on preferences is explained by a sequential model — greater distance is associated with less surveillance; in turn, surveillance increases sense of safety, which also leads to stronger preferences.

Research on the optimization of tourist attraction route planning through multiple big data

Tourism travel is a prevalent form of leisure and entertainment. This paper provides a brief overview of an attraction route planning algorithm based on multi-source data, which combines multi-source data to assess the effectiveness of the planned route and utilizes the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for path optimization. The genetic algorithm (GA) operations were incorporated with the PSO algorithm to enhance optimization performance. Subsequently, simulation experiments were conducted to compare the GA-PSO algorithm with using the PSO algorithm and GA. Moreover, a comparative analysis was performed on the performance of the path planning algorithm using single-source and multi-source data. The results demonstrated that the GA-PSO algorithm exhibited the fastest convergence in optimization search and achieved the best fitness value at stabilization. Among the three path schemes, the GA-PSO algorithm performed the best, followed by the GA, while the PSO algorithm was found to be the least optimal. Furthermore, path planning with multi-source data demonstrated better alignment with tourists’ landscape preferences, enabling personalized routes construction.

Using a Public Preference Questionnaire and Eye Movement Heat Maps to Identify the Visual Quality of Rural Landscapes in Southwestern Guizhou, China

Rural landscapes serve as important platforms to determine the landscape characteristics (LCs) of rural areas, demonstrating the landscape characteristics specific to certain regions to the public. However, the development trend of urban and rural areas is continuous and impacts the characteristics of rural landscapes, which directly affects the public’s visual experience and landscape perception. In order to improve the characteristics of rural landscapes, this study evaluates and analyzes their visual quality based on public preferences and eye movement heat maps. The results show that most subjects have a high preference for horizontal, open-view rural landscapes with fields and landform features as the dominant landscape elements. This study also found that the combination of strip-like or planar settlement buildings with regional characteristics and landform features has an active impact on the visual quality of rural landscapes. These results show that rural landscapes characterized by scattered settlement buildings without significant regional characteristics, horizontally curved roads, bridges, and other human-made landscape elements, and mixed and disorderly vegetation have low landscape preference, which degrades their visual quality. These research results provide crucial suggestions for landscape managers to protect and renew rural landscape features.

Seeing and Thinking about Urban Blue–Green Space: Monitoring Public Landscape Preferences Using Bimodal Data

Urban blue–green spaces (UBGSs) are a significant avenue for addressing the worldwide mental health crisis. To effectively optimise landscape design and management for the promotion of health benefits from UBGS, it is crucial to objectively understand public preferences. This paper proposes a method to evaluate public landscape preference from the perspective of seeing and thinking, takes the examples of seven parks around the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, China, and analyses the social media data by using natural language processing technology and image semantic segmentation technology. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The public exhibits significantly high positive sentiments towards various UBGSs, with over 93% of comments expressed positive sentiments. (2) Differences exist in the frequency and perception of landscape features between image and text modalities. Landscape elements related to stability are perceived more in images than in text, while dynamic and experiential elements are perceived more in text than in images. (3) In both modalities, the distinctive landscape features of parks are more frequently perceived and preferred by the public. In the end, the intrinsic links between landscape elements and public sentiment and preferences are discussed, and suggestions for design and management improvements are made to consolidate their health benefits to the public.

Offshore Wind Farms and Tourism Development Relationship to Energy Distribution Justice for the Beibu Gulf, China

Energy distribution justice is of primary concern within the energy justice framework and it is crucial to increase public acceptance of offshore wind energy and further advance its development. The rapid development of offshore wind energy in China has inevitably impacted the livelihoods of coastal vulnerable groups (CVGs) engaged in fisheries and tourism in the coastal zone. While current policies often compensate for livelihood losses through cash payments, the fiscal strain caused by COVID-19 renders this approach unsustainable. Consequently, this research pioneers the exploration of Chinese tourist groups’ landscape preferences towards offshore wind farms (OWFs). This study proposes a new approach to enhance OWF landscapes for tourism development, thereby balancing the distribution of costs and benefits between CVGs and tourists. The research focuses on Beihai City in the Beibu Gulf Economic Region, utilizing a combination of Q-methodology and choice experiments that incorporates cut-offs. Answers to eighty Q-methodology questionnaires and 1324 choice experiment questionnaires are obtained. The findings indicate that this region can achieve energy distribution justice by compensating for the livelihood losses of CVGs through tourism. Contrary to traditional assumptions about wind farm noise preferences, Chinese tourists prefer proximity to OWFs, as an appropriate coastal acoustics landscape can enhance their tourism experience. In light of these findings, this paper presents policy recommendations towards energy distribution justice.

Exploring the impact of seasonal forest landscapes on tourist emotions using Machine learning

This study investigates the emotional changes of tourists experiencing natural forest landscapes in different seasons, which plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of forest landscape systems and forest tourism. However, existing research has limited focus on the temporal impact of detailed elements of forest landscapes on tourists' emotions. We integrated a research framework utilizing methods such as Object Semantic Attention Network (OSANet), High-Resolution Net (Hrnet), EXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), thereby uncovering the nonlinear impact of detailed forest landscape indicators on tourist emotions. The results revealed(1) In the past three years, the emotional score assessments of tourists' experiences in natural forest landscapes showed a prevalence of positive emotions at 85.7%, with negative emotions constituting 14.3%. The emotional distribution characteristics varied significantly across seasons, with kernel density peak values of 4.16 in spring, 2.43 in summer, 5.33 in autumn, and 1.74 in winter. (2) The landscape indicators with the most significant impact on emotions across different seasons were Openness in spring, summer, and autumn (with contribution values exceeding 0.16, 0.13, and 0.175, respectively) and Ground exposure in winter (with a contribution value greater than 0.2). The SHAP waterfall charts indicated that the indicators providing a stable positive effect varied by seasonTrees in spring (0.361), Openness in summer and autumn (0.276 and 0.24, respectively), and Mountains in winter (0.145). This study provides a data foundation for the sustainable development of forest landscapes and tourism, aiding planners and managers in understanding the nonlinear impact of detailed elements of forest natural landscapes on tourists' emotions across different seasons. It also broadens the methodologies and perspectives for researching seasonal forest landscape preferences.

Unraveling the relationship between coastal landscapes and sentiments: An integrated approach based on social media data and interpretable machine learning methods

AbstractCoastal landscapes exert a significant impact on the human sentimental perceptions and physical and mental well‐being of people. However, little is known about explicitly linking between the landscape characteristics and people's sentimental preferences expressed in social media data. The main objective of this study was to explore the nonlinear and interaction effects of key factors that influenced sentiments in the coastal areas of Hong Kong, considering both subjective landscape preferences and objective landscape patterns. We quantified users' sentiment polarity based on the crowdsourcing textual data of Flickr. To study users' subjective landscape preferences, we computed various visual landscape objects' proportion in images. Meanwhile, eight user clusters and nine image clusters were detected by the identified visual object labels. We quantified objective landscape patterns considering the land use pattens and the availability of public service facilities. Finally, we utilized an interpretable classification model to analyze the factors that may affect sentiments and their interplay interactions. We found that ecotourism‐related clusters exhibited the most positive sentiment. The proportion of floor and sky pixels in images exhibits the highest global relative importance when predicting sentiments. This study extends a new insight on the relationship between landscape characteristics and sentiments from both subjective and objective perspectives based on social media data and interpretable machine learning methods. This research may help decision‐makers in designing landscapes that aptly satisfy to the needs of the public and promote sustainable management of the coastal environment.

Park lighting after dark – is it a route or a place? How people feel in park nightscapes (experiment)

The objective of our study was to verify: (1) whether adding ambient lighting in addition to path lighting has a positive impact on preferences, sense of safety and related feelings experienced by park visitors after dusk (H1) and whether this impact is differentiated by the features of the space (H2); (2) what features of the park space may influence the feelings tested (RQ1).For this purpose, we conducted an experiment in the Botanical Garden in Wrocław, where 114 study participants – randomly divided into two groups (experimental and control) – assessed nightscapes based on 13 variables (feelings). The experimental factor was the addition of ambient lighting (in addition to path lighting also present for the control group). The experiment was based on assessments made in three different places in the park – an open space, semi-open space and non-closed space. Thanks to this, we were able to check whether the features of the space differentiate the effects of the experimental factor and then consider their impact on people's feelings.The research found that the impact of the experimental factor (ambient light) is not obvious – it was only apparent in some cases. This factor increased preference for corridor landscapes (semi-open and semi-closed space), but lowered preference in the open landscape. The experimental factor had the strongest effects in the semi-closed, least lit space, and enhanced preferences, surprise and fascination.Moreover, comparison of the ratings of these three places showed that some spaces were rated as the safest while others were assessed as the most attractive. The safest turned out to be the semi-open space with typical park lighting, with the highest path illumination intensity, whereas the least safe was the semi-closed space with the least lighting. When it came to most of the other dimensions related to attractiveness and desire to stay in the area (mystery, contact with the surroundings, willingness to spend time there, surprise, fascination and contemplation), the place with an open view, visually attractive landscape and subtle linear point lighting was rated the highest. The remaining spaces were rated lower.The findings of the experiment indicate that (1) adding light does not always increase preference for a particular space – sometimes it lowers it, thus indicating the benefits of darkness and natural night light in park landscapes; (2) there are differences between the features of safe nightscapes and attractive and leisurely landscapes.