Landscape Perception Research Articles

ОЦЕНКА ЭСТЕТИЧЕСКОЙ ПРИВЛЕКАТЕЛЬНОСТИ ПЕЙЗАЖЕЙ ПРИ ПЛАНИРОВАНИИ РЕКРЕАЦИОННЫХ ЗОН (на примере Белгородской области)

The article is focused on studies of domestic and foreign scientists concerning the aesthetic properties of landscapes. Different methodological approaches of analysis and description of the visual quality of landscapes are presented. The world experience in the application of methods to assess the landscape attractiveness of territories when arranging of recreational zones was studied. The analysis of different types of landscapes, their aesthetic advantages and disadvantages, as well as characteristics from the point of view of the arrangements of recreational areas was carried out. The relation between natural features of the area, its aesthetic parameters and the demand degree among vacationers was revealed. The features of the natural framework of the Belgorod region were determined; characteristic of regional landscape features, affecting the emotional perception of landscapes (chalk outcrops, wetlands of riverine lands, etc.) were identified. The assessment of the aesthetic attractiveness of landscapes is carried out using the territories of the Valuysky municipal district as an example. The localization of the areas with the greatest aesthetic attractiveness was determined and the promising territories for the development of recreational zones were identified. The compositional structure of the gully-like landscape was analyzed as one of the characteristic features for this region as a whole. Recommendations on the application of the assessment method for aesthetic of landscape attractiveness, taking into account regional characteristics the Belgorod region as an example were proposed.

Landscapes as represented in textbooks and in students’ imagination: stability, generational gap, image retention and recognisability

ABSTRACT The paper focuses on the representation of landscapes and the depiction of landscape features in the photographic images of textbooks, the perception, recognition and imagination of landscapes by the school population, and the possible link between both. The empirical element of the study is based on the case of Slovenia and includes quantitative and qualitative analysis of photographs in textbooks and questionnaires completed by primary and secondary school students (aged 10–18 years). The results show that the photographs emphasise natural, rural, and tangible aspects of landscapes, while students’ imagination also includes urban, dynamic and, especially, intangible elements. We discuss the relevance of stability, generational gap, image retention, and recognisability. One of the key conclusions is that there is a dichotomy between the representation of landscape in textbooks and in students’ imagination, but it is not clear-cut.

Comparing subjective landscape perceptions between the native and non-native residents in suburban rural area- Searching for a landscape management based on the characteristics of urban to rural migrants -

Comparing subjective landscape perceptions between the native and non-native residents in suburban rural area- Searching for a landscape management based on the characteristics of urban to rural migrants -

Two sanctuaries, two horos inscriptions and a procession road of the Classical period in southern Euboia: Detection, reconstruction and interpretation

In this article we reconstruct the religious landscape between the sanctuaries of Plakari and Karababa in southern Euboia. These cult places were connected by a procession road, datable to the Classical period. To map this fragmentarily preserved road system and the general layout of the rural sanctuary on the Karababa hill slope we developed a three-staged methodology for targeted surveys. This comprises a desktop study of the target area using remotely sensed and spatial data, mapping the target area by making orthophotos from a drone, and ground-truthing by means of pedestrian surveys and revisiting and reassessing known archaeological find places. As a next phase of our research we reconstruct the road system and offer an interpretation of the road, sanctuary and other constituent elements of the religious landscape, emphasizing the importance of movement and landscape perception. In this final, interpretative part we also discuss a large and long boundary wall which we argue to have encompassed the sacred land belonging to the sanctuary, and two horos inscriptions, probably demarcating the temenos of the sanctuary proper, which included several platforms, a threshing floor and possible altars and which may have been dedicated to Demeter.

Exilios impropios y peregrinación profana: Juan José Saer y Witold Gombrowicz

Después de haberse mudado a Francia en 1968 y de haber escrito gran parte de su obra en el extranjero, Juan José Saer comienza a regresar periódicamente a la Argentina a partir de los ochenta, y escribe a propósito del regreso y del exilio una serie de textos en los que alude a la figura de Witold Gombrowicz. En este trabajo se indagarán los vínculos, correspondencias y divergencias entre ambos. Como se verá, Saer ubica a Gombrowicz en dos series de viajeros e intelectuales. Por un lado, una serie anacrónica e intemporal que lo relaciona con viajeros de épocas disímiles y en la cual se destaca su singular percepción del paisaje nacional; por el otro, una serie histórica que devuelve al escritor polaco a las rivalidades literarias de su época (Borges, Caillois y el grupo Sur). Cada una de estas inscripciones abre una sugerente contemporaneidad entre las poéticas y los exilios impropios de Saer y Gombrowicz. La “perspectiva exterior” de este último le permitirá a Saer radicalizar una figura de escritor exiliado y excéntrico capaz de resistir tanto los “infalibles” valores de Europa como los deberes de identificación nacional; y configurar además formas disruptivas de percibir el paisaje de la zona en sus regresos al país.

Using geographically weighted models to explore how crowdsourced landscape perceptions relate to landscape physical characteristics

This study explores how formal measures of landscape wildness (i.e. absence of human artefacts, perceived naturalness of land cover, remoteness from mechanised access, and ruggedness of the terrain) correlate with crowdsourced measures of landscape aesthetic quality as captured in Scenic-Or-Not data for Great Britain. It evaluates multiple linear regression (MLR) and two spatially varying coefficients models: geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR). The MLR provided a baseline model in an analysis of national data, exhibiting the presence of spatially autocorrelated residuals and suggesting that geographically weighted models may be appropriate. A standard GWR was found to exacerbate local collinearity between covariates, both overfitting and underfitting the model with highly varied and localised results. This was due to its single one-size-fits-all bandwidth and the assumption that all relationships between the target and predictor variables operate over the same spatial scale. MGWR relaxes this assumption by determining parameter-specific bandwidths, mitigating the local collinearity issues found in a standard GWR and resulting in more spatially stable and consistent coefficient estimates. The findings also indicated that the relationship between some covariates (such as remoteness) and perceived landscape quality varied little spatially, while clear gradients were found for other covariates. For example, naturalness was stronger in the north and west, ruggedness was stronger in the south and east, and the absence of human artefacts was weaker in Scotland and the north than in England and the south. Overall, the study showed that MGWR is more sensitive than GWR to the spatial heterogeneity in the statistical relationships between landscape factors and public perceptions. These findings provide nuanced understandings of how these relationships vary spatially, underscoring the value of such approaches in landscape scale analyses to support policy and planning. The discussion section of this paper considers the MGWR as the default geographically weighted model, assessing the potential for the use of crowdsourced data in landscape studies. In so doing, it illustrates how such approaches could be used to explore both subjective and objective landscape evaluations.

Resident and stakeholder perceptions of ecosystem services associated with agricultural landscapes in New Hampshire

Converting non-agricultural land to agricultural uses can result in trade-offs in ecosystem services. As provisioning services increase on new agricultural land, supporting, regulating, and cultural services may decrease. An improved understanding of how stakeholders value different land use types in terms of their perceived ecosystem services, as well as the relative visual appeal of different agricultural landscape features, could assist policymakers and land use planners in decision-making related to agricultural land use in New England, USA. We surveyed two survey samples in New Hampshire, food system stakeholders (e.g., farmers, public health professionals, and technical assistance providers) and the general population, to explore how perception of the visual appeal of specific farmland use types and importance of ecosystem services specifically related to agricultural land might differ between survey samples. Our objectives were to (1) explore how New Hampshire residents perceive the importance of seven ecosystem services, (2) evaluate how two groups of New Hampshire residents—the general public and those who indicated working with or in a food systems sector (food system stakeholders)—perceive these ecosystem services provided by specific agricultural landscapes and determine how those perceptions relate to the visual appeal of each landscape, and (3) assess how eight socio-economic factors may account for the differences between each survey sample in terms of their landscape perception and preference. Roughly 600 New Hampshire residents completed the survey, including 494 individuals from the public and 103 food system stakeholders. From a list of seven ecosystem services, clean water was ranked as the most important across both survey samples, with no significant difference between samples, while food production was ranked significantly higher by the food system stakeholders (p ≤ 0.001). Likewise, on a scale of most (4) to least (1) appealing, food system stakeholders ranked photorealistic visualizations of cropland higher than the public (p ≤ 0.001). Additionally, food system stakeholders ranked the appeal of forestland lower than the public (p = 0.007). Our findings suggest that there are differences in landscape preferences and perception of ecosystem service benefits between the general public and those who work with or in the food system. Future research is needed to determine how these differences in perception might affect land use planning and policymaking related to agricultural expansion and forestland preservation.

Understanding the Role of Incentive Salience in Sexual Decision-Making.

In the search for understanding female sexual decision-making, progress has been made in uncovering a variety of perceptual biases and most of these concern the animal's sensory biology and cognitive processes. We are now poised to dig deeper into the female's decision-making and ask if incentive salience, which plays a role in all types of appetitive behaviors, also influences a female's "taste for the beautiful." The incentive salience hypothesis suggests that dopamine assigns value or salience to objects or actions. After value is assigned to all potential actions, an action selection system then chooses among potential options to select the most valuable action. In this view, dopamine stimulates reward-seeking behavior by assigning incentive salience to specific behavioral actions, which in turn, increases pursuit and focus on objects or stimuli that represent the valuable action. Here, we apply this framework to understand why females are compelled to respond maximally to some male courtship signals over others and how this process may reveal a female's hidden mate preferences. We examine studies of dopamine and the mesolimbic reward system because these may play a role in expanding the female's perceptual landscape for novelty in male courtship signals and establishing novel hidden preferences. We review three avenues of research that may identify signatures of incentive salience in females during sexual decision-making. This review includes studies of dopamine agonist or antagonist administration in females during mate choice or partner preference tests, measures of neural activity in dopaminergic neural circuits during mate choice or partner preference tests, and social regulation of dopamine in females when entering reproductive contexts and/or exposure to mate signals. By applying the incentive salience hypothesis to female reproductive decision-making, it redefines how we see the female's role in sexual encounters. Females cannot be considered passive during reproductive encounters; rather they are seeking sexual encounters, particularly with males that tap into their perceptual biases and initiate a reward-seeking response. Incentive salience applied to reproductive behavior requires considering females as viewing sexual stimuli as rewarding and initiating action to seek out this reward, all of which indicates females are driving sexual encounters.

Saturated with meaning: peatlands, heritage and folklore

ABSTRACT Peatlands have often been represented in cultural material as being dangerous and inhospitable places, partly based on post-medieval influences, but also partly based on elements of folklore which emphasise the ‘other-worldly’ and liminal nature of these environments. Using Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire, as a case study, the role of heritage, folklore and cultural media in guiding perceptions of the landscape is explored. Contemporary society is more diversified than historic situations, and our review indicates that perceptions of heritage landscapes reflect this complexity. The use of the peatland by different groups is explored, before addressing the interconnected roles of folklore and archaeology in past, present and future engagement with this landscape.

Diversified responses to contemporary pressures on sloping agricultural land: Thai farmer’s perception of mountainous landscapes in northern Vietnam

Mountains cover approximately three quarters of the Vietnam, mainly in the north, west, and central parts of the country. Among the 38 ethnic minorities inhabiting the northern mountains of Vietnam, the Thai population is the second largest. Cultural landscapes and traditional agricultural uplands shaped by the Thai have a long history and represent a mosaic of paddy and vegetable fields along rivers and springs, forests and plantations of trees on slopes. This pattern is now changing significantly, which results in a diversification of the fields shaped by Thai farmers. This study deals with understanding the pressures driving the changes, the new state of the upland agriculture, and the way the Thai of the Son Thinh mountain (Yen Bai, Vietnam) respond to sustain their upland farming systems. Land quality indicators (LQIs) are identified using the pressure–state–response (PSR) framework. Sixty completed questionnaires with 65 closed questions each using a five-point Likert scale were collected in 2016. The results show that Thai farmers nowadays apply a wider-scale solutions to deal with the sustainability of agricultural upland on the slopes as compared to a limited number of traditional farming techniques that were used in the past. Climate change hazards (floods, droughts, landslides, extreme cold, and flash floods), the scarcity of irrigation water, and agricultural land put pressure on the slopes. The most noticeable socioeconomic impacts are migration, population growth, and unstable input and output prices. The most considerable changes in the state of the land quality are soil erosion, land degradation, and local cultivation practices. Modifying cultivation options, applying soil conservation practices, improving indigenous techniques, and implementing agricultural land use policies are the most significant responses to modify land use and its pressures. Responses of the Thai farmers on sustainable sloping land use are put in a structural model with a horizontal diversification strategy. Recommendations concern mainstreaming the local indigenous knowledge on agricultural land use, land management policies, and implementing the LQIs based on PSR framework for sustainable land use planning on the slopes in Vietnam.

The Impact of the Process of Academic Education on Differences in Landscape Perception between the Students of Environmental Engineering and Civil Engineering

As technical and technological progress takes place, there is dissonance between teaching good engineering and technological techniques and respect for the landscape. Engineering students are educated to act as initiators and performers of activities that change space. The purpose of this study is to answer question regarding how the engineering students recognize problems related to shaping the landscape. In the years 2012–2015, surveys were conducted in a group of 274 students of the University in their final year of environmental engineering and civil engineering studies, in order to find the main characteristics related to the problem. Students tended to assess the landscape in a manner determined by their education in natural science—emphasizing the division between the well-shaped natural landscape and the malformed anthropogenic one. There were differences between the groups of students—civil engineering students noticed the qualities of architectural objects and shaped greenery in their perception of the landscape in urban areas more often than the environmental engineering students did. There were no differences in the perception of the landscape in rural areas. The harmonious landscape was described as rural, modern, undeveloped and common. The landscape regarded as degraded was built-up and common. There were no changes in the perception of the landscape resulting from the educational profile among the environmental engineering students. The time has come to change methods of teaching the students of engineering and technical sciences about the landscape. This should result in an improvement in their perception of landscape phenomena.

Noise As a Factor of Green Areas Soundscape Creation

The research subject presented in the paper is acoustic perception, the perception of a sound landscape by a human. The paper aim was formulated - knowing the sources of noise based on the subjective assessment of recipients allows for sustainable management of green areas (city parks). The need to shape a harmonious landscape may contribute to finding a new function and attractive form for the studied areas. Research carried out for selected city parks in Bydgoszcz (Poland) concerns the registration of responses of people assessing the sound landscape (subjective approach). Completed studies allow ”translating” subjective assessments into meaningful values using fuzzy cognitive maps. The scenarios completed show the possibility of using tools supporting the decision-making process in urban planning of city parks in relation to existing acoustic conditions.
 Keywords: Noise, Soundscape, Green areas, Urban planning, Environment

Historical Landscape Monitoring Through Residents’ Perceptions for Tourism: The World Heritage Porto City

ABSTRACT The objective of this work is to examine residents’ perceptions of the urban landscape in the historic city of Porto. It considers two different groups of residents (business owners and other residents) and reflects on how their perceptions could influence local policies. Empirical research has been conducted using a visual attention perspective. This research replicates a project carried out in Spain. For this paper, 600 survey questionnaires were completed. The analysis includes residents’ perception of several dimensions, such as directional signs, outdoor advertising, establishment outdoor furniture, urban furniture and green, state of pedestrian areas, conservation of buildings and monuments, automobile transportation, car traffic, the flow of visitors, and overcrowding sites. The paper provides a useful diagnosis for the debate on the processes of urban landscape monitoring, planning and management for tourism. The study findings inform a set of recommendations on safeguard of the historical urban landscape.

Multidimensional analysis of landscape dynamics in a Central African forest‐savannah mosaic

AbstractMost landscape cover assessments for conservation programmes rely largely on remote sensing analyses. These analyses, however, neglect how people inhabiting protected zones perceive and structure land cover. Using socio‐ecological systems (SES) analysis in a forest‐savannah mosaic on the Congo Basin forest edge (Democratic Republic of Congo), we investigated how human practices, landscape perceptions and land use patterns affected forest cover. We conducted remote sensing analysis using a Sentinel‐2 satellite image and 187 GPS landmarks, producing a land cover map with 11 classes. Our results yielded an 81.85% correspondence with additional 164 GPS landmarks, a robust score in tropical areas. We conducted 40 individual interviews, eighteen focus group discussion workshops and nine months of participant observation of human practices to identify 19 land units and elaborate a granular SES system structuring the landscape. Integrating local knowledge and practices with general ecological and agronomic processes, we developed a landscape dynamics model revealing progressive forest colonisation of savannahs. Our methods demonstrate that a forest‐edge landscape cover evaluation through remote sensing and local knowledge can contribute to finer‐grained assessment of land cover and ecosystem services. This assessment can assist conservation efforts by considering local populations' practices on and perceptions of landscape change.

Agricultural Heritage Systems and Landscape Perception among Tourists. The Case of Lamole, Chianti (Italy)

The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) program, promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recognizes the multifunctional role of agricultural heritage systems. Traditional terraced landscapes represent important touristic destinations, and Chianti is one of the most well-known areas of Italy for rural tourism. The high-quality landscape of Lamole, consisting of forests and terraced agricultural areas, is included in the Italian National Register of Historical Rural Landscapes thanks to local farmers who recently restored the traditional landscape, considering it important both for tourism and product quality. The main aim of this research was to investigate, using anonymous questionnaires, whether tourists are aware of the characteristics of the Lamole landscape in comparison with other parts of Chianti. Results show that tourists clearly express their preference for the traditional landscape, which is comprised of a mosaic of agricultural patches with dry-stone terraces and forests, and that the level of landscape diversification is similar to 180 years ago. As tourism is a major resource, public institutions should support farmers in preserving the traditional landscape, investing in paths and information, as requested by tourists. The methodology has proved to be useful for addressing local planning, and to help farmers to achieve sustainable development in well-known touristic rural areas.

The perception of the Semmering landscape between 1850 and 1880

Semmering is a region covering the eastern foothills of the Austrian Alps, approximately 70 km south of Vienna. When in the mid-nineteenth century, railways were built from Vienna heading to all pa...

Analysis of the relationship between cross-cultural perceptions of landscapes and cultural ecosystem services in Genheyuan region, Northeast China

A major challenge today and in the future is to maintain or enhance the beneficial contributions of landscapes to the quality of life of people. Neglecting cultural ecosystem services (CES) in landscape planning can lead to loss of unique cultural landscapes and undermine the well-being of local communities. Despite a rapidly increasing body of literature on CES, little is known about the relationship between socio-cultural values and the non-material benefits of landscapes. To help fill this gap, we assessed the perceptions of people from different ethnic groups about the cultural ecosystem services of local landscapes. We took the Genheyuan National Wetland Park and the adjacent forest areas, a typical mountain forest-wetland ecosystem, as our case area. By combining surveys (250 semi-structured interviews and 26 local stakeholders in Focus Group Discussion) with structural equation modelling (SEM), we gained insights into the importance of landscapes to CES provision from the perspective of stakeholder diversity. Surprisingly, wetlands are perceived as playing more important roles than other landscape types in providing diverse CES, with a 1.25 times higher CES Diversity Index (CDI) than that of forests. Among all demographic factors, ethnicity is most significant in determining people’s perceptions, reflecting the spiritual cognition, manners, and customs of the ethnic groups. The perceptions of CES provided by landscapes are likely to increase if landscape characteristics are attached more to functions in order to meet fundamental human needs.

Using Virtual Reality to Assess Landscape: A Comparative Study Between On-Site Survey and Virtual Reality of Aesthetic Preference and Landscape Cognition

In recent years, research on landscape perception has been generally overoptimistic about the use of virtual reality (VR); however, few have questioned the validity of VR. It is necessary to examine whether on-site stimulation can be substituted by VR. The purpose of this study was to assess the degree of agreement between on-site survey and VR for landscape perception. The sample included 11 representative landscapes from Tsuchiura city and Tsukuba city, Japan. On-site survey data was collected for 17 items related to aesthetic preference and landscape cognition. The same scenes were produced by VR and same survey data as on-site was collected. The agreement of both the overall mean of all landscapes and the ratings of all individuals in each landscape confirmed the high level of concordance of most cognitive attributes between the two stimuli. The findings support immersive VR as a reliable tool for assessing landscape cognition.

Role of Multicultural Identity in Landscape Perception and Methodological Possibilities of Its Interdisciplinary Analysis

The paper presents the overview and comparative analysis of landscape cross-cultural and sub-cultural perception research methodologies in order to develop hypothetical methodological framework of interdisciplinary evaluation of cultural differences in landscape perception. The landscape research methods used for the analysis of impact of socio-cultural factors on landscape perception can be classified as mix of psychophysical and cognitive approach and are mostly based on the statistical analysis of the results of sociological research. Drawing the research closer to the relational concept, we propose the hypothetical methodological scheme of interdisciplinary evaluation of cultural differences in landscape perception that integrates landscape research with the knowledge of cultural studies, quantitative sociology (statistical analysis of the results of sociological research: factor analysis, component analysis, correlations, etc.), environmental psychology (cognitive mapping, Landscape Image Sketching Technique, landscape and environmental preferences, way finding, eye-tracking, etc.), and geography (geomatic) (geographic information systems, remote sensing).

Use of mixed methods in road landscape perception studies: an example from Latvia

We see, use and interact with different type of landscape every day. One of the important types is the road landscape we encounter during travel, whether a business trip, vacation or just on the way to and from home. Such landscapes can often help to introduce us to new regions or invite us to explore the surrounding areas because we partly experience the world around us from the road. Road landscapes combine important aspects of road and transport infrastructure as well as the quality of life of local people, traffic safety and tourism development. Road landscape development concerns both landowners and road users, each of whom might have different interests and understanding about possible landscape development and its consequences. Therefore, it is important to plan, discuss, present, and evaluate the future developments of any road landscape. The subject of road landscape has been little studied in Latvia. There are no recommendations on road landscape evaluation. Here we present a methodology for assessing perceptions of road landscapes. We aim to introduce several methods in combination that can be used in road landscape assessment, in order to show possible future developments of the road corridor and its surroundings and to test how potential changes might be perceived by road users. A combination of a case study approach, a scenario method, the use of 3D animations and of a web-based questionnaire survey are presented and discussed in the paper.