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

Xuhui Yao and Yan Sun ()
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Xuhui Yao: Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yan Sun: Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Transportation Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-27

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: rural landscape; southwest Guizhou region of China; landscape character; landscape visual quality; public preference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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