Application of Viewshed and Spatial Aesthetic Analyses to Forest Practices for Mountain Scenery Improvement in the Republic of Korea

Kwang Youn Lee, Jung Il Seo, Kyoung-Nam Kim, Yohan Lee, Hyeongkeun Kweon and Jinki Kim
Additional contact information
Kwang Youn Lee: Research Institute for Gangwon, 5 Jungang-ro, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do 24265, Korea
Jung Il Seo: Department of Forest Resources, College of Industrial Sciences, Kongju National University, 54 Daehak-ro, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do 32439, Korea
Kyoung-Nam Kim: Research Institute for Gangwon, 5 Jungang-ro, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do 24265, Korea
Yohan Lee: Department of Forest Resources and Landscape Architecture, College of Life and Applied Sciences, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 38541, Korea
Hyeongkeun Kweon: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, 3715 West Stevens Way Northeast, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Jinki Kim: Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Industrial Sciences, Kongju National University, 54 Daehak-ro, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do 32439, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: Forest practices for mountainous areas can enhance the scenery value and function of forests. However, forest scenery management is rarely implemented except for conservation areas and public forests. In this study, we first used the viewshed analysis to extract visible and invisible zones from the surface areas of ordinary mountains in Korea, and then we used spatial aesthetic analysis to interpret the human-recognized characteristics on the visible zones of mountain scenery. Finally, based on the results of both analyses, reasonable guidelines for forest practice planning were proposed to improve the scenery of ordinary mountains. The result shows that the viewshed analysis made it possible to extract visible and invisible areas from the surface areas of ordinary mountains, and to determine the scale of zoning for forest practices to improve mountain scenery. In addition, using spatial aesthetic analysis, it was possible to explain the characteristics of mountain scenery according to distance and elevational differences between viewpoint and target, and to suggest a treatment target and direction for forest practices to improve the mountain scenery. This study is meaningful in that the viewshed and spatial aesthetic analyses were applied to evaluate the current scenery of ordinary mountains and to present guidelines for forest practice planning to promote their own scenery values.

Keywords: ordinary mountain; visible/invisible area; human-recognized characteristics; viewpoint and target; distance and elevational differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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