Using Composition to Assess and Enhance Visual Values in Landscapes

Magdalena Gyurkovich and Marta Pieczara
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Magdalena Gyurkovich: Faculty of Architecture, Poznań University of Technology, 61-131 Poznań, Poland
Marta Pieczara: Faculty of Architecture, Poznań University of Technology, 61-131 Poznań, Poland

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-31

Abstract: (1) The research presented in this paper aims to study the value attributed to a landscape composition’s visual elements and their overall influence on how they are perceived. The historical and contemporary visual approaches to a landscape constitute its background, for example, geographical, aesthetic, iconographic, phenomenological. (2) The visual assessment method elaborated by the Polish school of landscape architecture is used in the first part of this study. It is built of three steps with corresponding tools: landscape inventory, composition analysis, and evaluation. Moreover, an expert survey is used to complete the study. The work’s novelty is completing the visual approach with an expert inquiry, which aims to solve the subjectivity issue, an inherent visual evaluation controversy. The study area comprises urban and suburban locations from the agglomeration of Poznań, Poland. (3) The research results indicate the significant contribution of three visual elements to the positive assessment of landscape values: greenery, built heritage, and water. The importance of the composition is also demonstrated. (4) The main research findings show that visual evaluation tools should be implemented as part of sustainable spatial planning. Their implementation permits identifying the essential positive value in the existing landscape and creating guidelines for its preservation or enhancement. The article’s significance is the effect of proposing real and possible guidelines to improve the spatial planning policy, making landscape management more sustainable.

Keywords: landscape; panorama; composition; visual values; landscape evaluation; landscape management; sustainable spatial planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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