No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Landscape character assessment, perception surveys of stakeholders and SWOT analysis: A holistic approach to historical public park management
Abstract
This paper investigated the use of landscape character assessment and perception surveys of stakeholders (i.e. employees, students and visitors) and SWOT analysis as a holistic approach to developing landscape management guidelines for historical public parks. The aim is to conserve and protect the historical and cultural heritage (landscape character) of historical public parks and address the stakeholder needs that do not threaten the park's historical and cultural heritage. The site selected for study is Syggrou Estate, a historical park located within the northern suburbs of Athens, Greece. Specific objectives of the study are to: (i) assess the historical, cultural, and natural importance of Syggrou Estate, (ii) determine the perceptions and needs of stakeholders, iii) provide landscape management guidelines for historical public parks based on landscape character assessment, perception surveys and SWOT analysis. The results show that the most important aspects of Syggrou Estate are the forest and cultivations for the retention of the Estate's historical value. The three most popular development actions were to conserve the present crops, restore the basic infrastructure, and increase educational activities. This research is valuable for identifying and assessing landscape characteristics and enhancing landscape awareness for sustainable park management. It provides a consultation among experts and stakeholders regarding the park's development priorities and their associated landscape guidelines and supports practitioners on park management and any legislation regarding the protection and enhancement of parks history and biodiversity.
... Data provided by the SWOT analysis represent a first summary and interpretation of the information collected, as well as of what emerged from the meetings with stakeholders. The SWOT analysis is extremely useful in the first phase of processing and interpreting state-of-the-art data but does not provide information on the degree of priority of one intervention over the others [12]. It is a qualitative social science tool but quantifiable matrices, used to compare all four attributes, cannot be obtained. ...
... In the literature, several studies use similar methodologies to solve decision-making problems in urban contexts [12,45,62,70]. The ANP analysis is often used in combination with other analytical methodologies, such as SWOT or BOCR or questionnaires to stakeholders. ...
In recent decades, urban settlements have been greatly affected by globalisation, climate change, and economic uncertainty. When designing cities, these factors should be taken into account and adapted to the different contexts involved. The redevelopment of degraded urban areas is the first step toward achieving the sustainability aims set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, evaluation methods are required in the decision-making process, considering different social, economic, and environmental aspects to define the correct policies and actions for city redevelopment. In this paper, an evaluation methodology is proposed in order to obtain a priority scale of interventions for urban regeneration. Starting from on-site inspections to better know the current scenario, a set of indicators is established to evaluate the urban quality. Criticalities and potentials emerge through SWOT analysis and, with the ANP-BOCR method, the priority scale of the identified scenarios is defined. This decision-making approach was applied to the case study of the Rimini Canal Port, in the northeast of Italy, which is a degraded area of the city. This methodology is a tool that can be used in the future by decision makers (DMs) for the redevelopment of small port areas within similar urban contexts.
... Then, all factors that may affects on the park functions with using urban furniture elements were carefully analyzed. It was suggested that SWOT analysis is a useful method for landscape character assessments at parks (Gkoltsiou and Paraskevopoulou 2021). In this sense, a SWOT analysis, is a technique for assessing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats aspects together, was conducted on Circassian Exile Monument and Memorial Park. ...
... Moreover, except furniture made from woodplastic composites, other urban furniture objects (benches and trash bins) appear to become erode which wooden benches looked pale appearance and metal trash bins was deeply rust. SWOT analysis is a tool that can help to analyze assessment, perception and management of certain design areas (Gkoltsiou and Paraskevopoulou 2021). In this regard, a SWOT analysis was conducted, in order to get evaluation of current status with measuring overall performance of park. ...
Memorial parks are the places where religion, philosophy and arts are important for visitors, explains the identity of the places. However, it has become understood that successful memorial parks are ones that are lively and well-used by people. Human benefits and enjoyment are basic requirements in creating successful places in open spaces. These special fields are often empty of people or if used, have significant conflicts between different user groups. Circassians celebrate the day when the Circassian deportation was launched 21 May every year, as mourning commemorating the Circassian genocide. This study is to evaluate Circassian exile memorial park opened at 5 June 2021 in Fındık neighborhood of Göksun District of Kahramanmaraş Province in Turkiye. The assessment was made with theoretical and methodological principles, in particular, to make memorial park evaluations. It is considered as a sequence of activities that make up the concept design. In study field, constructed monument and memorial park, which take shape according to Circassian exile, dynamics of the historical process in which they were realized. It is typically reflecting the identity of event and time in a symbolic language, are the visual expression to visitors of the knowledge and memory between the past and the future. The site found to be guided to interest focal points and areas by successions of used design materials, completed by color and shapes of elements.
... According to the historical study and the analysis of surveys, Guayaquil has a significant patrimonial and geodiverse value in several of its geosites. Therefore, its geoconservation is essential to increase the geo-ecosystem benefit it possesses; analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) is a way to recognise the strategies to promote the geoconservation and geotourism of the city [120,121], being able to solve the problems present in the place through its potential benefits [122,123]. ...
Biodiversity is an essential component of nature, relegating the aspects of geodiversity, which provides geological and landscape variety to a territory. However, the importance of geodiversity and its social, economic, educational, scientific, and technological impact on a region, are not well understood. This article measures the geoheritage values of Guayaquil, a port city in Ecuador, via surveys and analyses of variables, with the aim of proposing guidelines or strategies that promote the knowledge and diffusion of that geoheritage. Our methodology included (i) a review of historical landmarks of Guayaquil and their relationship with geodiversity, (ii) a survey and data tabulation, (iii) an analysis of the local population’s perception of the city’s geoheritage, and (iv) the development of geodiversity strategies using computer tools. Our results determined that people approach areas of interest because of each site’s biodiversity and the available information about the site. Once there, they can obtain knowledge about the city’s geology, geodiversity, and urban geotourism. Therefore, geoheritage is an essential consideration in establishing educational plans, initiatives, and promotion strategies. Furthermore, the identification of a city’s heritage values following geoeducation, and the recognition by society of the city’s geosites and their historical–scientific significance, will provide a basis for using geotourism in a context of sustainability.
... Because the landscape is closely related to human well-being, resident environment, and natural protection, landscape characterization has profound enlightenment and implications for landscape management, conservation (Cetinkaya and Ayhan, 2020;Gkoltsiou and Paraskevopoulou, 2021), and academic research (Balestrieri, 2015;Yang et al., 2020). The understanding of the landscape and its characters has a fundamental role in landscape tourism and recreation (Gkoltsiou et al., 2013;Solecka et al., 2018). ...
In the field of landscape characterization, it is difficult to obtain the tourists’ perceptions of a landscape. To overcome these drawbacks, online available reviews and comments from tourists can be utilized as an alternative way to characterize a landscape. This study examined the rural landscape characterization in Yayou Gou Village, which is a unique attraction in Shandong, China. A qualitative content analysis was undertaken on the tourists’ comments and reviews of Yayou Gou Village on tourist websites and social media platforms, including Qnar, Meituan, Ctrip, Dianping and Sina Microblog. NVivo 12 was used for the content analysis and qualitative coding. A variety of natural, cultural, and social, perceptual, and seasonal characteristics of a rural landscape, as well as facilities and infrastructure were revealed. Cultural and social landscape characters including performance landscape and festival activities, building, educational and home-stay landscape, diet landscape, and night landscape, which are obviously richer than other aspects in this rural village. Natural, perceptual, and seasonal landscape characters are not fully exploited for rural tourism and landscape. This study suggests that natural, cultural, and social rural landscape, and facility and infrastructure were influenced by spatial, seasonal, and perceptual dimensions. Suggestions for better landscape conservation and management can be acquired through the characterization process. This study provides an innovative approach for landscape characterization with online review data from various tourists. It demonstrates that online social media data contain abundant information about the landscape that they have visited and could be well used to explore the landscape’s characteristics in rural areas.
... This method is also utilized to formulate the value and interrelation of the component in the karst area, incorporating physical and cultural elements in the landscape. LCA is also compounded by spatial contents, making it easier to be translated into spatial and land use planning on the landscape scale (Jellema et al., 2009;Ding et al., 2020) and comprises 4 steps of defining purpose and scope, desk study, field study, and description from the studied landscape (Tudor, 2014;Gkoltsiou and Paraskevopoulou, 2021). The participative method involving community can also be added to one of the steps in the LCA (Koblet and Purves, 2020). ...
We aim to construct a relationship between geodiversity and cultural diversity in Karst of Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat and contextualize the relation into a geoheritage management scheme. We use the Landscape Characteristics Assessment and field survey to characterize the geodiversity and cultural diversity, aided by GIS. The materials are DEM, geological maps, and administrative maps. For the analysis, we employ the significant value approach to achieve the purpose of the study. The diversity inventory unveils many significant geomorphological and cultural features with remarkably beauty, exceptionally rare, and sustaining local communities. The linkage between geodiversity and the cultural diversity in the area has unique entities that must be addressed in the management of the area, either as a World Heritage or Geopark. Linkage between geodiversity and cultural diversity is the main key and most fundamental aspect to establish the geoheritage and develop geotourism which benefits the indigenous community and preserves the significant values and integrity of the Karst of Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat.
The purpose of this study is to determine the overall structure and relative comprehensive understanding of the development status of landscape character research visually. A knowledge mapping analysis of 308 academic papers in Web of Science published between 1967 and 2021 related to landscape character using CiteSpace from multiple perspectives including collaboration network, co-citation, and co-occurrence was conducted in this study. The results suggest that the quantity of publications about landscape character has increased rapidly and its staged characteristics have been exposed. The distribution of disciplines, countries, and research organizations, as well as the productive authors involved in landscape character research were identified. The research revealed the high-frequency themes sorted out in current literature including classification, biodiversity, perception, GIS, management, conservation, etc. Finally, the study visualized emerging research frontiers and deeply depicted six of them which consist of the cultural landscape, nonexpert-based landscape aesthetics evaluation, understanding public interest, landscape metrics, practical application, and using public participation GIS. This study provided a comprehensive prospect for the further study of landscape character and filled the gap in this field. It demonstrated that through the approach of CiteSpace can draw a sketch structure and potential relationship of landscape character researches. All these provide readers especially potential researchers with an overall and in-depth understanding of landscape character, indicating the research development and characteristics in this field. © 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Iranian Society of Environmentalists (IRSEN) and Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University.
Facing the influences of brownfields in our daily life, the regeneration of brownfields becomes a hot topic. Based on the practices of landscape architecture and design, this paper intends to research with a design project related to the brownfield in a post-industrial area in Beijing, China, discussing the strategy for brownfield regeneration and adaptive reuse of industrial heritage. Through a comprehensive landscape design process, including data collection, SWOT analysis, as well as design inside the District of Shijingshan and Shougang industrial area, the paper presents a general geographic context of this area, such as the soil condition, social problems, and landscape resources, etc. By on-site fieldwork, the authors have collected first-hand materials of this industrial area and tried to make use of them to analyze the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat of the site, to discuss the objectives and strategies of this project for its future redevelopment. From the viewpoint of the visual landscape, problem-solving, and heritage protection, a dynamic design strategy is proposed and applied as a reference to this case. Finally, a green industrial park with the memory of the iron age is created, which aims to conserve the valuable heritages of the industrial area, at the same time providing an alternative solution for the adaptive reuse of brownfields in Shougang.
Worldwide, several large-scale historical gardens have been adapted to social needs and became public parks. Historical parks, designed in a different era and often subjected to pressures for development, raise concerns in meeting contemporary visitor needs, rendering them vulnerable to private interests. The main purpose of this paper was to determine whether a historical park designed in a different era can meet today’s visitor needs. The National Garden (NG) in Athens, Greece, a well-protected historical park, was selected as a case study. A questionnaire survey addressed to the visitors of the NG was undertaken on the basis of the main components of park design, factors affecting visitation, and visitor perceptions of involvement in park management. A descriptive and regression analysis was applied. Even though the NG was not originally designed as a public park but as a garden, overall results showed it satisfies its visitor’s needs. The planting and associated tranquility are the most liked characteristics of the NG that are inextricably linked with its original design as a private garden. The main qualitative traits of plants that people like were found in the NG plant species. Suggested improvements to fulfill further contemporary visitor’s needs have to be considered carefully and must comply with the statutory measures that protect the NG and associated wildlife habitat. As in many urban parks, concerns for safety and cleanliness and willingness to volunteer in park maintenance were also expressed by visitors of the NG. This study illustrates that historical gardens designed many years ago and transformed into public parks can protect and conserve the historical and cultural heritage and concomitantly meet today’s visitor needs. Further research is suggested to study other historical parks.
This paper aimed to present a model of natural environment management in national parks in Poland in the context of increased tourist traffic. The research area comprised Polish national parks as they are characterized by barely altered nature, little human impact, and undisturbed natural phenomena. The methods involved the observational method, literature analysis and criticism, and the in-depth interview method employed in November 2019. The respondents included national park management staff. The questions were prepared in accordance with the Berlin Declaration principles of sustainable tourism development and were extended with the authors’ own items. The questionnaire contained 17 questions, grouped in four parts: science and documentation; tourism; cooperation and education; environmental threats. The results indicate that in order for actions to prove efficient in a park, a conservation plan should be carefully developed. Its correctness requires monitoring the state of the environment, tourist traffic size and trends, and tourists’ impact on the environment. An important condition for effective tourism management in parks is to increase the competences of the administering bodies and knowledge regarding individuals’ responsibilities. Boards should be able to evaluate and modify conservation plans, spatial development plans, municipality development strategies, and projects for investments within the parks.
Urban parks provide multiple ecosystem services to mitigate challenges from climate change and urbanisation. They promote health and well-being by providing space for physical activity and social interaction, which is particularly relevant for vulnerable groups such as children and older people. As a key element, park vegetation creates favourable environments, as it moderates heat, buffers noise and can be enjoyed by citizens. In this paper, we present the results of a multi-method empirical study conducted in the city of Leipzig, Germany, during the summer heat and drought period in July 2018. Visitation patterns were analysed through qualitative observation and structured counting in two differently characterised urban parks – a newly developed urban park on a former railway brownfield and a long-standing, older park with a mature tree population. The results indicate that park design elements are linked to park use activities and park user age groups such as young children, school children and older people. Young children were identified as mostly using playgrounds and natural lawn areas in the old park, while school children and teenagers tended to use the sports areas and semi-secluded spaces in the newly developed park to play sports or to meet in groups and socialize. For older people, sedentary activity was exclusively observed on benches, and non-sedentary activity such as jogging was nearly exclusively identified in the larger, more shaded older park. The number of counted park users, particularly numbers of children and older people, significantly declined at the highest temperature of approximately 30 °C. Considering the provision and availability of inclusive design elements that support these use behaviours may increase the motivation of all age groups to use green spaces and to benefit from the services they provide. Planning for a more effective and just provision of ecosystem services requires the consideration of age-specific design elements to invite use from all population groups equally and to contribute to distributional justice.
Urban parks play an important role in increasing the quality of urban life. Thus, a variety of approaches to planning and decision-making regarding sustainable open spaces and urban parks is needed, especially when models from one location are borrowed to another with a very different culture. In many developing countries cities are expanding without proper planning of public green spaces which places pressure on the quality of life. In common with many Middle Eastern cities, Tehran, the capital of Iran is a large sprawling metropolis which has experienced fast growth since 1970 and with little in the way of comprehensive planning of green spaces as an organised system. To date there has been no comprehensive investigation of urban parks regarding their level of use, range of activities, quality of maintenance, evidence of anti-social activities or the demographic character of their catchment—important information for effective park planning. In this study a representative sample of 16 parks in Tehran was studied using a combination of site assessments and user observations. We found that a combination of factors concerning the quality of the parks such as presence of facilities, existence of water and other special attractions, as well as how well-lit they are, how well maintained and safe they are, has a lot to do with their level of use. Some pleasant parks with good facilities are less well used because of, e.g., evidence of anti-social behaviour, poor maintenance and accessibility. A key aspect we found is the difference between male and female users, with some parks being much less-well-used by women. Much more attention is needed for planning and management of parks in Tehran. The approach applied here has potential to help other cities in similar areas to learn more about their green space systems for planning purposes.
The aim of this study was to determine the impact of safety-related environmental characteristics in a city park on users' preferences and whether this impact can be explained by perceived safety. The factors examined were physical and visual accessibility as well as the effectiveness of concealment created by plants in various spatial systems. We used 112 photographs taken in city parks for the study. Studies have shown that visual and physical accessibility varies in terms of impact on preferences and safety-as a result, we tested only visual accessibility and effectiveness. Correlation and regression analyses confirmed that vegetation in a park that obstructs views and can offer concealment reduces our sense of safety. In addition, such vegetation has a negative effect on preference. However, mediation analysis showed that this sense of safety or danger means that dense vegetation (low visual accessibility yet highly effective in offering concealment) is less preferred as a landscape feature. After excluding the impact brought to bear by the sense of safety, the studied features of vegetation had no significant impact on preferences. This means that plants and vegetation layouts of varying densities can be used in completely safe parks and this will probably not adversely affect the feelings of the users.
Natural Protected Areas face the challenge of conciliating attractions with satisfaction of their different stakeholders without compromising their own resources. Marketing can play an important role to this challenge from a macromarketing perspective. No studies are found in the literature on the integral assessment of marketing practices in Natural Protected Areas. For the first time, it proposes a marketing audit in Natural Protected Areas to fill that gap applying the Importance-Performance Analysis matrix, useful in strategic decisions, through interviews with directors of Natural Protected Areas. The main strengths, weaknesses, and deficits in the application of marketing are identified. The presence of a restricted and biased attitude towards marketing was noted among directors. In addition, the marketing behaviour is studied in two of the main social networks (Twitter/Facebook), comparisons were established in the USA, Spain, Italy and Mexico, identifying behavioural profiles in five groups in accordance with the 26 indicators under analysis.
Although much research on nature-based tourism (NBT) has been conducted in natural areas, such as national parks and other protected areas, studies on NBT in rural areas have been limited. Moreover, few NBT studies, if any, have examined the impact of seasons and/or locations on visitors’ perceptions of NBT. This comes as little surprise, given that naturalness, the fundamental core of NBT, is likely to vary with seasons and locations. To this end, this study examines NBT in a rural area in the Appalachian Region, USA, with a focus on market segmentation, based on data collected from a four-season on-site survey of 2692 visitors. Different from many other tourism market studies where multiple-item measures are used, this study uses a single-item measure on natural observation/study to identify NBT segments. Analysis of variance, Chi-square analysis, and discriminant analysis are used to confirm NBT segments and determine the effectiveness of the use of the single-item approach for segmentation. The results show that the single-item approach is effective to differentiate visitors by their socio-demographics and trip characteristics, with findings being consistent with NBT studies in natural areas. It is worth noting that people’s responses to questions on natural observation/study vary with seasons and locations, suggesting that different perceptions of natural affinity may arise from the differences in seasons and locations with different levels of natural elements. Theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications are discussed.
Protected areas do not have immunity against biodiversity loss as their name may suggest. Different protected areas suffer different pressures based on location and the benefits and services expected from them. This paper tried to identify and compare the pressures and threats on the Mole National Park in Ghana and the Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. A section of the Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Areas Management (RAPPAM) was used to assess biological importance of, and pressures and threats on, the two parks. Household surveys were used to assess perceptions of respondents on forest and wildlife resources usage. The main pressures identified include poverty and high population density in neighboring communities. These underlying pressures manifest on the parks in the form of poaching, illegal grazing and frequent trespassing. Whilst residents in communities near the Tarangire NP hold the perception that access to forest products in park should be allowed, their counterparts near the Mole NP perceive wildlife to be a resource for their consumption. The two parks were also found to be important conservation sites in their respective countries because they each host IUCN threatened and endangered species and serve as cardinal tourists’ destinations. The nature of the main pressures demands national-level action to curb population increase and alleviate poverty in the districts hosting the two national parks. The national action must be geared towards a strong collaboration between the parks and local communities to ensure that local communities offer their full support for conserving resources in the parks. Interventions to create alternative livelihood activities in neighboring communities would be a useful strategy to reduce dependency on forest and wildlife resources.
Public Park is an important element for societal development because it can offer a wide range of recreational activities to reduce stress for free. In other words, it may also function as an open communal center that can build integrity and sense of belonging among the people since it acts to define the shape and ambience of a city and its neighborhood. Nonetheless, the design of public parks, especially in current urban areas are facing many problems due to factors such as unavailability of proper monitoring and management system to identify the level and trend of consumerism of public parks. Till present, there is no detailed study conducted to elucidate on the appropriateness of public parks design to meet the needs of local context. Henceforth, the objective of this paper is to study the context of existing public park in Malaysia and identify problems relating to design, management and effectiveness from user’s perception. To conduct this study, the research will adopt case study method as research strategy. Since the focus of this study is on social physical phenomenon and to understand how human social culture correlates with the design and management of public parks-two research paradigms which are interpretivism (hermeneutics) that translates human ideology and structuralism (semiotic) to read any physical structure or architectural design are adopted as research methodology. Data collection method will be from site observation, recorded documentation and questionnaires are used to gather all the evidences on the selected public parks design. Findings indicate that the design of local public parks failed to fulfill user satisfaction due to design imperfections and poor management. Therefore, this study will propose a suitable guideline as future reference to design a better and sustainable management for public park in the Malaysian context.
According to the European Landscape Convention, each country in European country should be determined, planned, protected and restored its administrative landscapes. Depends on this Convention, European countries have started to classify their landscapes through the natural and cultural landscape character analysis and assessment. This analysis and assessment studies are not included the historical dept and historical values of landscapes. This study aims to highlight the historical depth and to reveal the importance role of historical landscape character classification and assessment for landscape planning process. It is believed that this study can bring new approach to close the gap of historical depth for the landscape planning process of Turkey.
A survey was conducted to record the views of visitors of three purposefully selected historic Mughal gardens of Pakistan to evaluate the available facilities and to develop guidelines for their improvement if desired. Two hundred visitors were interviewed to generate required information. Majority of the visitors (61.5%) were unsatisfied with the existing facilities. Reasons ascribed to dissatisfaction by the visitors were inadequate overall management of gardens, non-availability of quality food items at canteens, poor quality of utilities, recreational opportunities, security measures, behavior and guidance of employees, parking facility and cleanliness. Most of the visitors demanded certain facilities such as the presence of library (8.5%), bookshop (3%) and antique shop (3.5%). Significant differences in perceptions were recorded among various demographic groups of the visitors.
Keywords: Mughal gardens, landscape, historic gardens, Shalamar garden
The delivery of quality park services through the provision of sustainable park infrastructure relies on efficient park management systems. The objective of this study is to help improve the theoretical basis of urban park planning processes by assessing how park management systems respond to the changing needs of park users. The data for this study were collected from both secondary and primary sources. Historically, the management of parks in the City of Vancouver has not been approached by one particular model but rather a combination of the elements of the public, for-profit model and the public, non-profit model. However, these models were not strategically laid down to guide the development of parks but rather came along with the incremental development of parks in the City of Vancouver. Similar to the historical approach to park management, the contemporary park management system of the City of Vancouver still rely on the hybrid model consisting of the elements of different park management models. However, the functions of the various stakeholders have changed over time. The adaptation of park management strategies to changes in the socio-economic characteristics of park users has helped to meet the diverse needs of city residents. The future of park management relies on the effective partnership between the public and private sector. The emergence of revenue generating park management strategies has necessitated the need for park administrators and policymakers to put in place measures to address income disparity in the use of parks.
Tourist makes major contribution to Indian economy and employment rates. Tourism is generally less harmful to the environment compared to other activities like industry. Due to large number of tourists, a lot of environmental stress is being observed within the premises of Taj Mahal. There is a considerable adverse impact on Taj Mahal due to the increase of touristic activities, which is envisaged to rise in future. There is lack of studies on Taj Mahal in regards to international/ domestic visitor experience; therefore a scientific study-in the vicinity of Taj Mahal-with a view to assess the impact of tourist flow has been done. It has been concluded that the maximum number of tourists could be determined so that environmental conditions of Taj Mahal premises and its vicinity are maintained. Moreover, 503 surveying and questionnaires were carried out to gauge the level of the visitor's satisfaction.
A b s t r a c t Various researches have been conducted by researchers on landscape heritage and place attachment. The researches were done in isolation according to the differing field of study. It is noticed that there still a gap of knowledge on the association between landscape heritage elements and place attachment. As commonly realized by most of people, the priceless heritage is susceptible to deteriorate or destroyed by either natural phenomenon or human negligence. Henceforth, creating public awareness on this irreplaceable heritage is a necessity to ensure its continuous existence in the future. This paper aims to document the landscape heritage elements and examine their influence on visitors' attachment to Taiping Lake Garden. Taiping Lake Garden was selected as the study site as it is one of the oldest gardens in Malaysia. The method employed in the study is managed through archival study and observation for documenting the heritage elements found in Taiping Lake Garden. Meanwhile, survey method is used to explore the influence of heritage elements on visitors' attachment to Taiping Lake Garden. The results indicate that physical, non-physical and natural landscape as the landscape heritage elements of Taiping Lake Garden. While, the result of the surveys demonstrated that these heritage elements influence the visitors' attachment to the place. From the study, indicates that more effort needs to be done in promoting the landscape heritage of Taiping Lake Garden to sustain its existence in the future.
Recent studies have found negative correlations between mystery and preference for forest settings. Our reanalysis of earlier data suggested that those findings may have stemmed from a failure to examine setting categories within the forest domain. In the current study of 70 within-forest settings, factor analysis of preference ratings revealed two setting categories corresponding to high- and low-visual-access settings. In the high-access category, preference was positively correlated with mystery but uncorrelated with visual access. In the low-access category, preference was uncorrelated with mystery but positively correlated with visual access. We also examined an expanded definition of mystery that made explicit the distinction between mystery and surprise. The expanded definition produced results identical to the standard definition in the high-access category, but in the low-access category, expanded mystery was positively correlated with preference. We conclude that when properly understood, mystery tends to be positively related to preference.
Cultural ecosystem services (ES) are consistently recognized but not yet adequately defined or integrated within the ES framework. A substantial body of models, methods, and data relevant to cultural services has been developed within the social and behavioral sciences before and outside of the ES approach. A selective review of work in landscape aesthetics, cultural heritage, outdoor recreation, and spiritual significance demonstrates opportunities for operationally defining cultural services in terms of socioecological models, consistent with the larger set of ES. Such models explicitly link ecological structures and functions with cultural values and benefits, facilitating communication between scientists and stakeholders and enabling economic, multicriterion, deliberative evaluation and other methods that can clarify tradeoffs and synergies involving cultural ES. Based on this approach, a common representation is offered that frames cultural services, along with all ES, by the relative contribution of relevant ecological structures and functions and by applicable social evaluation approaches. This perspective provides a foundation for merging ecological and social science epistemologies to define and integrate cultural services better within the broader ES framework.
The European Landscape Convention's (ELC) definition of landscape, “an area, as perceived by people…”, places the public central to any understanding of landscape. This paper argues for ‘just’ involvement of the public and looks at how the focus of landscape as a perceived entity has been taken up within Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), an approach applied in England and Scotland for implementing the ELC. Based on a conceptual framework grounded in perception as a phenomenological experience of landscape and informed by principles of participation, LCAs from 2007 to 2011 have been assessed as to how public involvement has been considered. The results show that only a quarter of all assessments accessed involved the public, and that among these there is great disparity in the degree to which the public is engaged.
Urban businesses, much like residential places, vary widely in their landscaping practices. Large mowed areas are widespread; native vegetation is far less common. The latter has numerous environmental benefits, but its wilder, rougher texture has not been as widely accepted. Very little of the research on naturalistic vegetation has been carried out in the context of workplaces or addressing the reactions of the employees. This study is a step in this direction. Using a survey and photo-questionnaire, employees along a major business corridor were asked about their nearby natural setting, satisfactions, preferences, and desired changed to the landscape. With respect to ground texture the findings show that the more prairie-like, less groomed areas can be very effective. A few large trees can make a substantial difference, and in denser vegetation a suggestion of a path enhanced satisfaction. The treatment of parking lots poses particular challenges, but these too can be landscaped with native vegetation to great advantage. Comparison of the preference ratings by the employee sample and a much larger general sample showed striking parallels. Preference for nature settings, especially of a walkable scale, are far greater than for places with major buildings or parking areas. Nonetheless, the study offers encouragement for the use of ecologically sounder practices as part of the nearby natural environment.
A transactional account of human-environment systems holds that the various aspects of those systems serve to define each other. From this perspective experiences of natural and built aspects of human environments are seen as mutually dependent. Examining implications of this view, the paper refers to a large, multidisciplinary body of research dealing with various facets of nature experience. The literature supports discussion of both a general and a specific transactional character of nature experience. In the general sense, individuals are engaged in an exchange across species and sociocultural levels of aggregation. This transaction draws motive force from an on-going process of differentiation and evaluation of natural and human-made objects and environments. This process is integral to the development of cultures, and has led to the creation of conditions that challenge our biological adaptedness. Looking then to the specific transactional character, literature is reviewed to draw out reciprocities between individuals' experiences of nature and their experiences of built, often urban, environments. Environmental evaluations, motivations for outdoor recreation, and benefits attributed to contact with nature all speak to the existence of experiential bonds between the natural and the built. Implications for research and planning are discussed in closing.
This article resolves the conflict between biological and cultural explanations of aesthetic behavior that is evident in the landscape aesthetics literature. In resolving that conflict, the article combines biological, cultural, and personal bases for aesthetics in a comprehensive paradigm for research in landscape aesthetics. This paradigm is based on Vygotsky's developmental approach to understanding the human mind and human behavior. Vygotsky's method leads to the identification of three fundamental processes of development: phylogenesis (biological evolution), sociogenesis (cultural history), and ontogenesis (individual development). These correspond to three modes of existence-the Umwelt, the Mitwelt, and the Eigenwe/t-Adentified phenomenologically by the existential analysts. These in turn correspond to three modes of aesthetic experience: biological, cultural, and personal. The interrelations of the three modes of aesthetic experience are discussed, with particular emphasis on the biological and cultural modes. It is concluded that each mode has distinct qualities that justify its separate inclusion within the paradigm. Finally, the three modes are characterized as sets of aesthetic constraints and opportunities, labeled laws, rules, and strategies, respectively. Important research directions in landscape aesthetics involve identification and explanation of these constraints and opportunities. The tripartite paradigm promises to be useful in helping to pose important research questions as well as in avoiding conceptual errors in the design of experiments in landscape aesthetics.
Active citizen involvement is driven by assumptions about inclusivity, equity and fairness and as such is part of an agenda for devolving power, largely from local authorities to individual persons or groups. Few theorists and practitioners doubt the benefits of such deliberative involvement but there is, as yet, little guidance on how to initiate, establish and support individual groups, nor how to evaluate their processes and outcomes. This lack of guidance often leads to groups being inadequately or inappropriately supported which, consequently, reduces their ability to engage in the very local political processes that they were initiated to address. This paper offers a new approach to the creation and support of such groups and outlines the design of two participation evaluation matrices, one to monitor the process and one to evaluate the outcome of the participatory exercise, providing a valuable feed-back tool for participants and facilitators. The paper concludes that it is important to have the financial commitment and willingness of the local authority to recognise public involvement as an educative process, to empower people and to allow groups to develop and own their achievements.
An international survey, supported by the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program, was conducted of selected individuals who were reported to be knowledgeable about relationship between local populations and proximate national parks and equivalent reserves. The study objectives were to identify: (1) specific parks and reserves where efforts are being made to foster mutually supportive interactions and (2) strategies and techniques being employed in these efforts. Fifty-seven parks and reserves were identified in 35 countries in the survey and an additional 42 parks and three countries were identified in a review of the literature. Four general models of park-local population relationships were identified: (1) local participation in park management and operations and/or residence within park, (2) services delivered by park personnel to local populations living outside the park, (3) maintenance of traditional land uses inside the park and (4) local population involvement in park related tourism. The efficacy of the four models is discussed in reference toFirey's man-mind-land concept (1960).
Understanding how different cultural and ethnic groups value and use urban parks is crucial in developing appropriate design and management strategies for urban greenspaces. However, little is known about how Turkish people respond to and use urban parks in their daily life. This study explores public attitudes towards urban parks in the Turkish cultural context through a questionnaire survey (n = 300) carried out in two popular urban parks of Isparta, Turkey. The results revealed some universal similarities to, as well as some distinct differences from, other cultures in attitudes towards urban parks. People in Turkey use urban parks generally for passive recreational activities such as picnicking, resting and relaxing, in contrast to Western countries where urban parks are generally used for walking, dog walking, sports activities and exercise. In contrast to a common concern about personal safety in urban parks, this study determined a positive perception of safety among Turkish people. Appreciation of natural features, experienced benefits, the need for recreational facilities and concerns for general cleanliness and maintenance were found as universally similar attitudes in urban parks.
Structured interviews were conducted with African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American and Caucasian-American park users (N = 463) during one of their visits to a large urban park. The participants varied from 55 to 93 years of age. Most (77%) of the interviews were conducted by interviewers of the same ethnicity as the interviewee, and interviews were conducted in Spanish or Chinese when that was the preferred language of the interviewee. A stratified quota sampling plan was established to ensure that interviews were conducted in all areas of the park, at all times of the day and on both weekdays and weekends. Preliminary analyses indicated that neither gender nor age differences accounted for a meaningful percent of the variance in the dependent variables. Consequently, chi-square analyses and analyses of variance were performed with ethnicity as the independent variable. Significant differences were found among the ethnic groups in their use of park facilities, the social milieu within which they visit the park, and their ratings of the psychosocial benefits of park use.
To assess the benefits of volunteer involvemen̄t in conservation activities, a literature review, three focus groups with volunteers, a similar meeting with Department of Conservation staff, and a postal survey were conducted. The report investigates the existing benefits of the Conservation Volunteer Programme for both conservation advocacy and the volunteers,. discusses whether this programme is meeting conservation advocacy goals, and then makes recommendations about improving the programme to meet these goals. Most volunteers were unaware of such advocacy goals, and the term 'advocacy' itself was poorly understood. A definition of advocacy is discussed. Several benefits to volunteer involvement in conservation are identified, and some of these are contributing towards meeting advocacy goals. Recommendations include a necessity for greater clarification of key terms and roles, improved communication, and increased volunteer support, evaluation, and training.
Hong Kong is a hyper-dense city with 7×106 people living in an area of 1100km2. One way to improve the livability of compacted and congested cities like Hong Kong is through the provision of urban parks,
an aspect that has largely been under-researched. This study focuses on how users perceive and utilize various facilities
in the Kowloon Park. The findings revealed that the Kowloon Park is one of the most preferred parks in Hong Kong for both
local residents and tourists. Users were quite satisfied with the park’s facilities. Notably, the most important component
of an urban park is its greenery. This is followed by water elements, seating places, and facilities for various recreational
activities. The improvements users would like to see in urban parks include good design and management, meeting users’ needs,
overcoming barriers to use, and providing a high quality and varied experience for different groups in the community. The
findings of this study provide a good basis to address park management issues from the users’ perspective. In particular,
parks should provide easy access, encourage optimum usage and enable complimentary improvements to the environment.
Recreational opportunities and amenities are important human-use services generated by urban greenspaces. This study explored the use of pattern and behavior of urban greenspaces in Guangzhou city, south China. The monetary value of the non-priced benefits was gauged by the contingent valuation method using willingness-to-pay and open-ended payment card approaches. A questionnaire gleaned data by face-to-face interviews of 340 respondents in the 18–70 age group, dwelling in 34 residential street blocks selected by clustered sampling. Guangzhou residents actively used urban greenspaces, accompanied mainly by family members. Parks were the most popular venues, whereas institutional greenspaces served as surrogate parks. Visitation is mainly induced by accessibility, followed by high green coverage and quality of the ambience. Small and low-quality sites near homes were shunned. Residents of the compact city harbored subdued expectation for privacy and solitude. They are accustomed to paying greenspace entrance fees. Ninety-six point six per cent of respondents were willing to pay to use urban greenspaces, notably more than other cities, and indicating the importance of salubrious outdoor recreation as a leisure pursuit. Conservative estimate of average willingness-to-pay was RMB17.40/person/month (US$1.00 = RMB8.26), higher than actual entrance-fee payment. Willingness-to-pay was significantly associated with income, and its marginal effect verified by an ordered probit model which hinted the treatment of urban greenspaces as superior goods. Aggregate monetary value of urban greenspaces attained RMB547 million per year which outstripped Guangzhou's annual expenditures on urban greenspaces by six times. This study verified the applicability of contingent valuation to urban greenspaces in China with socioeconomic, cultural and political backgrounds that are different from many countries. The results could assist cost-benefit analysis to justify more resources for development and management of urban greenspaces, with implications on incorporating public opinions in a precision planning process in the quest towards sustainable cities.
The last few decades of the 20th century have seen a rapid change in attitudes towards nature in the urban environment, which reflects greater awareness of nature amongst the general public as well as landscape professionals. As a result, a fashion towards the production of more natural landscapes in urban areas emerged among landscape professionals, and an increasing amount of landscape practices in urban areas has involved the use of ‘naturalistic’ styles. At the same time, the possible benefits of contact with nature have been explored by environmental psychologists, and it has tended to be assumed that such contact is fundamental for human health and well-being and that this form of landscape represented ethical and aesthetic progress. However, there is also evidence that some people do not respond to natural landscapes in urban areas, and see them as unkempt, valueless or even frightening, and prefer the neat and tidy approach of formal, ornamental landscapes. This research examines the public attitudes towards urban naturalistic landscapes in contrast to more formal designs of urban green spaces. Attitudes of the general public were investigated using a site-based questionnaire survey in contrasting two public green spaces of Sheffield, UK. The results of this study led to the following conclusions. The public can distinguish between naturalistic and more obviously designed landscapes, appreciate both types, and derive some similar and some different benefits from the two. The general public perceive ‘nature’ or ‘natural’ in two ways in different contexts: as the opposite of formal in a parks context and as the opposite of the built-up environment in a town/city-wide context. The public prefer both types of natural areas in an urban setting for different reasons and design styles seem to have an influence on preferences.
There has been a significant increase in numbers and in land areas of national parks and other protected landscapes during the past 10–15 years. A review of the literature reveals a predominant emphasis on landscape resources and tourism, and a paucity of information on the relationships of local populations with protected areas. Nevertheless, there are increasing reports of conflicts between park management goals and local interests. Several examples of such conflicts are cited, suggesting that they are found in both developed and lesser-developed countries. Problems associated with the failure to consider local interests in the planning, development and management of protected landscapes are described and related research issues are identified.
Residential development at the rural fringe, although contributing to many environmental problems, is steadily attracting new homeowners. Among the appeals of living “out in the country” are being closer to “nature” and having “space.” The purpose of this study is to examine what these concepts mean to individuals who decide to live in new commuter-based subdivisions. Study participants (N=231), drawn from 18 residential communities in the same rural township, responded to a mailed survey that included 24 photographs of natural areas in communities such as theirs. In addition to having the scenes rated in terms of their similarity to the participants’ own setting, the survey included other approaches to assessing the perception of the nearby natural setting. Responses to one of these, an open-ended question about describing their neighborhood to a friend, showed a strong preponderance of nature-related descriptions (33% of all items mentioned). Based on the other questions, a typology of seven distinct kinds of natural areas emerged: manicured/landscaped areas, trees, gardens, mowed areas, forest, open fields, and wetlands. Using these seven nature categories to predict participants’ ratings of community satisfaction, regression analyses showed the overwhelming role played by the availability of forests. The forested scenes were also by far the most preferred. Yet forests are particularly vulnerable as new developments replace existing woodlands. The study thus points to the importance of finding ways to preserve the forested land, for environmental reasons as well as for the satisfactions derived from them by residents, neighbors, and visitors. Such protection of forests, as well as wetlands and open meadows, is more likely if these areas are seen by residents as being integral, communally owned parts of the overall development.
Stress and stress-related illnesses, as reflected in medical records, have increased dramatically among adults and children in Western societies. A growing part of the budget for medical service in Sweden is used for individuals suffering from different stress-related illnesses such as burnout syndrome, insomnia and fatigue, depression, feelings of panic, etc. In this paper, we present results from a study in which 953 randomly selected individuals in nine Swedish cities answered a questionnaire about their health and their use of different urban open green spaces in and close to the city.The results indicate that city landscape planning may affect the health of town-dwellers. Statistically significant relationships were found between the use of urban open green spaces and self-reported experiences of stress – regardless of the informant's age, sex and socio-economic status. The results suggest that the more often a person visits urban open green spaces, the less often he or she will report stress-related illnesses. The same pattern is shown when time spent per week in urban open green spaces is measured.The distance to public urban open green spaces seems to be of decisive importance, as is access to a garden, in the form of a private garden or a green yard immediately adjacent to, for instance, an apartment building. People do not usually compensate for lack of green environments in their own residential area with more visits to public parks or urban forests.According to our results, laying out more green areas close to apartment houses, and making these areas more accessible, could make for more restorative environments. Outdoor areas that provide environments free from demands and stress, and that are available as part of everyday life, could have significant positive effects on the health of town-dwellers in Sweden. This may also apply to other Western societies.
The world's human population is becoming concentrated into cities, giving rise to concerns that it is becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Urban public greenspaces form the arena of many people's daily contact with nature and such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits. Here we show that these psychological benefits increase with the species richness of urban greenspaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question. These results indicate that successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.
Parks and people: The social functions
- Conway
Conway, H. (2000). Parks and people: The social functions. In J. Woudstra (Ed.), The
regeneration of public parks (pp. 149-162). London, UK: E & FN Spon.
Landscape mapping and typology in the Czech Republic. Klasyfikacja krajobrazu. Teoria i praktyka
- Kolejka
Syggrou Estate: The history of place from the antiquity till 19the century
- Palis
Palis, G. (2004). Syggrou Estate: The history of place from the antiquity till 19the
century. In Presented at the association friends of Syggrou estate. Athens,: Kifissia.
Greece, 1.12.2004. [In Greek].
- Reeh
Indigenous and traditional peoples and protected areas: Principles, guidelines and case studies
- Beltran
Beltran, J. (2000). Indigenous and traditional peoples and protected areas: Principles,
guidelines and case studies. In Best practice protected areas guildelines series (Vol. 4).
Gland, Switzerland: WWF/IUCN. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216182
Association, between landscape heritage elements and place, attachment among visitors in Taiping Lake Garden
- Gani
Applying a cultural landscape approach in park management: An Australian scheme
- Brown
Brown, S. (2012). Applying a cultural landscape approach in park management: An
Australian scheme. Parks, 18, 1.
Comparing pressures on national parks in Ghana and Tanzania: The case of mole and Tarangire national parks. Global Ecology and Conservation
- H Abukari
- R B Mwalyosi
Abukari, H., & Mwalyosi, R. B. (2018). Comparing pressures on national parks in Ghana
and Tanzania: The case of mole and Tarangire national parks. Global Ecology and
Conservation, 15, 2-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/gecko.2018.e00405
Where is a research frontier? Annals of the Association of American Geographers
- E Ackerman
Ackerman, E. (1963). Where is a research frontier? Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, 53, 429-440.
Standards and Guidelines for the conservation of historic places in Canada
Canada's Historic Places. (2010). Standards and Guidelines for the conservation of
historic places in Canada. In A federal provincial and territorial collaboration: Canada
(2 nd ed.).
Syggrou estate: A historical and planning approach. Athens: Bachelor thesis
- E Delasoulas
- S Memezas
- A Gakis
Delasoulas, E., Memezas, S., & Gakis, A. (2006). Syggrou estate: A historical and planning
approach. Athens: Bachelor thesis, University of West Attica [In Greek].
Management guidelines for world heritage sites
- B M Fielden
- J Jokilehto
Fielden, B. M., & Jokilehto, J. (1993). Management guidelines for world heritage sites.
Rome: ICCROM.
A management plan for Syggrou Estate
- A Gkoltsiou
Gkoltsiou, A. (2018). A management plan for Syggrou Estate. Athens: Report. Institute of
Agricultural Science.