Perceptions, object and observer of forest landscape and planning

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

12/04/2008

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Ecology & environment

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Summary :

Introduction.
Object and observer.
1. Object.
2. Observer.
3. Common de?nitions of environmental perception.
Assessment and evaluation.
1. Common methods.
2. Temporal integration.
3. Experts versus the public.
Results and applications of research.
1. Rules of thumb.
The promise of visualization.
Conclusion.

Abstract

For many centuries people have been concerned with perceptions of the natural world. Philosophers have written about it, psychologists have studied it, and, more recently, foresters have become concerned with it. However, when we speak of 'perceptions of forest landscapes' in relationship to forest science, we are typically referring to a variety of assessments and their associated methodologies applied to the quantiﬁcation of some visual aspect of forested lands rather than the larger context of what it means to perceive the world around us. Because of this, perceptions of forest landscapes can be seen as a restricted subset of a larger body of generalized perception research that will not be dealt with in much detail in this article. First, the discussion will be limited to forested landscapes and will not deal with perceptions of urban or built environments, for which there is a great deal of research. Additionally, this article will focus on topics related primarily to visual perception. This is an obvious simpliﬁcation/reduction of the larger construct of perception but has certainly received far more attention over the years than all of the other senses combined. Lastly, of all of the measurable dimensions arising from these visual perceptions of forested landscapes, scenic beauty will receive more attention than a host of alternative dimensions (such as general preference, acceptability, visual impact) since it has historically been quite important to forest managers and the decisions that must be made regarding the balance of competing forest values.