<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This study examines how local population, tourists and farmers relate to rural landscapes, by exploring visual landscape preferences and the influence of everyday landscapes on the research subjects. Results point towards an immense variability in visual landscape preferences amongst user groups living in or visiting the study area (Plana de l’Empordà, Girona, Spain). Tourists rate grasslands at the top of their preference list, local residents prefer orchards, and farmers favour fields of irrigated herbaceous crops; showing, altogether, that the user's relationship with the landscape determines their visual preferences. Results show that farmers prefer agriculture dominated scenes while local residents and tourists prefer scenes with equilibrium between agricultural and natural elements. Likewise, the presence of margins is widely appreciated aesthetically by all respondents. Furthermore, results underline the importance of landscapes that are familiar to the respondents.</p></abstract>

This study examines how local population, tourists and farmers relate to rural landscapes, by exploring visual landscape preferences and the influence of everyday landscapes on the research subjects. Results point towards an immense variability in visual landscape preferences amongst user groups living in or visiting the study area (Plana de l’Empordà, Girona, Spain). Tourists rate grasslands at the top of their preference list, local residents prefer orchards, and farmers favour fields of irrigated herbaceous crops; showing, altogether, that the user's relationship with the landscape determines their visual preferences. Results show that farmers prefer agriculture dominated scenes while local residents and tourists prefer scenes with equilibrium between agricultural and natural elements. Likewise, the presence of margins is widely appreciated aesthetically by all respondents. Furthermore, results underline the importance of landscapes that are familiar to the respondents.

Exploring Aesthetic Preferences in Rural Landscapes and the Relationship with Spatial Pattern Indices

Landscape Analyses and Management Laboratory. Geography Department, University of Girona, Pl. Ferreter i Móra, 1. 17071 Girona, Spain, 0034 972 41 8999

CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Spain

Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS), University of Girona. Campus Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Spain, 0034 972 41 8338

Journal of Landscape Ecology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This study examines how local population, tourists and farmers relate to rural landscapes, by exploring visual landscape preferences and the influence of...

Exploring Aesthetic Preferences in Rural Landscapes and the Relationship with Spatial Pattern Indices

Published Online: Jul 06, 2016

Page range: 5 - 21

Received: Sep 09, 2015

Accepted: Feb 28, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jlecol-2016-0001

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.