Lehvävirta, Susanna
- University of Helsinki
Abstract
Aesthetic qualifies of urban green and blue spaces have received considerable attention in scientific literature but are operationalized in multiple ways and lack clear assessment and measurement techniques. To fill in this gap, we developed a Perceived Environmental Aesthetic Qualifies Scale (PEAQS). Based on previous literature both in philosophy and empirical sciences we created a questionnaire with 36 statements and three open questions focusing on the perceived aesthetic qualifies of environments. This questionnaire was used to sample 331 respondents in three sites different in their level of naturalness, human intervention and design: a natural-like but managed urban forest, a partly human-made and intensively managed bay-park and a completely human-made green roof. These sites were selected to represent a variety of urban green and blue infrastructure common in cities. The results suggest a scale that consists of 23 statements and five factors that reflect perceived aesthetic qualifies of urban green spaces: Harmony, Mystery, Multisensority & Nature, Visual Spaciousness and Visual Diversity, and Sublimity. We give guidelines for further development and testing of the scale in order to prove its potential to develop the field of environmental aesthetics and to demonstrate its usefulness for adaptive, evidence-based urban planning and design.
Keywords
Adaptive planning; Cultural ecosystem services; Environmental aesthetics; Landscape perception; Scale development; Urban environment
Published in
Urban Forestry and Urban Greening
2019, volume: 43, article number: 126383
Publisher: ELSEVIER GMBH
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Landscape Architecture
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2019.126383
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/102948