98 Hami et al: The Relationship Between Women’s Preferences for Landscape Spatial Configurations Figure 1. Location of the study areas. they prefer environments that could offer some infor- mation to them. Kaplan et al. (1998) have maintained that direct or indirect information in environments is important to people. To obtain the information, peo- ple need to understand and explore the environment. Prospect-refuge theory was developed by Appleton, an English geographer and academic in 1975. The theory describes the needs of people for a place that allows them to see their surroundings without being seen by others. This theory based itself on Darwin’s theory of evolution, whereby a panoramic environ- ment offers an opportunity for people to see, whereas an enclosed environment offers an opportunity to hide. According to Appleton (1975), spatial arrange- ment of landscape elements that lead to viewing sur- roundings or provide an opportunity to hide allow the movement and exploration of nature. In order to examine the variables related to Information Process- ing Theory (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989), including coherence, compatibility, mystery, complexity, and prospect-refuge theory (Appleton 1975), a photo questionnaire containing 18 manipulated images, including three scenes for each variable, was used. These theories argue that arrangement of plant spe- cies in different ways, which provide different spatial configurations, affects people’s perceptual prefer- ences. The images were adapted from landscape jour- nals and books. The purpose of the present study was to use real landscape images. Also, the images excluded any noise (such as hardscapes) to prevent influencing the participants’ preferences. In addition, this research has focused on natural scenes rather ©2020 International Society of Arboriculture than man-made landscaped scenes. Therefore, the best way to prepare photos for a photo-questionnaire was downloading images containing spatial quality indicators and applying the fewest changes to them. In order to have a better presentation of the theoretical features (mystery, complexity, coherence, legibility, prospect, and refuge), the scenes were manipulated using Adobe Photoshop CS6 software. The size of the scenes was adjusted to 8.7 cm × 13.4 cm, and bright- ness, contrast, and color were adjusted for all images using Adobe Photoshop CS6 software. Buijs et al. (2009) proved that images of landscape act as predic- tors of differences in landscape preferences. Simu- lated color images look like a natural photograph (Soliva and Hunziker 2009), and they were used in preference studies as an alternative for the real land- scape (Hull and Stewart 1992). In this study, coherence leads to direct attention to the scene and it is characterized by conformity between land use and natural conditions of a region (van der Jagt et al. 2014), as well as the unity of the elements (brightness, size, and texture) within a scene (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989). Coherence was simulated in such a way that all the elements could manifest as a coherent unit in the eyes of the participants. A legi- ble place gives the opportunity and promise of effec- tive action to the individual and might also be easily understood and remembered by a person (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989). Elements within a legible landscape can be easily distinguished and identified (Kaplan and Kaplan 1989). Legibility in the current study refers to the degree of distinctiveness. Mystery is
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