Measuring And Mapping Scenic Quality Using The community Preferences Method

For centuries, philosophers of aesthetics believed that beauty lay in the object, a physical entity. It was not until the 18th century, that British and German philosophers realized that beauty lay in the eyes of the beholder, in our mind rather than in the object. Contemporary theories of landscape aesthetics derive from an evolutionary perspective, what humans prefer is survival enhancing. The rapidity of aesthetic judgments, and the similarity of judgments across different individuals, reinforces its innate basis. Yet early attempts to measure scenic quality relied on measuring the characteristics of the landscape in the belief that somehow its scenic beauty would emerge, but it never did. Based on psychophysics, the science of measuring the effect of external stimuli via our senses on the brain, researchers in the United States have achieved understanding of aesthetic preferences. Common elements include use of a rating scale, a rating instrument, and participants to rate scenes. The Community Preferences Method (CPM) is based on these elements and has been applied to 14 projects in Australia and England. CPM involves photographing the area, classifying the scenic character, selecting photographs representative of its character, having the photographs rated together with scenic components, and applying the ratings to areas of the region with similar character. The paper discusses criteria for the use of photographs, the determination of scenic character units, and the contents of an Internet survey instrument to measure scenic quality. The analysis of the survey results is discussed, covering demographics, familiarity, overall ratings, the influence of scenic components with many examples, the derivation of scenic quality models, and the mapping of scenic quality. Scenic quality maps derived from various projects are included. Based on the findings of the projects undertaken, a draft scenic quality map of the United States was prepared. The simplicity, adaptability and robustness of the CPM demonstrate its utility and value in measuring and mapping scenic quality

Visual Resource Stewardship – An International Perspective

An international perspective to visual resource stewardship is presented in this paper. It examines the history of Great Britain’s love affair with its landscapes, then summarizes the more recent development of the European Landscape Convention, which has been embraced across much of Europe. The recognition of outstanding landscapes under the World Heritage Convention is then covered and the international Protected Areas program, which includes landscapes, is briefly summarized. Programs in several countries are reviewed. As the United States is very adequately covered in this and the 2017 conference, this paper mainly addresses other countries. The key message the paper imparts is that most of the provisions focus on the character of the landscape, not its quality. Because it has been assumed, particularly in Britain, that it is too difficult and subjective to measure scenic quality, landscape character has become the subject. Authorities have stayed clear of subjectivity and applied objective-based analysis to landscape character

Particle image velocimetry studies of bubble growth and detachment by high speed photography

An understanding of bubble flows is important in the design of process equipment, particularly in the chemical and power industries. In vapour-liquid processes the mass and heat transfer between the phases is dominated by the liquid-vapour interface and is determined by the number, size and shape of the bubbles. For bubble flows these characteristics are often controlled by the generation mechanisms and, since bubble flows are often generated at an orifice, it is important to determine the controlling parameters which dictate how bubbles grow and detach. For bubbles growing at orifices the liquid displacement is an important feature and affects the pressure distribution acting on the bubble and the heat and mass transfer that may occur at the bubble interface. Therefore, in this study, the characteristics of the liquid velocity field are studied experimentally using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) during growth, detachment and translation of a bubble being generated at an orifice supplied with a constant mass flow rate of air. The process is transient and occurs over a period of approximately 50 msecs. In order to map the transient flow field a combination of high speed cine and cross correlation PIV image processing has been used to determine the liquid velocity vector field during the bubble growth process. The paper contains details of the PIV technique and presents several of the velocity vector maps calculated

Landscape quality assessment of South Australia

The object of this thesis is to provide, through a thorough analysis of human perception and interaction with aesthetics and landscape quality, a comprehensive basis on which to develop a credible methodology for the large scale assessment of perceived landscape quality. The analysis of human perception and interaction with aesthetics and landscape quality is gained by inquiring in depth into a range of theoretical constructs from key disciplines, cultural aspects, and empirical studies covering : 1. the contribution of philosophers to aesthetics 2. the psychology of perception and colour 3. the contribution of Gestalt psychology to aesthetics 4. the psychoanalytical construct of human responses to aesthetics 5. the influence of culture on landscape preferences, tracing the changing perceptions of mountains, the portrayal of landscapes in art, and the design of parks and gardens 6. a review of over 200 surveys of landscape quality in the late 20th century, including typologies and theories of landscape quality Based on the analysis of these and the knowledge gained, an empirical study is formulated and conducted, comprising a study of landscape quality of South Australia, an area of nearly 1 million km - 1. This involves, firstly, the acquisition of data covering the delineation of landscape character regions for the State, photography of these landscapes, derivation of a set of representative slides, and rating of these by groups of participants. Secondly, these preference ratings are comprehensively analysed on the basis of the attributes of the scenes covering land form, land cover, land use, water bodies, naturalism, diversity and colour. Thirdly, the results are applied as follows: 1. a map of landscape quality of South Australia is derived 2. the results are used to predict the effect that changes in land use ( e.g. clearance of trees ) will have on landscape quality 3. the theoretical constructs of landscape quality are evaluated on the basis of the preference ratings 4. a protocol is detailed to guide the undertaking of large - scale landscape quality assessment. The thesis thus fulfils the objective of conducting a thorough analysis of human perception and interaction with, aesthetics and landscape quality, to provide a basis for developing a credible methodology for the large - scale assessment of perceived landscape quality.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2000

How should peer-review panels behave?

Many governments wish to assess the quality of their universities. A prominent example is the UK’s new Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. In the REF, peer-review panels will be provided with information on publications and citations. This paper suggests a way in which panels could choose the weights to attach to these two indicators. The analysis draws in an intuitive way on the concept of Bayesian updating (where citations gradually reveal information about the initially imperfectly-observed importance of the research). Our study should not be interpreted as the argument that only mechanistic measures ought to be used in a REF

Catchment-wide interactive effects of anthropogenic structures and river levels on fish spawning migrations

Worldwide, rivers are extensively fragmented by anthropogenic structures, reducing longitudinal connectivity, inhibiting migration and leading to severe declines in many fish populations, especially for diadromous species. However, few studies have determined the effects of annual differences in hydrology on catchment penetration past barriers to spawning habitats. We investigated the upstream spawning migration of 120 (n = 61 & 59) acoustic tagged river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) across two contrasting (dry and wet) years in the River Yorkshire Ouse, England. Overall, significantly more lamprey reached spawning habitat (76% vs 39%) and penetrated significantly further upstream (median [km] from release, 53.9 vs 16.8) in the wet year than the dry year. Passage at weirs was almost exclusively during elevated river levels, which directly and collectively influenced catchment-wide distribution, especially in the dry year. Indeed, higher proportions entered two upper tributaries in the wet year (9.8% vs 27.1% and 9.8% vs 30.5%), due to increased passage efficiencies at the two main river weirs (60.5–87.5% and 54.5–83.8%), and reached assumed spawning locations 66.5% and 10.9% quicker. By contrast, there was no difference in numbers of lamprey entering, or time taken to arrive at assumed spawning location, in the two lower river tributaries between years. Our study supports the landscape-scale paradigm for ecosystem restoration because of the observed catchment-level effects of hydrology and barrier distribution on fish migration. Connectivity restoration for migratory fish should be implemented at a catchment scale, with planning incorporating spatial information regarding accessibility to key habitats to reap the largest gains

‘Priming’ exercise and O2 uptake kinetics during treadmill running

We tested the hypothesis that priming exercise would speed kinetics during treadmill running. Eight subjects completed a square-wave protocol, involving two bouts of treadmill running at 70% of the difference between the running speeds at lactate threshold (LT) and max, separated by 6-min of walking at 4 km h−1, on two occasions. Oxygen uptake was measured breath-by-breath and subsequently modelled using non-linear regression techniques. Heart rate and blood lactate concentration were significantly elevated prior to the second exercise bout compared to the first. However, kinetics was not significantly different between the first and second exercise bouts (mean ± S.D., phase II time constant, Bout 1: 16 ± 3 s vs. Bout 2: 16 ± 4 s; slow component amplitude, Bout 1: 0.24 ± 0.10 L min−1vs. Bout 2: 0.20 ± 0.12 L min−1; mean response time, Bout 1: 34 ± 4 s vs. Bout 2: 34 ± 6 s; P > 0.05 for all comparisons). These results indicate that, contrary to previous findings with other exercise modalities, priming exercise does not alter kinetics during high-intensity treadmill running, at least in physically active young subjects. We speculate that the relatively fast kinetics and the relatively small slow component in the control (‘un-primed’) condition negated any enhancement of kinetics by priming exercise in this exercise modality