Towards landscape visual quality evaluation: methodologies, technologies, and recommendations

It is well established that landscape quality evaluations have the potential to serve as a contextual basis for the integration of cultural ecosystem services into landscape management and policies. Nonetheless, the methods for assessing the visual quality of landscapes are varied and there is no consensus on the appropriate choice of landscape evaluation indicators or approaches. In response, we conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on this topic to highlight the methods used and identify major methodological strategies. It examines the ways and technologies, particularly in which quantitative measures, or indicators, can be used and what contribution they might make to the management and planning of landscapes. In this paper, a comprehensive electronic literature was performed via two electronic databases (Web of Science, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure). Our review indicated that if objective results are expected in studies on landscape quality evaluation, experts’ view should not be the only source and the view of users, the physical, biological, and social characteristics of the environment should also be considered together. In this context, continuously renewed and revised analysis studies provide a basis for the plan of shaping the visual configuration of the landscape. The contribution of this paper lies in presenting and reviewing the methodologies and techniques of landscape evaluation and providing practical advice for their appropriate selection and application, in addition to encouraging discourse of the professional community about this topic.