The COVID ‐19 pandemic changes citizens' visual aesthetic perceptions and attitudes toward restored landscape in the karst area in China

Landscape change caused by ecological restoration projects in the karst rocky desertification area of southwestern China has presented ecological benefits, yet the visual aesthetic perception of the restored landscape has received less attention. Meanwhile, given the unpredictable worldwide health emergency caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic, it inspired us to be concerned about will citizens' aesthetic perceptions and attitudes to the change of restored landscape from pre‐COVID‐19 to during the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Organizing an online survey, we explored citizens' visual aesthetic perceptions and attitudes to natural restored landscape (NRL) and managed restored landscape (MRL) on 757 citizens in Shilin Geopark (in Kunming, China), as well as how citizens' sociocultural backgrounds influence visual aesthetic preference. The results indicated that before the COVID‐19 pandemic, the professionals preferred NRL, while the nonprofessionals presented a higher preference for MRL. However, during the COVID‐19 pandemic, both two groups showed a higher preference for NRL, which implied that the experience of lockdown during the COVID‐19 pandemic might awaken most citizens' preference for the NRL. Among different kinds of restored plant communities, the landscape dominated by shrubs was the most popular. Furthermore, gender, age, career type, education, region, and citizens' visit frequency were significantly correlated with visual aesthetic perceptions before the COVID‐19 pandemic. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, professional background, gender, and age did not show significant impacts on visual aesthetic perceptions anymore. These results highlight the necessity of understanding visual aesthetic perceptions in different sociodemographic groups to encourage natural succession and create a nature‐based restored landscape in the karst area.