PROPOSAL FOR A LANDSCAPE EVALUATION SYSTEM

Abstract. This paper describes a system, currently being designed, for both perceptual analysis and aesthetic evaluation of a landscape. The choice of this topic is motivated by the fact that systems related to landscape visibility (e.g. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for visual impact assessment) are not fully satisfactory when it comes to assessing the aesthetic appearance. They mainly analyse geometric aspects, such as the width of visual basins or the interference of visual trajectories, which can be expressed by objective and comparable parameters. Instead, for effective landscape knowledge and protection, it is important to consider other factors that cannot be easily measured, namely the quality of human perception, i.e. the aesthetic judgements that people can express about a landscape.

Based on these considerations, a system has been designed in order to analyse the elements that can influence the aesthetic judgement of a landscape and therefore simulate the more probable aesthetic judgement. Unlike GIS generally works, this system does not use maps, but perspective views obtained by means of vehicle-mounted cameras, as in mobile mapping technology (MMT).

Research into the system described below consisted of two parts: firstly how to form the database on which the system is based and secondly how to use the system. The database contains a large number of views analysed in terms of geometric, qualitative, thematic, topological and gestalt aspects; the results of these analyses are recorded in tables and improved through a parameter expressing an aesthetic judgement. This aesthetic judgement is obtained by processing the responses of a group of participants to a sociological and/or neurological survey (i.e. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). In the operational phase, a new view will be evaluated by comparison with the views stored in the database The new view will be given a judgment, obtained by processing the judgments of the most similar views.

The idea of this system applies both to the assessment of a single view and to the evaluation of territorial contexts. Once this system has been defined, it will have to be tested through practical application.