EXPLORING AESTHETIC PREFERENCES IN RURAL LANDSCAPES AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH SPATIAL PATTERN INDICES

This study examines how local population, tourists and farmers relate to rural landscapes, by exploring visual landscape preferences and the influence of everyday landscapes on the research subjects. Results point towards an immense variability in visual landscape preferences amongst user groups living in or visiting the study area (Plana de l'Emporda, Girona, Spain) Tourists rate grasslands at the top of their preference list, local residents prefer orchards, and farmers favour fields of irrigated herbaceous crops; showing, altogether, that the user's relationship with the landscape determines their visual preferences. Results show that farmers prefer agriculture dominated scenes while local residents and tourists prefer scenes with equilibrium between agricultural and natural elements. Likewise, the presence of margins is widely appreciated aesthetically by all respondents. Furthermore, results underline the importance of landscapes that are familiar to the respondents.  Surveys to explore visual landscape preferences were conducted on user groups. We used photos and aerial images of agricultural landscapes to support the questionnaires. We found differences towards aesthetic preferences across respondents groups. We found consensus for presence of margins among respondents. Certain importance of familiarity and respondents' attachment to place was found.  Agricultural landscapes in the Mediterranean region have adopted a new socio economic scenario (Claval, 2005) where agriculture is no longer the economic base of the local economy and farm managers make up a relatively small part of the population that either own or actively manage the land (Surova et al. 2011) Today, agricultural landscapes are everyday landscapes for many people and this is why these landscapes have to provide Unauthentifiziert Heruntergeladen 14.09.19 19:42 UTC Soy Massoni E. Varga D. Saez M. Pinto J. Exploring aesthetic preferences in rural landscapes and the relationship with spatial pattern indicesaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 6 ecological as well as social functions (Buijs et al. 2006) This new socio economic situation in a rural and agricultural context has an impact on the demand for landscape services and values from different stakeholders with varying interests. Different polices have recognized the key role of human perceptions and attitudes as the drivers of landscape change and preservation of sustainable landscapes, and as a component of determining appropriate land use policies (Pan European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (Council of Europe, 1996) European Landscape Convention (Council of Europe, 2000) In the management of many landscapes, great difficulty exists in reaching a consensus guaranteeing results to be environmentally sustainable, socially acceptable, easily comprehended and economically feasible (de Val et al. 2006) Sullivan et al. (2004) have demonstrated that conflicts appear when the visual appearance of a landscape opposes public preferences. Identifying specific cohorts of population with similarities in terms of landscape preferences will assist the development of general guidelines for landscape design (Strumse, 1996) Nowadays, the integration of people's preferences is a critical component of landscape planning (Lindemann Matthies et al. 2010) It contributes to avoiding conflicts between opposing groups by encouraging landowners to manage farmland in a socially desired manner, through the introduction of incentives and mitigation measures in regional policies and landscape development instruments. The visual quality of landscape can be considered a key aspect for the interaction between people and landscape. A wide range of previous studies focusing on variation in social preferences towards aesthetic rural landscapes is available. For instance, people place relationship appears to be a significant element influencing visual landscape preferences (Walker Ryan, 2008) But landscape preferences are not only influenced by physical characteristics such as the heterogeneity of landscape, they are also influenced by socio demographic factors such as age, gender, formal education, familiarity and experience with a certain landscape type (Gobster et al. 2007) farming background (Van den Berg Koole, 2006) and people's environmental values (Howley et al. 2012) Visual preferences for landscapes are also influenced by feelings and imagination that landscape elements evoke in a viewer such as peacefulness and freedom (Nohl, 2001) Moreover, people might prefer familiar landscapes or landscape elements which they have experienced for some time, regard them as typical (Nohl, 2001; Van den Berg Koole, 2006) or depending on people's involvement, i.e. either active or passive (Buijs et al. 2006) Traditional farming landscapes seem to be more valued in terms of identity for local communities (Howley et al. 2012) and modern agricultural landscapes are associated with more homogeneous structures which are assumed to be visually less attractive (Hietala Koivu, 1999) Land cover structure plays a significant role in the visual quality of landscape (de Val et al. 2006) This study examines how local population, tourists and farmers relate to rural landscapes, by exploring their visual landscape preferences and the influence of their everyday surrounding landscapes. The study approach develops the assessment of landscape aesthetics carried out by the general public, i.e. no experts or judgements (Misgrav, 2000) As photographs have been found to be acceptable surrogates of real vistas for the study of visual quality (Bergen et al. 1995; Bulut Yilmaz, 2008; Bulut Yilmaz, 2009) we used landscape photos as landscape surrogates and we conducted an analysis of the individuals' ratings of a variety of landscapes images. Our goal is to provide better understanding and to account for the relationships between rural farming and non farming populations, and tourists, and agricultural landscape through the lens of aesthetic preferences. The three specific objectives consist in: 1) the characterization of respondents, 2) visual landscape preferences regarding the most representative agricultural uses, 3) visual landscape preferences regarding different Unauthentifiziert Heruntergeladen 14.09.19 19:42 UTC aaaJournal of Landscape Ecology (2016) Vol: 9 No. 1 7 agricultural landscape structures and compositions, and 4) relationship between current living landscape and landscape preferences. The study focused on the following questions: 1) Will aesthetic preferences differ among respondent groups (local residents, farmers and tourists) and among place characteristics? 2) Will consensus among respondent groups in terms of visual preferences be found for any given landscape use or landscape structures and compositions? 3) Will familiarity with types of landscape result in higher preferences for local residents (farmers and non farmers) 4) Will personal characteristics, such as age, gender and farming familiarity, play a significant role in explaining individual's preferences regarding rural landscapes? 5) Is the use of landscape photos and aerial images a good method to test aesthetic landscape preferences?  Study area The study was performed in the Plana de l'Emporda landscape unit, located in the north east of Girona, Spain (Figure 1) The area covers 415 km 2 and has 132,168 inhabitants. The region has a typical Mediterranean climate, with an average precipitation of 474.4 mm per year and an average annual temperature of 14.7 oC. Fig. 1: Study area Plana de l'Emporda, Costa Brava (Spain) Location, protected areas and sample points Unauthentifiziert Heruntergeladen 14.09.19 19:42 UTC Soy Massoni E. Varga D. Saez M. Pinto J. Exploring aesthetic preferences in rural landscapes and the relationship with spatial pattern indicesaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 8 The predominant feature of the landscape is growing crops (76.64% of the study area) mostly irrigated herbaceous crops (36.2% and dry herbaceous ones (33.2% both of which occupy 69.8% of the agricultural area. Other crops found to a lesser extent are fruit trees (5.7% olives (Olea europea) (4.4% grapes (Vitis vinifera) (3.8% grasslands (3.24% horticulture (1.16% and nut trees (0.11% Agriculture is present on 318 km 2 of land, but only 0.7% of the population is engaged in the agriculture sector (IDESCAT, 2013) The study area is a popular holiday and recreation destination, mainly on the coast but also the traditional structures of the villages are attractive for domestic and international tourists. 14% of the study area is protected and includes Mediterranean mountains, wetlands, coastline and agricultural lands. The Aiguamolls de l'Emporda Natural Park (PNAE) is the largest protected area in the study area. Currently one the most visited natural parks in Catalonia, it was created in 1983 and is composed of a combination of wetlands and grasslands, known as "closes" (Llausas et al. 2009)  We conducted a face to face survey on 251 respondents at 21 different locations, including urban zones, rural villages, beaches and the Aiguamolls de l'Emporda Natural Park. The population sample included randomly selected local residents non farmers, local residents farmers and tourists. All respondents were at least 18 years old. The survey was conducted from March to May 2013 and the response rate of the surveys was 100% The questionnaire was divided into three sections in line with the first three specific objectives: (1) socio demographic information of the respondents, (2) aesthetic preferences in agricultural uses, and (3) aesthetic preferences in landscape structures and composition. In the first section, we assessed the respondents' socio demographic characterist