ABSTRACT
In recent years, on-site visitation has been strictly restricted in many scenic areas due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Cloud tourism”, also called online travel, uses high-resolution photographs taken by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as the dominant data source and has attracted much attention. Due to the differences between ground and aerial observation perspectives, the landscape elements that affect the beauty of colored-leaved forests are quite different. In this paper, Qixia National Forest Park in Nanjing, China, was chosen as the case study area, and the best viewpoints were selected by combining tourists' preferred viewing routes with a field survey, followed by a scenic beauty evaluation (SBE) of the forests with autumn-colored leaves in 2021 from the aerial and ground perspectives. The results show that (1) the best viewpoints can be obtained through the spatial overlay of five landscape factors: elevation, surface runoff, slope, aspect, and distance from the road;(2) the dominant factors influencing the beauty of colored-leaved forests from the aerial perspective are terrain changes, forest coverage, landscape composition, landscape contrast, the condition of the human landscape, and recreation frequency;and (3) the beauty of the ground perspective of the colored-leaved forests is strongly influenced by the average diameter at breast height (DBH), the dominant color of the leaves, the ratio of the colored-leaved tree species, the canopy width, and the fallen leaf coverage. The research results can provide scientific reference for the creation of management measures for forests with autumn-colored leaves. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
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.