1. Using choice modeling to map aesthetic values at a landscape scale: Lessons from a Dutch case study.
- Author
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van Zanten, Boris T., Verburg, Peter H., Scholte, S.S.K., and Tieskens, K.F.
- Subjects
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AESTHETICS , *SUSTAINABILITY , *ENVIRONMENTAL policy , *ENVIRONMENTAL mapping , *AGRICULTURAL landscape management , *ENVIRONMENTAL indicators - Abstract
Quantifying and mapping ecosystem services is increasingly employed to guide policies in their search for environmental sustainability. In this study, we present a method for mapping aesthetic values as an ecosystem service, combining insights from landscape research and ecosystem service mapping practices. We review or method through a comparison to existing aesthetic value mapping approaches and verify the results through a comparison to a revealed landscape preferences indicator. Disagreement between the methods arises from many factors, including the type of ecological/landscape features that are assumed to contribute to the provision of aesthetic values, the use of context-specific or generic aesthetic value estimates, the scale of landscape evaluation and the level of integration of the landscape preference analysis. We argue that the approach presented here is a suitable generically applicable methodology for context-sensitive mapping of aesthetic landscape values for a number of reasons: (i) a careful and transparent selection process of landscape attributes, (ii) the use of primary preference data, (iii) an integrated evaluation of landscape attributes introducing trade-offs between specific features in the agricultural landscape and (iv) application of visual landscape scale manipulated photographs for the elicitation of preferences as a surrogate for a real landscape experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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