The Importance of Visual Aesthetic Quality in Urban Green Spaces
Visual aesthetic quality (VAQ) is not only related to observers’ satisfaction and psychological well-being, but also closely linked to other functions of a landscape, including ecological quality, mental stress relief, physical activity, the image of a place, and the development of the local economy. For example, a beautiful landscape can make a city famous and increase its tourism potential, benefiting economic development and providing funds for caring for and improving the beautiful landscapes in the city, forming a virtuous circle between economic development and the improvement of landscape quality. Therefore, protecting and improving VAQ are central issues for sustainable urban development.
The landscape in our daily life is relatively fixed, with the most noticeable changes occurring with different seasons. However, these changes are always very slow, meaning that in a short time, such as a month, we see almost the same landscape every day. This raises concerns about visual aesthetic fatigue (VAF), a phenomenon where individuals gradually habituate to the pleasurable properties of a stimulus, finding it less attractive with each repeated exposure.
Understanding Visual Aesthetic Fatigue in Urban Green Spaces
The theory of aesthetic fatigue suggests that when a stimulus continuously acts on the human receptor, sensory adaptation will occur, and with the prolongation of the stimulus, the intensity of the sensory response will decrease. This theory has mainly been applied in the fields of museums and art, with only a single case study exploring VAF in landscapes. This study concluded that participants’ preference ratings for photographs taken in four Chinese traditional gardens were the highest when they saw the photographs for the first time, and the lowest in the third view. However, this study did not explore the driving factors of VAF.
Urban green spaces provide many benefits, including low-cost opportunities to connect with nature, benefits to physical and psychological health, cushioning the effect of urban heat islands, and acting as noise screens. The aesthetic quality plays a vital role in giving full play to the functions of urban green spaces, as an ugly place can discourage people from accessing it. Therefore, understanding and mitigating the negative effects of VAF on the aesthetic quality of urban green spaces is an important issue that requires further investigation.
Research Objectives and Methodology
This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of VAF in urban green spaces and explore its driving factors. Specifically, the following four questions guided the research:
- Does VAF occur in landscapes?
- What are the differences in VAF between male and female respondents?
- Is there any difference between respondents’ VAF of local landscape and that of non-local landscape?
- What are the essential landscape characteristics that influence VAF?
The study used photographs as surrogates of real landscapes, a widely used method in landscape preference assessment. A total of 16 photographs were selected to represent various visual landscapes in urban green spaces, with 10 photographs taken in Xuzhou, China and 6 photographs taken in Hong Kong.
A group of 36 college students from China University of Mining and Technology were invited to rate the VAQ of the 16 photographs four times at an interval of one week. The students’ hometown was in different regions, but they had lived in Xuzhou for almost three years, so the photographs taken in Xuzhou were treated as local landscapes, and the photographs taken in Hong Kong as non-local landscapes.
Twenty landscape characteristics, including both objective and subjective measures, were used to explore the potential driving factors of VAF.
Key Findings
- Occurrence of Visual Aesthetic Fatigue:
- VAF occurred in urban green spaces, with the average aesthetic value decreasing by 11.4% when the same landscape was repeated four times at an interval of one week.
-
The mean standard deviation (SD) of VAQ scores within respondents became smaller over repeated exposures, indicating that respondents’ aesthetic preferences for the landscape tended to be more consistent.
-
Gender Differences in Visual Aesthetic Fatigue:
-
Males’ VAF was significantly higher than females’, suggesting that men’s preference for a recurring landscape declines much faster than women’s.
-
Impact of Landscape Familiarity on Visual Aesthetic Fatigue:
-
There were no significant differences in VAQ and VAF between local (Xuzhou) and non-local (Hong Kong) landscapes, indicating that the familiarity with the landscape had a weak influence on the occurrence of VAF.
-
Landscape Characteristics and Visual Aesthetic Fatigue:
- No landscape characteristic significantly correlated with or predicted VAF, suggesting that it is very difficult to mitigate VAF through designing and managing static landscapes.
Strategies to Mitigate Visual Aesthetic Fatigue
The study’s findings suggest that VAF is less related to the permanent landscape features, implying that regardless of the pleasurable properties of the landscape, if they remain unchanged for a long time, the beauty will gradually decrease in the eyes of visitors after repeated exposures. This indicates that it is very difficult to mitigate VAF through designing and managing static landscapes.
To fight against VAF, the study suggests exploring other methods, such as:
-
Building an Emotional Bond to the Place: The concept of place attachment, which is an emotional or affective bond developed towards a specific place, may be used to counteract VAF. Landscape design that fosters a sense of place attachment could help mitigate the negative effects of VAF.
-
Highlighting the Dynamic Design of the Landscape: Landscape continues both in space and time, consisting of permanent features as well as ephemeral qualities. Intensifying the seasonal changes of the landscape and maintaining the landscape following the circadian rhythms can improve the ephemeral quality, in turn mitigating VAF in urban green spaces. This can be achieved by incorporating elements with obvious seasonality, such as deciduous plants, water, and vegetation with bright flowers and colourful fruits, as well as features reflecting differences between nightscape and daytime landscape, like starry sky and moonlight.
By considering these strategies, landscape designers and urban planners can develop more effective approaches to combat the negative impacts of visual aesthetic fatigue and enhance the long-term appeal and functionality of urban green spaces.
Conclusion and Future Research Directions
This study demonstrates that VAF is a significant challenge in the design and management of urban green spaces, as the landscape in the real world keeps a relatively fixed appearance in a specific period of time, and traditional landscape design has not yet taken VAF into account.
The study was limited by the small sample size of photographs and respondents, as well as the fixed one-week interval between evaluations. Future research should explore the threshold of the interval for landscape repetitions that do not induce or only cause a very small VAF, which could provide valuable insights for landscape design and management.
Additionally, understanding the underlying mechanism of VAF is an important direction for future research, as it could help guide the development of more targeted strategies to mitigate or even eliminate VAF in our daily landscapes.
By addressing these research gaps, landscape designers and urban planners can gain a deeper understanding of visual aesthetic fatigue and develop effective solutions to enhance the long-term visual appeal and functionality of urban green spaces, ultimately improving the overall quality of life for urban residents.